The Werner DKW F9

The story of the Audi Tradition DKW F9 car's survival is quite extraordinary and worth retelling in detail. For details of the convoluted development history of the DKW F9, please refer to my post here https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/1939-dkw-f9-prototype.html

Despite the National Socialists placing a ban on civilian car development from 1940, sporadic, secret development of the F9 was going on behind the scenes at Auto-Union. Wartime shortages of steel and other strategic materials encouraged the company to experiment with Duraplast thermoset plastic body panels as a substitute for steel during the mid-war years. Several pre-production cars were hand assembled at the Chemnitz plant for testing. Vehicle shortages meant these were often used by Auto-Union executives as official vehicles. In late 1944, the design team constructed a car which incorporated all the lessons of the testing to date. The car's chassis number is unclear, but shows clear evidence of changes to engine mounts and suspension.

The car was fitted with engine 429801-V, which is a very early production example, described in factory documents as 'early execution.' This engine type was superseded by an improved engine design in 1940. It cannot be known whether this was the engine the car was originally fitted with or it was a later replacement from the test bench. The radiator is clearly stamped with the makers name and manufacturing date - Langerer and Reich of Stuttgart, serial number ZG 4004461/1, dated 11 July 1939. The car's gearbox is stamped number 103.

The car was assigned to Auto-Union technical director, William Werner, lead engineer on the F9 project. However, Werner did not get to enjoy it for very long as the car was badly damaged in a bombing raid over Berlin in February 1945 and was shipped back to Auto-Union's Chemnitz factory for repairs. Audi Tradition historian, Ralf Friese, believes the current engine may have been fitted as an off-the-shelf replacement at this time (Octane magazine 211 Nov 2020, pg 100), but this can only be speculation. https://subscribe.octane-magazine.com/

With the war going badly and Allied forces pressing in on them from east and west, Auto-Union evacuated its prototypes, Grand Prix racers and part of its design archive to a vacant mill building in the rural village of Saupersdorf, where they hoped they would be safe. They would not be. The mill was bombed during the last days of war and all the vehicles stored there were completely destroyed. Being laid up for repairs in Chemnitz, Werner's car avoided this fate.

German forces in Chemnitz surrendered to US forces on 6th May 1945, bringing the war to a close. Saxony however, fell within the Soviet occupation zone so the Auto-Union executive called an emergency board meeting to consider the company's options. The board agreed to disperse the company's assets and key personnel across the occupation zones. To prevent the company's only surviving DKW F9 from falling into Soviet hands, the car was transported to Auto-Union's Hamburg office in the British occupation zone.

After the war, all the Allies were keen to seize whatever German technology they could get their hands and, like the Soviets, the British sent engineering teams into their zone to find what they could. In late 1945 the British seized the Werner car and shipped it to the tank proving grounds at Cobham in England for technical evaluation. The non-running car was reputedly repaired by British engineers, but this claim may be doubtful. The assessment of other captured German vehicles, such as the Tatra T87 and KDF Volkswagen, had been cursory at best, with little attempt to make even minor road-worthiness repairs. BIOS Final Report No. 909. "Investigation Concerning Research and Development for, and Manufacture of DKW Cars in Germany" was summarized in the overarching report on the German automobile industry (B.I.O.S Report 21) with a single paragraph:

“the F9 car was developed solely to meet competition offered by the Volkswagen. The Volkswagen (subsidised) was cheaper than their F8 model and had more room and was faster. They reckoned that in producing the F9, which had a much better appearance than the Volkswagen and was about 15 kph faster, they would hold the market somewhere between the Volkswagen and higher priced cars.”

The seizure of Werner's F9 was briefly reported in both British and German automotive magazines. After cursory testing the car was handed over to the Australian government as part of a war reparations exchange. At that time the Australian government was interested in establishing a domestic automobile industry and the studies done during the war years had recommended manufacturing a cheap and robust car "like the German DKW." However, in 1948 the government decided to support the American backed General-Motors Holden project and the DKW idea was dropped. The car was now deemed surplus to requirements and was sold off at an army surplus auction in September 1946 along with an F8 and a V4 Sonderklasse. None of the three cars were running

Nevertheless, the car was purchased by Steve O'Meager. O'Meager had been a longtime DKW owner and enthusiast who proved to be a creative and talented engineer. In a letter to the editor of The Age (Melbourne) that he wrote in the 1980s, he described the car as having suffered catastrophic engine damage.
“I owned the only three-cylinder DKW prototype in Australia for many years. I purchased this car in September 1950 [a misremembered date, the auction was actually 12th September 1946] at a Government disposals auction but the motor was unserviceable - broken pistons, conrod, approximately one third of the lower crankcase broken and missing.” If the British had actually repaired the car in 1946, it seems that the repairs were not particularly thorough; likely only sufficient to get the car moving for a limited engine trial. Or the engine was subsequently run without the required petroil mixture, resulting in catastrophic failure.

O'Meager was a creative mechanic, familiar with DKWs, and fabricated replacement parts and got the engine running again. "In short, I made up the required parts, including three pistons, crankshaft assembly, various other items, and converted the steering, dash panel and all controls to satisfy Australian registration requirements. This took several months and I then used the car continuously, including my honeymoon and other interstate trips. Prior to this, I had owned two DKW cars (a panelvan and a ute) and was well able to carry out all work - major and minor - on them. Also, I had owned two DKW motor bikes and had the use of good workshop facilities."

Ultimately, it is thanks to O'Meagher's ingenious engineering skills that we have the car today. Had he not been willing to undertake these extensive repairs, the car would likely have been deemed too difficult a proposition and been scrapped.

The car provided O'Meagher with years of reliable service but ill health eventually forced him to sell the car in 1983 to a fellow DKW enthusiast, Leo Redfern. By this stage, the engine had failed and Leo assessed it as being beyond repair. Seeking advice, he wrote to the Auto-Union Veterans Club [AUVC] of Germany, but the response he received explained the post-war history of the DKW F91. Leo wrote back with more details.

"You mention in your letter that 3 cylinder motors began in 1954, and prior to that there were only 2 cylinder motors. The car I have a 3 cylinder sedan (engine No.429801-V). The engine has an alloy cylinder head with an alloy cover. It carries a drive shaft the length of the motor with a cooling fan facing the radiator and a drive pulley with a vee belt from the crank shaft at the other end. The roller bearings on the crank shaft run on crank pins which are in a bad state of repair. The engine has a separate starter motor and generator. The clutch is a dry single plate clutch that drives a separate gear box with four forward speeds and reverse. The wheels are 17 inch with hydraulic brakes and cable hand brake on the rear wheels. The plate on the radiator tank indicates that this vehicle is a 1939 model, sent out here as an experimental vehicle.....I have enclosed several photographs of the body, engine and chassis for your information. I feel that this motor will be beyond restoration owing to its condition but have recently acquired a 1953 model with a 2 cylinder motor and plan to restore this vehicle, using the body of the 1939 vehicle...."

His second letter, along with the enclosed photographs, prompted further investigation and on 14 March 1983 G. Theilmann replied:

"Your letter addressed to Mr. Lange has been referred to me as the appropriate person to answer it. I deal with all matters concerning the pre-war DKW in the Auto Union Veterans' Club.

Your DKW is a very rare and valuable vehicle. You possess a prototype of series F9. Only 10! models of this type were manufactured and used exclusively as test vehicles.

The DKW F9 was to come on to the market in the spring of 1940 as the successor of the F8 under the designation "High Class" and it was planned to produce 50,000 of them for the year 1940.

In mass production, the F9 was to have been given a plastic carriage body. To this end, a process was developed in association with Dynamit AG whereby resin and wood flour were compressed under high pressure to form body carriage parts. This material was very light and much cheaper than metal sheeting. The car had the slightly modified chassis of the DKW F8 with the well-proven floating axle and oil pressure brakes. The engine was 3-cylinder with 900 ccm and 30 HP. The wheel base was 2350 mm and the weight 870 kg. Top speed was said to be 108 km/h.

The outbreak of the second world war prevented the beginning of the production of this DKW. This design, with a few modifications, was not realised until after the end of the war in the GDR as the IFA F9.

Your vehicle is very probably the only model of the DKW F9 still in existence in the whole world. Heartiest congratulations."

Nevertheless, to keep the car on the road, Leo performed a body swap, transplanting the body onto the 1953 DKW F89P chassis and running gear. The original bonnet and radiator screen was badly rusted out so was replaced with that of the F89P. Fortunately, Leo retained the original engine and chassis.

Leo did not own the car very long, selling the now modified car to DKW of Australia club president, Peter Thorogood. Peter obtained the original chassis and engine, which was now dismantled in three boxes, and began planning a complete restoration. However, as he had several other major restoration projects on the go, including a 1937 DKW F7 and a 1938 Mercedes-Benz W 143 250 cabriolet, and the impossibility of finding engine parts, the restoration plans did not progress far.

Peter owned the car for about 12 years before he was forced to downsize his collection. Realizing he would never be able to restore the DKW as he intended, he wrote to Audi Tradition, to offer them the car. When Leo Redfern had written to the AUVC in 1983, there was no Audi Tradition foundation and the preservation of the marque's legacy depended on the efforts of enthusiasts. In 1985 Audi established a historical foundation to preserve the heritage of the marque and expanded its formal cooperation with the AUVC. Over several years a collection of historic vehicles and archives were gathered together. A proper museum did not exist and the collection was stored temporarily in various warehouses in old Ingolstadt. It wasn't until 1995, with the opening of the Audi Centre at the Ingolstadt plant, that thoughts turned to the formal establishment of a museum collection. The project would not get off the ground until 1998, with the Audi Museum Mobile finally opening in 2000.

At the time Peter made his offer to Audi Tradition, they were not in a position to accept it, so the car was advertised for private sale. The advert piqued the interest of a New Zealand classic car dealer, Hans Compter, who purchased the car. Compter had close ties to Audi Tradition, having sold them a 1924 Wanderer Puppchen discovered in Australia some years earlier. He reached out to his contacts and notified them of the car. Audi Tradition now responded and sent Herr Hornung and a retired Auto-Union worker to Australia to inspect the car. They were able to certify the car's identity and arranged for its sale and transport back to Germany.

After 56 years in Australia, the car sets off on its journey home.

An assessment of the car was undertaken and the body was found to be in very poor condition. There was significant rust in parts of the structure which needed urgent repair. As Audi Tradition did not have restoration facilities of its own, the restoration was outsourced to a team at the Riga Motor Museum, Latvia. Changes O'Meager had made to the dashboard, instruments and firewall to meet Australian licensing requirements proved to be problematic to reverse. The engine was in poor shape and deemed to be irreparable at that time so was simply reassembled and installed back in the car. It does not run.

The Werner car was returned to Audi Tradition in time for the 15 December 2000 opening of the Museum Mobile where is an important exhibit. The car is also displayed regularly at motoring exhibitions around Germany. Although the engine is not in running condition, subsequent discoveries of archival documents, detailed designs and significant advances in restoration technology, such as 3-D printing, which were not available 20 years ago, means that rebuilding a running engine is a distinct possibility in the future.

The engine is reassembled for visual presentation only. It is not running.


The sole surviving transverse test engine is owned by Wolf-Dieter Palm in Germany. He has restored the engine to running condition but the transmission is not functional.
You can see the engine in action here:

This is not the only research or pre-production engine that has come to light in recent years. Blocks and crankcases of at least two more are now known.

This story would not be possible without the participation of Peter Thorogood, who shared his archive of correspondence about the Werner F9 with me, including copies of letters exchanged between Leo Redfern and the AUVC, newspaper cuttings, Steve O'Meagher's recollections, photographs and documents. Additionally, other photographs, emails, documents and materials have been contributed by Winfried Kuhl, Steffen Lange, Audi historians Ralf Friese and Thomas Erdemann, IFA historian Frieder Bach,and many others.

For more information, check out my posts: The development of the DKW F9 history: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/1939-dkw-f9-prototype.html
The resurrection of Auto-Union: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/05/collapse-and-reconstruction-history-of.html
The development of the DKW F89P: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/06/dkw-f89p-new-meisterklasse.html
The development of the IFA F9: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-development-of-ifa-f9.html
A second DKW F9 is discovered in Estonia: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/06/a-second-dkw-f9-prototype-discovered.html

Frieder Bach's books are available here: https://fahrzeugmuseum-chemnitz.de/das-museum/publikationen/