Spatz

Spatz ( ˈʃpat͡s - Russian sparrow ), Victoria 250 - a fiberglass minicar manufactured from July 1956 to the end of the same year by Bayerische Autowerke GmbH in Traunreit , Germany , and also by Victoria Werke in Nuremberg from late 1956 to May 1958 of the year.

Spatz / Victoria 250
Total information
Manufacturer	Bayerische Autowerke GmbH
Years of production	1956 - 1958
Assembly	Victoria-Werke
Design
Body type	2-dv. roadster (2 places)
Layout	mid-engined
Wheel formula	4 × 2
Engine
Fichtel & Sachs, motorcycle two-stroke, 1-cylinder, 191 cm 3 , later 250 cm 3 , 10.2 and 14 hp respectively
Transmission
4 or 5-speed manual transmission
Specifications
Mass-dimensional
Length	3300/3360 mm
Width	1400/1450 mm
Height	1240 (with a raised top)
Wheelbase	1950 mm
Weight	~ 425 kg

The prototype of this car - the Dreirad-Dreisitzer or the Brütsch Typ 200 Spatz - was designed and manufactured by independent engineer Egon Brütsch , the owner of the company Egon Brütsch Fahrzeugbau from Stuttgart , who has created many designs of minivans and wheelchairs in his lifetime. It was three-wheeled, with two wheels on the front axle, which had a soft suspension, and one rear, through a subframe, rigidly fixed to a fiberglass monocoque body with a power unit ^[1] .

Bryutsh began looking for a large enterprise ready to start production of its design, and eventually managed to sell a license to Harald Friedrich, an industrialist from Upper Bavaria and co-owner of the engineering company Alzmetall P. Meier & Friedrich GmbH , as well as the Swiss company A. Grünhut & Co.

However, road tests showed that the design chosen by Bryutsh was unreliable - the plastic body could not withstand the loads arising from the passage of uneven road surfaces, and cracks appeared in it in the area of ​​the rear subframe. Friedrich involved 77-year-old Hans Ledwinka, the former designer of the Czechoslovak Tatra and author of such models as Tatra T77 and Tatra T87 , who emigrated to West Germany after imprisonment for work on a car. Ledvinka completely revised the design of the car, using the usual four-wheeled chassis and a lightweight, compact, but strong spinal frame , on which the power unit and the suspension of the rear wheels with swinging axles were fixed. The front suspension was applied "candle" type, with coil springs. There were hydraulic brakes instead of mechanical ones.

In July 1956, Bayerische Autowerke GmbH , BAG, was created in collaboration with the Bavarian motorcycle factory Victoria-Werke to produce the modified car by Frederick. Sales and service were carried out through the Victoria Werke dealer network.

Since Friedrich refused to pay royalties to Brutsh, the latter initiated a trial - Bayerische Autowerke was charged with illegal use of someone else's intellectual property. However, Brutsh lost this process, because the court considered that Frederick's car was a sufficiently independent structure, while the original project was unsuitable for mass production and even dangerous to operate. However, at the end of 1956, Friedrich transferred all rights to the design of Victoria Werke and disengaged from the production of the car, which was modernized and renamed Victoria 250 by the forces of the engineers of this company.

The car had a folding soft top and a sofa-type seat, designed for two people with the ability to accommodate a third if necessary. Although the body shape of Spatz was quite dynamic and hinted at potentially high-speed capabilities, in practice the car was relatively slow, given the power of its engine, borrowed from the Messerschmitt KR200 cabinet rolller. The engine was located at the rear, in front of the rear axle. Access to it could be carried out both through a separate hood, and when folding the back of the sofa. Initially, there was no reverse gear in the transmission, instead, the Spatz driver had to either start his engine in the opposite normal direction of rotation, or deploy a lightweight car manually, lifting it by the bumper. After modernization by Viktoria Werke engineers, the engine capacity was increased from 191 to 250 cu. cm, thanks to which the power increased from 10.2 to 14 hp, instead of a four-speed gearbox, a five-speed gearbox appeared with an electric drive from the joystick on the dashboard and reverse gear - the truth is that it is activated by a separate button on the dashboard, and not by the gear lever. During the release, additional tubular bumpers also appeared, complementing the rubber band wrapped around the entire body and covering the technological seam between its upper and lower parts, as well as turn signal repeaters.

In total, from 1,596 to May 1958, 1,588 copies were produced, of which 859 were designated Spatz and 729 Victoria 250 . Currently, 24 surviving specimens are known, which are a valuable collectible.

In Switzerland, several copies of the original three-wheeled version under the Belcar designation were also collected, however A. Grünhut & Co , having discovered the same structural defects, did not have the means to fine-tune the design and did not begin to establish large-scale production.

Subsequently, a lightweight version was created on the basis of the three-wheeled Spatz Brütsch, called Brütsch Zwerg (“ Dwarf ”) - the license for its release was sold to the French company Air Tourist Sàrl (a well-known dealer Cessna ), which established its release under the designation Avolette . He, like the subsequent Brutsh Bussard , Pfeil and V2 cars, already had a frame, also of a spinal type.