The Neckar brand is interesting. Essentially, these were Fiats built under license by NSU (see the NSU/Fiat badge up in the top left), but things get weird because there were two NSUs at the same time. One was an NSU factory sold to Fiat as the result of the Great Depression, and the other was the NSU Werke AG plant in Neckarsulm.
Even more confusingly, the Fiat-NSU plant not in Neckarsulm is the one that decided to brand their cars as “Neckar” just so every one stays nice and confused.
That said I sure do like the bold, colorful graphics in this ad, with those ultra-saturated 1950s colors. I don’t think the design has anything to do with that license-built Fiat 1100, but it looks modern and suggest this car must be, too.
Even better, some of these had that fantastic third lamp up front.
would 3 headlights be legal today?
or a whole light bar across the front?
I REALLY love third headlights — I had a girlfriend with a Subaru with one back in the late 80s. It made a huge difference, especially in rural Vermont.
He, he. The first image that popped in my head seeing this was a Derby bowler top hat on wheels. High rounded center with small flanges on the side. Next thought…Looks like a baby Checker cab.
The prewar-style, body on frame Fiat 1100 had its’ four doors arranged the other way, with no B pillar so there’s one wide opening per side. The Italian one that is; NSU Heilbronn opted to develop their own 2-door sedan body since that’s what the German market favored well into the ’70s. With the unibody 1100/103 presumably a full B pillar was an engineering necessity and developing a 2-door variant would likely have been to expensive.
There might have been a “hit them where they aren’t” strategy on NSU’s part as well since the 1100 competed directly with the Volkswagen which didn’t even offer a 4-door model in this class, or at all until the 1968 411 (“four doors, eleven years late”).
Am I the only one having issues with the reply function. Some articles I can make comments in and others ask me to log in when I already am. I mean, I’ve got gold bouncing around in my head.
Yeah, sometimes it randomly logs you out, and then when you log back in you have to choose “keep me signed in” and reload any already open tabs.
But at least it loads!
-the first time, I mean: I quit the other site when I tried 3 times to read a DT article and never even made it to the comments.
It puts me in mind of Ford’s 1960 ad campaign (featuring Peanuts characters!) launching the Falcon, where they shelled out for full-color TV commercials and then featured white cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBISX-E9HRU
I especially love how those white cars blur right into the whitish houses behind them.
I like the 2 tone paint on the top picture, but I wish the accent color would have followed through the front fender, like a 56 Chevy.
Nope. You can’t fool me, Torch. There is no such place as Neckarsulm and you obviously made up this brand.
Oh, Neckarsulm is very real. And Heilbronn (which is very close by, also on the Neckar River).
It’s Bielefeld that doesn’t exist.
Bielefeld exists. I’ve been there. My dad used to live in Harsewinkel, the next town over.
Can’t believe I spent two weeks in Germany and never did find the town of Ausfahrt. Every exit said it led there. 😉
No, silly. You see, Wilhelm Ausfahrt was the engineer who designed the Autobahn. He is honoured by having his name by every exit. Similar to Giorgio Uscita who is credited with inventing the first fire escapes in Italy. They also named every station in the Rome metro after him.
It must be true. A tour guide told me.
I hope it had the cool feature of the “real” Fiat 1100: A drip tray under the carburator, so leaking petrol wouldn’t fall down on really hot engine parts and ignite, but just evaporate slowly from the luke warm ones higher up in the engine compartment, probably giving off a nice smell of last century motoring:
https://gomotors.net/photos/0b/c5/attached-thumbnails_bdc5c.jpg
And the starter motor and alternator right up against the engine block: On longer trips those would become REALLY hot. Brilliant design..
I don’t think there was a design from that era that wasn’t laid out like that. At least not a conventional front engine/rear drive one. If there was enough space under the hood, sure, they’d move the alternator out a bit on a longer drive belt. *If* there was enough space.
The alternator in my Outback sits right on top of the engine and it’s fine… of course, the hot bits are way out on the sides.
Love the front suicide door. This cries out to be a mid-engine 2-seater. Maybe the front half of a wrx drivetrain in the rear seat?
I’m not even kidding myself: I’d happily drive this around even with stock anemic ponies-and smile the whole time!
There is something about a rear-hinged door, isn’t there?
I thought about reversing the hinges on my 1978 Mercury Zephyr Z-7 coupe, many years ago. I think with that particular car, people would get confused as to which end was supposed to drive anyway after seeing the door open backwards.
Was the Hillman Minx a kissing cousin? I hope it wasn’t incestual.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHillman_Minx&psig=AOvVaw1agcenyyrqjPijeHXR0NuT&ust=1654260901444000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjRxqFwoTCNCIvp3ojvgCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
Neat little car.
Deep dive indeed. I want more on these, don’t make have to do my own research please.