The Tiny, Fairly Attractive (For Its Size) Gutbrod

The German Gutbrod company built cars and motorcycles off and on from 1926 to 1954 (Wikipedia entry here).

The car's unusual name was that of its founder, Wilhelm Gutbrod (1890-1948).  I call the name Gutbrod unusual because it's pronounced the same as gut brot ("good bread" in English).

This post deals with 1950-54 Gutbods, tiny cars with two-cylinder, two-stoke motors delivering about 20 horsepower.  Only 7,726 were built.

I've seen it mentioned fairly often and mention it myself: small cars are harder to design than large ones.  So it's no surprise that many small cars are not very attractive.  Those post- World War 2 Gutbods were no beauties, but they were not ugly either -- especially considering how small they were.

Let's look at some images from here and there on the Internet.

Gallery

Gutbrods only held two people, and this helped their styling.   The passenger compartment took up a comparatively (to a hypothetical four-passenger version) small part of the car's length.  A result was a  long-looking hood that was balanced by a non-trivial bustle-back trunk.

Rear quarter view.  Note the subtle crease along the trunk centerline.

Now two Wikimedia-sourced photos.  Gutbrods featured modern-looking pontoon fenders with round wheel cut-outs that reduced what visual bulk there might have otherwise been.  Like the trunk lid, the hood has a central crease, adding strength and interest.   The grille is simple, but the shaping of the bars extends the hood crease down the car's front.

The metal part of the greenhouse has a strong, simple shape with good proportions for a car of its size.

The hood looks quite long from this perspective.

Gutbrod also made a few sports cars.  This is the 1950 prototype.

The production version got a different body that seems to have been inspired by the Jaguar XK120.  A less-successful design than the coupé's.