Gutbrod Superior
Weird Car of the Day #526: 1950 Gutbrod Superior 600 – Fleeting fun
If you're interested in picking up a weird car of your own, may I suggest finding the smallest, most obscure one you can afford?
You could do worse than the Gutbrod Superior or one of its derivatives (including Wagon or Wendler-bodied Sport), given the German brand's short existence in the early 1950s.
Like the Vespa 400, the Gutbrod Superior looks like an early draft of the Nissan Figaro, yet so improbably small they seem like movie props or parade cars. Only a few generations ago, motorists were cramming themselves into microcars with interiors barely larger than a modern car's front seats, and considering themselves fortunate to have a roof over their heads.
michael banovsky
The Gutbrod Superior bucked one trend followed by many microcars of its time: rather than mounting the engine in the rear, it was essentially a downsized conventional car, with the engine up front driving the front wheels.
Its real claim to fame, however, was something considerably more sophisticated.
Gutbrod had recruited technical director Dr. Hans Scherenberg from Mercedes-Benz, and in an effort to extract more power from its tiny two-stroke engines, he helped develop an early application of direct petrol injection.
Period advertising for the Gutbrod Superior • Gutbrod, rare-automobilia
