Bonkers two stroke car lover!

[BillyKnight]

Hi all,
Billy is my name and I have the misfortune to be interested in old cars. Not sure if its a blessing or a curse but hey thats my lot! I have a small Clarke mig90en which is fine but my latest car, a 1961 Auto Union DKW 1000s needs sills doing, a bit scary for me...Must say web site is good, will be a regular!
Billy.

 

[zardoz]

welcome to the forum billy. Any questions happily answered. Also its often easier if you are explaining something about some of your welding or fabricating, if you can take a picture and show us. Not essential, by any means though. Hopefully I Look forward to seeing some pics of your car restorations. We love pics of projects on this forum

 

[BillyKnight]

Thanks for the welcome. You asked for it! I am not very good with image posting but here goes...

 

[Bigjoe]

Welcome to the nuthouse Billy,its nice to see something different than transits being bodged!

Bigjoe

 

[Barking Mat]

That's a bit different, two stroke you say? Petrol or diesel? What is it exactly? (Welcome).

 

[BillyKnight]

Thanks for interest, and the welcome too. Yes the car is a bit different. Auto Union is the group of companies that included DKW and Audi. When Mercedes sold to VW in the mid sixties they decided to end the production of the two stroke DKW engine and renamed the cars Audi.
The car has a 980cc three cylinder water cooled motor. It runs on petrol 40:1 pre mix. Puts out 50 bhp and should do around 85mph. Front wheel drive with a freewheel wihich can be engaged/disengaged as you wish. Suicide doors front, regular at back. This one was raced a bit in the 80s. Great fun!

 

[Shug]

That looks a cracking wee car.
I'm currently restoring a 1973 Manta A series. Welding hasn't been scary yet, but not started on the visible stuff yet!
Spare parts must be a bit of a nightmare is it?

 

[BillyKnight]

Thanks Shug,
yes its a sweety, as long as you are not behind it breathing in! Spares not too bad. There is a lot of interest in these cars in Europe and also South America where they were built in big numbers under licence. Quite a bit of new old stock and repro parts to be had. You can't just nip down to the local parts centre for head gasket though! A fair bit of the electrical gear is the same is the early 6v beetle. What is a Manta? Another odd ball? Excuse my ignorance.
Cheers, Billy.

 

[Shug]

Its an Opel. Was sold as an opel in UK rather than vauxhall.
One of these beasties:

Although mine is kinda like this at the moment!

And spares can be a bit of a pain, and yours is 12 years older!

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

Welcome...

I was going to say that looks like an Audi badge on the grille but you beat me to it..

Is the engine similar to the SAAB, model number possibly 97? That had a 3 cyliner two stroke I think?

Also DKW brings to my mind an aquacar from the early '60s, or have I mis-remembered it?

Regards
Peter

 

[malcolm]

I love the DKW - really sweet. What work does it need? I'm into oddball French cars from the same sort of era, but you've top trumped me on horsepower.

It's funny how most of the German car makers merged together into Audi (and not so much into the other manufacturers). Is the "D" in AUDI DKW? I worked for a few weeks with the Audi aluminium plant in Neckarsulm (the plant code within Audi is still NSU).

 

[BillyKnight]

Wow, I had underestimated the interest in this car. It is encouraging thank you.

Peter, yes the motor is quite similar to the Saab as I undestand but I have never seen one. I am not aware of any DKW aquacar but am not at all an expert. Sounds good though.

Malcolm, thanks for the good comments on the car. I don't think the D in Audi has anything to do with DKW but its a long and rather involved story. The car is quite sound really, the motor goes (according to the seller who is trustworthy) although I have not yet run it due to bad battery, but I am picking up a new one tonight!! I only bought it the weekend before last you see. The brakes seem to be fine. Body is pretty good although there is a hole in the bottom of the boot and the sills look like they need replacing. They possibly could be patched but thats a bit nasty, I want to make a really good job. I am very happy with it, I had one before and it was such fun. You are more than welcome to come and see it if you like!!
Billy.

 

[dutchman]

Cool Car!

And welcome to the Forum.

Here's some info on the Audi name from Wikipedia:

The company traces its origins back to 1899 and August Horch. The first Horch automobile was produced in 1901 in Zwickau. In 1909, Horch was forced out of the company he had founded. He then started a new company in Zwickau and continued using the Horch brand. His former partners sued him for trademark infringement and a German court determined that the Horch brand belonged to his former company. August Horch was forced to refrain from using his own family name in his new car business. Horch immediately called a meeting at the apartment of Franz Fikentscher to come up with a new name for his company. During this meeting Franz's son was quietly studying Latin in a corner of the room. Several times he looked like he was on the verge of saying something but would just swallow his words and continue working, until he finally blurted out, "Father - audiatur et altera pars... wouldn't it be a good idea to call it audi instead of horch?". "Horch!" in German means "Hark!" or "listen", which is "Audi" in Latin. The idea was enthusiastically accepted by everyone attending the meeting. [1] It is also popularly (but incorrectly) believed that Audi is an acronym which stands for "Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt

 

[MrFluffy]

wikipedia says the saab is a copy of your engine...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_two-stroke

Have you seen the dkw stuff on youtube??? Amazing noise, I can just picture 3 expansion chambers with stinger silencers hanging underneath like the old saab 2 stroke rally cars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t9WHOCx4QE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaZJyWiGQTY

Very cool car

 

[BillyKnight]

Thanks Mr Fluffy,
those clips are brilliant, and yes they do sound like that! Perhaps not quite so noisy with the standard exhaust though. I feel encouraged by all the good comments. I will get a few more pics when I can to show some of the work I need to do. I think the weather will be less than perfect for the next few days so maybe early next week. I am determined to get this car fixed nicely, it deserves it.
Billy.

 

[lexi]

I love that car. Something different. I remember the Saab well . I like Trabants too . Let`s get back to simple cars. Did DKW make a motorbike?

I can see a Wankel? Sorry.........that sounds a bit Freudian. I don`t even say things like that when in hypnotherapy!!

Alex

 

[BillyKnight]

Thanks Alex. Yes DKW did make motorbikes, I believe the BSA bantam was almost a perfect copy of the DKW RT125 although the motor was a mirror image as the English preferred the gears on the right hand side. The design was taken as part of the war reparations. Interestingly Georg Meiers 1939 TT winning supercharged DOHC BMW was also turned up here and I think it is still here.
DKW made supercharged two stroke GP bikes before the war. Apparently they were incerdible. Interesting history.
Billy.

 

[twowheels]

regards DKW { das kliene wunder] "A little marvel", when the iron curtain went up to form East Germany the factory marque was re-named under MZ {Motorradwerk Zschopau]. I saw the turbo charged DKW being ridden by one of the infamous 1931 riders of the day in 1988. You couldnt miss the ear splitting sound of the bike when it passed. There was mike hailwoods 6 cylinder Honda being ridden as well. Suzuki helped smugle Ernst Degner[ who raced MZ's in the early 1960's ] and his family away from East germany which advanced Suzuki 10 years of development on the 2 stroke engine because of Degners Knowledge. It was the brilliant engineer Walter Kieden who developed the MZ 2stroke racing engine from DKW parts to winning success. Mike Hailwood raced for MZ for a short while.As history goes, It wasnt long before the Japanese especially Suzuki took over winning races around the globe.

Thats a bit on the motorcycle side of DKW

Im just an anorak at times

 

[BillyKnight]

Thanks Mr TwoWheels,
I wish I had such a wonderful DKW racing bike. Fortunately I have some others, how do you rate my 1926 Rudge Whitworth 500 sports? I have the sidecar too for it which I believe is very rare, it looks like a zeppelin at the front and has a long point on the back. I am looking forward to riding it through the new forest this summer.
Better make sure I do not get carried away though, I need to make time to keep at the DKW. I rented a council garage so feel a lot better having it out of the weather, even though it was covered up.
Thanks for your comments,
Billy.

 

[george waite]

billy
The original name of the DKW company when founded by Rasmussen was "Dampf Kraft Wagen Werke" (steam powered wagon works) "Two wheels" summary is correct on most points except that the post war East German incarnation of the company was first as IFA werke then on to Motorrad unt Zweirad Werke (motorcycle and two wheeler works) with Walter Kaden as chief developement engineer.
George Waite
ex DKW car and bike owner
Present MZ 100st owner.