The First Born - DKW F10

From the Audi Museum. The First Born. The first post-war passenger car from DKW
by Thomas Erdmann. Published in AUVC Nachrichten Vol 112 - https://auvc-archive.blogspot.com/2020/02/auvc-nachrichten-vol-112-march-2003.html This is my translation of the original German article into English.

“The Karl Baur Karosserieworke of Stuttgart has recently begun the manufacture of bodies for DKW cars, which give the almost indestructible chassis a modern look after the old wooden body is refurbished. However, such a vehicle is not exactly as cheap as the newly-made DKW cars, but will provide a reliable, economical, practical and beautiful vehicle that you can enjoy for years to come.”

With these words the spring 1949 magazine "Das Auto" announced the new generation of bodywork with which the Stuttgart bodyshop, Karl Baur, wanted to reenter the lucrative DKW business. Before the war the Baur company had supplied the bodies for the two and four-seater Front-Luxus convertibles for the DKW types F7 and F8, as well as the four-seater convertibles of the previous F5 series. Between 1936 and 1942 DKW accounted for virtually the total of Baur's production. Baur had set something od a benchmark for Auto-Union. In addition to the DKW bodies, they also supplied series bodies for certain Horch and Wanderer models.

Auto-Union had begun preparing the resumption of motor vehicle production in its new Bavarian home town in Ingolstadt under the most unfavorable conditions. In July 1948 a delegation from Baur, including father and son Baur, personally sat down with Drs Richard Bruhn and Carl Hahn of the Central Depot for Auto-Union Spare Parts (the temporary West German successor of the Chemnitz conglomerate) in order to offer them Baur's newly created body. The Stuttgart firm had brought a DKW F7 with them whose old wooden body had been replaced by the new, shapely Baur cabriolet body. The new body could be used to launch a new DKW on the market without great delay.

The managers at Auto-Union were thoroughly aware of the importance of reestablishing a market presence as soon as possible. "It was underlined several times that the new body for old cars represents a very important bridging step until the start of the production of new cars and serves to keep old DKW customers on the road."

However, there was initially no direct cooperation between the Ingoldstadt company and the Stuttgart bodyshop, so Baur initially sold the new steel bodywork directly to private customers. There were a total of four body variants - a 4-seater luxury cabriolet for 3450 DM; a 2 + 2-seater convertible for 3175 DM; a 4-seater limousine for 2950 DM; and a 2 + 2-seater coupe for 2750 DM. The price included paint, windows and full interior.

In January 1950, when both the DKW delivery van F89L and the DKW motorcycle RT125W were already on the market, Auto-Union GmbH and Baur began formal cooperation. In order to fill the gap before the start of series production of the new DKW F89P Meisterklasse, the first official Auto-Union passenger car of the post-war period would be the DKW  F10. By this measure an effort was made to revitalize export relations, which were increasingly under pressure. This was the reason why the majority of the type F10 cars built between January and August 1950 were exported abroad.

A few weeks ago, Audi Tradition purchased an original DKW F10 for the historic vehicle collection. This is the rare two-seater convertible version. The car had been completely restored by AUVC Club member Dieter Weigold. It is interesting to note that the chassis of the DKW F10 differs in many details from that of the prewar type F8. The F10 has a hydraulic brake system and the old lever shock absorbers have been replaced by modern telescopic shock absorbers. During restoration, some chassis components from a DKW Schnellaster F89L were used due to the inability to find original parts.

With the exception of a missing trim strip, the Bakelite dashboard corresponds to that of the 1939 DKW Sonderklasse model or the steel-bodied F8 Meisterklasse Super-Export model. The dashboard instruments date from the post-war period. Also interesting is that the round petrol tank under the hood has two holes for the passage of the gear shift rod. In order to simplify the stocking of spare parts, the post-war petrol tank was fitted with two holes so it could be used as a spare part both for the Type F7 (shift rod passage in the middle) and for the Type F8 (shift rod passage offset to the side). In the immediate post-war period, the Central Store for Auto-Union parts was attempting to make replacement parts usable for as many types as possible. For example, there were also differential housings that had both the frame suspension of the Type F5 / F7 (round rubber bearing at the top) and the suspension of the Type F8 (cast-on foot for rubber flat slat at the bottom).

The total number of DKW F10s manufactured was relatively low. A total of 196 chassis left the very provisional Auto-Union factory building in downtown Ingolstadt to be fitted with one of the bodies supplied by Baur.

The sales documents for the F10 confirmed that in this case the customer purchased the chassis only from Auto-Union (priced at 3620DM) in order to have the body installed at Baur in Stuttgart. The reason for this was the two-seater coupe body was not part of the official Auto-Union program at the time.

DKW's forgotten model - DKW F10 https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/dkws-forgotten-model-dkw-f10.html