Happy New Year 2012

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012. I'm looking forward to an exciting year ahead. The long awaited DKW is due to arrive at the beginning of February. Importing the car has been a long and tiring exercise - not least for the seller - but its almost over now. I'll write up a summary of the process and its challenges shortly.

Outside the iconic Dingo Flour building in Leighton.

After several weeks of unseasonably wet weather the Christmas and New Year were days of glorious sunshine so I tuned up the Ariel and took her out on a couple of long runs to Fremantle, up the coast and around the river. It was a real pleasure to be out on the road and the bike ran like dream. Whenever I stop when I'm out with the bike people always come over for a chat, even on a run up to the local shops. Of course I enjoy the chat. It's always a pleasure to share the interest with people.

I often ride past the port where the roll-on roll-off ships berth. At Christmas the 'Hoegh Africa' Autoliner was in port delivering a load of heavy industrial vehicles and what looked like a fleet of Hyundai's. I stopped to watch the ship leaving port and wondered whether the Deek would be hitching a ride shortly.

The following week I got my answer - No. The Deek was booked on the MV Tijuca, currently on route from Southhampton, UK to Port Elizabeth, South Africa with a load of luxury cars aboard. After Port Elizabeth she will stop in Durban on the 20th of January where she picks up the Deek and heads across the Indian Ocean.

Here is a handy link that actually gives the GPS co-ordinates of the ship.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=259805000
On 16th of January she was off Cape Town, South Africa.

As I rode along I noticed this Ford Thunderbird parked dockside. I wonder if its a recent arrival or is awaiting shipping? I'll have to keep an eye out for it at Big Al's Poker Run this February. http://www.bigalspokerrun.com.au/index.html

"And during the meanwhilst..."*
Sadly the Ariel is the only one of my machines fit for the road. The Troll broke down again shortly after I got it back on the road. Firstly the steering started to become unstable. At only 70 kilometres per hour the front end shuddered disturbingly, but there did not appear to be anything obviously wrong. I was about to take the Troll back to the Vespa Shop for a thorough going over but then the kickstarter broke and she wasn't going anywhere.

It took a couple of months to get the Troll dropped off at the Vespa Shop and then, after diagnosis (sheered teeth on the kickstarter damaging the gearbox), it's taken almost two months to source the replacement parts. I'm hoping the Troll will be back on the road by February as I want to drop the Ariel off for a bit of tender love and care.

The Vespa has been off the road even longer than the Troll. It is now most definitely displaying all the signs of a poor quality Asian restoration. Almost all of the 'chrome' has degraded to rust - despite the Vespa having hardly been on the road and always stored under cover in my garage. Poor quality shabby reproduction rubbish!

More seriously the rear wheel is dangerously loose making the scooter unroadworthy. According to Ivo at the Vespa Shop this is a common problem in Balinese and Vietnamese restorations and is due to the use of poor quality materials that are not designed to bear the kind of forces associated with road use. I found this out to my surprise when I replaced the Vespa's exhaust back in 2009. Instead of correct sized automotive parts, the exhaust was held on by roofing bolts which where the wrong size and packed out with washers. Even the engine and rear axle is mounted using a jumble of household odds and ends. They might last for a while - two years in my case - but they always fail and if it fails on the road the results can be catastrophic. Ivo has seen this dozens of times and it infuriates him as it only takes a small effort to use the right quality parts to avoid this issue in the first place.

If you own a Balinese or Vietnamese Vespa I can only suggest you get it properly checked over.
For a great insight into dodgy Asian Vespa restorations go no further than Brett's blog - The 71 Sprint V and Me - http://71sprintveloce.blogspot.com/

This is not to say the Vespa is a write-off. It still runs pretty well and remains a handsome machine. When I get the time and money I'll have her fixed up so that it's road safe and then I'll sell it. I really don't have the space or time to ride it anymore.

And finally there's the Heinkel, which remains in stacked in a pile of boxes at the Vespa Shop. For a variety of reasons neither the guys nor myself have attempted to tackle the restoration. I think I'll bring it all home again shortly and put the project on ice for the time being. With the DKW due in shortly I expect I'll be busy over the coming months. As crazy as it may sound, the cost of the DKW including shipping, is probably on par with what it would end up costing me to complete the Heinkel restoration! http://www.vespashop.net.au/

Tempo's, Munga's and Haflinger's

This article explores three unorthodox European military utility vehicles with interesting design features.

Tempo G 1200

Oskar Vidal and Sohn founded Tempo Werkes of Hamburg in 1924 building motorized triporters. These little 3 wheeled delivery vehicles proved to be extremely popular and the foundation of the company's success.

By the early 30s Tempo were building three wheeled delivery trucks popularly known as the Tempo Hanseat. Hanseats were powered by a proprietary JLO two cylinder two stoke motors in either 200 or 400cc capacity. Versions of the Hanseat remained in production until 1956 and were widely exported around Europe.

Oscar Vidal shows off a Hanseat woodie. The three wheeled Hanseat's were incredibly popular vehicles. Under German law they could be driven without a license and, thanks to the small size of their engines, they were exempt of road taxes. They were capable of hauling loads that belied their tiny engine capacity. Companies such as Phaenomen, Framo and Carl Borgward's Goliath also built similar machines.

In 1936 Tempo-werke responded to a Landwehr (army) contract for a four wheel drive light utility vehicle and their response was uniquely unorthodox. The G1200 was powered by two 600cc JLO two-stroke motors, one in the front and one in the rear. Each engine separately drove the front and rear independently suspended axles in much the same arrangement as Tatra used in their trucks. Each engine had its own gearbox and could be operated together for full four wheel drive or they could be run independently for either front wheel or rear wheel drive operation. The car had high ground clearance and with the body floating over its independent suspension it was able to comfortably traverse even the roughest ground. Top speed was 70 kilometres per hour. Fuel economy was a reasonable 12 litres per hundred kilometres, which could be reduced further by running on one engine alone.

Few German Tempo G1200s survived the war but several Scandinavian and Eastern European examples survived. This example is in the German Sinshiem Technik museum. It has been posed in a position that highlights its ability to handle rough terrain.

Despite this the Landwehr were prejudiced against two-stroke engines in both cars and motorcycles, even refusing Germany's biggest motorcycle manufacturer DKW a contract, so it came as little surprise that they showed no interest in Tempo's offering. Tempo however were not disheartened and successfully shopped the G1200 to other European armies, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Croatia, Czechoslovakia & Romania. The G1200 was even sold as far afield as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

A Swedish G1200 towing a PAK howitzer.

The Second World War put an end to Tempo's export market. The German army took over those Tempo's on the production line and seized some of those in foreign service. Production ceased in 1943 after only 1335 were built. After the war the company reverted to manufacturing its trusty three wheeled product, which revived the company's fortunes. The three wheeled Hanseat continued in production until 1956 when it was replaced with a modern, four wheeled van (see photo at the top). Tempo was later bought out by the truck company Hanomag.

Here are some links
http://en.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/t/17180
http://www.tempo-dienst.de/
http://www.tempo-tempo.de/
http://www.tempohausen.de/
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/10/tempo-boy-the-other-tempo-three-wheeled-truck-200cc-and-world-speed-record-holder/

DKW Munga

In 1956 the Bundeswehr tendered for a replacement for the army's aging Willy's Jeeps. DKW's offering was a four wheel drive vehicle powered by their trusty 3=6 900cc two stroke engine, but with lower gearing ratios. Sales were originally restricted to the army and government agencies, such as the fire department. The Munga (which basically means multi-purpose, all terrain vehicle) was also purchased by the armed forces of other NATO countries.

In late 1957 DKW released a civilian version which proved very popular with farm, forestry and alpine rescue services all across Europe. Mungas were also exported to South Africa, Argentina and Brazil. All told about 47,000 were built before production ceased in 1968.

Here are some links:
http://www.kfz-tech.de/Engl/Hersteller/Audi/DKWMunga.htm
http://www.kemper-parts.de/english/welcome.htm

Steyr-Puch Haflinger

In 1957 Erich Ledwinka, son of Tatra's legendary chief designer, Hans Ledwinka, left Tatra and retired from Czechoslovakia to Austria. Erich seemed unable to avoid following in his father's footsteps and took a job at Steyr-Puch. One of his first projects was for a light four-wheel drive. The result was very much a little Tatra, based around Tatra's distinctive backbone chassis with independently suspended half axles and powered by a rear mounted 640cc twin cylinder boxer four-stroke engine.

The Haflinger was simplicity and robustness combined. The body was a basic steel tray without any creature comforts and could be easily and quickly be removed from the chassis. All surplus equipment, such as doors, roof, and bench seats were optional. In its simplest form it was only 600kgs and could be lifted by four men.

The first Haflingers went on sale in 1959 and both the Austrian and Swiss army bought then to replace their aging fleet of Willy's Jeeps. They were also sold as far afield as South Africa and Australia. The Australian army bought some and used them successfully in Vietnam.

All up about 16,500 Haflingers were built between 1959 and 1975. Later models had optional fibreglass cabins, proper doors and detachable hard roofs. In 1968 Steyr-Puch released a much bigger version, the Pinzgauer, a large 4x4 or 6x6 truck. The Pinzgauer however was powered by a much larger four stroke engine. It remains in production today.
Here are some links:
http://www.hy-q.com/cooper/haflinger/haflinger.htm
http://members.westnet.com.au/profpinz/haffyinfo/haflinger_info/haffyinfo.htm http://tdc.haflinger-4wd.com/ http://main.haflinger-4wd.com/
http://main.haflinger-4wd.com/der-puch-haflinger/dateien/austroclassic.pdf
http://microcar.org/0/1Zo0tw/issue3-2011.pdf