Spatz
Brand
The Spatz (German for sparrow), later renamed the Victoria 250, is a four-wheeled microcar that was built between 1956 and 1958.
The car was originally conceived by Egon Brütsch as the Brütsch 200 "Spatz" a Fiberglass three-wheeler with the suspension of the front wheels and the rear wheel attached directly to the body shell. As such the car's engineering proved unsound and trial runs on rough roads led to severe cracks in the bodywork.
Subject ID: 1925
MoreThe Spatz (German for sparrow), later renamed the Victoria 250, is a four-wheeled microcar that was built between 1956 and 1958.
The car was originally conceived by Egon Brütsch as the Brütsch 200 "Spatz" a Fiberglass three-wheeler with the suspension of the front wheels and the rear wheel attached directly to the body shell. As such the car's engineering proved unsound and trial runs on rough roads led to severe cracks in the bodywork.
Harald Friedrich purchased a license from Brütsch to produce the car in his company Bayerische Autowerke GmbH.
Because of the deficiencies in the original design, Friedrich asked the then 77-year-old Hans Ledwinka, the former Tatra engineer, to design a robust chassis for the car. The result was a central tube frame and four wheels – in contrast to the original three-wheeled Brütsch. Friedrich then saw himself no longer obligated to pay royalties to Brütsch, which led to a court case, which Frederick won. The judges recognising that the original Brütsch construction was both useless and dangerous.
Friedrich's Spatz had a Fichtel & Sachs motorcycle engine. When motorcycle manufacturer Victoria of Nuremberg took over production in 1957, it fitted its own engine and renamed the car Victoria 250.
Neither version of the car was a success, resulting in its discontinuation in 1958.
Subject ID: 1925
Subject ID: 1925
