| Rumpler Tropfenwagen | |
|---|---|
 Rumpler Tropfenwagen on display at Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin | |
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | Rumpler |
| Also called | Tropfen-Auto |
| Production | 1921-1925 |
| Designer | Edmund Rumpler |
| Body and chassis | |
| Body style | Saloon car |
| Layout | RMR layout |
| Powertrain | |
| Engine | 2,580 cc (157 cu in) W6 OHV engine |
| Transmission | 3-speed manual |
The Rumpler Tropfenwagen ("Rumpler drop car", named after its raindrop shape) was a car developed by Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler.
Rumpler, born in Vienna, was known as a designer of aircraft when at the 1921 Berlin car show he introduced the Tropfenwagen. It was to be the first streamlined production car, before the Chrysler Airflow and Tatra T77. The Rumpler was already wind tunnel optimized at the Aerodynamics Research Institute in Göttingen [1] and had a drag coefficient of only 0.28, a value that astonished later engineers when they tested the Tropfenwagen in the 1970s. [2] This would be competitive even today. For comparison: the top ten most aerodynamic production cars in 2014/2015 were in the range 0.26 down to 0.19. [3] [4] The Fiat Balilla of the mid-1930s, by contrast, was rated at 0.60. [5] To enable the car's aerodynamic shape, the Tropfenwagen also featured the world's first (single plane) curved windows in a production car. Both the windscreen and the side windows were significantly curved. [6] But Rumpler wasn't the first with the idea of a streamlined car. At least in 1913 Castagna and Alfa Romeo built the prototype Aerodinamica with similar ideas. [7]
The car featured a Siemens and Halske-built [8] 2,580 cc (157 cu in) overhead valve W6 engine, with three banks of paired cylinders, all working on a common crankshaft. [8] [9] Producing 27 kW (36 hp), [8] it was mounted just ahead of the rear axle. [10] The engine, transmission, and final drive were assembled together and installed as a unit. The Rumpler-invented rear swing axles were suspended by trailing leaf springs, while the front beam axle was suspended by leading leaf springs. [9]
Able to seat four or five, [11] all the passengers were carried between the axles for maximum comfort, while the driver was alone at the front, to maximize view. [8] With the 1923 model, two tip-up seats were added.
Weighing 1,400 kg (3,086 lb), [8] the Tropfenwagen was nevertheless capable of 110 km/h (70 mph) on its mere 27 kW (36 hp). [8] This performance got the attention of Benz & Cie.'s chief engineer, Hans Nibel. Nibel conceived the Mercedes-Benz Tropfenwagen racers using the virtually unchanged Rumpler chassis. [8] Poor sales and increasing losses led Benz to abandon the project. [12] Later Auto Union racing cars resembled the Benz Tropfenwagen racers and were built in part by Rumpler engineers. [8]
Rumpler made another attempt in 1924, the 4A106, [12] which used a 37 kW (50 hp)2,614 cc (159.5 cu in) inline 4-cylinder engine. [11] This compelled a growth in wheelbase, with a consequent increase in seating to six or seven. [11]
Although the car was very advanced for its time, it sold poorly – about 100 cars were built. Sales were hindered by small problems at the start (cooling, steering), the appearance of the vehicle, and the absence of a luggage compartment. Most were sold as taxis, where easy boarding and the high ceiling were advantages. The last cars were built in 1925.
The Tropfenwagen became famous thanks to the film Metropolis, in which Rumplers found a burning end. It also inspired the Mercedes-Benz 130H / 150H / 170H road cars. [13]
Only two examples are known to survive, one in the MVG public transportation museum in Munich, and one in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin.
Auto Union AG, was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony. It is the immediate predecessor of Audi as it is known today.
In automotive design, an RMR, or rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout is one in which the rear wheels are driven by an engine placed with its center of gravity in front of the rear axle, and thus right behind the passenger compartment. Nowadays more frequently called 'RMR', to acknowledge that certain sporty or performance focused front-engined cars are also "mid-engined", by having the main engine mass behind the front axle, RMR layout cars were previously just called MR, or mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout), because the nuance between distinctly front-engined vs. front mid-engined cars often remained undiscussed.
The Stout Scarab is a streamlined 1930–1940s American car, designed by William Bushnell Stout and manufactured by Stout Engineering Laboratories and later by Stout Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan.
Streamline Cars Ltd was the company responsible for making the Burney car designed by Dennis Burney.
The Chrysler Airflow is a full-size car produced by Chrysler from 1934 to 1937. The Airflow was the first full-size American production car to use streamlining as a basis for building a sleeker automobile, one less susceptible to air resistance. Chrysler made a significant effort at a fundamental change in automotive design with the Chrysler Airflow, but it was ultimately a commercial failure due to a lack of market acceptance and controversial appearance.
Aurel Persu was a Romanian engineer and pioneer car designer, the first to place the wheels inside the body of the car as part of his attempt to reach the perfect aerodynamic shape for automobiles. He came to the conclusion that the perfectly aerodynamic automobile must have the shape of a falling water drop, taking it one step further toward that shape than the car Austrian Edmund Rumpler had presented in Berlin in 1921.
The Czechoslovakian Tatra 77 (T77) is one of the first serial-produced, truly aerodynamically-designed automobiles. It was developed by Hans Ledwinka and Paul Jaray, the Zeppelin aerodynamic engineer. Launched in 1934, the Tatra 77 is a coach-built automobile, constructed on a platform chassis with a pressed box-section steel backbone rather than Tatra's trademark tubular chassis, and is powered by a 60 horsepower (45 kW) rear-mounted 2.97-litre air-cooled V8 engine, in later series increased to a 75 horsepower (56 kW) 3.4-litre engine. It possessed advanced engineering features, such as overhead valves, hemispherical combustion chambers, a dry sump, fully independent suspension, rear swing axles and extensive use of lightweight magnesium alloy for the engine, transmission, suspension and body. The average drag coefficient of a 1:5 model of Tatra 77 was recorded as 0.2455. The later model T77a has a top speed of over 150 km/h (93 mph) due to its advanced aerodynamic design which delivers an exceptionally low drag coefficient of 0.212, although some sources claim that this is the coefficient of a 1:5 scale model, not of the car itself. Recent article confirmed the Tatra 77/77a drag coefficient for real full-size car as 0.36.
Ponton or pontoon styling is an automotive design genre that spanned roughly from the 1930s-1960s, when pontoon-like bodywork enclosed the full width and uninterrupted length of a car body — eliminating previously distinct running boards and articulated fenders. The integrated fenders of an automobile with ponton styling may also be called Pontoon fenders, and the overall trend may also be known as envelope styling.
The ALFA 40/60 HP is a road car and race car made by Italian car manufacturer ALFA. This model was made between 1913 and 1922 and was designed by Giuseppe Merosi, as were all other Alfas at that time. The 40/60 HP has a 6082 cc straight-four engine with overhead valves, which produced 70 PS (51 kW) and its top speed was 125 km/h (78 mph). The 40-60 HP Corsa racing version had 73 PS (54 kW) and a top speed of 137 km/h (85 mph), and it also won its own category in the Parma-Berceto race.
The Alfa Romeo 1900 C52 "Disco Volante" is a series of experimental sports racing cars produced between 1952 and 1953 by Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo in collaboration with Milanese coachbuilder Carrozzeria Touring. The car was distinguished by streamlined, wind tunnel tested bodywork.
Steyr was an Austrian automotive brand, established in 1915 as a branch of the Österreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft (ÖWG) weapon manufacturing company. Renamed Steyr-Werke AG in 1926 and merged with Austro-Daimler and Puch into Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG, it continued manufacturing Steyr automobiles until 1959.
Carrozzeria Castagna is an Italian coachbuilding company based in Milan, Italy.
The Fiat 1500 was a six-cylinder car produced by the Fiat from 1935 to 1950. It was one of the first cars tested in a wind tunnel, following the Chrysler Airflow produced one year earlier. The streamlined styling achieved an aerodynamic efficiency unequalled before it in a touring car and disproved the thesis aerodynamic cars would not sell.
From 1931 to 1939, Daimler-Benz AG produced three cars with rear engine as well as a few prototypes. The production numbers remained quite low for each of these models, especially compared to the production of classical front-engine Mercedes cars.
Edmund Elias Rumpler was an Austrian automobile and aircraft designer.
The Schlörwagen was a prototype aerodynamic rear-engine passenger vehicle developed by Karl Schlör (1911–1997) and presented to the public at the 1939 Berlin Auto Show. It never went into production, and the sole prototype has not survived.
Automobiles Darracq France was a manufacturer of motor vehicles and aero engines in Suresnes, near Paris. The enterprise, known at first as A Darracq et Cie, was founded in 1896 by successful businessman Alexandre Darracq.
A unique vehicle, called one-off vehicle in some cases, is a vehicle designed for normal circulation and produced in almost single units following specific instructions from the customer, generally made on a small or large series, with significant technical, functional and aesthetic variations between each unit. In the field of vehicles authorized to drive, The production of unique vehicles is reduced to almost one unit in each case. The easiest cases to analyze are those of cars and motorcycles.
The Mercedes-Benz M23 engine is a naturally-aspirated, 1.3-liter, inline-4 gasoline engine, designed, developed and produced by Mercedes-Benz; between 1933 and 1936.
Hans Nibel was a German mechanical engineer.
