Warburg 313 Sport - The Forgotten Beauty #blogpost

Contrary to what some people think, the East German automobile industry was not always trash. In the early years of the GDR, there were many cars that were real dream cars. One of them is the subject of this post, the Wartburg Sport, factory designation “313”.
The Wartburg 313 had the same chassis as its base version, the Wartburg 311. All versions had the same front-wheel drive chassis, the same three-cylinder two-stroke engine and the same wheelbase. The coupé, the saloon and the estate car all had exactly the same wheelbase, which allowed it to place the cabin further to the back and thus lenghten the bonnet. Not like that would have been neccessary, but it looks just great. For a comparision, the driver’s and co-driver’s seat was about in the same position as the back seats of the saloon.

The Warburg 311 itself was sold in a few different versions 311/0 Standardlimousine (basic saloon), 311/1 Luxuslimousine (luxury saloon), 311/2 Kabriolett (convertible), 311/6 Schnelltransportwagen (pick-up truck) and 311/9 Kombinationskraftwagen (estate) just to name a few. The 312 was basically a 311 with the later 353 chassis. There were more, but these are the ones that are interesting. Why am I telling you this? Well, there is a difference between the Warburg 311/3 Coupé and the Wartburg 313 Coupé. Look at the picture and you will see my point.

311/3 vs 313

Even though this car was considered one of the most beautiful cars of its time back then, the engine could not keep up with the looks. The engine, quite unfortunately, already was the biggest problem with the saloon version already: it was too loud, not smooth at all, barely had any power and smelled badly. It was uprated from 37 bhp to 50 bhp, which was enough for a top speed of 140 km/h (88 mph), but that was obviously still not enough to compete with cars like the Mercedes-Benz 300SL. However, it was voted best European car at an American motor show in 1957. They were produced in the Eisenach factory (close to the eponymous Wartburg castle) and later in the Desden body works. It was optionally either sold with a removeable hardtop of a convertible hood. Of the just 469 units that were produced, 143 were exported, of which 8 went into the USA.
Only a handful of them survived and today they are almost forgotten. Those who have one would -quite understandably- rather sell their own mothern than their 313 Coupé. At the point of writing, not a single one was for sale.

I personally have only seen two in my whole life, even though I live only a few kilometres away from the place where they built it. One was in the Wartburg museum and the other one is the one pictured below.

After the 313 went out of production, a successor version was projected, designated 313/2. Barely any information exists about it. It was developed top secret and many records of it were lost in the German reuniting 1989/1990. There is no information about the engine, only it supposedly was in the back. The inspiration of the Renault Caravelle can’t be denied, but what makes this car interesting is that a few design elements of it came into use with the Wartburg 353, the more famous successor version of the 311/312.