Wartburg 311 - Two Strokes Never Were Prettier #blogpost

If you are not from Germany or over 70 years old, chances are high you never heard of this car.

What makes special by any means?

Well, I’m fairly sure you know of the Trabant 601. It’s famous -or rather: infamous- all around the world and became somewhat of a symbol for the East German car production. This car, however, is a few years older. It’s from 1955 and became a huge success, even in the West. With a contemporary body design combined with a conservative chassis design, the car could handle bad roads easily, which was a requirement for the design. The roads weren’t completely restored, even ten years after the war, and the car was intended to be useable by anybody anywhere. Mostly though, they wanted so save money in the development and production.
The car had such an impact on the economy of the GDR that was is considered absolutely necessary for the important and valuable forex.

Chassis design

Speaking of the conservative chassis design, this is it. The suspension (blue) was independent (the axle you see on the back does not actually spin, it just holds the wheel hubs) in the front and in the rear with lateral leaf springs and drum brakes on all four wheels. Front wheel drive was relatively modern, but a chassis frame was not considered contemporary anymore. The chassis design was taken from the IFA F9, which is a direct copy of the DKW F9, ranging back to the year 1940. That’s also the reason why the inline-three cylinder engine with the radiator mounted behind it was taken over. A front-mounted radiator wouldn’t have fitted into the DKW F9 and the back-mounted radiator (green) was considered powerful enough for the engine. So they just took it the way it is.

Contemporary review of the car

The low centre of gravity and the direct handling are excellent. The by itself well-shaped body got more attractive thanks to shiny new paints and a new grille. Points of cricisim were the too stiff setup of the leaf springs, the bad quality of the windscreen wipers. Furthermore, the relatively high empty weight compared to the international competiton and the loud engine noise, the bad brakes and the uncomfortable seats of the base model leave space for improvement."

From Kraftfahrzeugtechnik, issue November 1959.

The on-frame body made it, despite its many disavantages, possible to produce a variety of body designs. Pictured in the same order as listed.
311/0 Standardlimousine - base model saloon
311/1 Luxuslimousine - top model saloon
311/2 Kabriolett - soft top cabriolet
311/3 Coupé
311/4 Polizeieinsatzwagen - military/police utility vehicle
311/5 Campinglimousine mit Faltdach - wagon with wraparound windows and sunroof
311/6 Limousine, rechtslenkung (like 311/1, but with steering wheel on the right)
311/7 Schnelltransportwagen - ute
311/8 Faltdachlimousine - 311/0 and 311/1 with sunroof
311/9 Kombilimousine - two-door delivery wagon
313/1 Sportwagen - roadster

Successors

For the 1965 model year, the car was renamed to Wartburg 312. It was essentially an all-new car but with an old body. The car now had a double wishbone suspension in the front and a semi-trailing arm suspension with coil springs in the rear, progressive shock absorbers on all four wheels. This geometry wasn’t usual in the 1965 and certainly not in a budget car (which is what the Wartburg was in the west) like this. It was advertised as maintainance free for at least 50000 km.
Actually the Wartburg 312 wasn’t a projected model in the beginning. The tools were worn out, but the factory couldn’t keep up with the demand anyway, so a complete model change wasn’t possible that easily. Essentially, the Wartburg 312 used the modern chassis of the Wartburg 353 in combination with the Wartburg 353. Today, the Wartburg 312 is a sought-after car in Germany, since it’s easier to drive than the 311 and prettier than the 353.

What you see above is said Wartburg 353. With a much more rational and straightforward design, this body shape would eventually be seen all over the GDR. Despite new plastic bumpers somewhen in the early 1980s and the introduction of a new four-stroke engine in 1989, the car would stay like this until the very end.

Oh, and another thing

That picture was taken in 1959 at some irrelevant mountanin between France and Italy. Yes, the Wartburg 311 competed in the Rallye Monte Carlo. With just 50 bhp and an old chassis wasn’t very successful, but it made it to the finish without major failures at least.