KFC - Stumpf ist Trumpf - 1980
A small Pioneers famous German museum Vintage Carts.
It's key advantage for the establishment of a museum for micro - they take up much less space than large cars, says Stefan Voit, standing in a small room lined with old vehicles placed on shelves and waiting for be restored and polished before being exposed next to the museum, located in St. Ingbert, Saarland.
Voit has always appreciated the modesty s is how the engineer, 68, spent his first holiday we went to the Black Forest with camping gear and supplies for over a week in a NSU Prinz.
So it is not surprising that his heart beats for microcars as West German model rather than luxury limousines Sees collected a fleet of more than 50 of them in the last two decades, it all started when he bought a cabin scooter Messerschmitt After that he couldn t stop.
I read more and more about the subject and continued to meet more people and suddenly there were possibilities in all directions, remembers Sees.
Another advantage of small cars is that they're relatively cheap for the money I pay for a complete car, a Porsche or Mercedes collector won t even get wings, he said.
Voit was initially only interested in German specimens, but it quickly expanded its horizons one who had a Renault 4CV as his first car can t IGORE French models, he said a 4CV decorates the corner of the museum, although it Sá little larger than the rest of his collection.
He went on to buy a requirement in the UK, several Decrees Itay, DAF Netherlands, a Meister of Austria, and recently acquired a Alvis US The latter already had an electric motor.
Most brands are long gone and forgotten by most people except avid fans like Voit He admired the inventiveness shown by the producers of microcars there are all these decades.
The Spatz, for example, consists of a plastic frame into two parts and the first all-aluminum chassis has been used on a mini-roadster Kleinschnittger Then it was the world's first car with an engine in the middle of vehicle, constructed in the 1950s the Zündapp Janus looks identical to the front and rear, and its mono-cylinder 14 horsepower motor is placed exactly in the center of the car between the armrests of the front and rear seats, which are placed back to back.
A new industry has been created from scratch at the time after the war, said Sees Small cars produced in the 1950s and 1960s were technically excellent working parts made by individualists who passionately pursued their dreams These men and their models have obtained the German economic miracle is said Voit.
Driven by the desire to get to work in a clean white shirt and trousers, these small cars set aside the bike and spearheaded the growth of the automotive industry, said Voit But when the big sales cars began to flourish, the microcar industry died.
The museum is a cemetery Makers car brands Goggo, Meyra, Kleinschnittger, Gutbrod, Maico, Lloyd or Fuldamobile have long ceased to exist, but the idea of the microcar experiencing International Exhibition of rebirth Frankfurt Motor September posted a range of vehicles that continue the tradition of VW Nils Opel RAK e Concept Audi or Urban But if until now they all studies only.
A small Pioneers famous German museum Vintage Microcars SPIEGEL ONLINE, tiny, pioneers, German.