Finnish Road Test of the IFA F9 - December 1953

Scandinavia was a major market for DKW's two-stroke cars in the prewar period. DKW's front-wheel drive provided excellent traction in the snow and ice and its trusty two-stroke motor was guaranteed to start easily in sub-zero temperatures. After the war, the East German successor to DKW, IFA, managed to restart vehicle production in 1948, gaining a brief advantage over the newly reestablished Auto-Union in the west. IFA secured export contracts with the prewar DKW sales agents in Scandinavia and the Low Countries. Unfortunately for IFA, the build quality of their early cars was poor due to faulty components. These problems would only be resolved in 1955 when F9 production from Chemnitz to Eisenach.

Below is a review of the IFA F9 from the Finnish automobile magazine 'Tekniikan Maailma', December 1953 edition.

"The 1953 car is definitely an IFA, as the 1952 car was the Rover. In the capital's streets over the last summer, you clearly noticed how the Rovers are fairing. The same phenomenon occurred this summer with regard to the lFA, and especially the model F9 with its turtle-shaped lines and two-toned color scheme.

Its beautifully spacious two-door full-steel body rests on a double-shaped steel frame. The interior cabin is really roomy inside compared to other cars. Likewise, there is plenty of luggage space in the luggage compartment, where the spare tire is also placed. The front and side windows of the car are large, so they provide good visibility. The dashboard is simple and has a gear lever. The body is a fairly strong structure as it is fully enclosed. [For the sunroof model?] the roof feels like a weak part of the body however because it has a large sheet metal area without supports. When driving at a speed of 40--50 km/h, it starts to vibrate. In the car that we test drove, strips of sheet metal that reached over the roof were put under the upholstery and thick cardboard laid on top of them, so the roof became significantly more stable.

The chassis structure is interesting. After all, the car is front-wheel drive. Look at the picture of the front wheel drive - and the steering racks. It's like a cartoon, where's the king bolt? The flexible drive shafts, which are dustproof, have one transverse semi-elliptical spring above and triangular transverse axes below. The rear axle is immobile and suspended via one high transverse semi-elliptical spring to the body, which results in lFA's so-called "suspended axle." In addition, each wheel has oil pressure shock absorbers.

However, the chassis structure is missing a couple of simple iron bars - tilt stabilizers. It was precisely because of this that the IFA can roll. The tilt was so small that the tilt stabilizers would have prevented the car from rolling. In a car, with two passengers, all the weight will be added to the front end, so the rear will go its own way in potholes and uneven curves. For this reason, it is good to reserve 40--50 kg of weight in the boot, which will keep the aft end grounded.

The front wheel bearings are also very weak. A common phenomenon has been that they have broken after only a few hundred or a couple of thousand driving kilometers. The steering is a rack and pinion steering. Turning radius approx. 10 m and track width is 1.19 m at the front and 1.26 m at the rear. Tires are 5.00 x 16.

The engine is a three-cylinder two-stroke engine, which rest on three rubber supports. Cylinder diameter is 70 mm and stroke length is 78 mm. Cylinder volume is 900 cm3 with a compression ratio 1:6.29. Power output is 28 hp at 3600 revolutions per minute. Cooling is by a thermosyphon radiator with fan. Water volume is 10 litres. The engine compartment is large and all the different devices are on display and easily removable. The distributor and ignition coil are placed right in front of the engine. Usually in terms of fault finding, the most important devices are placed somewhere completely inaccessible.

The engine compartment is so big and the engine so small, that I too confused one dark autumn evening. Walking down the street I noticed that a neighbor was looking under the hood of his IFA with an almost burnt-out flashlight for sSomething. As a helpful man, I asked him if he was looking for a motor. He kept his opinion to himself and did not accept my offer. I still do not understand why he did this, for I would only have helped him in his search for it. I had just bought a box of matches and I was afraid that his lamp would go out before what he was looking for.

The single plate dry clutch and the gearbox are located at the back of the engine. From the gearbox you have four forward speeds and reverse. When the engine is separated only by the bare and thin firewall, you can hear the sound of the motor, especially when driving in low gears. That's why it's good to pack thick felt or cardboard under the carpet inside the cabin.

The car has central pressure lubrication, free-wheel clutch and hydraulic brakes on all four wheels. The front brake mechanically acts on the rear wheels. The weight of the car is approx. 870 kg and the maximum load is approx. 380 kg. The factory states that the top speed is approx. 110 km/h, at which speed I would not want to be in this "cart." You have to change gears often, whether it is due to the small number of cylinders or the rather low rev limit."

In March 1955, another editorial was added:

"There cannot be anybody in Finland, who has not heard more or less unflattering anecdotes about the IFA F9. Partly for this reason we wanted to find out what this vehicle is really like. As we have no owner experiences as regards the durability of the car, we shall refer to the appended statistics and tell you what it felt like to be behind the wheel of a well sorted IFA.

When first stepping into an IFA F9, one notices the curved-backed aeroplaned-type seats, which provide a steady, pleasant seating position. The sharply falling bonnet gives good visibility ahead, but the visibility in other directions is only average.

There seems to be sufficient room for four passengers. The handling is enhanced by front wheel drive, which makes the IFA excellent in sharp bends, as long as they are taken correctly under acceleration. Another noteworthy characteristic is the freewheel, which saves both fuel and engine [stress]. The correct way is to accelerate at intervals and then allow the car to roll under its own impetus. The steering is super-fast rack and pinion, which feels odd after driving larger cars. The unevenness and potholes in roads are felt unpleasantly through the wheel, but otherwise the handling is brilliant.

The gear lever is handily placed on the dashboard, but gear changes have to be carried out with care, for otherwise the gearbox will make nasty noises, especially when changing down. The combination of the 3 cylinder, 32 hp engine and four speed gearbox gives the F9 reasonable powers of acceleration. On tarred roads we got the following times:

• 0-50 km/h 9.5 seconds,
• 0-80 km/h 20 secs,
• and 1 kilometre from standing start 50 secs.

The engine noise is rather intrusive, especially in older models. Braking was not the best in the IFA's we drove, due to hard brake linings. Handling is so good however, that this small inconvenience hardly deserves a mention.

The gauges worked perfectly and we did not notice any particular inaccuracies in the readings.

The IFA F9 is reasonably comfortable. There is plenty of room inside and the doors are sufficiently wide to allow easy entry. The body is reasonably tight and draught proof in Winter. This is helped by the presence of inside lining of the body.

Good Points:
Good handling, cheap to buy, comfortable seats, low fuel consumption, widely available, good starter in winter, roomy inside, freewheel spares engine and saves petrol.

Weaknesses:
Dodgy electrics, low quality tires, paintwork and chrome, expensive to repair, badly finished, low quality springs, rubber joint in steering, central lubrication pump, non-professional repair personnel.

Technical Data:
Engine: Three cylinders, two stroke, output 32 bhp/limited to 3800 rpm.
Compression 6.8.1.
Cylinder dimensions 70 x 78mm, capacity 0.9 litres, 900cc.
25:1 Mixing ratio, petrol to two stroke oil.
Cooling: Water-cooled, radiator behind engine. 10 litre capacity.
Transmission: Dry single plate clutch, four speed gearbox with freewheel.
Gear ratios: 1st 3.27, 2nd 2.133, 3rd 1.368, 4th 0.957 and reverse 4,44:1
Gear lever on the dashboard. Front wheel drive.
Suspension: Half-elliptic crosswise springs front and rear.
Dimensions: Length 4.2 metres, width 1.6m, height 1.45m.
Wheelbase 2.35m. Width of front track 1.18m, rear 1.26m.
Unladen weight 870 kg.
Load capacity 380 kg.
Top speed 110 km/h (approx 69 mph)
Petrol Tank capacity 30 litres.
Fuel consumption: Urban 9.6 litres for 100km (62.5 miles), approx 29.6 mpg. (based on a metric gallon 4.55 litres)."