Say you want to mass-produce automobiles. But your county's factories are mostly bombed to rubble and overrun by enemy armies. It takes years to even party recover from this disaster. So how to you start? What kind of car can you build?
Norddeutsche Automobil und Motoren GmbH, later
Lloyd Motoren Werke GmbH (Wikipedia entry
here), originally a subsidiary of the North German Lloyd steamship company but under the control of Carl Borgward, launched a very basic product. The entry states "The very first cars (the Lloyd 300) were wood and fabric bodied. Thin, rolled steel gradually replaced the original fabric shell between 1953 and 1954 (Lloyd 400), however wood framing was still used within the doors and elsewhere." Lloyd 300 and 400 models had two-cylinder, two-stoke motors that could propel the cars to a maximum of 75 KPH (47 MPH). The 600 series motors remained two-cylinder, but were given four-stroke ignition resulting in a top speed of 100 KPH (62 MPH).
Postwar Lloyds were produced 1950-1961 and a few thereafter, later models being marketed by Borgward, which essentially failed in 1961 but reappeared as a Mexican concern.
Lloyd being an obscure brand, there is not a lot about its cars on the Internet. Worse, labels for images of various Lloyd models are inconsistent, so the identification of the cars in the images below should be taken with a little skepticism.
Gallery
Publicity photo of a Lloyd LP 300. Lack of metal bodywork is evident: the car was probably polished as best it could be for the photo shoot.
Rear quarter view of a Lloyd LP 300, Wikipedia photo. These cars were quite small, having a wheelbase of 2 meters (79 inches). The body designers tried to make them as modern looking as possible, given the structural limitations (especially featuring pontoon fenders).
Two views of a Lloyd LP 400 for sale. The styling theme of the 300 remains, but is better executed thanks to the metal paneling. Note the curved back window. Doors remain rear-hinged.
I'm pretty sure this is a Lloyd 600, but some Internet versions of this image have it as a 400. Here we see a two-tone paint job and more extensive chrome trim. The design is functional: plain but not ugly. Tiny cars such as these are difficult to style. Keep in mind that metal and glass forming technology was far below today's standards in the early 1950s when these cars were designed. Also recall that Germany was only beginning to recover industrially at this point after the war.
Another view of a LP 600.
A for sale LP 600 from around 1956 with revised tail lights and turn indicator lights.
Finally, a circa-1958 Lloyd Alexander 600, the LP body type designation having been dropped. Here we find two-tone paint, a side chrome strip and a revised grille. All-in-all, hardly a design classic -- but it could have been a lot worse.
Lloyd's famous for probably the most murderous bonnet (hood) ornament ever devised. Look at the great hook sticking out of some of those cars. I understand the German authorities make you take it off before they allow one on the road.
ReplyDeleteI am the happy owner of a 1955 Lloyd LP 400 S. Ugly, yes, gormless, yes, but infinitely cute to look at and listen to. The upper two photos are indeed of the earlier 300 cc LP 300 with wood-and-vinyl bodywork, a sort of poor man's Weymann fabric body as used by DKW pre-war. The next two images show a light blue LP 400 S - the S standing for Stahl (steel), as all-steel bodywork became standard after the fall of 1954. The fifth, black-and-white image is a late 1953/early 1954 LP 400, which still had the a vinyl clad plywood roof. The brightwork strips (aluminum) held down the edges of the vinyl sheets, as was the case on the earlier LP 300. The wood/vinyl body earned the car the nickname "Leukoplastbomber" - sticking plaster bomber: The sticking plaster could be used to 'repair' small holes in the vinyl skin.
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