Thursday, March 28, 2024

Dutton

Tim Dutton was based in the UK and sold these vehicles as kits. The 2WD versions were built on Ford Fiesta drivelines while the 4WD was on a Suzuki Samurai or Suzuki Jimny. At some point the name, the jigs and molds were sold to a company in Poland.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Monday, March 25, 2024

Coming or going?


 This is a Man TGM 18.320. It is four wheel drive as well as four wheel steering. It is equipped with 6.9l engine producing 320 horsepower. Man produced trucks in Germany. It is used for fire and rescue operations in tunnels where there is not enough room to turn around.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Citroen DS Tissier


This transporter was found in a salvage yard in southern France. It is one of three remaining vehicles out of a production of thirty five built by Tissier. The standard pneumatic suspension system was altered to allow the ride height to be controlled individually. This allowed raising the front suspension and lowering the rear suspension enabling loading/unloading vehicles without the use of ramps.
 

Friday, March 22, 2024

Zunndap Janis microcar

 

Following WWII Zundapp offered an array of two wheel motorized vehicles. In about 1955 people started demanding weatherproof transportation. The motorcycle industry began to falter.

Zundapp looked around and settled on Dornier's prototype and named it Janus after the two faced Roman god. It had Isetta style doors and a centrally located 250cc Bella scooter engine. It had a MacPherson strut suspension. The 14hp engine proved inadequate as the top speed was 50mph (80km). 

Production began in June of 1957. It was determined that 15,000 cars was the break even point, but in the first six months only 1731 cars were built. It was found that people weren't keen on watching the landscape from the rear facing back seat.

By 1958 it was obvious the Janis would not succeed and the factory was sold to Bosch. Few examples of the car remain.