New Autocult for September

As always, an interesting mix of subjects for Autocult. What will be added to your collection?

1938 Jawa Minor 600 Convertible in white or green

From a mixture of knowledge gained through license production of the ‘F 2 Meisterklasse’ by DKW, own experience and possibly also the copying of detailed solutions, the first considerations for the first own car at Jawa crystallized as early as 1935 – just one year after the start of car production.

The two main people responsible for this were Ing. Rudolf Vykoukal, who designed the chassis, engine, and transmission, and Ing. Zdeněk Kejval, who was responsible for the design. 

A water-cooled 2-cylinder in-line engine was installed above the front wheel axle, which provided the power of 19 horsepower on the front axle from exactly 616.75 cc. The engine was manufactured together with the backbone frame with independent suspension at the Prague plant in Nuslí, while the sheet metal experts produced the body at the production plant in Kvasiny. Both components had to be brought to the plant in Týnec nad Sázavou for final assembly.

Listed under the designation “Minor” – in retrospect also called ‘Minor I’ but also under the typology ‘600’, the small Czech made its way into domestic dealerships and was available as a two-door sedan, as a roadster, and as a convertible.

The car appealed to the people and production continued until the war year 1940, with almost 2,000 models leaving the assembly halls at Jawa in the almost three years of production.

1930 Maybach DS 8 Convertible Zeppelin

As is well known, there was no limit to luxury in the Maybach car world. The interior, as well as the body, engine, and chassis were always designed according to this principle.

For the year 1931, the Friedrichshafen plant offered its novelty with the abbreviation DS8, whereby this short version stood for “Double Six 8 Liters Displacement” In contrast to the DS7, the 12-cylinder engine of the successor was enlarged by a whole liter – to eight liters of displacement – which resulted in the maximum output of 200 hp at a moderate 3,200 rpm in an extremely smooth way. These were sufficient for 170 km/h, despite the high weight of the vehicle – the chassis alone weighed 1,950 kg. The high speed was also supported by the new 5-speed transmission, which – in contrast to the DS7 – had a vacuum-operated preselection shift. The chassis was available in two wheelbases 3,660 and 3,750 millimeters.

Gustav August Heinrich Zingg, who was 52 years old at the time, opted for a substructure with the shorter wheelbase when he approached the Friedrichshafen plant and ordered a DS8. The Hanseatic League, who had become very wealthy, had emigrated from Germany to Venezuela in 1899 and took his two-door sports convertible with a body from the Spohn company with him to his adopted home in 1931. Zingg had his white convertible into the Zeppelin line offered by Maybach at the time. This included interventions in the body, such as slight changes to the fenders, with running boards serving as a connecting piece between the front and rear. His DS8 passed into the hands of an American after the Second World War and found its way back to Germany in 2004.

And in the Avenue43 series, the strangely familiar looking Microlino "Urban" in orange or mint