HISTORY

 
DID ANY CARS BY JOSEF GANZ SURVIVE?

As an independent and consultant engineer Josef Ganz has designed and influenced a number of important cars and prototypes. A few of these still exist today. This list contains all known cars that he has designed with information on known surviving models:


ARDIE-GANZ (1930)

- Designed by Josef Ganz;
- Characteristics: central backbone chassis, independent suspension all-round with swinging rear half-axles, mid-mounted engine, Beetle-like open body;
- Built by Josef Ganz at Ardie-Werke in 1930;
- Number built: 1 prototype;
- Status: prototype destroyed by the Nazis.


ADLER MAIKÄFER (1931)

- Designed by Josef Ganz;
- Characteristics: central backbone chassis, independent suspension all-round with swinging rear half-axles, mid-mounted engine, open body with fake radiator grille;
- Built by Josef Ganz as technical consultant at Adler in Frankfurt in 1931;
- Number built: 1 prototype;
- Status: original prototype still exists, restored and owned by German collector.


MERCEDES-BENZ 170 (1931 - 1936)

- Designed by Hans Nibel and Max Wagner at Daimler-Benz with the support of its technical consultant Josef Ganz;
- Characteristics: independent suspension all-round with swinging rear half-axles;
- Number built: 2 prototypes + 13,775 production cars;
- Status: prototypes are presumed scrapped, but several production cars believed to exist. One restored car is on display at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.


MERCEDES-BENZ 120H (1931 - 1932)

- Designed by Hans Nibel and Max Wagner at Daimler-Benz with the support of its technical consultant Josef Ganz;
- Characteristics: central backbone chassis, independent rear suspension with swinging rear half-axles, rear-mounted horizontally opposed 4-cylinder engine, Beetle-like body;
Number built: ± 10 (all prototypes with various body styles)
- Status: all prototypes are presumed scrapped.


BMW 3/20 AM1 (1932 - 1933)

- Designed at BMW with the support of its technical consultant Josef Ganz ;
- Characteristics: independent suspension all-round with swinging rear half-axles;
- Number built: unknown;
- Status: several cars believed to exist, at least one car is owned by a member of the BMW Veteranen-Club Deutschland e.V. in Germany.


STANDARD SUPERIOR MODEL 1 (1932 - 1933)

- Designed at the Standard Fahrzeugfabrik according to the patents and with support of Josef Ganz;
- Characteristics: central backbone chassis, independent suspension all-round with swinging rear half-axles, mid-mounted engine, Beetle-like body;
- Number built: ± 500;
- Status: one almost complete chassis has survived and is undergoing restoration, but no complete cars are known to exist.


STANDARD SUPERIOR MODEL 2 (1933 - 1935)

- Designed at the Standard Fahrzeugfabrik according to the patents and with support of Josef Ganz;
- Characteristics: central backbone chassis, independent suspension all-round with swinging rear half-axles, mid-mounted engine, Beetle-like body, advertised in 1933/34 as the 'fastest and cheapest German Volkswagen' for a typical German family with 2 children;
- Number built: ± 1000 to 1500;
- Status: one complete restored car is known to exist. This car can be seen on display at the Oldtimermuseum Cunewalde in Cunewalde (D).


MERCEDES-BENZ 130H (1933 - 1936)

-  Designed by Hans Nibel and Max Wagner at Daimler-Benz with the support of its technical consultant Josef Ganz;
- Characteristics: central backbone chassis, independent suspension all-round with swinging rear half-axles, rear-mounted engine, Beetle-like body;
- Number built: 4,298;
- Status: several cars still exist in museums and private collections, including cars on display at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart (D), the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum in Florida (USA), the Collection Schlumpf in Mulhouse (F), and the Franschhoek Motor Museum in Franschhoek (ZA).


BUNGARTZ BUTZ (1934)

- Designed at Bungartz & Co according to the patents and with support of Josef Ganz;
- Characteristics: central backbone chassis, independent suspension all-round with swinging rear half-axles, mid-mounted engine;
- Number built: unknown.
- Status: no cars are known to exist.


RAPID 'SWISS VOLKSWAGEN' (1937 - 1947)

- Designed by Josef Ganz according to a similar chassis arrangement as the Standard Superior but with different styling;
- Characteristics: central backbone chassis, independent suspension all-round with swinging rear half-axles, mid-mounted engine, all-metal open Beetle-like body;
- Number built: ± 3 prototypes (including 1 aluminium-bodied prototype dubbed Silberfisch) + 36 production cars (built by Rapid in Switzerland in period 1945 - 1947);
- Status: two cars are known to exist, one is restored and on display at the Verkehrshaus in Luzern (CH) and the second one is unrestored and owned by a Dutch collector.


JULIEN M.M.5 AND M.M.7 (1947 - 1950)

- Designed at Automobiles Julien according to the patents and with support of Josef Ganz;
- Number built: unknown;
- Status: one complete restored car is known to exist and can be seen on display at the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum in the USA.


If you have any additional information about the cars described on this page and/or know of any more surviving cars by Josef Ganz we would greatly appreciate it if you could contact us.

Het ware verhaal van de Kever: hoe Hitler het ontwerp van een joods genie confisqueerde

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336 pages black&white
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ISBN 9789085710912
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1st print: Sept 2009
2nd print: Jan 2010

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