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The Zündapp Janus was a microcar model made by Zündapp in Germany between 1957 and 1958, the only car ever built by the company.

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (August 2012) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 9,804 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Zündapp Janus]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|de|Zündapp Janus}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Dornier Delta

Claude Dornier was always trying to minimize the dependency of his company Dornier Flugzeugwerke on building aircraft, by diversification into other areas. After World War II, and the Allied ban on aircraft production in Germany until the late 1950s, Claude diversified the company's production and encouraged his son Claudius to find new areas. As a result, Claudius designed and developed a four-seater car, where the two front and two rear passengers sat back to back, for optimal use of the enclosed space. A prototype was built and tested, which was named Dornier Delta. The company had not built a car before, and economic calculations showed that the volume of sales required would make it uneconomical for the company to make the car using its existing facilities.

Zündapp was a motorcycle maker, but in 1954 decided to make a more weatherproof vehicle. They looked for partners who could design such a vehicle, and approached Kroboth, Brütsch, and Fuldamobil before settling on the ready-developed vehicle from Dornier.

Zündapp Janus

Under a commercial agreement, Dornier licensed Zündapp to produce and market the car. Further developed using Zündapp's engineering input and envisaged as a "quality bubble car", the novel developed design featured a front-opening door for access to the front seat, as well as a rear-opening door for access to the rear-facing rear seat. This "coming or going" design was given the name of the Roman god, Janus, usually pictured having two faces: one looks forward while the other one looks back. The car was powered by a mid-mounted two-stroke, single-cylinder, 245 cubic centimetres (15.0 cu in) engine unique to the Janus, developing 14 hp (10 kW), enabling a top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). The front suspension was of the leading arm-type that proved to be very comfortable, and in the rear the car had a swing axle.[1][2][3] The company added four individually mounted ventilated brake drums, operated via hydraulics.

Production started in June 1957. However, whilst in racing and sports cars the mid-engine configuration leads to optimal car handling, the engine in the Janus was much lighter than the rear passengers, leading to a variable centre of gravity. Secondly, the car lacked the most modern elements seen on competitors’ cars, and was not low priced. These factors combined to result in a lack of sales success, with only 1,731 cars being made in the first six months. By mid-1958, having made only a total of 6,902 cars, Zündapp abandoned the project and sold the factory to Bosch.

In popular culture

In the animated feature film Cars 2, Professor Zündapp a.k.a. Professor Z is based on a 1957 Zündapp Janus.[3]

Dornier Delta II

During the mid-1960s, Dornier developed the Delta II with Hymer AG. The vehicle could carry up to six passengers and offered two sleeping places for camping. The development never got beyond the prototype stage.

References

• Taschen, Benedikt. Kleinwagen, Small Cars, Petites Voitures, 1994.

На других языках

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[de] Zündapp Janus

Der Zündapp Janus war ein viersitziges Rollermobil (damals Kleinwagen – heute besser Kleinstwagen genannt) der Zündapp-Werke GmbH, Nürnberg, aus den 1950er-Jahren.

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- [en] Zündapp Janus

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[it] Zündapp Janus

La Zündapp Janus era una piccola vettura prodotta dalla Zündapp tra il 1957 e il 1959.

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