Quiz Archive

It is NOT a BMW . Or.......? <br>(about # 160)

thesis: When you do a find, first find out what exactly you have found or you'll end up with something different than what you have found....
Study the books. Study the paperwork. And only then go down in the metal. Find the numbers of chassis and engine, find the maker's badges, check the engineering and after having done all that try to draw conclusions. In first instance never believe what your eyes say, or worse...what The Advert is saying. Now let's go back to this lovely lined, Bimmer nosed convertible. Anybody can put a BMW nose on anything, so most competitors tried to avoid the trap. They looked at the engine and drew conclusions based on the all round independent suspension: this must be an Austrian built Steyr of the type 220. Very well. Not the winner, but Thomas Billicsich gave a most interesting description: "Steyr 220 with Gläser Sports bodywork with a wrong front. These cars were built between 1937 and 1941. How long Gläser got chassis is not known." (the last line about the ownnership of the chassis and the 'wrong front' are most interesting). We almost decided that Thomas to be winner......... ....until we heard the full story of the car that is now owned by Ukra?n restorer Konstantin Zhukov. Tony CarDiscoveries Paalman studied the background of the car and explains: "Yes, it is a Steyr, built in '38/'39 with a Gläser coachwork. It probably was the showpiece for the 1939 Berlin Motorshow. The original colorscheme is burgundy over white. For unclear reasons the car never left the factory. After the war the Steyr production facility was transferred to BMW for some time and they gave the car the nose which you can see here. Still the car did not leave the factory and was found there a few years back in the sad current state. Concluding Thomas was not right about the nose being 'wrong'. It was added before the car left the factory under a new management....! BMW like many other manufacturers did during carhistory change cars of others to sell under their own name. Long after the war BMW did so with the Glas GT (madle.org). So finally we thought it most relevant interesting to give the prize to earlier winner Alboino Deulus who came in with the very simple, but highly sophisticated, diplomatic, multilayered, five word answer: "It looks like a BMW." Congratulations Alboino! (Thomas, please don't be mad, this quiz is only a game...)

Friday, 15 July 2005