110 years of automobile construction in 10 minutes
12/08/2014
Over the past 110 years, a whole series of automobiles have been built around the city of Zurich, the first of which even bore the city's name in the brand name, the Turicum.
At this year's Christmas and Collectors' Fair at Messe Zürich, an exhibition on "110 years of Zurich automobile construction" presented a cross-section of this work in the form of eight exhibits, brought together by the "Swiss Car Register" and the Lucerne Museum of Transport.
The oldest vehicle on display was a Turicum Prototype II from 1904, equipped with a single-cylinder engine with a displacement of 350 cm3. It was designed by Martin Fischer and Paul Vorbordt and had foot steering and an unconventional friction gear. The patented suspension was borrowed from the art of watchmaking.
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Next to it was a Fischer 10/28 HP from 1913 as a convertible, again designed by Martin Fischer. The four-cylinder engine with 2800 cm3 produced 33 hp. This car also featured interesting design ideas, such as a valveless slide valve engine and an internal gear system for power transmission.
In the Entré there was an SS. Jaguar 2 1/2 liter Cabriolet from 1938, which, like the Delahaye 135 Coupe des Alpes from the same year, was equipped with a Tüscher body.
The same coachbuilder also produced the body of the Rapid small car (see picture above) from 1946, equipped with a single-cylinder opposed-piston engine with 350 cm3 and 8 hp. This two-seater, also known as the "Silverfish", had the makings of a Swiss Volkswagen, but economic production in Switzerland was not possible and only a pre-series of 36 cars was built.
The largest example at the exhibition was a passenger bus called the "Giraffe", actually an FBW type HL 71 prototype from 1959. It was driven from a higher vantage point, which was not to the liking of most bus drivers at the time. However, the capacity of the bus was very good with 116 passengers. However, only 11 vehicles were produced.
The modern era was represented by the Rinspeed MicroMax from 2013 and the AMZ grimsel electric racing car from ETH Zurich from 2014.
A lot of unique technology was presented in a small space in Zurich North. Whether the visitors to the Christmas collectors' fair appreciated this remains to be seen ...
More pictures can be found in the report on the SwissClassics Revue website.
