Four new specimens are available from AutoCult Models for the month of March. The feature is another unique example from the brand, the 1:43 Schlorwagen Mit Turbinenantrieb 1942. The remaining three, also in 1:43 scale include the 1951 BMW 531, the 1969 Kaimann MK4 Formel Vau and the 1931 Tatra T23. Enjoy!
About the Schlorwagen Mit Turbinenantrieb… “During World War II Karl Schlör mounted an enormous turbine on his aerodynamic experimental car. Without the fitted propeller the car was powered by the standard Mercedes-Benz 170 H engine with a performance of 38 hp and reached a top speed of 135 km/h. Even today it is hard to imagine which speed the car would have reached or had reached with the additional 130 hp-strong turbine.
Probably Karl Schlör tested the additional power of the captured Russian engine at least once. But records have been lost to history. If a test drive took place, the performance of the additional engine would have stretched the aerodynamically designed car to its mechanical limits. Due to the additional weight at the rear the car got back-heavy and this had a bad impact on the driving quality. If the car was still controllable at speeds over 160 km/h or even faster is anyone’s guess. Based on these considerations it remains vague what Karl Schlör wanted to achieve by adding the voluminous propeller.
Engineer Karl Schlör von Westhofen-Dirmstein was born in 1911. The design of his aerodynamic experimental car was guided by the construction of aircraft wings. In the second half of the 1930s the blue-blooded nobleman built his aluminum car body on the chassis of a Mercedes-Benz 170 H. Although his teardrop shaped design proved to be on average 30 % more efficient in fuel consumption compared to a standard Mercedes-Benz 170 H, it did not find favor. The response, which the back than 28-year-old Engineer got, disappointed him. People described the car with the words “ugly” or “unattractive appearance”. Despite the fact that streamlined body design was already a subject of discussion due to several researches and cars of Wundibald Kamm or Paul Jaray and therefore also open for the public, Karl Schlör was not able obtain acceptance with his unique car.”
Product# 04020 / 03016 / 07012 / 11010
