The DKW Coupé Fissore

Recently, I have been producing articles on cars built in Argentina (thanks to CTzen Ryosuke Nagato). Here is the latest instalment.

In the fifties, Auto Union built a car called the 1000. Auto Union was the company formed when DKW, Audi, Horch and Wanderer merged in the thirties. The company was named Audi when it was bought over by Volkswagen in the sixties.

Auto Union is perhaps mostly famed for its race car of the thirties. Auto Union and Mercedes dominated GP racing from 1934, and the fastest speed ever reached on a public road (268 mph) was set by one of these cars. But after the war, the company only just managed to survive, and stopped its racing efforts.

Fissore was an Italian styling house, which at this time mainly designed cars for Fiat and Auto Union. They went on to design cars for Monteverdi, De Tomaso and Alpine.

In Argentina, IASFe (Industrias Automotriz de Santa Fe) manufactured under licence the 1000 between 1960 and 1970. This car was designed by Fissore and therefore featured a more elegant design. Sold as the DKW Coupé Fissore, it was, quite simply, beautiful. Not fast - it had a two cylinder two-stroke engine with 50 bhp, which got it to 60 mph in 23.6 seconds. But beautiful.

Thanks for reading. I hope it wasn’t too boring.

#blogpost