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The DKW Monza Story by Klaus Jansen-Diekmann
In the last issue of the club newsletter we had some news from the DKW Monza meeting in April this year. The occasion for that meeting was the presentation of a book about those rare DKWs with plastic bodies that were built in small numbers on a private initiative between 1956 and 1960. Auto- Union originally only supplied the chassis and running gear from the DKW 3=6, but after initial hesitation agreed to let the DKW Monza be sold through its dealer organization.
Klaus Jansen-Diekmann, the author of this book and Gruner of our club, who owns two examples of this rare car, was already thinking about writing a book about the DKW Monza at the end of the 1970s. Interested readers benefit from the fact that he was already doing extensive research at the time because much of the detailed information can no longer be obtained today. Thanks to their efforts they were able to save a lot of documents in good time and conduct innumerable interviews, which make the book a contemporary document beyond a mere vehicle history!
The books spans from the first suggestions to build a nice DKW sports car by the well-known DKW tuner Mantzel and the racing driver Ahrens through the three production series built by Dannenhauer and Stauss, Massholder and Schenk, up to the end of production in 1959, after Auto-Union made the decision not to supply any more chassis. It follows the attempt to continue limited production on the chassis’ that had already been delivered and provide ongoing servicing for owners, however, this effort soon reached logistical limits, especially since economic production of the bodies and continuing sales were no longer guaranteed. The book ends with a chapter on DKW Monza in today's veteran scene.
The book includes a large number of previously unknown photos, complemented by the reproduction of interesting file notes and documents, including of course the record drive in Monza, from which the car gained its name. Friends of typography will also get their money's worth. Right down to the smallest detail, the differences between the individual production series are shown in words and pictures. This is really comprehensive work.
The quality of the images is sometimes very different, but as an author you are always dependent on the material that is available to you, and this can be quite variable in terms of quality. The Monza book contains razor-sharp press photos as well as reproductions of press articles with a corresponding loss of quality. However, these differences in quality can be easily overlooked if you consider that certain topics would otherwise not have been documented.
A nice idea are the black and white reproductions of the original Monza sales brochures, which are attached to the book in a pocket in the cover.
It is thanks to Klaus Jansen-Diekmann's expertise and meticulous research that, unlike many journalistic quick-shoots, this book has become a well-founded work on the history of DKW 3=6 Monza, from which the book shelves of Auto-Union friends will not want to miss, even if you don't have a Monza in the garage.
Jansen-Diekmann's book can be ordered through his DKW Monza website here: http://dkwmonza.de/buch-dkw-3-6-monza.html
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