First a Princess, now a Prinz

almigo (50)in #teamaustralia • 5 years ago

I must have missed the memo about royals week at Llyods this week, having tripped over the run down Austin Princess the other day and now discovering her baby brother rusting around the corner...a Nsu Prinz!

How do you do, your highness?

Yes we were back for the second time this week - another chance for the visiting father in law to drool over his coveted HJ GTS Monaro (and a Brock Special inside we got to get close to). Venturing deep into the vary end of the car park where cars get ready to get cleaned, photo'd and prepped for auction I cam across my very first NSU Prinz.

bows regally

Having never seen one in the metal til now (and having no idea of it's existence before today) I immediately likened it to one of the first cars you race against in your first few minutes of playing Gran Turismo 1 on the original PlayStation. You know where you want to start with something like a Subaru WRX 22B but the initial funds only stretch to a Mazda 323F. You'd never buy one to race it yourself, it's just there putting along while you get the hang of cornering and braking.

The garbage bag adds and extra 0.025 HP

Fahre Prinz und Du bist König" ("Drive a Prince and you're a king")

Like the Princess, the Prinz here seems to have seen quite a few balls, campaigns and attempts at throne takeovers but the fact that it's almost 60 years old and still ticking (slowly) is pretty impressive! Also according to the listing - it's only ever had two owners! (Which equates to one every thirty years, not bad!)

1960 NSU PRINZ
Year: 1960
Make: NSU
Model: PRINZ
Body: Sedan
Odometer: Indicating 46,513
Engine: 2-Cylinder Petrol
Transmission: Manual
Colour: Green / White
Description/extras: 2 owner car, runs well.
Chassis No: 4118108
ENG No: 4115846

The engines were known to be noisy but easy to maintain. Also given it's a '60 model NSU Prinz, we may just be looking at a 30E version which according to Wikipedia had a 30hp engine (which would be a monster in comparison to the original 20hp version..)

I don't think this was where they mounted the battery originally though:

Seems safe enough...

Was this the one with the rotary?

Sadly no, that's the NSU Ro 80 you're thinking of. Same company, a few years later than the crown wearer here through. Wankels for weeks before Mazda began their rotary experiments later on.