The Steyr 100 and 200 were a series of medium-sized cars built by the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n manufacturer

Steyr-Daimler-Puch Steyr-Daimler-Puch () was a large manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria, which was broken up in stages between 1987 and 2001. The component parts and operations continued to exist under separate ownership and new names. History T ...

AG from 1934 to 1940. The four-door

streamlined Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow. They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady. Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the framework of ...

body designed by engineer Karl Jenschke was manufactured in

Steyr Steyr (; Central Bavarian: ''Steia'') is a statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd l ...

, a 1933 prototype was assembled by

Gläser-Karosserie Gläser-Karosserie GmbH was a German coachbuilder, based in Dresden, and known in particular as a producer of bespoke cabriolet car bodies. The enterprise was founded in 1864 and lasted, by some criteria, till 1952. History Early years In 1864 ...

GmbH in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, Germany.

Design

The cars had a four-cylinder straight

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

and a four-speed

manual gearbox A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system, where gear changes ...

driving the rear wheels on a

leaf spring A leaf spring is a simple form of spring commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. Originally called a ''laminated'' or ''carriage spring'', and sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring, elliptical spring, or cart spring, it ...

swing axle suspension, a layout already introduced by Steyr on larger cars. The independent front suspension, however, was a first for the company. The four-speed transmission had synchronizations on the top two gears, while the 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine received five main bearings. "Steyr Type 100"
p. 30
/ref> A four-door saloon, two-door convertible, and a bare chassis were available, in addition to a light commercial model called the Steyr 110. The 100 could reach a maximum speed of about . Though not high-powered they could easily climb the Austrian

Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

mountain passes, demonstrated by the

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

governor Franz Rehrl, when on 22 September 1934 he and engineer

Franz Wallack Franz Friedrich Wallack (24 August 1887 – 31 October 1966) was an Austrian civil engineer. He mainly designed and built mountain pass roads, in particular the Grossglockner High Alpine Road across the High Tauern range between Salzburg and Cari ...

travelled the

Grossglockner High Alpine Road The Grossglockner High Alpine Road (in German ''Großglockner Hochalpenstraße'') is the highest surfaced mountain pass road in Austria. It connects Bruck an der Großglocknerstraße, Bruck in the state of Salzburg (state), Salzburg with Heilige ...

driving a Steyr 100, about one year before the official opening. In 1935-36 the Austrian travel writer

Max Reisch Max Reisch (1912–1985) was an Austria, Austrian long-distance motorcycle riding, long-distance motorcyclist and author who made what is called the first overlanding, overland journey to India (from Europe) in 1933. Reisch published ten travel n ...

crossed

Farther India Farther India, or Ultraindia, is an old term, now rarely used, for Southeast Asia, seen in colonial days from Europe as the part of the Far East beyond the Indian subcontinent, but south of China. It refers to Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, Myanma ...

(

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, and

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

) in a Steyr 100 and continued his journey through the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. After 2850 vehicles built the design underwent improvements in 1936, creating the more powerful Steyr 200. An additional 150 examples of a light commercial Steyr 110 had also been built. One technical novelty for the 200 model was the

starter motor A starter (also self-starter, cranking motor, or starter motor) is a device used to rotate (crank) an internal-combustion engine so as to initiate the engine's operation under its own power. Starters can be electric motor, electric, pneumatic ...

, which also doubled as an

alternator An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.Go ...

. The 200 also received an updated body, with a somewhat larger (still split) rear windshield. In late 1937 the grille was redesigned to match the larger 220 model, losing the central bar but gaining a "200" script, and of a convex rather than concave shape. 5040 such vehicles were produced until 1940.

References

{{reflist Steyr-Puch vehicles Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Sedans 1930s cars

Design

See also

References