If you’re an avid reader… scratch that, who am I kidding? I don’t have avid readers, but if I did, they would know I like rear engine, air cooled cars. Ever the classic #VW fan I do have my derivatives. Naturally the largest being the #DeLorean which is water cooled, but how can you not love a car that made the time machine possible (note: the stainless steel construction allows for flux dispersal).

One of my favorite classic US cars is the #Chevrolet Corvair. If you don’t know what a #Corvair is it was Chevrolet’s compact car answer to the #Beetle. Basically, using the same exact formula but with a “pancake” 6-cylinder, air cooled engine. Why six cylinders? Because we are Americans and everything has to be bigger even when we are trying to make something smaller. Just ask Texas.

You might say, “but the Corvair came in a coupe, sedan, wagon, van and pickup; Volkswagen didn’t do that with the Beetle.” Well shut your damn mouth Carl. #VW used the Beetle pan, parts, and formula to build the Type 2 Bus (which was available in pickup form) and the Type 3 (which came in a wagon, sedan, and fastback to boot… in the boot). Ya know cause the engine was in the boot. The boot is what Europeans call the trunk. But for once I’m not here to type about Volkswagens.

I’ve written about the Corvair before. It’s funny how closely the Corvair and Beetle are. Sure, the layout is similar but if you haven’t been reading the classic Beetle news lately (what is wrong with you!?) there are still debates about where, or more aptly, whom to credit design. It’s common knowledge that Ferdinand #Porsche spearheaded the people’s car from concept to limited production before the onset of World War II but he borrowed heavily in form and function from the #Tatra 97. Then there was the Standard Superior (not the English one) by Josef Ganz that was marketed as a #Volkswagen before Volkswagen was even Volkswagen (they were originally called #KDF-Wagen which meant Strength Through Joy in German). I knew about these but as the saying goes you learn something new every day. Or in this case I learned it last week.

Recently the daughter of Erwin Komenda, an automotive designer on Porsche’s team way back when, sued Volkswagen for likeness rights on the most current (and soon to be ending) iteration of the Beetle. The statute of limitations had run out to gather any royalties from the millions of air cooled Bugs floating around out there. She lost when the German courts ruled that her father’s patent drawings were a standard “design of the time.” Jason Torchinsky surmised this, as well as pretty much everything classic VW, over on Jalopnik. Check it out.

Seriously though, we aren’t here to talk about Volkswagens. You see I’m currently spending some time over in Europe and being that I have the weekends off I hunt out as many “oldtimer” shows I can find. An “oldtimer” in #Germany is the term for classic cars. I’m not just wandering into German nursing homes and staring at the elderly. Surprisingly enough there are not that many old #aircooled VW’s at these shows. Granted, the one’s you do see are drop dead gorgeous and even though I lean more toward the Volkswagens my favorite part of these shows is the vehicular oddities. The anomalous automobiles.

To most Europeans these oddities are akin to seeing a Corvair floating amongst the Mustangs, Camaros, and Corvettes at your local Cars and #Covfefe. Ya know, right before the jagoff Mustang driver does a burnout, spinout, and wipeout of all the spectators standing on the sidewalk. My god there are lattes everywhere!

Source: Audrain Auto Museum

But being an American (not werewolf) in Europe all these random classics are the vehicular equivalent to a Circus freak show. Walking along the walkplatz and basking in the glow of classic Alfa Quadrifoglios, BMW Alpines and Mercedes my eyes settled on what looked like a micro-Corvair.

Sidebar: while in college I famously freaked out my parents by calling home and telling them I bought a Corvair on eBay. Naturally they were immediately worried, my mom in the financial sense and my father is Camaro guy. They relaxed when I showed them the Micro Machine Corvair I snagged for a cool fifty cents. I still own my Micro Corvair but now I saw one in real life that I absolutely adored. It looked the same as an early model (1960-1964) but with microcar proportions. But this was no Germany Chevrolet or Opel… it was an #NSU.

No, not Nova Southeastern University. Not Northeastern State University. Not even Northwestern State University and sure as hell not Norfolk State University. This could go on forever, there are tons of colleges that abbreviate “NSU” and a special thanks to spell check, I misspelled University each time I typed it above. So much for that Master’s degree.

We know NSU today as Audi. That’s not to say NSU Datsun’d it up and flat out changed their name-Datsun is now Nissan-they were purchased by Volkswagen and merged with Auto Union. Together they formed, hold on I need to cut and paste this from Wikipedia to get it right, Audi NSU Auto Union AG. I guess Audi sounded better than ANAUA? I think ANAUA was in The Mummy with Brendan Fraser before his head turned into a pumpkin.

After World War II, in 1957, NSU began producing a car called the #Prinz. Because Volkswagen made small cars with air cooled rear engines all the rage that was the formula they went with. The Prinz was built from 1957 to 1962. It was redesigned in 1961 with the launch of the Prinz 4 followed by the Prinz 1000 in 1963. Across the vast blue ocean Chevrolet was also in the process of launching their rear engine, air cooled “small” car as well. The Corvair launched in 1959 as a 1960 model and was an instant success.

It’s hard for people to remember how successful the Corvair actually was. This is because Ralph Nader is an asshole, but I digress. Automotive journalists (that thing I pretend to be on here) loved the “European” styling of the Corvair. So did NSU and much like the Beetle “borrowed” from the Standard Superior and Tatra 97 the NSU Prinz 4/1000 borrowed from the Corvair. In fact, the 1963 redesign further expanded on the likeness. On the sweltering June day, trotting down the walkplatz I spotted a Prinz 1000 just before I reached the GameStop.

Much like the Tatra and Superior I feel the Beetle was the perfection of that design language. So refined, so worked out it endured from 1939 until 2003 virtually unchanged. I’ve always loved the Corvair. When I was younger, I adored the lines of the late model 1965-69 coupes. As I grow older, I find my appreciation for the early models is rising. And when I saw that tiny NSU hunkered down line a puppy my heart went out to it. Don’t get me wrong I love the Corvair, it was America’s attempt at being different, being smaller. But perhaps it wasn’t small enough. Because as much as I adore it’s European styling, I absolutely love the European car that ripped off the American car with the European styling.

Source: nsuprinz.it

It’s as almost if NSU declared “How dare you try and be European! We shall show you European!” And really, what can be more European than that?

Tschüss

Source: Audi-mediacenter

P.S. This article was not about Volkswagens.