An unrestored Horch: how the pride of Saxony made its home in America

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To a citizen of 1930s Germany, there could be few things more pleasant than being handed the keys to a brand-new Horch. Along with Maybach and the top-of-the-range offerings from Mercedes-Benz, Horch represented the very best of Germany's automotive output, a car for the world stage to rival Rolls-Royce, Delahaye and Isotta Fraschini. It garnered admiration in the 1920s for its smooth and powerful straight-eights, and in the 1930s for its V12s and V8s as well, which were notably sold at far lower prices than other cars of an equally high quality.

The life of such prestigious cars of the 1930s, at least those which survive to this day, tends to follow a pattern. Expensive and highly covetable when new, the car is sold to an officer, wealthy industrialist, politician or maybe even an aristocrat. When war breaks out, it is placed into secure storage and is sold on, possibly for the third or fourth time, when it re-emerges in the late 1940s. After a string of owners, it is becoming slightly tired, but already by the 1950s it is coming to be appreciated as a desirable historic car, as connoisseurs realise the writing is on the wall for coachbuilding and the adage "they don't make them like they used to" is very much applicable. In the 1960s, the car is bought for a knock-down price by an enthusiast who saves it for preservation, and in the 1970s or '80s it gets restored, before being acquired by a noted collector and being presented on the concours circuit. In the 2000s, it is restored once again to the most exacting "better than new" standards, and is brought out every now and then to star at one of the major international concours d'élégance.

Seventy-five years of preservation

That's often more or less how the story goes, but every now and then the chain of events is disrupted or stops short. This superb straight-eight 1937 Horch 853 cabriolet is very much an anomaly, having eluded the restorers and reached the present day in wonderfully original condition. Nothing is known of its very early years, but by the late 1940s it had been bought by one Karl H. W. Tacke, a successful industrialist who ran his own textiles factory through the 1930s. He had served in the German Army for five years during the war, spending three of them in Russia. It is thought that the sides of the body, which were originally ivory, had already been repainted in black by this point to match the rest of the car. It carried the registration BR 497-391.

In 1951, Herr Tacke put the car on the market through dealer Fritz Ihle of Oos, near Baden-Baden in Baden-Württemberg. He sold it in August, 1952, to Harold D. Young, a captain in the U.S. Army, and it received a new German U.S. Forces number plate, 2C-46092, which it retains. As indicated by invoices from Auto Union, Horch's parent company, the engine was rebuilt with a new cylinder head and further mechanical overhauling took place throughout 1953 and 1954. Captain Young returned home to Groton, a town in New York state, and took the Horch with him. A photograph reveals that he was evidently one of those connoisseurs who appreciated the quality and individuality of coachbuilt cars, for it shows the Horch at a gathering of similar vehicles.

Cherished by an Oldsmobile dealer

Young's enthusiasm might have been short-lived, however, or simply tempered by the expense and effort of maintaining a thirsty and ageing car with a five-litre straight-eight, for which parts would have been next to impossible to find. Possibly tempted by the convenience of a modern car, he traded it in to James C. Stevens, Jr., of Cortland, a nearby city. Stevens ran the city's Oldsmobile and Studebaker dealership and was a founder member of the local antique car club. Throughout the '50s and '60s, he built up an impressive collection of historic and high-quality motor cars.

It was Stevens who was key to the Horch's survival in such an original state. Instead of restoring it, he preserved it as it was, and kept it until his death in 2006. Another local man, Jim Taylor, then acquired it and treated it to the most sympathetic and preservation-minded of restorations, which made it fully functional again while leaving everything else untouched. Apart from the wartime repaint, a new hood and the fitment of a clock from a Lincoln Continental, it's just as it left Horch's Zwickau factory in 1937. So presented, it was a deserving class winner at Pebble Beach in 2008.

The Horch has now surfaced again, being offered for sale for $475,000 (approx. £370,000) by Laferriere Classic Cars of Smithfield, Rhode Island. If you're looking for a preserved gem to add to your collection, you'll probably not find anything better.

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