STREAMLINERS OF THE 1930s “The History of Automotive “Streamliners” by Goetz E. Pfafflin March 2018
A classic example of a Streamliner from the 1930s is Bernhard Knoechlein’s 1937 328 designed by Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeld and built by the Wendler Coachworks in Reutlingen, Germany. Photo by Gudrun Muschalla
Streamliners of the 1930s (or “The History of Automotive “Streamliners”) When I consulted Wikipedia about “Streamliners”, thinking about the fabulous automobiles designed in Europe and the U.S. in the 1930s, I was confronted with the following definition: “A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor “bullet trains”. After 9 pages of history about the development of and experimentation with high-speed (streamlined) trains in Europe, the U.S. and Japan Wikipedia devotes a short half page tabulation of production automobiles considered to be streamliners, with the following brief introduction of this subject: “Many engineers tried to incorporate aerodynamics into the shape of cars in the 1920s, and some entered production. The first automobile (a prototype) to have a tear-drop shape and have the wheels within the body was the Persu automobile (1922), with a drag coefficient of 0.22, built by Romanian engineer Aurel Persu.” The initial impetus to improving aerodynamics of automobiles in the first part of the 20th century came from the attempts to reduce the throwing up of dust on the mostly unpaved roads of that time. This was more important than going faster or improving gas mileage, since the bad roads in any case prohibited speeds higher than those of horsedrawn carriages, and some jurisdictions fought the developing automobile industry by strictly enforcing speed limits. Advances in aircraft design during the First World War, and the prohibition of building aircrafts imposed on Germany by the Versailles Treaty led aero plane designers like Edmund Rumpler and Paul Jaray to apply their knowledge of aerodynamics to the design of automobiles. Windtunnel testing, adopted from aircraft development, was used to verify aerodynamic behavior of the shapes developed for automobiles, and the quality of a vehicle’s shape was quantified as a “coefficient of drag”, the Cd.
New impetus for the pursuit of aerodynamics in the design of automobiles in Germany came with the building of the Autobahns, the concept for which had been developed in 1927. Starting in 1933 a great deal of aerodynamic research funded by the German government and industry, leading to the realization that the Jaray-developed tapered rearend was not optimal (nor practical), and to the adoption of the “cut-off” rear, as exemplified by the Kamm Coupe, the 1939/40 BMW 328, which was entered in the 1940 Mille Miglia. The “K” shape was initially extremely controversial, with speculation that it would likely result in strong air turbulence, while at the same time endorsed by the automotive press. Final reports and results from test vehicles were presented in 1938 and 1939, which calmed the arguments.
A fabulous (and very rare) example of late 1930 Streamliners is this Bugatti Atlantic SC 57
While the exceptionally good test results of these vehicles led to plans for mass production of “K” cars starting in 1939 and 1940, the outbreak of World War Two brought this development to an abrupt end, and it appears that the insights into the science of streamlining of production automobiles was all but forgotten. Names of key persons in the development of early aerodynamic automobile designs in Europe include Edmund Rumpler (born 1872 in Vienna; died 1940 in Berlin, Germany), Paul Jaray (born 1889 in Vienna; died 1974 in St. Gallen, Switzerland), Wunibald Kamm (born 1893 in Basel, Switzerland; died 1966 in Stuttgart, Germany), Baron Koenig-Fachsenfeld (born 1899 in Stuttgart, Germany; died 1992 in Germany) and Emil Everling (born 1880 in St. Goar, Germany; died 1973 in Berlin, Germany). Edmund Rumpler, per Wikipedia, was an Austrian automobile and aircraft designer. Born in Vienna, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Austria), he worked mainly in Germany. An automotive engineer by training, he collaborated with Hans Ledwinka on the first Tatra car, the Präsident, in 1897. His second career stop was at Daimler.
Streamlining sketch from a 1940 publication with the title page heading: “Indeed the Streamline was victorious”. From Reference #1 at the end of this article.
By age 30, in 1902 he had quit Daimler to become technical director of Adler, where he designed the first German engine to have the engine and the gearbox as a unit.
The 1924 Runpler “Tropfenwagen” (drop-shaped car) owned by the Deutsche Museum, Munich, here undergoing windtunnel testing by the VW research department. From Reference #1
The Wright brothers turned Rumpler’s attention to aviation. He quit Adler in 1907, and in 1910, Rumpler became the first ever aircraft manufacturer in Germany. Rumpler continued to be interested in automobiles, and after the First World War he applied aircraft streamlining to a car, building the Tropfenwagen (German, "drop-shaped car") in Berlin. A production model proved a sensation at the 1921 Berlin Auto Show. Rumpler's efforts produced a car with an astoundingly low Cd of only 0.28 (when tested in 1979); the Fiat Balilla of the period, by contrast, had a Cd of 0.60. The Rumpler design inspired the 1923 Benz Tropfenwagen (which used the virtually-unchanged Rumpler chassis) and Auto Union Grand Prix racers (also built in part by Rumpler engineers). Rumpler's Tropfenwagen was not a commercial success, and only 100 Tropfenwagen were built, just two of which survive. Rumpler returned to aircraft. Because Rumpler was Jewish, he was imprisoned after Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, and his career was ruined, even though he was soon released. He died in 1940, and the Nazis destroyed his records. Paul Jaray, according to Wikipedia, was a Hungarian engineer, designer, and a pioneer of automotive streamlining. Jaray, of Hungarian-Jewish descent, was born in Vienna. Jaray studied at Maschinenbauschule in Vienna and worked at the Prague Technical University as an assistant to Professor Rudolf Dörfl. Later he became the chief design engineer for the aircraft building firm Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen, designing seaplanes. From 1915 Jaray worked at Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, located in the same town, concentrating on streamlining airships. Jaray designed the airship LZ-120 Bodensee on which airships such as the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, the LZ 129 Hindenburg and the LZ-130 were later based. Further experiments in LZ's wind tunnel led to his establishment of
1934 Audi Front with body designed by Paul Jaray, which Mr. Jaray reportedly used as his personal car in Switzerland from 1939 into the 1950s. From Reference #1.
streamlining principles for car designs. In 1923 he moved permanently to Switzerland, opening an office in Brunnen. In 1927, Jaray founded the Stromlinien Karosserie Gesellschaft, which presented numerous designs for streamlined car body work. It issued licenses to major vehicle manufacturers including Tatra Works in Czechoslovakia. Tatra was the only manufacturer that used Jaray's streamlining principles for their car production. Jaray designed his own cars starting with the 1923 Ley and followed on with designs for Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, Apollo, Dixi, Audi, Adler, Jawa, Ford, Steyr and others. His own 1933 car was built on a Mercedes-Benz chassis with a body by Huber and Bruehwiler of Lucerne. In 1944 he set up as an independent engineer working on wind-driven power stations. He was the author of a large number of technical patents relating to streamlining, air compressors for railways, and devices for handling gases in silencers. Later he lectured at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zurich. Jaray died in 1974 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Wunibald Kamm, according to Wikipedia was a Swiss born German automobile designer, engineer, and aerodynamicist. He is best known for his breakthrough in reducing car turbulence at high speeds; the style of car bodywork based on his research has come to be known as a Kammback or a
Kamm-tail. German Professor Wunibald Kamm worked with aerodynamics engineer Baron Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeld. They developed a design with a smooth roofline and a taper in the automobile's body that is suddenly chopped off at the rear end. This design makes the air flow act as if a full tapered "tail" was present on the vehicle. A full size prototype was developed in 1938. It was a four-door sedan featuring a sharply truncated rear end. The test car represented a compromise between low air resistance and practicality in the automobile's size and shape.
He came to the U.S. as one of the first hundred German scientists stationed at the Dayton, Ohio Wright-Patterson Air Force Base following World War Two and remained there as a consulting engineer until 1953. That year, he went as a professor to the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. For three years beginning in 1955 he was head of Mechanical Engineering at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1958, he received the German Service Cross, First Class. The University of Braunschweig conferred an honorary Ph.D. in recognition of technical lifetime achievements. In late summer of 1938, BMW tested a prototype of the so-called "Kamm-Coupe" based on their 328 chassis. It had a drag coefficient of only 0.25 compared to the great 1940 Mille Miglia winning BMW 328 Touring Coupe with drag coefficient 0.35. This automaker's naming of its coupé model appears to be the earliest use of "Kamm" to publicly describe an automobile body incorporating the KoenigFachsenfeld's design patent.
For BMW enthusiasts Professor Wunibald Kamm is best known for his 1938 Kamm Coupe, which was entered in the 1940 Mille Miglia race. Photo from BMW Group Classic
In the 1920s, Kamm worked for Daimler designing race car engines. Thereafter, a prototype, namely the Kamm “SHW Wagen” incorporated principles that have become standard parts of the car engineering toolbox. He paid particular attention to the suspension and minimizing vehicle weight. These improvements included extreme low weight design, an aluminum semi-monocoque body, front wheel drive, boxer-style engines (horizontally opposed cylinders), independent suspension on all wheels, and coil springs mated to hydraulic shock absorbers. His comprehensive approach to automotive engineering and design presaged the concept of "Mechatronics," a word that did not come into existence until 1971. Established in 1930, the Research Institute of Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines located near Stuttgart (German: Forschungsinstitut für Kraftfahrwesen und Fahrzeugmotoren Stuttgart - FKFS) was called the "KammInstitut" after its founder and long-time director. Kamm was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. He did pioneering work in aerodynamics, driving dynamics, tire technology, minimalist construction techniques, engine combustion efficiency. Wind tunnels were an effectively applied technology, and he "built the first full-scale wind tunnel for motor vehicles." "Dr. Kamm, even today, and perhaps even more so because of his foresight, is considered one of the greatest researchers in automotive engineering." His work on turbulence is considered to have been a "breakthrough" and fundamental.
According to Wikipedia Reinhard Freiherr von KoenigFachsenfeld (born on 19. März 1899 in Stuttgart; died 9. März 1992) was a German engineer, inventor as well as a car and motorcycle racer.
This meticulously restored BMW 328 Streamliner, owned by BMW CCCA Club-member Bernhard Knoechlein, is one of two such cars manufactured by coach-builder Wendler. It is a spledid example of Reinhard Freiherr von Koenig-Fachsenfeld’s many automotive designs. Photo by Gudrun Muschalla
(Count) Reinhard Freiherr von Koenig-Fachsenfeld was born in Stuttgart, Germany as son of Count Franz KoenigFachsenfeld in 1899 in Stuttgart. After attending the Gymnasium (high school) in Stuttgart he studied at the Technical University TH Stuttgart. As a race driver he successfully competed on motorbikes and automobiles. In 1924, racing a 250 cc Cotton motorbike, he was the first German ever to become the German road-racing champion. In 1925 he won the Solitude race and established a number of speed records. Motivated by his racing successes, he investigated vehicle aerodynamics and in the late 1920s acquired the German representation of Paul Jaray, who, in 1922, had registered the first significant patents regarding vehicle aerodynamics.
In the early 1930s Koenig-Fachsenfeld distanced himself from Jaray and undertook his own investigations into vehicle aerodynamics in cooperation with the Stuttgart based FKFS, the so-called „Kamm Institute“. In this program Count Koenig-Fachsenfeld designed a number of race cars, world speed record vehicles and developmental cars. In addition he designed streamliner bodies for sedans for chassies for a number of well known automotive manufacturers.
Professor Dr. Dr, Ing. Emil August Everling also developed air brakes and light alloy car bodies, as well as aerodynamically optimized bus bodies for high-speed service on the Autobahn.
His biggest success was the design of the aerodynamically shaped Mercedes SSKL, which was built by the well known bodyshop Vetter in Canstatt / Stuttgart. Manfred von Brauchitsch won the high speed AVUS race in Berlin in 1932 with this SSKL. Also Koenig-Fachsenfeld penned the streamliner Maybach SW 38, which was used by tire manufacturer Fulda for road testing new tire designs, reaching speeds up to 200 kph (125 mph). The car was lost after the end of WW-2. As a result of his research Koenig-Fachsenfeld was the owner of many patents.
All three of the major US automobile manufacturers recognized the advantage of streamlining in the automotive design, with Chrysler’s engineers Carl Breer, Fred Zeder and Owner Skelton doing extensive wind tunnel testing in
Mr. Everling died in Berlin in 1973 at the age of 93.
U.S. Examples of Streamliner Automobiles
(See page 6 for details and photos of the famed KoenigFachsenfeldt BMW 328 streamliner.) Emil August Everling, according to Ralf J. F. Kieselbach’s “Stromlinienautos in Deutschland” book, was a widely recognized German professor at the technical university of Berlin, where he focused on the fields of aircraft instrumentation and controls. He was also one of the three early defenders of the Kamm-tail design of automobiles (beside Professor Kamm and Paul Jaray), and was extensively involved in high-speed testing on the Autobahns.
1935 Chrysler C-2 Imperial Airflow Coupe displayed at the 2017 Amelia Island Congours d’Elegance. Photo by Goetz E. Pfafflin
a newly constructed Chrysler wind tunnel in 1930. In 1934 Chrysler introduced its “Airflow” design, which was heavily influenced by the streamlining design movement. The car was sleek and low compared to other cars being produced in the U.S. at that time, with a grille cascaded forward, headlights mostly flush inside the front fenders, and the rear wheels encased with the use of fender skirts. According to Wikipedia, the Chrysler and DeSoto Airflow models, produced from 1934 through 1937, where a sales disaster, considered to be too technically advanced, but most of all because buyers did not like the looks of the design. Ford in 1935 introduced the Edsel Ford and Eugene Turenne designed Lincoln-Zephyr, a line of mid-sized luxury cars, and considered a highly successful streamlined car, which in its first year of production sold 15,000 units, accounting for 80% of Lincoln’s total sales of the 1936 model year. General Motors somewhat later produced what it called the Pontiac Streamliner from 1941 until 1951, a car designed by Harley Earl and built as a 4-door sedan, a 2-door coupe and a 4-door station wagon. In 1948 160,857 Pontiac Streamliners were sold, accounting for nearly 66% of all Pontiacs that year.
Two views of a 1934 Mercedes test vehicles used in the planning of the Autobahns. Emil August Everling had been consulted to help increase the top speed of this car. From Reference #1
German Streamliner Development In Germany the subject of aerodynamic research became
a major national focal point with the establishment of the “Reichsforschungsrat” (Federal Research Council) in 1933, established and funded by the government and industry. The plan was to provide the automotive industry thoroughly tested concepts for automobile production. An example of this program is the Wunibald Kamm vehicle “K-1”, a 1938/39 development and the BMW 332, directly derived from the Kamm vehicle, a car intended to go into mass-production in 1939/40. The coincidence of the construction of the high-speed road system, the Autobahns, in Germany, and the various scientific discoveries by the Reichsforschungsrat led to a kind of “streamline fever”, and the development of a number of very significant race cars in the 1930s by a number of manufacturers, some long since disappeared, but some very much part of the automotive scene of today.
In 1936 this streamlined Adler propelled by a 1.5 ltr. and later a 1.7 ltr engine established a large number of class records. Photo from Reference #1
on the Autobahn near Frankfurt.
broke 9 international class records, and in 1936, using a 1.7 ltr engine, a further 6 international class records, averaging 170 kph (105 mph)
Examples of Early German Streamliners Adler
This company, with roots going back to 1888 in Frankfurt, Germany, which built its first “Adler motor vehicle” in 1899, and which had become a major automobile manufacturer in the pre-WW-2 period, did not resume car manufacture after the war (but instead focused its industrial orientation on office machines), one of a number of significant early German car manufacturers, whose name today can only be found in books on automotive history. However during the 1930s, Adler, with input from aerodynamicists Edmund Rumpler, Paul Jaray, Count KoenigFachsenfeld and Professor Kamm built a number of very significant streamliners, and even developed a prototype “K” car intended for production, but due to the war this latter development did not progress beyond the prototype stage. In 1935 Adler built the first of a number of record breaking vehicles based on its Trumpf Junior, a single-seater race car, which set 13 world records on the high-speed AVUS track in Berlin that year.
1.7 ltr streamlined Adler Trumpf Le Mans race car. Photo from Reference #1
Trumpf Junior record breaking vehicle from 1935. Photo from Ref. #1
This development was followed by 1.5 ltr. aerodynamically improved body also using the same chassis, which in 1935
In 1937, ’38 and ’39 Adler successfully entered streamlined racers in Le Mans, cars, the aerodynamics of which were repeatedly refined, reportedly achieving a drag coefficient of 0.20 in their final version for the race in 1939. In a separate development, with the direct input from Count Koenig-Fachsenfeld, Adler developed a 2.5 ltr. sedan referred to as the “Autobahn Adler”, which, due to the outbreak of WW-2, did not go into production.
Above and bottom of previous column: 1936 BMW 319/1 “optional” streamliner, owned by Brno, CZ resident Jan Hruby, as shown at the BMW Veteranan-Club Deutschland 2015 annual meet in Eisenach, Thuringia in Germany. Photos by Goetz E. Pfafflin
Above and below: 1937 Autobahn Adler, with 2.5 ltr., 58 hp engine. Illustrations above and below from Reference #1
In the meantime the Wendler coachworks in Reutlingen, working with aerodynamicist Count Koenig-Fachsenfeld, developed a number of streamliner bodies, as a part of which program BMW commissioned Wendler in 1937 to build a Fachsenfeld designed vehicle on a 326 chassis, which car was displayed at the 1938 IAMA auto show in Berlin. There is speculation that BMW had intended to enter the Wendlerbodied 326 in the Berlin to Rome race, which had originally been planned for 1938, was repeatedly postponed and in 1941, two years after the start of the Second World War, was finally cancelled so that these high-speed streamlined cars never saw that competition. The three 326 Coupes built by Wendler for three private customers in Germany have not been seen since the end of WW-2 and are presumed to have been destroyed during the war.
BMW BMW’s first venture into streamlining came in the late 1930s, with a streamlined hardtop body on the 315/1 and the 319/1 chassis. This car, which reportedly caused a sensation, was offered under the “optional accessory” program until 1939. One of these cars, a 1936 319/1, beautifully restored, was shown at the 2015 BMW Veteranen Club Annual Meet in Eisenach, Thuringia, by its owner Jan Hruby from Brno, CZ. This car had been built by renowned Vereinigte Werkstätten in Munich.
1937 BMW 326 Coupe by the Wendler coachworks based on a design by Koenig-Fachsenfeld which in turn relied on patents by aerodynamicist Paul Jaray. Photo from Reference #1
A car that did survive the war, in fact both of these cars built by Wendler did and are existing today, is the 328 Streamliner, also designed by Count Reinhard von KoenigFachesenfeld using Jaray’s aerodynamic principles for the German textile manufacturer Hans Klepper of Rosenheim in Bavaria. The car shown in the following pictures is the Klepper car, #85048 and today belongs to BMW CCCA friend and member Bernhard Knöchlein of Nuremburg, Germany. (The sister model 328 is at the Deutsche Museum in Munich.) This beautiful coupe, designed in 1937 has a much discussed and very controversial “cheese grater” grill, aerodynamically less than ideal, and not in accordance with the original Koenig-Fachsenfeld design, but evidently a solution, which in Wendler’s view, was considered to be “more
marketable”. Quoting Jackie Jouret, from her article “The Aerodynamic Avant Garde” in Bimmer No 126 “…KoenigFachsenfeld’s carefully considered aero work fell victim to fashion…”. Jouret further reports that: “When the “sister car” to Knöchlein 328 was tested in the BMW wind tunnel in the
1980s, it was found to have a drag coefficient of 0.3815. With its cheese grater grill covered up to approximate KoenigFachsenfeld’s original design, the car had a Cd of just 0.28.” However even 0.3815 is a remark-
1937 BMW 328 (#85048) designed by Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeld for German textile manufacturer Hans Klepper and built by Wendler in Reutlingen. All illustrations on this page by Gudrun Muschalla.
able value: The standard BMW 328 has a Cd od 0.51, yielding a top speed of 93 mph, while the Fachsenfeld / Wendler car achieved 110 mph (despite a 285 lbs. higher weight). Recognizing the potential of the 2 ltr. 328 in competition, for which the standard 80 HP engine had been tuned to 110 HP, BMW realized that the only way to increase theses cars’ top speed, was by streamlining. German racing rules of the time did not permit closed cars, but based on the considerable success of Adler’s small engined coupes at Le Mans in 1937 and 1938 and the planned high-speed race from Berlin to Rome, the idea of a streamliner coupe gained new momentum. Rudolf Fleming, who had been a member of the 328 development team, was given the assignment to develop a lightweight racing coupe. Fleming’s design, using a birdcage frame and light aluminum body achieved enormous speed, but was not stable, and consequently was rejected.
Schaumberg-Lippe, ordered a streamliner coupe from the Touring coach works in Milan for a 328 chassis he had purchased from BMW, to be ready for the 1939 Le Mans 24 hour race. BMW had turned down the Prince’s request for a coupe, due to insufficient capacity; Touring, having developed such a design for Alfa Romeo, which was easily adapted to the BMW 328 chassis, built the car for the Prince in four weeks, and although there was no time left for wind-tunnel testing, the Touring coupe achieved a top speed of 200 kph. / 125 mph, and was quite stable. The Prince entered the car in Le Mans, and on June 18, 1939, after 24 hours and 3,188 km (1,992.5 miles) won the 2 ltr. class at an average speed of 132 kph. (82.5 mph) and placed a sensational 5th overall. The development of the Kamm coupe, which was noticeably larger than the Touring coupe, had progressed well in 1939, so that extensive road testing on the Autobahn between Munich and Salzburg was done in the late summer of 1939. The car performed well, and with a Cd value of 0.25 (compared to the Touring coupe’s 0.35) achieved a top speed of 230 kph. (143.75 mph.)
Above: Layout by Carrozeria Touring of Milan for the BMW 328 Streamlier Coupe, which in 1939 led to a class vistory at the 24 hours of Le Mans. Below: The same car, here at the 1940 Mille Miglia, with rearwheel skirts for improved aerodynamics, on its way to overall vistory. Illustrations above and below from Reference #1
The recreation of the Kamm coupe at speed. Bottom left: The BMW 328 Touring Coupe in its current condition. Photos from BMW Classic
While BMW was continuing its development of a streamliner racing coupe, the head of the NSKK racing team, Prince
Due to the start of World War 2 on September 1, 1939 the racing future of the two coupes was very much in question. Nevertheless the Kamm coupe, based on the aerodynamic design of the model 332, which was based on a 326 chassis, but built on the 328 chassis and sporting the traditional BMW double-kidney grill, was developed in Munich and entered in the 1940 Mille Miglia, (also referred to as “1,000 Miles of Brescia”, since the race had been specially reconfigured due to the wartime conditions in Italy) but did not finish the race due to a loss of oil pressure and problems with the ignition system late in the race. During the war BMW hid the Kamm coupe as well as the Touring coupe and the three streamlined Mille Miglia roadsters in the Bavarian countryside, where they survived the war. Right after the war Allied soldiers discovered the three roadsters, and they disappeared to Russia, England and the U.S. The Touring coupe was used by several soldiers, but then was discovered by a senior employee of BMW, slightly damaged, in a ditch near Munich, and was saved. Some years later, when the same gentleman emigrated
to the U.S., he took the car with him, where it eventually landed in the collection of Jim Proffit in California. As Mr. Proffit rejected multiple offers to sell the car back to BMW, the company eventually decided to order a fully operational replica of the coupe from René Groβe. Once the replica was finished, Jim Proffit finally decided to sell the original, so that
following which accident the car was crushed in a junk yard. That might have been the end of the story of this car. However in the mid-1990s a new awareness of the importance of the design and racing history of this car emerged at BMW, so that the company developed an interest in recreating the Kamm coupe. Unfortunately no drawings and very few photographs of the car existed, so that production of a replica was not possible at the time. A breakthrough came about when a Munich collector came forward with photos of the car from various angles, which revealed details of the tubular frame. With these documents in hand, the challenge became to create an overall design of the car. Based on the then latest state of the art in scanning, the resulting scans of the photographs fed a 3-D program at BMW, which in turn produced detail dimensions of many components, such as the rimes, the headlights, door handles, central locks for the wheels, trafficators, the BMW emblems, etc. Each new detail provided the basis for further progress. As the next step a volumetric model of the car was calculated, and using a 5D CNC milling program a full-scale model of the car was produced from high density synthetic material.
The Kamm coupe has been extensively displayed since its recreation. Above Photos courtesy of BMW Classic
now BMW owns two of these coupes, the original as well as the replica. Ernst Loof, the former race director of BMW, acquired the Kamm coupe, and used it as his personal car for some time. Loof, who from 1947 to 1953 built sports cars as well as race cars under the name “Veritas”, sold the Kamm coupe in order to raise funds for his fledgling company. The new owners of the one-of-a-kind car did not enjoy their purchase for a very long time: They totaled the car in a 1953 crash,
At the same time an original 328 chassis was extended by 20 cm (7.87 inches) as employed for the original Kamm coupe, and a steel-tubular frame was built based on the available photos. Subsequently a specialist in Munich produced an exact copy of the frame from aluminum, and a Trade School for Automotive Body- and Vehicle Production (Meisterschule für Karosserie- und Fahrzeugbau) in Leipzig, working for BMW, was contracted to form the aluminum skin over the existing tubular frame. The product of this endeavor has since served as an exhibit at the new BMW plant in Leipzig. In view of the then forthcoming 70th anniversary of the 1940 victory of the Mille Miglia, BMW Classic decided to finally realize the recreation of the Kamm coupe. Consequently BMW contracted with renown restorer René Groβe, who had previously established his reputation as a world-class automotive recreator in building the Touring coupe. The Kamm coupe represented a large number of very difficult challenges. However in March 2010 the recreation of the Kamm coupe was finally completed. Our friend Klaus Kutscher was quotes as saying: “…I have accompanied the recreation of the Kamm coupe since the 1990s. It is incredible that we have now finished this project. Not only did we have to reconstruct a car, we had to try to get into the heads of the BMW engineers and technicians who had developed the original design, to understand the design.” The new creation was presented at the 2010 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este and shortly thereafter entered in the 2010 running of the Mille Miglia.
Photo courtesy of BMW Classic, supposedly taken during the trials for the 1940 Mille Miglia endurance race. On left the original Kamm coupe, in the middle the Buegelfalte 328 roadster, and on the right the 328 Touring Coupe.
With the help of Professor Kamm, BMW developed the model 332, a four-door sedan with the cut-off rear. Plans for this car, intended as a mass-produced successor of the very popular 326 sedan, died with the outbreak of WW-2.
A very modern, streamlined successor to the BMW 326 sedan. This car, designated BMW 332, was intended to enter production in 1939 / ‘40, which did not happen due to the start of World War II. One of these prototypes survived the war, albeit seriously damaged. But that car was restored after the war, and served as exceutive car at BMW for many years. Photo courtesy of BMW Classic
BMW’s racing department was closed at the beginning of 1941. Ernst Loof, the head of the department together with most of his team was reassigned to Paris in order to establish an aircraft engine repair shop for the Luftwaffe, and that, for all intents and purposes, was the end of BMW’s pursuit of high-speed automotive designs utilizing the streamlining insights developed in Europe between WW-1 and WW-2.
Nevertheless Daimler dabbled in the field of aerodynamics, with a few mid-engined Type 150 H cars built in 1933 and 1934. In 1938 the Sindelfingen plant of Daimler’s built a Jaray body for the Dunlop tire company for a 540 chassis as a test vehicle. This car with a drag coefficient of 0.36 reached a speed of 185 kph / 115 mph during braking trials. See below. This car was displayed at the 2017 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. Photo by Goetz E. Pfafflin
Daimler Daimler Benz, builders of Mercedes cars, which was created in 1926 through the merger of Daimler in Stuttgart (with a history going back to 1890) and Benz in Mannheim (having started his first factory in 1871), according to automotive historian Ralf J. F. Kieselbach’s book “Stromlinienautos in Deutschland”, “… was always hesitant to ask its rather conservative customers to accept something as futuristic as the “streamline””.
Above: Daimler design of a rear-engined transverse 4-cylinder sedan, 1928-1933 Top of next column: The rare Daimler type 150 H with a 4-cylinder mid-engine, here in coupe form. Source: Reference #1
Mercedes 540, built by the company’s coachworks in Sindelfingen for the tire manufacturer Dunlop for high-speed testing of tired. Source: Reference #1
A well streamlined “Silver Arrow”, the 1939 Formula 1 race car, was significantly modified from the previous Mercedes race cars as introduced in 1934 and raced through 1938. Ford of Germany The designers of German Ford, founded in Cologne in 1930, did not approve of streamlining, but rather followed the American parent company in terms of styling. Nevertheless a couple of Ford streamliners were built on chassies supplied by Ford to the Wendler coach works based on design by Count Koenig-Fachsenfeld using Jaray principles of aerodynamics; these cars, a two door coupe and a four door sedan, were built for private German customers Gerhard Macher known for his success in racing DKW sports cars, and Stuttgart architect Wilhelm Graf, later known as Knight Wilhelm von Graf, respectively.
Hansa This interesting company established in 1929 through the merger of Hansa Lloyd AG and Goliath Werke, and which from 1939 carried the name Carl F. W. Borgward Automobil- und Motorenwerke, developed an interest in streamline-designs early on, as exemplified by the “Hansa 1500 Windspliel” (Wind-play) exhibited at the 1937 international Berlin auto show.
Design of the Hansa 1500 Windspiel from 1937 Source: Reference #1
Despite contacts between Mr. Borgward and Jaray and Koenig-Fachsenfeld in 1935 for sports car designs Borgward’s streamline ideas until the end of WW-2 were confined to a planned racing coupe. None of the streamlining ideas were ever incorporated into Borgward’s production cars, and the company ceased operations in the early 1960s. Hanomag Above: Gerhard Macher’s streamliner Ford from 1937 Below: A Wendler-bodies streamlier Ford 4-door sedan Source: Reference #1
The Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG, Hanomag, a heavy machinery industrial manufacturer in Hannover, had been founded in 1824, but only entered the automobile business in 1924 and lasted until 1940. The small car was nicknamed “Kommissbrot” (army bread) because of its unorthodox shape, but actually incorporated several aerodynamic features.
The 1924 Hanomag Kommissbrot, the best known automobile from this manufacturer, was a small 10 hp rear-engined vehicle. While this car was designed purely for maximum economy, it nevertheless incorporated certain aerodynamic principles, such as the ponton shape and the integrated single headlight in the center. Source: Reference #1
While Hanomag had been focused on building small en-
gined, economical cars, after Hitler’s decision in favor of the Volkswagen, Hanomag abandoned its plans and shifted to a larger capacity, 1.3 ltr. 32 hp vehicle of unibody construction and aerodynamic shape. This 2-door, five seater was well received, with 10,000 units sold in one year following its introduction in 1939. The small car clearly showed aerodynamic styling,
Maybach Maybach Motorenbau GmbH in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance was an industrial neighbor of the Zeppelin works and, since its founding in 1909, an engine supplier for Zeppelin. Also there was a natural relationship to aerodynamicist Paul Jaray, and the coach builder Spohn in near-by Ravensburg. In 1932 Spohn built the Zeppelin V 12 on a Maybach chassis, and in 1938/39 the coach works Dörr & Schreck built what aerodynamicist Count Koenig-Fachsenfeld considered Jaray’s masterpiece, a 200 kph / 124 mph test vehicle for the Fulda tire company. See below. Source: Ref. #1
A gorgeous Maybach streamliner coupe, presumably a Type SW 35, believed to have been built by coach works Autenrieth in Darmstadt, was produced in 1938. See below. Ref. #1 Above: This 1939 1.3 ltr Hanomag sedan was based on a unit-body, and was well streamlind. Top of next column: Also built in 1939, this very elegant coupe, named “Sturm” (storm), manufactured by the coachworks Hebmueller, reflected modern “Autobahn” contours. Source: Reference #1
A more elegant, Autobahn-oriented Hanomag coupe, was produced by coach-builder Hebmüller in 1939 as the “Sturm” (storm), Hanomag did not resume the manufacture of automobiles after WW-2.
The name Maybach has become a part of Daimler, and thus has disappeared as an independent manufacturer. Opel Founded in 1862 as a manufacturer of sewing machines, which led to the manufacture of bicycles and eventually to automobiles, the Opel Works were renamed Adam Opel AG Rüsselsheim a. Main in 1928 and then were acquired by General Motors.
the German Reichsverband der deutschen Automobilindustrie (Reichs association of the German automobile industry) eventually led to the creation of what we got to know as the VW Beetle, the first prototypes of which were delivered by Porsche in 1935 and 1936, with a drag coefficient Cd of 40. The federal government under Hitler took over the VW project, where its design was refined to a Cd of 0.385, with production slated to start in 1938 in a new factory to be built in Wolfsburg in the state of Lower Saxony.
Opel’s management was adamantly opposed to streamlining, yet privateer Georg von Opel had two streamlined Opel “Super 6” sedans built in 1937 and 1938, one for himself and one for his wife. These were produced by coachbuilder Dörr und Schreck and reportedly achieved a top speed of 164 kph / 102 mph with a drag coefficient Cd of 0.245. Porsche prototype for the Zuendapp motorcycle company, 1932 Source: Reference #1
George von Opel’s “Super 6” built in 1938. Note the three-dimensionally curved windshield. Source: Reference #1
Opel today is a part of the Peugeot-Citroen group of France, though continuing to manufacture cars under its name.
Various stages of development of what would eventually become the VW Beetle: Top left: 1935/36 stage of delevopment. Below that: Rear view of the same car; slits in the rear instead of a rear window. Also note the high ground clearance. Top right: Windtunnel test of a VW prototype in Berlin, 1938 Below that: The first pre-production Beetle produced by Daimer (at government direction) in 1937. Source: Reference #1
Porsche As noted by Ralf Kieselbach in his book “Stromlinienautos in Deutschland” “Ferdinand Porsche, born in 1875 without doubt was one of the most important design engineers for motor vehicles in the German speaking countries”. In 1930 Dr. Porsche established his own design office in Stuttgart, and in 1933 he developed an aerodynamically efficient four-door sedan for NSU in Neckarsulm, very similar in design to a car he had previously developed for the famed motorcycle company Zündapp in Nuremburg. This development, financed by
Advertising drive of the KdF (VW Beetle) in Berlin, 1939, in the form in which we got to know the post-war production Beetle. This car was one of the first mass-production streamlined automobiles. Source: Reference #1
Porsche next developed an aerodynamically improved VW, the model 60 K 10, for racing. This turned into Porsche’s designer Erwin Komenda’s aesthetic and aerodynamic masterpiece, based on the same vehicle chassis with a slightly tuned 4-cylinder air-cooled rear engine. Three vehicles were built, intended to be entered in the 1939 Berlin – Rome – Berlin rally (which, as previously mentioned, never took place). – One of the three cars built at that time survived WW-2 in Austria, and became the basis for the type 356 Porsche.
Berlin – Rome race; these cars are believed to have survived the war as they were seen several years later on the roads of East Germany. Wanderer, the second member of the Auto Union group, founded in Zwickau in the state of Saxony in 1887, was an early promotor of streamliner designs: A Wanderer streamliner, which was tested at the AVUS high-speed race track in Berlin, had achieved a top speed of 138.5 kph (85.9 mph), but suffered a catastrophic engine failure during its third run in these trials, and no photos of this car could be found.
Porsche model 60 K 10, the shape of which was protected by patent #1 496682, which became the basis for the post-war Porsche model 356 Wanderer sports roadster believed to have been built for the BerlinRome rally planned for 1939 Source: Reference #1
Auto Union (DKW – Wanderer – Audi - Horch) These four companies comprising the pre-war Auto Union group, developed a number of interesting aerodynamic vehicles, with a great deal of input from aerodynamicist Paul Jaray. Among the DKW creations from the 1930s the type “Hohe Klasse” of 1939 is remarkable; while it did not go into production in 1939 as planned, due to the outbreak of WW-2, this design became the basis of DKW’s first post-war production car built in West Germany and at the same time for the East German IFA F9
DKW “Hohe Klasse” of 1939, which design survived WW-2 and became the first post-war DKW, as well as the long-lived IFA F9 of the DDR. Source: Reference #1
built in Zwickau and later in Eisenach for
many years. Relatedly DKW developed a streamlined coupe for the 1939
Another aerodynamically very efficient Wanderer race car, succssfully entered in the Liege – Rome – Liege long-distance race in 1939, was the supercharged type W 25 K, a beautiful sports roadster reportedly intended for production, which plans evaporated with the outbreak of WW-2. Audi, which had been incorporated into the Auto Union group, was another early advocate of streamlining; however its prototypes, developed with aerodynamicist Paul Jaray, were not accepted by the public. They were simply viewed as too modern.
Assembly drawing of the 1934 Audi with streamlined Jaray body Source: Reference #1
Paul Jaray is reported to have used the streamlined coupe built by the Swiss coach builder Huber & Brühwiler in Lucerne as his personal car from 1939 into the 1950s.
References: 1. Stromlinienautos in Deutschland – Aerodynamik im PKWBau – 1900 bis 1945 by Ralf J. F. Kieselbach, Kohlhammer Verlag ISBN 3-17-007626-4 2. Karosserien nach Mass – Erhard Wendler – 1923 bis 1963 by Ralf J. F. Kieselbach, Kohlhammer Verlag ISBN 3-17-007625-6 3. Vom Roadster zum Mythos – BMW 328 by Rainer Simon, BMW Mobile Tradition 1996 Jaray-bodied Audi, with its “pulpit-shaped” upper body mounted atop airfoiled lower body. Source: Reference #1
Horch, founded in 1899 by auto pioneer August Horch (who later founded Audi) in Cologne, was incorporated into the Auto Union group in 1932 as the group’s top-line luxury label, introduced a high-performance V8 powered streamliner at the 1939 IAMA automobile show in Berlin. This 160 kph (99 mph) luxury car was planned to go into mass production, which plans were not realized due to the outbreak of WW-2. Horch, like its sister organizations DKW and Wanderer did not survive the consequences of WW-2 (although DKW did start building cars in West Germany after the war, but then changed its name and logo to Audi, due to the poor image of the 2-stroke DKWs, which could not compete with VW, Opel, Ford Taunus, etc. in the post war car market).
4. Bimmer Magazine #126, November 2014 – The Aerodynamic Avant Garde by Jackie Jouret with photographs by Gudrun Muschalla 5. Various photographs from BMW Group Classic, Ruth Standfuss 6. BMW Vintage & Classic Car Club Newsletter #24 – September 2010 – BMW 328 Kamm Coupé by Michael Przibilski and René Groβe 7. BMW Vintage & Classis Car Club Newsletter #44 Sepyember 2015 - Star of the Show in Eisenach: 1936 BMW 319/1 Streamlined Coupe by Wendler by Jan Hruby (Final edition, January 4, 2018)
About the author; Goetz Pfafflin was born in 1938 just outside the gates of the BMW headquarters in Munich, where his father was an engineer working in aircraft engine development. He has owned, restored and rallied many vintage and classic BMWs. After retiring from a successful international career in business and engineering, he took over the dormant BMW Vintage Club and built it into a thriving organization; he organized annual rallies and produced an informative newsletter. In 2014, Goetz received the Professor Dr. Gerhard Knöchlein BMW Classic Award—the highest award presented by BMW Classic and the International Council of BMW Clubs to individual club members who have been particularly instrumental in preserving and disseminating the history of the BMW marque. Goetz recently stepped down from active club management and now devotes his time to researching interesting automotive topics and especially those from the period he was born. Dirk de Groen