Sparrow (car)

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Victoria
"Sparrow"
"Sparrow"
Sparrow / Victoria 250
Production period: 1956-1958
Class : Microcar
Body versions : Roadster
Engines:
Petrol engines : 0.2–0.25 liters
(10–14 hp)
(7.5–10 kW)
Length: 3300-3360 mm
Width: 1400-1450 mm
Height: 1240 mm
Wheelbase : 1950 mm
Empty weight : 290-425 kg
Victoria 250

The sparrow and the Victoria 250 model, which has been further developed from it, are small cars from Bayerische Autowerke GmbH in Traunreut and Victoria Werke AG in Nuremberg . 1588 of the small roadsters with plastic body were built from 1956 to 1958 (859 "Spatz", 729 "Victoria 250").

Evolution of the Sparrow

The racing driver and designer Egon Brütsch († 1988) was a pioneer in the construction of plastic car bodies. His aim was to work without expensive sheet metal presses and to manufacture vehicles that are lighter than those with conventional bodies. In 1954 Brütsch developed the "Spatz", a three-wheeled mobile with a self-supporting plastic body. The suspensions of the front and rear wheels were attached directly to the body shell.

Harald Friedrich , managing partner of Alzmetall P. Meier & Friedrich GmbH in Altenmarkt an der Alz , acquired the license to build the "Spatz" and founded "Bayerische Autowerke GmbH" (BAG) in July 1956 with Victoria-Werke as a partner. Friedrich had previously tried the "Sparrow". Test drives on uneven roads showed that the forces that acted directly on the body via the wheel suspensions led to cracks.

Friedrich therefore commissioned the then 77-year-old Hans Ledwinka , formerly a Tatra designer, to design a stable chassis for the "Spatz". The result was a central tubular frame and four wheels - in contrast to Brütsch's three-wheeled original. Friedrich was no longer obliged to pay license fees to Brütsch, which led to a lawsuit that Friedrich won. The judges saw it as proven that Brütsch's construction was unsuitable for traffic.

Design features

The open body, made of fiberglass- reinforced polyester resin, is bolted to the frame. It has no doors and offers space for three people next to each other on a bench, who, according to the advertising at the time, sit “very comfortably”. As weather protection, there was either a fabric folding top or a hardtop with wing doors. There is a small trunk under the front hood. The engine and transmission are installed transversely behind the driver's seat and in front of the rear axle ( mid-engine ); behind it (with the "Spatz" in a slightly higher position) the tank is attached.

The first vehicles had a single-cylinder two-stroke engine from Fichtel & Sachs with a displacement of 191 cm³ and 10 HP (7.4 kW), which turned out to be too weak despite the low curb weight. That is why Victoria designer Richard Loukota developed a 250 cc single-cylinder two-stroke engine with 14 hp (10 kW) and, in collaboration with a gearbox manufacturer, an electromagnetically shifted five-speed gearbox to match the engine instead of the original four-speed gearbox. The revised "Spatz" with the new motor-gear unit was also slightly changed externally (including side vent windows), was renamed "Victoria 250" and built in Nuremberg. Only the plastic shell of the body came from Traunreut .

Loukota replaced the steering wheel shift of the "Spatz" with a preselector. It is switched with three buttons to the right of the steering column: middle button idle, right button first gear, left button reverse gear. The other gears are preselected with a small lever above the buttons and shifted when the clutch is depressed.

Technical specifications

Vehicle type: sparrow Victoria 250
Engine: Single cylinder two-stroke engine (in front of the rear axle)
Displacement : 191 cc 248 cc
Bore × stroke: 65 × 58 mm 67 × 70 mm
Power: 10.2 HP (7.5 kW) at 5250 rpm 14 hp (10 kW) at 5200 rpm
Max. Torque : 15 Nm at 4000 rpm 20 Nm at 4650 rpm
Compression: 6.6: 1 7.5: 1
Cooling: fan
Transmission: Four-speed gearbox, steering wheel shift
(reverse gear shifted electrically)
Five-speed gearbox,
to be shifted electromechanically with pushbuttons and preselector
Front suspension: Independent wheel suspension with crank arm core
Rear suspension: Pendulum axle with wishbones
Suspension: Coil springs and telescopic shock absorbers (struts)
Body: Plastic body, screwed to the central tubular frame
Track width front / rear: 1160/1160 mm 1160/1200 mm
Wheelbase : 1950 mm
Wheel size: 4.40–12 ″
Dimensions L × W × H: 3300 × 1400 × 1240 mm 3360 × 1450 × 1240 mm
Empty weight (without driver): 290 kg * 425 kg
Maximum weight allowed: 410 kg * 690 kg
Tank capacity: 15 l 23 l
Consumption: approx. 4 l / 100 km approx. 5.3 l / 100 km
Top speed: approx. 75 km / h 97 km / h
Price: 2,975.00 DM
Construction time: February 1956 to May 1957 June 1957 to February 1958
Quantity: 859 729

* The weight information probably still applies to the prototype without the steel frame.

Low sales success

Despite interesting design features, the sales success of the "Spatz" and the "Victoria 250" was low, so that production was discontinued in February 1958. The reason for the insufficient demand was probably the difficult and almost impossible entry into the car with the folding roof closed. Added to this was the reputation of being extremely flammable after some vehicles went up in flames during tests.

After the end of production, the Burgfalke company in Obermurnthal wanted to continue building the Victoria car from 1959 under the name "Burgfalke 250 Export", but only produced a few individual copies and otherwise only took on the spare parts supply for the vehicles produced from 1956 to 1958.

Two of these "Burgfalke 250" were delivered to the USA; one was on display in Bruce Weiner's Microcar Museum. When the museum was closed, it was auctioned for $ 20,700 and remained in the United States.

literature

  • Hanns Peter Rosellen: German small cars ... Weltbild Verlag GmbH, Augsburg 1991, ISBN 3-89350-040-5 .
  • Reinhard Lintelmann: The scooters and small cars of the fifties. 3. Edition. Verlag Walter Podszun, Brilon 1995, ISBN 3-86133-136-5 .

Web links

Commons : Spatz 200  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Victoria 250  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Homepage of the Microcar Museum . Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  2. Central Bavarian . Retrieved August 16, 2016.