Something that I love about the smaller European cars from that era, was the astounding space efficiency. I’m 6’ 3”, and I can comfortably fit in Renault Dauphine, 4CV, R4 and R8’s, Heinkels, Isetta’s, the Prinz, etc. The same cannot be said for a lot of modern hatchbacks, and even some sedans!
We had one in the day in Australia... baby blue. It was my mothers car and she had it for years... It performed really well and its handling was spectacular ! I would love to drive one again...
About 1968 I went by a friends house & he had a 1963 I think? it was a 2 cyl & he sold me it for $15! Pushed it home about 2 blks Me & my friend were 13 yrs old!
I learned to drive in one of these. Ours was a 60 but didn't have the rear opening windows. I always remember "26 hp" certainly not 40. It cruised the freeways at 65 no problem and got 40 mpg. Like early VWs, there's no fuel gauge. You run it until it wants to quit, then pull a lever somewhere under the dash which gives you a small reserve like older motorcycles. It was our family's daily driver for two years.
Cool video! Growing up, my neighbor, Norby Rosenborg, had two of these! A minor FYI, the letter Z in German has the same pronunciation as the Z in Italian... Think Pizza. Therefore, the NSU Prinz carries the same meaning and is pronounced exactly like it's English counterpart, "Prince". Nice video! Thanks!
Glad to see you and a few others are showing historic variety. In England we have Hubnut. We got the larger NSU Prinz and all in colours you should never paint a car in.
RO 80 Was 2 rotor and They were plagued with short engine life before needing a rebuild because of poor apex seals which were made from wrong material and fragile. Not many folks on Earth own an RO80. Just like almost nobody has an example of the Citroen model with the single rotor.
I had no idea they made 2 cylinder versions. I suppose you probably know that the Prinz 4 cylinder was the powerplant for the Munch Mammoth motorcycle. I'd love to have a Sport Prinz. I believe a Sport Prinz was the first car to recieve a Wankel engine as NSU is the company that gave Felix Wankel the funds to produce the first rotary prototype engine. A one rotor engine they stuck in a few Sport Prinz's. I am guessing the Dynastart must be momentarily converting the generator to a motor?
My parents immigrated from Germany in the mid fifties. They had the exact same car right down to the color. After a couple of brutally cold northern Wisconsin winters with a feeble air cooled cars heater the bought a Opel Kadett.
Mark the Ultramax camshaft drive uses just two rods to rotate the cam. The third rod is simply a distance piece. It just lengthens or shortens with changing engine temperature.
You havent driven one, have you? I have and its the only car my mother refused to get into after a demo. This was in 1963 when I was selling used cars and had almost every other night a different set of wheels to get her to her job and me back to the lot. It stank, was noisy, tiny and had no power at all. To say it had 40 hp is stupid. A 56 VW had1200 cc and produced 36 hp.
You condemn the brand because you took a ride in one 60 years ago that smelled bad? You don't hold on to things do you? Ever been in a locker room? Well, if your mother says it's bad I guess that settles it. A 600cc 2 stroke is lighter, fires twice as often and put out twice the power of a heavy 4 stroke 1200cc VW boxer. Why do you think they were used almost exclusively on dirt bikes that raced in cc class for so many years. You would think that a former automotive expert would know something about motors and how they develop power.
Hi, I own a Prinz 30 from 1959 fully operational. Also a Dkw 3=6 sonderklass as you have on the back of your video. I Have also some NSU parts for sale. Not many, but still...
Any plans for a 'test drive' in a Borgward Isabella (also from the Fatherland)? I test drove a '58 in 1959. It rode smoother and quieter than any of the "low-priced" three from Detroit of that era, full sized American cars!
Interesting that some of the features are similar to the VW Beetles of the time, the round vents by the headlights, the stick shift etc. Being 6'4" tall I often complain about lack of leg room for the driver, judging how scrunched up he is, modern cars have nothing on(lack of ) leg room on the NSU. Love that tinny sound when the door is closed. One thing I find curious is the driveline tunnel on a rear engine,rear drive car.Are the shift linkages really that big that you need a tunnel? Cool car just the same.Like the VW, it probably gave mobility to many families who wouldn't be able to afford a car otherwise. Remember seeing a lot of these running around in rural Germany when I was a kid, and am surprised that they were actually imported to the U.S. I don't remember ever seeing one here. Enjoy your videos, keep showing us those oddball cars that many people probably don't know even existed.
There is a large heat duct the runs thru the tunnel to supply heat to the defroster as well as all the cables and shifter back to engine, makes for strong body support too
Hi Richard, What an exciting example of 60's mini cars.......and check out the "scoot" from 5 to 45 mph....tell me again , what kind of starter it has ?? It sounded like something rather simple.... Again this is a very cool little vehicle.....Thank you for the video- I love it when you take ' us' ( the audience) for a ride....Thanks again..!!!
My cousin bought one used. A week later he decided to go on vacation in it. After 50 miles it set fire, and burnt completely to the ground. Fortunately he got out, and managed to take his suitcase. They had air-cooled engines and were renown for setting fire.
They use to get up to 75 mph on the flat but if u got a gust of wind across the bow she damn near changed lanes lol. The front was very light I could lift the whole front of the car off the ground when I was 17 years old.I had mine for just on a year but at 17 it wasnt fast enough for me lol.
Was wondering what a 'dynastar' light was? Looked it up... 'Dynastart', a combined starter/generator. Impressive little car. Even more impressed after I looked it up on Wikipedia.
Dynastarts were very unreliable and no mechanics knew how to work on them. If they were any good, cars would have them today, but they don't, they have a separate starter and alternator.
The Russian version of the NSU Prins was the Zaz 968 with an aircooled 4 stroke four cylinder boxer. They are not cheap today since the Russians has become collectors too. But i believe they go for less than a NSU.
Probably. My XS1100 Yamaha motorcycle has an ignition system of that type. Fires @ every TDC. So it fires the intake charge and again when it hits TDC after pushing the spent charge out the exhaust valve.
So on the driver side the back part of the window slides forwards and on the passenger side the front part of the window slides backwards? Weird! :-) And yes, the beetle had the reverse to the left and back.
Keith Johnson it sure does. I've wondered about that myself. I don't have an answer. I just found out this car was imported from South America, as it has the very unusual rear windows. Maybe the hole has something to with being built in Argentina?
+cacaaleau A LOT of people lost their lives in cars like this back in the old days, so many things we take for granted now in cars like crumple zones, proper defogging of windows, etc... all this saves lives.
I have all original glass from a 1960 Prinz in excellant condition for sale. 1,000 for windshield, best offer or trade for everything else. Northern California.
I think that is a Transverse engine..,not an inline.Im basing this on the location of the spark plugs and the generator?,down in the cooling inlet chute.
Transverse refers to the direction the engine is mounted in the car (sideways), not the design of the engine itself. An inline engine has the cylinders all in a row, pointing the same direction, as compared to a V, where the cylinders are at an angle to each other, or a horizontally opposed engine, where the cylinders are in opposite directions. The position of the spark plugs on this engine shows that it is indeed an inline two cylinder, _and_ is transverse mounted.
I have fond memories of a flat black '58 Simca Aronde my friend drove all thru high school. I don't know if it ever broke down on him. He seemed to be driving it every day.
They were not very popular in the UK. I don't remember ever seeing one. I saw more Isettas than these. The later NSUs were a little more common. I actually prefer the design of this NSU to the Fiat 500/600. I guess NSU's engineering and marketing could not compete with Fiat.
Those rotary one's were rare. More or less prototypes with 1 rotor as Felix Wankel worked for NSU and they gave him funding to produce the prototype single rotor engines on a small run. Something like 30 years after he designed and patented the concept at age 19 or 20.
Hello there. We have 4 prinz's. All barn finds, one is complete in a shed and the other 3 have been left out in an apple orchard for the last few decades. Located near the welsh border in England
My father had one. This one here is not too reliable by modern standards. But it did not really matter, as every locksmith or petrol station owner could it get back running in 15 minutes. Seeing all these cars, I think progress would be going a little bit back to the basics.
Reliable when new but not when they got older. You would have to be your own mechanic. Spare parts have to come from Germany and are very expensive if you can even find them.
