Showing posts with label Mercedes-Benz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mercedes-Benz. Show all posts

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Paul Jaray's MB200 Streamliner


Austro-Hungarian aerodynamicist, Paul Jaray, patented his first automobile design in 1921. In 1922 he bodied an Audi, Ley and DIXI chassis to demonstrate his ideas. Despite the trio demonstrating notable improvements in speed and fuel economy, they were collectively called 'the ugly ducklings' by the press. They were simply too unorthodox for the tastes of their time.

In 1927 Jaray bodied a 1924 Chrysler sedan for Swiss businessman, Paul Susmann. The car did much to publicize Jaray's ideas and the advantages of streamlining when it competed in a performance trial against a standard-bodied Chrysler, demonstrating a 30 kph speed advantage and fuel consumption over the normal sedan. This led to other German and European car makers to initiate projects with Jaray. Sadly for Susmann, he went bankrupt in 1932 and was forced to sell the car.

By the 1930s Jaray's thinking had evolved and his designs were less Zeppelin-like and more like a wing cross-section. The result was a far more practical vehicle than Jaray's earlier experiments. He gave expression to these new ideas on the chassis of a Mercedes-Benz 200 and an Audi Front in 1934. Bodywork was constructed by the Swiss carosserie Huber & Brühwiler. The Mercedes was constructed as a four-seater and the Audi was a two-seater.

The Mercedes was exhibited to wide acclaim at the Geneva Motor Show in 1934 but due to mechanical trouble was unable to make it to the important Berlin Motor Show in March that year.

Having missed the Berlin Motor Show, Motor-Kritik wrote a separate review of the car in volume 15 which can be found in full here: https://motor-kritik.blogspot.com/2021/04/1934-motor-kritik-nr-15.html pages 353-356.

Report from Streamliner Headquarters.

The much debated, trivialized, and ridiculed streamlined body is now in unstoppable advance. The AG for Streamline Bodyworks in Lucerne, the patent holder for streamlined car design, has been able to conclude agreements with a number of factories. Maybach, Daimler-Benz, Steyr, Tatra, Jawa and others are all working on streamlined body designs. This success is mainly due to the fact that, instead of continuing to debate back and forth, they decided to put matters to the test and had modern chassis fitted with a real streamlined body. Through these practical examples, the advantages of this most natural body shape has been proven so conclusively that the objections of opponents are silenced. Even if the chassis chosen for the bodywork is not ideally suited for the purpose, i.e., with the motor in the front and the floor set at the upper edge of the frame, the superiority and practicality of real streamlining is evident.

This streamlined body on an MB-200 chassis comfortably seats four people.

Only the real streamlined car allows such a panoramic view [Paul Jaray is seated behind the steering.wheel].

Fig.1. The body also covers the wheels. The space otherwise taken up by the fenders and running boards is  now inside the car, which makes the interior very spacious. The large windows provide an unobstructed view on all sides. A fender strip made of chrome-plated steel protects against lateral damage.

Fig.2. The shape of the real streamlined car solves the all-important ventilation problem in a very simple way. The dynamic pressure on the glazed streamlined hood allows for easily adjustable fresh air inside the car through the small, hinged window that can be seen at the front, which reliably prevents the ingress of engine gases, petrol fumes, etc. As a result, the occupants breathe fresh air, free from dust and gas fumes.

Fig.3. Side view of the same car. The elegance of the lines refutes the widespread prejudice that a streamlined car cannot be beautiful.

Fig.4. Rear of the four-seat Jaray streamline limousine. There is a large luggage compartment under the rear windows.

Fig.5. It can be seen that the fuselage corresponds to a section of an aircraft wing, while the structure represents half a streamlined body.

Fig.6. View from above of the streamlined Jaray limousine. You can clearly see how the peculiar shape of the car favors its motion through the air. The air flowing towards the moving car is not torn apart but pushed aside. Behind the car the air flow closes again without formation of a vortex as the shape of the stern promotes the smooth outflow of the distributed air. The license plate stays clean even on the dirtiest road, because the car never pulls up dirt from the road, even at the fastest speed, and because no dust can settle on the car shell, which is constantly surrounded by regulated air currents.

fig.7. The adjacent picture of the front wheel recess and the adjacent body surface are nice and clean after a drive from Lucerne to Stuttgart in dirty weather, proving what is said above.

Fig.8. The streamlined body offers so much space that built-in containers for suitcases, for the petrol reserve etc. can be attached to the left and right of the front seats. In the streamlined Mercedes-Benz 200 limousine shown here, 2 large suitcases have been installed to the left of the front seats, each measuring 60x70x15cm.

Fig.9. Behind the rear seats of a streamlined car, a luggage compartment that is completely closed off from the outside and thus absolutely protected against dust can be carved out. This is easily accessible from the inside of the car. In the luggage compartment of the streamlined limousine shown here, 3 large suitcases can be accommodated - one of them is not visible on the picture because it is behind the others. Besides there is space for files, bags and smaller luggage.

Fig.10. To the right of the front seats is the spare wheel in this streamlined body, next to which the jack. The wheel winch is located above, while below there is still space to accommodate cleaning rags, spare parts and the like. The wheel space is closed off from the interior of the car by a sheath (removed here).

Fig.11. Tools can be conveniently stowed under the bonnet. Here they are in zippered pockets, stored on each side of the engine, where they can be easily used.

Fig.12. Open door.

Some of the measured values:
Acceleration with standard body vs streamlined body
62 seconds 0-90 km versus 43 seconds
37 seconds 60-90 km versus 24 seconds
26 seconds 30-80 km in direct gear versus 21 seconds

Operating weight of the MB 200 with streamlined body is 1360 kg (wet). According to these results, which are accompanied by a substantial saving in petrol, it would be nonsensical and a knowing waste of energy, money (foreign exchange) and health if we wanted to stick to the previously common body shape for much longer.

The Mercedes 200 was sold to Walter de Haas in the late 1930s. He exchanged the car for a Chevrolet in 1940 but the car remained in Switzerland until the engine was blown in the 1950s. The car was sold to a mechanic who had the car wrecked.

The Mercedes 200 in 1955 towards the end of its life.

Paul Jaray kept the Audi Front zweisitzer as his personal car into the 1950s. When the engine head had completely worn out and could not be honed down any further, he sold the car to a farmer on the outskirts of Lucerne, who used as a farm runabout until the car ran off the road into a tree and was destroyed.


Autocult has reproduced Paul Jaray's MB200 and Audi Front cars in 1/43 scale.

Mercedes-Benz 200



https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-04002/

Audi Front





https://www.autocult-models.de/models/autocult-04026/

Other links - https://i-f-m.blogspot.com/2014/05/stromlinienfahrzeuge-in-der-schweiz.html

Sunday, January 12, 2014

DKW's 1933 rear engined streamliner


The 1930s was a time of fervent in the automotive world. Paul Jaray had been promoting the benefits of streamlining and wind tunnel testing for almost a decade, while engineering theorists such as Josef Ganz were espousing rear mounting as the most efficient position for engine placement. 1933 was the year that these ideas crystalized into a new generation of vehicles.

Standard Superior
In 1932 the Gutbrod company engaged Josef Ganz to develop his rear-engined designs for a small, budget passenger car. The result was the Standard Superior, which was revealed at the 1933 Berlin Auto Show. The car was constructed around a tube chassis, with independent suspension and wood and plywood bodywork. It was powered by a two-cylinder, 400 or 500cc air-cooled two-stroke engine, mounted ahead of the rear axle.

The Model 1 Standard Superior was very much a budget vehicle. The car could really only accommodate two adult passengers. Two children could be seated uncomfortably on a tiny bench seat above the engine compartment.

The later model 'Deutschen Volkswagen' included some improvements in styling and additional fittings, but the car did not sell particularly well. Only a few hundred Standard Superiors were built and only one survivor is known to exist today.

Hansa 500
Carl Borgward had developed his first motor vehicle in 1927- the blitzkarren delivery tricycle - and business just went from strength to strength. The blitzkarren soon gave way to the Goliath Pioneer, a small, rear engined tricycle car, and a range of tricycle commercial vehicles. When the Great Depression hit Germany and the big car manufacturers began to feel the pinch, Borgward was in a position to expand.  In 1932 he snapped up the struggling car maker Hansa and set about developing a new car suitable to the times.

The result was the Hansa 500, also unveiled at the 1933 Berlin Show. Similar in concept and construction to the Standard Superior, the Hansa was built around a tube chassis, had independent suspension and was powered by a rear mounted 500cc air-cooled two-stroke engine. Although a budget car, the Hansa 500 able to capitalise on Hansa's heritage as a quality car manufacture, being better made and with better fittings that the Standard Superior. However, like it's competitor, it did not sell particularly well and was removed from sale after only two years.

Mercedes-Benz 120H

In 1931 Hans Nibel and Max Wagner built a rear engined small car for Mercedes-Benz. A handful of prototype 120H (for Heckmotor or rear-motor) were built in 1932 to test the concept. The 120H performed reasonably well and Mercedes-Benz made a decision to develop the concept into a production car.

The 130H production model introduced in 1934 was larger than its predecessor and consequently was fitted with a bigger engine. The new engine, mounted behind the rear axle, changed the car's centre of gravity, giving the car poor handling.

To improve the handling of the Mercedes-Benz 130, engineers "tun[ed] tyre and spring softness between the front and rear axles..." Later models improved the handling further.

With other notable designers, such as Ferdinand Porsche, experimenting with a rear-engined budget car at Zundapp, and the former managing director of DKW, Jorgen Rasmussen, busily working away on a rear-engined budget car that aimed to undercut everybody, DKW had no choice but to initiate a rear-engined car project of its own.

Porche's rear engined Zundapp prototype was still a long way from the Volkswagen. The three prototypes trialed three different air-cooled engines - a Zundapp five cylinder radial, a two-cylinder two-stroke, and Porsche's own flat four boxer. None of the engines performed particularly well and the project was cancelled.

After Rasmussen was fired from Auto-Union in late 1933, design duties at DKW were assigned to a new group design team that pooled resources from all four Auto-Union companies. Horch designer, Hermann Ahrens, designed the streamlined bodywork that was manufactured by the DKW karroseriewerkes at Spandau.

In accordance with standard practice, the body was constructed of wood with plywood paneling covered with leatherette for weather proofing. The result was very impressive with its long, curved roof-line and sharply curved bonnet. The car was not dissimilar to the Tatra v570 prototype being constructed in the greatest of secrecy in Czechoslovakia.

DKW's history of building a front-wheel cars allowed them to easily implement the rear-engine, rear-wheel drive concept. The chassis was adapted from a DKW F2 meisterklasse as was its 600cc two-cylinder water-cooled two-stroke engine. DKW's little engine and gearbox was easily adapted for the job. Gear change linkages however did require a little more work. A floor mounted gear change adapted from DKW's rear-wheel drive 4=8 model was used. 

A long, distinctive metal engine cover with cooling vents concealed the engine. Cooling the radiator proved to be a problem however, which is of course why most of the rear-engined car concepts featured air cooling. Additional air scoops were opened in the sides to facilitate air flow. Eventually a fan was added, a design feature that would later be used on the DKW F9 to cool its rear mounted radiator.

The car was used in a number of trials and many important lessons were learned, including proving that you could build a curved, streamlined car our of wood. But DKW never felt that the rear-engined concept was worth pursuing and only the single prototype was built. The car was used for a few publicity photographs before being mothballed with other experimental vehicles, all of which were lost in the war.

DKW's Spandau karosseriewerkes adapted the streamlined body concept for the next mode, the Schwebeklasse, released in 1934. The complex curves and indentations of the Schwebeklasse were a pinnacle of the wooden karosserie's art.

Links-
DKW's streamlined vehicles: http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/auto-union-streamliners.html
The development of the Volkswagen: http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/volkswagen-world-beating-peoples-car.html
The development of the Tatra: http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/tatras-streamliners-yesterdays-car-of.html
Framo's volkswagen project: http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/framo.html
DKW Schwebeklasse: http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/1934-dkw-schwebeklasse-brochure.html

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Audi F103


In 1962 DKW released their new model, the F102. After the disappointments of the F11 and F12, the F102 was a welcome return to form. A large contemporary styled family sedan, the car was quite a step away from DKW's small car heritage. It was powered by a new 1176cc, 60 horsepower, three-cylinder, two-stroke motor. DKW sales, which had been declining for several years, began to pick up.

The release of the F102 coincided with significant changes at Auto-Union. In 1964 Mercedes-Benz, which had an 87% share in the company, sold its shareholding to Volkswagen. Mercedes-Benz had largely been a 'hands off' shareholder, rarely interfering with Auto-Union except to divest the company of DKWs loss making motorcycle arm to Zweirad Union. Volkswagen however was keen to make changes at Auto-Union.

Plans were already well underway on the F102's successor, including trials of a new 1300cc two-stroke engine. Two-stroke auto engines offered a number of natural advantages. Being simple in design with few moving parts, they were cheap to build and easy to maintain, required little maintenance, delivered high power for their size and had low fuel consumption. However, these advantages were progressively eroded as the displacement of the engines increased.  The F102's 1176cc engine had skated along the limits of two-stoke efficiency. The 1300cc engine however did not. To deliver the anticipated horsepower increase, combustive efficiency was compromised. This could be compensated for with fuel injection, but that increased fuel consumption. The natural limits of the two-stroke had been reached.

Volkswagen were not prepared to invest in further two-stroke research so they replaced DKW's two-stroke with a Mercedes-Benz 1700cc four cylinder four-stroke engine. Subtle changes were also made in the styling, such as introducing rectangular headlights.

Although the car was basically a DKW with a four-stroke engine, Volkswagen opted to make a complete break with the past. The DKW name was dropped and the Audi brand, which had not manufactured a car since 1938 was resurrected. The brochure below introducing the new car, skips over DKW's post-war years entirely, never mentioning DKW even once and presents the new Audi F103 fully formed, devoid of its true origins ....























This article has been translated into Portuguese and republished on a Brazilian DKW website http://www.dkwcandango.com.br/09%20Artigos%20Tecnicos/09_Projeto_F103.htm