The Rickenbacker, DKW, and the move to Germany

1929 Audi SS Zwickau, based on the American Rickenbacker

Innovation at the Periphery:  The Cracker Jacker, Rickenbacker

            The Rickenbacker automobile, advertised as “a car worthy of its name,” was manufactured in Detroit between 1921 and 1927.⁴² Named after Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s “ace of aces” during World War I and the commander of the “Hat in the Ring” squadron, the Rickenbacker was designed along the lines outlined by former auto racer “Captain Eddie’s” specifications. In 1919 Rickenbacker decided that he would build a car that incorporated such race-proven advanced features as a rigid frame, 4-wheel brakes, and a high standard of construction. Envisioned as fitting in the market somewhere between the low-end Ford Model T and the far higher priced Cadillac and Packard, it was to be affordable to white-collar workers, prosperous farmers, and “women of taste.”

            Rickenbacker sold his ideas to Maxwell executive Harry L. Cunningham, who subsequently recruited an impressive management team. Among the new firm’s executives were coach builder Barney F. Everitt and Walter E. Flanders, formerly the production manager at Ford. With Cunningham as Secretary and Treasurer and Rickenbacker as Vice President and Sales Manager, the Rickenbacker Motor Company was initially well positioned.

            During 1921 a six-cylinder prototype was built and tested, $5 million worth of stock was sold, and a plant with a 12,000 unit capacity was acquired. Three Rickenbacker models debuted in 1922 – a Tourer, Opera Coupe, and Closed Sedan – and more than 3,700 cars were sold, resulting in a 5 percent stock dividend.

            Rickenbacker six- and eight-cylinder models gained a reputation for innovative technology and enhanced safety features. For example, while not the first American automobile to offer 4-wheel brakes, the Rickenbacker was the first moderately-priced car to do so. Other advances not found in less expensive models included a low vibration flywheel engine, ignition and transmission locks, and an ingenious system to purify engine oil and avoid crankcase dilution, a carburetor air cleaner, and automatic windshield washer. The proud owner of a Rickenbacker could sing along to the popular tune “Merrily I roll along and there’s nothing wrong . . . in my cracker jacker, Rickenbacker.”⁴³

            But in fact storm clouds soon passed over the fledgling firm, and it began to experience production and financial difficulties. By then, Walter Flanders had died the result of an unfortunate accident. Handicapped with small profit margins, Everitt cut prices without consulting dealers and stockholders. Marginal dealers went bankrupt, stockholders and management squabbled, and in 1926 Captain Eddie resigned. Everitt was now on his own and on borrowed time, and the company closed its doors in February 1927. Its machinery and engines were later sold to German industrialist J. A. Rassmussen, who used Rickenbacker engines in his Audi Dresden Sixes and Zwickau Eights between 1928 and 1932.

            Like the Richelieu, Saxon, Dort, Flint, Winton, King Jewett, Wills Ste. Clair and numerous other Midwestern automobile companies, the Rickenbacker could not survive competition from more highly capitalized and cost-efficient firms, even during America’s prosperity decade of the 1920s. 

Enter DKW into the Rickenbacker story

DKW was another new name on the German automobile scene during the 1920s.  DKW = Das kleine Wunder (the Little Wonder) started out in the 1920s as a motorcycle designed and made by Danish engineer J.S. Rasmussen. in the small town of Zschopau. By the end of the decade it was Germany's largest motorcycle maker, using a moving assembly line to produce 450 per day. At he time Rasmussen also acquired more small firms, in addition to foundries and forges. In 1928 he began making small cars in Berlin, using the DKW name and a two stroke water-cooled engine. The car was designed by Rudolf Slaby, it had no frame, and was held together by a unitized plywood body. In 1930 a modified model had front wheel drive, and it gained market acceptance despite Depression economics. 

Rasmussen bought all the Rickenbacker designs, patterns and equipment and brought them to Zwickau.  Yet, these cars proved to expensive for the Germans, and in 1932 DKW was merged with other Saxon companies into the firm Audi.

Smaller German Auto Firms Pre-WWII: Brennabor

Hi folks -- off to Germany soon and getting ready for classes by doing some background work on smaller, lesser known manufacturers, pre-WWII.  One such firm was Brennabor, a baby carriage, bicycle and later car company that went out of business in 1945 after it found itself in the Soviet Zone. An early pioneer in the moving assembly line,

The company was set up in 1871 by three brothers named Adolf, Carl and Hermann Reichstein. The brothers had already been producing basket-work child buggies and children's two-wheelers in 1870, and in 1881 had moved into the booming mainstream bicycle business. From 1892 the bicycles were branded with the Brennabor name.
By the 1930s the company had grown to become Europe’s largest produced of infant buggies and was also a leading bicycle producer. Volume production of motor bikes began in 1901, and from 1903 the company was producing, at this stage only to special order, three- and four-wheeled powered vehicles. 1908 saw the beginning of series production of cars, and this was also the year that the company’s own racing team began to enjoy world-wide success in motor sport. However, car production was suspended in 1914 with the outbreak of WWI, while motor bike production was ended in 1916.
After the war, in 1919, the company presented the Type P a car targeted at the upper middle classes, and volume production began in 1921. In 1924 Brannabor was employing approximately 6,000 people. During the mid 1920s Brennabor became Germany’s largest car producer, and it was still in second place, behind Opel, in 1927/28.
In 1919 the company formed an alliance with two other manufacturers, NAG and Hansa - Lloyd, the resulting tripartite grouping being known as GDA (Gemeinschaft Deutscher Automobilfabriken /Association of German Carmakers). The association lasted until 1928 but never progressed to the point of becoming a formal merger between the member companies.

The one-litre Brennabor Type C/D of the early 1930s was not sold in large numbers

In 1923/24 Brennabor led the way, as one of the first German auto-makers (along with Opel) to adopt US-style production line techniques. However, Brennabor had no small car model to compete with Opel.  The German economy was particularly badly hit by the world economic crisis of the 1920s, and the company saw demand and production volumes cut back at the end of the decade.
The company attempted a come-back in 1931, applying developments in front-wheel drive technology, but this led only to a prototype based on the company’s six-cylinder Juwel 6.. There was insufficient funding for any progression to volume production of any front-wheel-drive model. 1932 saw an eight month hiatus in automobile production: production resumed at the end of the Autumn/Fall, but came to a permanent end in 1933. The company continued as a producer of components and motor bikes until 1945, and also produced armaments during the WWII but it’s history came to an abrupt halt in 1945 when  the plant was disassembled.

An incredible miniature V-12 engine

You have to watch this video!  Thanks again to Samuel for the information.




OPERATIONAL V-12 DIESEL ENGINE  THAT FITS IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND.  
   
      This is not CNC technology; this  guy made everything at home on his lathe and drill press.  Took 1220 hours (a year and a half?) to make the 261 pieces.  Note the end-loaded crankshaft into the block (like an  Offy), 12 individual cylinder heads,  TINY    rods and pistons, dual "underhead" cams with pushrods to  rockers in the heads.  And, he did break-in using an  electric drill driving the crankshaft!  
   
      Even if you're not an engineer,  you'll love this!                
  
      http://www.wimp.com/tiniestengine/
 
http://www.wimp.com/tiniestengine/

Some great pictures when we @ cameron

"Black Widow" 1957 Chevrolet Racing Cars and NASCAR

 1957 National Champion, Buck Baker
 Buck Baker (87), Jack Smith (47), Nance Mattingly(154), Ralph Moody(97)

At Daytona, Johnny Beauchamp leads this pack

Thanks to Samuel Matchett for making  me aware of a topic I knew nothing about -- in truth, I am quite a novice historian when it comes to racing.

The history of the "Black Widow" Chevrolet racing car turns on the creation of SEDCO -- Southern Engineering and Development Company -- headed by former Hudson chief of racing, Vince Piggins. Set up in 1957 and with the blessing of Ed Cole, GM sent to Atlanta "the cheapest cars they could make race cars out of them," according to former employee Bradley Dennis, who also had a business that was created in support of SEDCO, the "Atlanta Tune  Up Service." the cars were distinguished with 6 lug axles "that had been lying around" and stiffened frames.
Among the great drivers behind the wheel of the "Black Widows" were Fireball Roberts, Larry Frank, Speedy Thompson, Bob Welborn, and Joe Lee Johnson.

A Brief Review of "Frank Lockhart: American Speed king," by Sarah Morgan-Wu and James O'Keefe

I finally had a look at the Frank Lockhart book authored by Sarah Morgan-Wu and James O'Keefe.  A great resource on Lockhart and auto racing during the 1920s, with a fabulous collection of photographs and related documents. But is it the last word on Lockhart?  Absolutely not.  What is missing in this work is broad context, more specifically placing Lockhart into the culture of sports and American life during the 1920s.  the 1920s was a new age of mass consumption on the part of fans and heroic accounts written in the popular press. That is the work of the next serious biographer.  I kept thinking, how does Lockhart's experience parallel that of Charles Lindbergh, a contemporary who evoked similar comparisons related to American individualism, technological innovation, pioneering traditions of class and education, and more. How would a good read of the sports pages of major and minor newspapers  in this era shed light on the topic? Auto racing has enormous promise as a topic worthy of serious work, despite the mass of materials already in print.

Stolen Cars: the use of post cards to transmit vehicle information during the 1920s

 Hi folks-- the preferred way that information about stolen cars was transmitted during the 1920s was via the mail. In an age before teletype communications and computers, police in large cities received daily "hot sheets." But for descriptions of stolen cars to go beyond a municipality the insurance companies involved sent out these postcards to police departments. Note that this 1925 had a Fox wheel lock and a hub odometer, and that the thief is identified as Allen C. White. If he crossed the state border he violated the Dyer Act, and then theleagal penalties became quite serious.