Spatz

Egon Brütsch showed his 200 Spatz, “sparrow”, at the Paris Salon in October 1954: a three-wheeler with a 191 cc Sachs engine, a single rear wheel and a plastic body that carried the suspension itself.source 1source 4 Brütsch lived by selling licences (see built under licence), and Harald Friedrich, of the machine-tool firm Alzmetall at Altenmarkt an der Alz, bought one of the three-wheelers for DM 25,000 to put into production near Traunstein.source 1source 2 On rough roads the forces went straight into the body, which cracked, and the car failed its German type approval.source 1source 2

Friedrich turned to Hans Ledwinka, the former Tatra designer, then 77 (see the designers). Ledwinka gave the car a central-tube chassis with the front wheels on a separate subframe, coil-spring struts and a swing axle at the back, and four wheels instead of three.source 1source 3source 4

At the Frankfurt show of September 1955 the Spatz-Fahrzeugbau showed two four-wheeled models made from Brütsch’s three-wheeler, both in glass fibre: an open three-seater at DM 2,975 and a coupé, with one door on the right, at DM 3,175. auto motor und sport thought the change to four wheels sensible.source 5

Three abreast, no doors

Building began at Traunreut in February 1956, and in July Friedrich formed the Bayerische Autowerke, BAG, with the Victoria-Werke of Nuremberg as partner to sell and service the cars.source 1source 3 The Spatz was a doorless roadster with three seats on one bench, a small boot under the front lid, a cloth hood, and the engine mounted across the car behind the seat, ahead of the rear axle.source 1source 2 Getting in was hard, and with the hood up almost impossible.source 1 In 1956 auto motor und sport named it as a case of plastic bodies built in series, if in modest numbers.source 6 The engine was the 191 cc Sachs of 10.2 PS from the Messerschmitt KR200, and it was too weak for a car that the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum puts at 410 kg (904 lb).source 1source 3 German Wikipedia says its reverse was switched electrically; the museum lists four speeds forward and four in reverse, which suggests the engine was simply run backwards, as in the Messerschmitt.source 1source 3

Just before the IFMA show in October 1956 Brütsch attacked the firm in public and demanded royalties on the four-wheeler too. BAG refused, since his three-wheeler had failed type approval despite his guarantee in the contract, and obtained a provisional court order barring him from calling himself the Spatz’s designer.source 2 Friedrich won the case, and the judges found Brütsch’s original design unroadworthy.source 1

On Victoria’s stand at that show the Spatz had a one-piece windscreen and small quarter-lights, to take a new coupé top whose sides opened upwards like wings, because doors did not suit the plastic body. The magazine liked the look but not the 200 cc engine, which did not match it in any way, on a chassis clearly laid out for more power.source 2

The press criticised the high price and the unexciting performance, as the Weiner museum puts it.source 3 Some cars caught fire in testing, which gave the Spatz a name for it, and the museum says the lawsuit and the fires led Friedrich to hand the rights to Victoria at the end of 1956.source 1source 3

The Victoria 250

From June 1957 Victoria built the car in Nuremberg as the Victoria 250, with only the plastic body still coming from Traunreut.source 1source 7 Richard Loukota’s 248 cc engine gave 14 PS and drove through five speeds selected electro-mechanically: three buttons on the dashboard for reverse, neutral and first, a small lever to preselect the others, and the clutch to engage them.source 1source 7 It reached 97 km/h (60 mph).source 1source 7 Victoria also tried a gull-wing coupé, a cabriolet with doors and wind-up windows, and a coupé with doors, but all were too heavy, and only the roadster went on.source 7 By October 1957 it was clear the market would not take another small car, and production ended in February 1958.source 1source 7 A Spatz roadster was still on the list of cars eligible for Hockenheim’s 12-hour race on 26 May 1958, though no result has been found.source 8

The Spatz had one more life. Burgfalke, of Obermurnthal in the Upper Palatinate, headed by a Mr Dahmen by the Weiner museum’s account, bought Victoria’s remaining stock and tooling and set up in an old glass factory in Bavaria as the maker of the Burgfalke 250 Export.source 1source 9 It promised doors, bumpers and a bigger engine, but could not pay for the 180 bodies and sets of parts that were left, and only a few cars were built by hand; after that it supplied spares.source 1source 9 At least two went to dealers in the United States.source 1source 9 The Weiner museum believed one or two survive, and its own car sold for US$20,700 in 2013 and stayed in America.source 9source 1

The Weiner museum counted 24 survivors of all types in 2002.source 3source 7 Its 1956 BAG Spatz, chassis 00236, still in original condition, made US$32,200 at the sale of the Weiner collection in February 2013.source 12 Its Victoria 250 had the lowest serial number known: restored for Bruce Weiner’s first collection, it was sold at Christie’s in 1997 and bought back seven years later.source 7 No owners’ club has been found.