In 1949 Auto-Union was struggling to get back to its feet after the devastation of the Second World War. The company had announced its return with two vehicles in the market, the F89L Schnellaster commercial vehicle and the RT 125W motorcycle. At this time the company had no personal vehicle to offer. The DKW F9, upon which all the prewar company's hopes had hung, had been lost during the war. It appeared that the company would be forced by necessity to revive the old F8, but there were significant problems here. Firstly, the Spandau bodyworks outside Berlin which had produced the F8's bodywork was not able to restart production. Additionally, IFA in East Germany had beaten them to the punch and was manufacturing and exporting their version of the car. As a short term stop gap, Auto-Union contracted with Baur karosseriewerke for a new steel body for the F8. This car briefly went on sale as the F10 in 1950.
Like everyone else, the company was trading on its prewar heritage. DKW's 700cc ubiquitous twin cylinder two-stroke engine was first developed in 1932, the F8's chassis had been designed in 1938 and the new RT125W motorcycle had originally gone on sale in 1939.
However, someone at Auto-Union was thinking of the future. Engineer Kurt Schwenk had begun designing the DKW F89L Schnellaster shortly after the Central Parts Store for Auto-Union vehicles had been established in 1946. The Schnellaster introduced the world to the 'cab over engine' format that remains the standard for light commercial vehicles to this day. In war devastated Germany it was the right vehicle at the right time and helped Auto-Union struggle back into the vehicle manufacturing game. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-development-of-dkw-schnellaster.html
After it became apparent that F8 production would not restart, Schwenk began working on a radical new sedan design in 1949. Unlike Auto-Unions previous cars, which were separate body and chassis constructions, Schwenk's new design featured a unitary steel pontoon body. Auto-Union had investigated unitary body construction for the F9 in 1939, but had opted to continue with traditional construction methods instead. The cost and weight savings from unitary construction were self evident and, as the company was basically starting from scratch, Schwenk believed the time was ripe to move to modern body construction.
The chassis and underbody of the F93 from a contemporary brochure showing the traditional body on chassis construction.
The new car was a four door, modern style sedan with a 1000cm wheelbase. Lack of a suitable replacement engine meant the car was powered by DKWs 700cc two cylinder two-stroke engine.
The engine layout. Like the prewar F8, the radiator would be mounted ahead of the engine, behind the false radiator screen.
A full size mock-up, designated the FX1, was built at Schwenk's design studio in the Ingolstadt office and presented to the executive. The project received their endorsement but they then made a decision that would have long-term negative implications for the company by inviting a separate team under Karl Jenschke at the new Dusseldorf plant to build a working prototype. There was logic behind the decision as the Dusseldorf plant has just been established to manufacture the new F89P and it housed the company's industrial presses and the necessary production machinery, however, the net effect of this decision was to create two competing design teams.
The prototype FX1 comes together on a jig in the Ingolstadt plant.
The completed prototype is inspected by Auto-Union management.
The project then returned to the Ingolstadt team, who built a new, improved prototype, designated the FX2. The FX2 was a larger, squarer car. The 700cc engine was reworked to deliver 21 horsepower, but it remained under-powered for the size of the car.
The FX2 prototype in two-tone paint scheme. The car was much squarer than its predecessor and featured a totally different grill style.
The FX2 appeared promising but Auto-Union management allowed the project to revert to Dusseldorf for further work. Further styling was undertaken to bring the car back into the small car range and giving a more 'DKW' styling.
The FX3 version featured a restyled 'DKW' grill.
Despite its promising development, the FX project was abandoned in 1953. Via a series of fortunitous events, Auto-Union had managed to resurrect the prewar F9 project and re-enter passenger car production. In 1949 a near complete set of body presses for the F9 had been discovered at the Algaier machine tool factory. They had been completed in 1940 but never shipped to Chemnitz. Although they were weather-worn and damaged they were quickly restored and in 1950 the F9's steel body was being mounted over F8 running gear as the F89P New Meisterklasse. The F89P had proven to be a runaway success for Auto-Union, ultimately selling 60,000 units by 1954. The new FX3 model could have gone on sale as a budget model, but then there Auto-Union had another stroke of good luck when the company became aware of a surviving triple cylinder engine at the Ebersbacher exhaust tuning company. The engine had been loaned to Ebersbacher as a test bed in 1938 and had never been recovered. The East German IFA had also become aware of the engine and were seeking its return. Auto-Union discretely seized the engine and began reverse engineering it. In 1953 the triple engine was ready and was fitted into the F89P, which was renamed the F91. Auto-Union Management now saw no reason to continue the FX project as it would require additional tooling and reworking the production lines. Instead, the F89P with its 700cc would be offered as a budget option behind the the F91 with its 900cc engine. This seemed much more cost effective as the two models shared the same body. The F91 Sonderklasse would become a runaway success for Auto-Union and the F89P would be retired in early 1954. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/06/dkw-f89p-new-meisterklasse.html
At the time, the demise of the FX project appeared to have few implications, but a troubling precedent had been set. Two rival development teams had been established which would ultimately lead to decision paralysis. Additionally the demise of the first totally new post-war design would leave a creative gap in the company. Designers who could see the future of automotive evolution abandoned the company, which appeared to prefer trading on its prewar legacy. Rivals Mercedes-Benz, German Ford, Opel and Borgward were soon producing pontoon bodied cars which would dominate the market by 1960. By 1958 Auto-Union had nothing in the pipeline to replace the now old fashioned F93. Despite steady sales the company was in trouble and would soon need to be bailed out by Mercedes-Benz.
A page of DKW styling sketches from the later 50s at the Prototyp Museum, Hamburg
Related Story Links:
DKW's post-war resurrection: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/05/collapse-and-reconstruction-history-of.html
DKW's Forgotten Model - F10: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/dkws-forgotten-model-dkw-f10.html
Development of the DKW Schnellaster: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-development-of-dkw-schnellaster.html
Development of the DKW F89P Meisterklasse: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/06/dkw-f89p-new-meisterklasse.html
Not only that but even the last FX prototype drawings have a bubble-butt that would've instantly dated the car. Far easier to give it tailfins in the design phase before tooling is ordered than as a running change.
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