The Zündapp Janus is a

microcar Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are ofte ...

model made by Zündapp in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

between 1957 and 1958, as the only car ever built by the company.

Dornier Delta

Claude Dornier Claude (Claudius) Honoré Désiré Dornier (14 May 1884 – 5 December 1969) was a Franco-German airplane designer and founder of Dornier GmbH. His notable designs include the 12-engine Dornier Do X flying boat, for decades the world's la ...

was always trying to minimize the dependency of his company

Dornier Flugzeugwerke Dornier Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturer founded in Friedrichshafen in 1914 by Claude Dornier. Over the course of its long lifespan, the company produced many designs for both the civil and military markets. History Originall ...

on building aircraft, by diversification into other areas. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and the Allied ban on aircraft production in Germany until the late 1950s, Claude diversified the company's production and encouraged his son Claudius to find new areas. As a result, Claudius designed and developed a four-seater car, where the two front and two rear passengers sat back to back, for optimal use of the enclosed space. A prototype was built and tested, which was named Dornier Delta. The company had not built a car before, and economic calculations showed that the volume of sales required would make it uneconomical for the company to make the car using its existing facilities. Zündapp was a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

maker, but in 1954 decided to make a more weatherproof vehicle. They looked for partners who could design such a vehicle, and approached Kroboth, Brütsch, and Fuldamobil before settling on the ready-developed vehicle from Dornier.

Zündapp Janus

Under a commercial agreement, Dornier licensed Zündapp to produce and market the car. With the goal of producing a "quality bubble car", the concept was developed further, using Zündapp's engineering input. The resulting novel design featured a front-opening door for access to the front seat, as well as a rear-opening door for access to the rear-facing rear seat. This "coming or going" design was given the name of the Roman god,

Janus In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus (''Ianu ...

, usually pictured having two faces: one looks forward while the other one looks back. The car was powered by a mid-mounted two-stroke, single-cylinder, engine unique to the Janus, developing , enabling a top speed of . The front suspension was of the leading arm-type that proved to be very comfortable, and in the rear the car had a

swing axle A swing axle is a simple type of independent suspension designed and patented by Edmund Rumpler in 1903 for the rear axle of rear wheel drive vehicles. This was a revolutionary invention in automotive suspension, allowing driven (powered) whee ...

. The company added four individually mounted ventilated brake drums, operated via hydraulics. Production started in June 1957, but with little sales success, only 1,731 cars were made in the first six months. One reason was the suboptimal handling: With an engine that was much lighter than the rear passengers, the advantages usually associated with a

mid-engine In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout ...

configuration in racing and sports cars did not apply, and the centre of gravity changed a lot depending on how many passengers were present. Secondly, the car lacked the most modern elements seen on competitors' cars, and was not low priced. By mid-1958, having made only a total of 6,902 cars, Zündapp abandoned the project and sold the factory to Bosch.

In popular culture

In the animated

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

Cars 2 ''Cars 2'' is a 2011 American animated spy comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to '' Cars'' (2006), the second film in the ''Cars'' franchise, and the 12th animated film from the studio ...

'', Professor Zündapp is based on a 1957 Zündapp Janus.

Dornier Delta II

During the mid-1960s, Dornier developed the Delta II with Hymer AG. The vehicle could carry up to six passengers and offered two sleeping places for camping. The development never got beyond the prototype stage.

References

*Taschen, Benedikt. ''Kleinwagen, Small Cars, Petites Voitures'', 1994. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zundapp Janus Microcars Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles Cab over vehicles Cars introduced in 1957 Zündapp Cars discontinued in 1958