Schlörwagen
(Redirected from Schlorwagen)
The Schlörwagen (nicknamed "Göttinger Egg" or "Pillbug") was a prototype aerodynamic rear-engine passenger vehicle developed by Karl Schlör (1911–1997) and presented to the public in 1939.
Schlör, an engineer for Krauss Maffei of Munich, proposed an ultra-low drag coefficient body as early as 1936. Under Schlör's supervision at the AVA (an Aerodynamic testing institute in Göttingen) a model was built. Subsequent wind tunnel tests yielded an extraordinarily low drag coefficient of 0.113. For a functioning model, a Mercedes-Benz 170H chassis, one of their few rear-engine designs, was used. The aluminum body was built by the Ludewig Brothers of Essen. A year later it was unveiled to the public at the 1939 Berlin Auto Show. The project was shelved with the onset of World War II and mass production was never realized.
In a test drive with a production vehicle Mercedes 170H as a comparison model, the Schlörwagen tested about 135 km/h top speed by 20 km / h faster than the Mercedes and consumed 8 liters of gas per 100 kilometers between 20 and 40 percent less fuel than the reference vehicle. According to Karl Schlör, the vehicle could reach a speed of 146 km/h, but this is not considered proven. The car generated much publicity at the IAA 1939 in Berlin, but was perceived by the public as ugly.
In 1942, the Schlörwagen was equipped at the rear with a Russian propeller drive captured in World War II and thus completed test drives in Göttingen. The prototype of the car was last detected after the end of the Second World War in August 1948 on the site of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Göttingen. Schlörs' attempts to obtain the heavily damaged body from the British military administration failed. The whereabouts of the sole functioning model remains unknown.
I know this is a bit of a cheat, but my health has been pretty much crappy for several months now, with an intractible pain which gives me a new respect for those in intractible pain. But my fascination with bizarre automotive prototypes remains. Rather than try to paraphrase all that technical stuff, I've quoted Wiki (with some of the really boring stuff omitted). At first I wondered if the propeller drive thing was an attempt to make the pillbug fly. Details are vague, and the Wiki entry (corrected by me for its many grammatical glitches - meaning it was likely badly translated from German) is about all I can find. Failed prototypes tend to get squashed like bugs.
I think I know how they feel.
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