Penguin (make of car)

Pinguin was a German automobile brand that was used for prototypes from 1953 to 1954 by Ruhrfahrzeugbau R. Müthing in Herne and from 1954 to 1956 by Rotenburger Metallwerke Rudolf Stierlen KG in Rotenburg an der Fulda .

history

The small car was designed by the MEV Study Group for Motor Vehicle Development in Herne from 1952 to 1953 ; the acronym stands for Romanus Müthing, Heinz Elschenbroich and Kurt C. Volkhart . The three-wheeled penguin had a two-door pontoon body, an air-cooled single-cylinder engine with two strokes and about 200 cm³ displacement and a three-speed transmission from Hurth .

While Müthing only made improvements to the concept of the study group and built prototypes, small series production did not start until 1954 at Rotenburger Metallwerke. In total, however, only ten copies were made. Some sources, on the other hand, say that these ten or twelve copies were built and delivered for Stierlen by Ruhrfahrzeugbau R. Müthing ; no series production started at Rotenburger Metallwerke . A series production planned for 1954 failed due to the high costs for the complex production of the vehicle and the unsecured financing. Finally the project was abandoned, all prototypes and tools were scrapped and Müthing then concentrated again on his actual job, trading in agricultural machinery.

Another source confirms twelve vehicles.

Web links

• "Fictitious" website of the Ruhrfahrzeugbau company: http://www.ruhrfahrzeugbau.de/
• Penguin at the GTÜ classic car service
• Contemporary prospectus, excerpt from the book Rosellen, Deutsche Kleinwagen, Weltbildverlag, 1991 with detailed information on the history of its origins
• Replica of models
• ampnet portal

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Wolff Metternich : 100 years on 3 wheels. German three-lane vehicles through the ages. Neue Kunst Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3-929956-00-4 , p. 301.