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DKW started as a motorcycle manufacturer in 1919.  Their first motorcycles were called Das Kleiner Wunder (the little wonder); hence the name DKW.  The motorcycle business was very successful, and by 1930 DKW was the largest motorcycle maker in the world, a position they would hold until WWII. In 1928 DKW began making cars with […]

By Bob May III To truly appreciate the character of this 1969 Daihatsu Trimobile you have to understand the character of its ownership lineage.  I came to own the vehicle from my father who was a physician in the small town of Cartersville, GA, located about 50 miles north of Atlanta.  He was the last

Otto Daus was one of those rare individuals that not only decided he could build his own car, he actually did it.  Otto actually started out by building and flying his own airplane.  From 1929 to 1947 Otto was the Chief Designer for the company Vidal und Sohn, which made industrial 3-wheel trucks called the

The Citroën CX was introduced in 1974 and voted “European Car of the Year” in 1975. It is considered by some enthusiasts to be the last “real” Citroën as it was designed before Peugeot took control of the company in 1974.  The CX was a huge success in Europe although, unlike its competitors, it did not

Citroën’s easily adaptable 2CV seemed to be a good starting point for French engineer Marc Voisin to create a true four-wheel drive offering. While the earlier 2CV Sahara had an engine in the front and an engine in the rear to create four-wheel drive, the Voisin 2CVs have just one engine with an additional transaxle

By the late 1960s, Citroën, General Motors, AMC and others viewed NSU’s new rotary, or Wankel, engine, as the wave of the automotive future. Compact but powerful, it allowed automakers much more flexibility in packaging elements of their new designs. Citroën believed strongly enough in rotaries to partner with NSU, creating the Comotor engine manufacturing

The Citroën “Traction Avant” (translated as “front drive”) was introduced in 1934 as the 7A; this 15-Six model was introduced in 1938, and was a radically different concept from the cars Citroën had been producing.  Most cars were still built with a wooden structure covered with metal parts and fixed to a chassis, with the

Hans Berger was a gifted engineer who built small helicopters and various mechanical devices.  In 1948 he built the rocket-powered car you see here.  Hans Berger also built the rocket motor that powered the car.  His young daughter, Heidi, drove the car in local races.  (She was the first woman in Switzerland to become licensed

The Biscuter, or ‘Zapatilla’ (little shoe) as it was known in Spain, was actually built to the design of the French engineer Gabriel Voisin. ‘Biscooter’, the French name, was in itself a playful name for a car the size of two scooters. In the early 1950s, Voisin designed a “minimal but capable everyman’s car” for