DKW 3=6
Encyclopedia
Compact car
A compact car , or small family car , is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini but smaller than or equal to a mid-size car...
front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive is a form of engine/transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel drive and...
saloon manufactured by Auto Union AG
Auto Union
Auto Union was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony, during the Great Depression. The company has evolved into present day Audi, as a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group....
. The car was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in March 1953 and sold until 1959. It was also named as the DKW Sonderklasse and, following the factory project number, as the DKW F91. From 1958, by which year the car’s successor was already being sold and the earlier version had therefore become, in essence, a ‘run-out’ model, it was badged more simply as the DKW 900.
Apart from complications involving its naming, the 3=6’s notable features included its two-stroke engine and front-wheel drive layout along with the surefooted handing that resulted.
In a market segment increasingly dominated by the Volkswagen Beetle, the Auto Union contender also boasted class leading interior space, especially after the arrival of the four-door version, which featured a modestly extended wheelbase.
The DKW 3=6 in due course replaced the DKW F89 / Meisterklasse
DKW F89
The DKW Meisterklasse also known as the DKW F89 was a compact front wheel drive saloon manufactured by Auto Union AG between 1950 and 1954...
, although the Meisterklasse remained in production until April 1954. In its turn, the 3=6 was succeeded by the more powerful Auto Union 1000
Auto Union 1000
The Auto Union 1000 was a compact front wheel drive saloon manufactured by Auto Union AG between 1958 and 1963. It was the first model branded as an Auto Union by the manufacturer since the 1930s: it replaced the paradoxically named DKW 3=6, although the latter continued in production,...
, offered already from 1957.
Many names
DKWDKW
DKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...
was one of four companies that had come together in 1932 to form the Auto Union
Auto Union
Auto Union was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony, during the Great Depression. The company has evolved into present day Audi, as a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group....
based in Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
. The company was effectively refounded in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
in 1949, following the loss to the Soviets of its Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
assets.Three of the four businesses that had constituted Auto Union before the war seemed unlikely ever to reappear on either side of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, but starting in 1949 the DKW name was used for the F89 assembled by Auto Union in the west
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
: this was the model replaced by the 3=6.
- The name ‘Sonderklasse’ differentiated the car from the previous model which had been known as the ‘Meisterklasse’. Both names had also been used for commerciallyDKW F5The DKW F5 is a sub compact front wheel drive saloon launched by Auto Union’s DKW division in 1935 as a replacement for the DKWs F4 and F2 models.-The body:...
successfulDKW F7The DKW F7 is a sub compact front wheel drive saloon launched by Auto Union’s DKW division in 1937 as a replacement for the DKW F5.-The body:Changes between the F5 and the F7 were mostly at a detailed level...
DKWsDKW F8The DKW F8 compact front-wheel drive two-stroke engined saloon was introduced by in 1939. The F8 was slightly shorter than its predecessor despite having a marginally increased wheelbase. The base model, known as the Reichsklasse, was manufactured only till 1940 but the Meisterklasse sedan...
in the 1930s. Sonderklasse is a German verbal concatenation that does not translate comfortably into English: it is based on the word ‘Sonder’ of which one translation is ‘special’, linked to the word ‘Klasse’ which translates as ‘class’, or category’. - The name ‘3=6’ started out as an advertising slogan, but by the time of the 1955 face lift, the name was to the fore, and the car was advertised as the ‘Large 3=6’ (Grosse 3=6) differentiating it from the earlier version which already carried the script ‘3=6’ ahead of the door on its left side. The point of the advertising slogan was to highlight an equivalence between the car’s two stroke three cylinder engine and a four stroke six cylinder engine. The underlying logic was that with the two-stroke cycle there is engine power produced by an explosion within each cylinder for every rotation of the crankshaftCrankshaftThe crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
: with the four-stroke cycle there is power produced by an explosion within each cylinder only for each alternate rotation of the crankshaft. Thus it was asserted that the two-stroke engine was working twice as hard per rotation of the engine. In terms of torqueTorqueTorque, moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
the two-stroke system does indeed appear to have conferred substantial benefits when compared to a four-stroke engine of similar size, but in terms of bhp much of the theoretical energy gain in terms of power output seems to have been dissipated as additional heat which in turn required a larger energy consuming cooling fan, all of which made the arrangement rather noisy when placed just ahead of the driver and front-seat passenger. - The name F91 was the factory project number of the car. ‘F’ stood for ‘Frontantrieb’ (Frontwheel drive). The F91 was an evolution from the DKW F9 which had been a prototype presented in 1938, planned for production at Auto Union’s Zwickau plant from 1940. By 1950 the F9 itself had been made production ready and was being produced as the IFA F9IFA F9The IFA F9 was a compact saloon manufactured under the auspices of the Russian and East German states between 1949 or 1950 and 1956. It was initially built at Zwickau at the plant previously owned by Auto Union...
in ZwickauZwickauZwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
, so that name was in practice not available to ‘old’ Auto Union’s western successor. The DKW F91 was replaced by the F93 followed by the F94, their names also taken from factory project numbers. Because the other names have proved increasingly unfathomable, the names F91, F93 and F94 are the ones commonly used retrospectively.
It was perhaps in recognition that any perceived marketing advantages available from the unconventional namings had been exhausted, that from 1958 the car was sold simply as the DKW 900, the name being now conventionally based on the car’s approximate engine displacement. The successor model
Auto Union 1000
The Auto Union 1000 was a compact front wheel drive saloon manufactured by Auto Union AG between 1958 and 1963. It was the first model branded as an Auto Union by the manufacturer since the 1930s: it replaced the paradoxically named DKW 3=6, although the latter continued in production,...
, already in production in 1957, also benefited from this less challenging nomenclature.
The bodies
The F91 was presented as a two-door saloon with front opening doors which presumably facilitated access. A ‘pillarless’ coupe version, first seen in 1953, was produced from 1954, as well as a cabriolet, bodied by OsnabrückOsnabrück
Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
coach builders Karmann
Karmann
Wilhelm Karmann GmbH, commonly known simply as Karmann, in Osnabrück, Germany was until 2009 the largest independent motor vehicle manufacturing company in Germany...
. In addition there was a three-door estate version, called the ‘Universal’, which continued to be offered unchanged until June 1957, by which time saloon buyers had been offered the F93, an upgraded version, for two years.
Modifications came progressively. The coupe version had been launched with a ‘panoramic’ three piece wrap around back window, and in the back end of 1954 a similar wrap-around back window appeared on the two-door saloon. Advertising highlighted such features as a fuel gauge and an interior light that could be set to come on automatically when the door was opened.
1955 saw the launch of the F93 version, also known as the Grosse 3=6. This shared the 235 centimetres (92.5 in) wheel-base of the F91, but was slightly longer, wider and taller. The track was also increased by 10 centimetres (3.9 in). In place of horizontal metal slats, the new model featured an oval shaped front grill containing five horizontal metel coloured slats. The oval grill was modified again in 1957 when the slats were replaced by a chrome coloured grid design. Inside there were improvements to the instrumentation and the heating.
The DKW Monza
DKW Monza
The DKW Monza was a sports car built on a Auto Union DKW base. Named after the world-famous Italian Grand Prix circuit, the car set five world records in 1956....
which appeared in 1956 was essentially a DKW F93/F94 under its (light-weight plastic) skin.
In 1957, with the introduction of the F94 version of the car, a four-door version finally became available. The four-door saloon’s wheel-base was extended by 10 centimetres (3.9 in) over that of the two door: advertising continued to emphasize the DKW’s class leading interior spaciousness. 1957 was also the year when the F91 ‘Universal’ estate version was upgraded to an F94: it now incorporated many of features introduced two years earlier on the saloons.
DKW in South America
Auto Union's were also very popular in South America, where a number of special models based on the DKW 3=6, revised by CarrozzeriaCoachbuilder
A coachbuilder is a manufacturer of bodies for carriages or automobiles.The trade dates back several centuries. Rippon was active in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Barker founded in 1710 by an officer in Queen Anne's Guards, Brewster a relative newcomer , formed in 1810. Others in Britain included...
Fissore were manufactured in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
under licence by VEMAG from 1956 to 1967. Models sold where the DKW Belcar, the universal station wagon named Vemaguet, and the Fissore coupé, a two-door sedan with a smooth designed body and elegant appointments, which resembled in general terms the DKW F102
DKW F102
The DKW F102 is a car that was produced initially by German manufacturer Auto Union AG and later by Volkswagen AG after Volkswagen acquired the Auto Union brands from Daimler-Benz AG in 1964. It succeeded the Auto Union 1000 and 1000S models in 1963...
. The VEMAG DKWs where equipped with doors hinged at the front and double headlights in front. Altogether about 51,000 copies were manufactured.
DKW vehicles were also built in Argentina from 1960 through 1969 by IASF S.A. (Industria Automotriz Santa Fe Sociedad Anónima) in the city of Sauce Viejo, Santa Fe
Santa Fe
Santa Fe or Santa Fé may refer to:-Places:*Argentina**Santa Fe, Argentina, a city in Argentina**Santa Fe Province, a province of Argentina*Bolivia**Santa Fé , Bolivia...
. The most beautiful are the Cupé Fissore when had many famous owners (Julio Sosa, César Luis Menotti and others). Other important models are the Auto Union 1000 S (21.797 Sedán made until 1969), the Auto Union Combi/Pick-up and the Auto Union 1000 Universal S (6.396 made until 1969, too).
The last version of the Auto Union Combi/Pick-up launched in 1969, survives few months and after, IME use the cabs for this model.
Technical
The 896 cc three cylinder engine provided at launch a claimed 34 bhp (25 kW). Following the company’s pioneering work in the 1930s, the car had a front-wheel drive configuration which meant there was no bulky driveshaftDriveshaft
A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, propeller shaft, or Cardan shaft is a mechanical component for transmitting torque and rotation, usually used to connect other components of a drive train that cannot be connected directly because of distance or the need to allow for relative movement...
running through the passenger cabin. The water cooled engine was installed longitudinally above the front wheels, but the radiator
Radiator
Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in automobiles, buildings, and electronics...
was located not ahead of the engine but between the engine and the passenger cabin.
The gearbox, controlled by a column mounted lever, was a three speed manual system coupled with a free-wheel device: in Autumn 1953 a four speed box was offered as an option. 1957 saw a further transmission advance with the availability of a Saxomat
Saxomat
Saxomat was a type of automatic clutch available as an option on Fiat 1800, Saab 93, Borgward Isabella, Goliath/Hansa 1100, Auto Union 1000, BMW, Opel, Ford Taunus, NSU, Glas, Trabant Wartburg and Volkswagen cars. Opel sold it as Olymat; Trabant and Wartburg named the system Hycomat...
automatic centrifugal clutch
Centrifugal clutch
A centrifugal clutch is a clutch that uses centrifugal force to connect two concentric shafts, with the driving shaft nested inside the driven shaft....
on the DKW.
The F93 version launched in 1955 now boasted power output increased to 38 bhp. That increased further to 40 bhp in 1956. The F93 also incorporated a strengthened chassis and improvements to the suspension and braking system.