After the war the DKW plant was moved from Chemnitz to Ingolstadt where they started the production of a small transporter as their first post war project. Because there was no transport capacity after the war, the first developed and built car was a truck. DKW had a restricted budget and therefore the little transporter had very little designer input and was mostly an engineer design.

With a 750 kg payload and a "breath-taking" speed of 70 km/h DKW managed more than the other competitors, this explains the name Schnellaster. The DKW Schnellaster was available on the market in many versions before the ultimately more successful VW Transporter (Bulli). Who compares the DKW Schnellaster with modern transporters, will find many similarities. Engine located in the front with front-wheel drive, the sloping hood and the undivided front window and single wiper. Only you don’t see the rear-hinged "suicide doors" and the bench anymore.

DKW could not compete with VW and only 3,727 vans and pick-ups were produced. Only very few remain today.

Like the other models in the Schnellaster series, the Grossraum Pritsche (type 1924) used a rather unconventional two-cylinder, two-stroke engine for power. Though a mere 700cc in displacement, the single Solex carburetor-equipped engine still produced a semi-respectable 23 horsepower. A three-speed manual transmission was the sole gearbox offering in 1951, and Schnellaster models featured a fully independent suspension in front and rear. Up front, a transverse-mounted leafspring design was used, while in the rear the company adopted a trailing arm and torsion bar setup. Stopping duties were handled by hydraulic drum brakes in all four corners.

This DKW F89L was new delivered to Heinrich Göbel in Neu Isenburg am Main. Heinrich Göbel and his wife Hildegard started in1924 a repair shop for motorcycles. Twelve years later, in 1936, began the still existing collaboration with Mercedes-Benz. In 2005 the Schnellaster was completely restored by a professional workshop outside Stuttgart.

Technical data