Previous Features

If you can build bicycles, <br>you know about pedals… (UPDATE II: a gift to the chauffeur)

And NSU didn’t even start with bicycles. Way back in 1873 their first product was a knitting machine, after which the company was named Neckarsulmer Strickmachinen Union. Bicycles came in 1888, although these were not yet called NSU, but Germania. It wasn’t until 1892 that the company was re-organized as the Neckarsulmer Fahradwerke AG(click). Motorcycles followed in 1901 and their first car was introduced in 1905. Only very few NSU cars from before WWI have survived (4 or 5 are said to be known) and the one you see here is a 1911 NSU 10/30 HP Sports Double-Phaeton, the only surviving "big" model as far as we know. The engine is a 4-cylinder of 2.6 ltr. delivering 30 hp. This NSU was first delivered to the director of the "Nes Jernverk Iron Works" in the South of Norway (today a museum). It was kept in the family until the mid 50's, when it changed hands to a Norwegian collector - a two owner motorcar within nearly 100 years. It was never neglected during its life and only carefully restored in the 1950's. All the original details are there as it left the factory. We found this original photograph of the family changing a tire in the snow. It sure reminds us of what’s going to happen during tonight’s 100 Miles of Amsterdam! (photos courtesy E-Thiessen-Hamburg).

Update II by Kjetil Langsæther : "The NSU was the second car Aal owned. When Nicolai Benjamin Aal died, the car was given for free to some of the drivers of the car. There were some other persons owning this car before it changed hands to a Norwegian collector."
Update I by Peter Ransom who informs us that: "...there's another NSU here in Australia. It's in project form and I'm told it's either a year earlier or later than your feature car. It belongs to a member of the Veteran Car Club here in Brisbane."