The German automobile model maker, AutoCult Gmbh, was founded in 2015 and has specialized in high quality scale models of unique and unusual vehicles. These are manufactured in limited numbers and sold through selected dealers. In the AutoCult range are a number of rare Auto-Union vehicles that should be of interest to DKW and Auto-Union enthusiasts.
1933 DKW 'Aero' streamliner
1933 was the year for rear engine prototype cars. Ferdinand Porsche was working on one for Zundapp. Josef Ganz was working on the Standard Superior for Gutbrod. Hans Ledwinka at Tatra was working on the V570 prototype and T77. Hans Nibel was working on the Mercedes-Benz 120H, and over at Auto-Union, the DKW 'Aero' project was underway.
The DKW 'Aero' was powered by a two-cylinder water cooled two-stroke engine, mounted in the rear and featured extremely streamlined wooden bodywork. It looked like an impressive vehicle, but testing demonstrated the car had worse handling characteristics than the standard front-engined F2 model. Only the single example of the car was built. The car was subsequently lost (it may have been dismantled and used for donor parts for the Maher Bimotor special) and only a handful of photographs survive. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/dkws-1933-rear-engine-streamliner.html
The AutoCult model accurately reflects the appearance of the car based on the surviving photographs. In my mind, I've always pictured the car has having a green roof and fenders.
https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-04025/
1934 Gerhard Maher DKW 'Bi-Motor' streamliner
Gerhard Macher was both a DKW dealer and occasional works driver in the early 1930s. He raced P-600 and modified F1 racers but was increasingly dispirited that DKW's 600cc engine was consistently outclassed in the sub-one litre class. However, when he saw the DKW rear engine test car (above), he was inspired. Making a bi-motor car, with an engine in the front driving the front wheels and an engine in the rear driving the rear wheels would give a race car four wheel drive and bring the car up into the 1.5 litre class.
Working with the DKW race team, Macher developed his customized racer with a 600cc engine in the front and a 600cc engine in the rear. The rear engine was reversed so it would run in the correct direction and could be synchronized with the front engine. The car was extremely handsome with a streamlined plywood body and attracted a lot of attention wherever it competed. Macher used the car successfully in rallies in the mid to late 1930s. Unfortunately it remained a one off construction but pointed the way towards the Audi Quattro in the 1980s. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-gerhard-macher-dkw-bi-motor.html
Auto-Cult released a 1/43 scale model of the GM Spezial in eptember 2021. https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-05032/
1934 Audi Front UW 8/40 (Paul Jaray streamliner)
After years of unsuccessfully trying to demonstrate the value of automotive streamlining, Swiss aerodynamic specialist, Paul Jaray, purchased an Audi Front Type UW rolling chassis and had it bodied with his latest body design. The resulting two-seater sedan was exhibited at many international car shows and even competed in speed and endurance trial with a standard bodied Audi Front. Jaray must have liked the car as he retained it has personal vehicle until after the Second World War. He sold the car to a mechanic in the mid-1950s who kept the old car running until the engines cylinder head could not be honed any further. It was then sold to a Swiss farmer who used it briefly on his farm until he crashed the car into a tree, after which it was scrapped. Although the car was a one off test vehicle, it did popularize Jaray's ideas in a practical way and it demonstrated to Auto-Union that streamlining was an important development in vehicle design. https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2021/04/paul-jarays-mb200-streamliner.html
This is another handsome model from AutoCult, which also manufactures examples of Paul Jaray's Maybach and Adler streamliners. https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-04026/
1935 Porsche Type 52 Auto-Union streamliner
The Porsche Type 52 is one of motoring's famous 'what if's.' Ferdinand Porsche had been contracted to design the engines and chassis of Wanderer's new range of cars in 1932. The following year, Wanderer was incorporated into the Auto-Union conglomerate and Wanderer's former head of sales, Baron Klaus von Oertzen, became managing director. Von Oertzen was keen to establish Auto-Union as a major brand name through motor sport and contracted Porsche to be director of the group's new motor sport division. Porsche developed the Type A and B "Silver Arrows", which went on to gain a legendary reputation in 1930s Grand Prix racing.
To capitalize on the developments of those race cars, Porsche and his team developed a design study for a race sedan, designated the Type 52. Powered by a 12 cylinder rear mounted engine, the car would seat three in a lozenge arrangement. The project however came to nothing as Auto-Union were already working on their own streamlined sports sedans.
I have never found the Type 52 a particularly appealing design. https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-99117/
1938 Audi/DKW Berlin-Rome Endurance Racer
After some less than satisfactory projects that followed Paul Jaray's streamlined patents, Auto-Union unveiled a series of streamlined endurance racers in 1936. Three Wanderer open-topped tourers competed unsuccessfully in the 1937 and 1938 Liege - Brussels - Liege race. A new race, the Berlin - Rome Endurance Trial, was planned for 1939. Auto-Union planned to field a streamlined Wanderer, a streamlined Audi 920 and three streamlined DKW F8s in the race. All cars were fitted with a newly designed streamlined coupe body based on the learnings from the 1938 Wanderer cars. There were minor differences in details between each of the marques, the DKWs being smaller than their upmarket cousins. The DKWs trialed a sports 700cc twin-cylinder two-stroke and a 700cc charging pump twin-cylinder engine used for sidecar racing. They would subsequently be used as engine test-beds. The Audi and Wanderer cars featured supercharged versions of their standard engines. The superchargers proved to be problematic and both the Wanderer and Audi cars were withdrawn before the race was held. The DKWs would have been race ready, but then the race was postponed due to the Sudetenland Crisis of 1939. The cars would be limited to autobahn trials in Germany only. Some of the cars were sold to private buyers and survived the war but disappeared in the 1950s. All the others were destroyed in fighting during the last days of the war. The styling however was adopted for the stunning Horch 930S and DKW F9 of 1939. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/auto-union-streamliners.html
This is a very handsome model and accurately reflects the surviving photos. At least one DKW streamliner survived the war and was photographed in the streets of Germany in 1950s, but no trace has been found since.https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-04018/
1939 Horch 930S
The Horch 930S' stunning streamlined body was modeled off the DKW-Audi endurance racer. The 930S was unveiled at the Berlin Motor Show in 1939 to great acclaim. Not only did it look amazing, the streamlining improved performance, speed and fuel efficiency. Only three cars were built before the war intervened. The surviving car was owned by Auto-Union race driver Tazio Nuvolari. He retired to Switzerland during the war and thus preserved the car for posterity. After the war four or five 930S' were built from spare parts, but all had different bodywork.
Another very fine model, but I think they'd have been better painting it burgundy like the original.
https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-04015/
1938 Horch 853
This strange looking vehicle began life as a 1938 Horch 853 limousine. It was used by a high ranking Nazi officer in the occupation government of Bohemia during the war, where it was left behind. Commandeered by the Czechs, it was converted into an extraordinary fire engine by the Lepil bodyworks in the late 1940s. The car has survived in this format to today.
Another interesting oddity and a welcome addition to any collection.
https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-12006/
DKW "so called Research-wagen"
In 2017 a European auction house advertised this extraordinary vehicle for sale as a 'DKW streamlined research vehicle.' It was a dubious claim at best. The car has none of the features of DKW's streamlined prototypes (see above) and the quality of the workmanship was not particularly good. Under the skin, the car was powered by a water cooled DKW engine from a 1929 DKW P-15. The P-15 was DKW's first car and its engine was mounted inline, rather than transverse as in the later pre-war F series. The car is interesting because it is unusual, but is more likely a home-built custom 'sports' body that utilized the engine, wheels and axles of a very old P-15. The P-15 was a wood only construction, having no metal chassis. Its structural strength came from its self-supporting plywood body. By the 1940s or 50s, this had probably rotted completely away and an imaginative home mechanic built themselves a new steel body with spare parts.
The model is a lot cleaner looking that the real thing.
https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-04010/
I highly recommend AutoCult models. I have a number of them myself, including the DKW-Audi Streamliner, DKW Aero and the "Road to the People's Car" collection, which is really excellent and includes a very informative book. https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-99000/
AutoCult do not sell direct to the public, but through designated resellers. Their products can be found on eBay.de easily enough. Check out their website and subscribe to their Facebook page for regular updates about the latest models. https://www.autocult-models.de/about-us/
