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Rapid - 2-seater body - manufactured in 1946
In car history there are only a few cars that have had a lasting impact on society. Best known of these is probably the Ford Model T but it's closely followed by the Volkswagen Beetle. The Beetle has put millions of people on the road all around the world and generations have grown up with it, but where did it came from? It's almost common knowledge that it was created in Germany in that troubled and unstable era just before the second World War and was adopted by the German regime as its "people's car", the literal translation of the word Volkswagen. Yet, as it goes with good ideas, it's conception is claimed by many fathers.
Generally Ferdinand Porsche is credited with the design of the Beetle and undoubtedly he played an important role. The origins of the Beetle were more diverse than that however. During the 1930s the idea of a people's car, which meant an innovative and extremely affordable design, inspired lots of engineers and good ideas were quickly copied by others. One persistent supporter of the people's car in Germany was Josef Ganz who, as an editor of the magazine Motor-Kritik from the late 1920s, opposed and confronted manufacturers of traditional cars and advocated new ideas. As such he rapidly became known as an innovator and this lead to contacts with manufacturers willing to develop a people's car according to the ideas promoted by Ganz.
After some remarkable prototypes for Ardie and Adler and acting as an consultant for Mercedes Benz (types 170, 120 H and 130 H) and BMW (type AM1) during the early 1930s it was in 1932 that the Standard Superior appeared. This was the first Josef Ganz design taken into production and was partly based on the prototype for Adler. The Standard Superior was a small, streamlined and rear engined closed car produced by motorcycle manufacturer Wilhelm Gutbrod. It did appear a bit like the later Beetle but was smaller and more rudimentary. A few hundred of these cars were made up to 1935, less than anticipated mainly due to competition from Opel and DKW who offered more substantial cars for nearly the same price. After the Standard Superior one more Josef Ganz design was introduced in Germany: the obscure Bungartz Butz. This was a small open 2-seater with clad wooden bodywork and similar rear engined lay-out as the Standard Superior. Only a few of these were made during 1934 by the company best known for its trailers and tiller tractors.
When the Standard Superior was presented to the newly installed Nazi regime at the 1933 Berlin Motorshow things started to go wrong for Josef Ganz. While the regime was very interested in the design of the Standard they'd rather get rid of the Jewish Ganz. With law and justice now acting against him he fell victim of accusations made by those who suffered from the criticisms in his magazine. It was no longer safe for Ganz in Germany and he left for Liechtenstein in 1934, the same year Ferdinand Porsche was assigned to develop the "Volkswagen".
Josef Ganz ended up in Switzerland and set out to develop a Swiss people's car backed by the Swiss government. From 1937 till 1945 a few prototypes were made of a diminutive 2-seater but it took until 1946 for it to reach production. By then Josef Ganz was entangled in a legal battle with the Swiss government about the rights of the design. Production of the car was entrusted to Rapid Motormäher of Dietikon, Switzerland, an important manufacturer of motor mowers and 2-wheeled tiller tractors. Its design featured independent suspension, a central-tube chassis, a sheet metal body and a special 350 cc engine by Motosacoche in the rear. This engine was 2-stroke and air-cooled and had two pistons opposing each other in a single cylinder with combustion taking place in the middle. It developed up to 10 hp and was matched to a 3-speed gearbox and drove the rear wheels without differential.
Though the car was small in size it offered sufficient room for two and the engine was powerful enough to propel the 400 kg car to about 70 kph. Most impressing however was its manoeuvrability: thanks to its motorcycle wheels, independent suspension, low center of gravity and lacking differential it allowed for antics like no other car and proved ideal for the Swiss mountain road conditions. So priced at an affordable sum it looked set to conquer the market but unfortunately it failed. Rapid had hoped to attract addition capital to enable mass production after a limited first production run but this didn't materialize and added to that it endured heavy competition from imported cars. After only 36 Rapid cars had been made production was stopped in 1947.
The court battles Josef Ganz had about this car lasted longer than that and disillusioned he decided to go to France in 1949. There he worked on the Julien MM5 and MM7 cars up to 1950 and in 1951 he left Europe altogether and emigrated to Australia. In Australia he was employed by car manufacturer Holden for a number of years and ultimately he died in relative obscurity in 1967.
Basic aspects of the people's car promoted and shown by Josef Ganz are found in the Volkswagen Beetle. But then the Beetle shows also characteristics from designs by Hans Ledwinka (Tatra) and Karl Jenschke (Steyr) for instance and the first Porsche designs (for Zündapp and NSU) leading up to the Beetle appeared as early as 1931, well before the Standard Superior. In fact, Josef Ganz himself was accused of patent infringement by Tatra for his Standard Superior design. So perhaps it's a bit too much to claim that Ganz was the father of the Volkswagen Beetle yet his part in the history of this important car shouldn't be overlooked. More info about Josef Ganz and his cars can be found on the Josef Ganz Archives site.
For years it was thought that only one Rapid car had survived, safely displayed in a Swiss museum. Recently it was discovered that there was another one in Holland. This car, shown here, was found under a hay-stack near Amsterdam in the 1950s and kept in an unrestored condition by the owner. Though it may not be the most striking classic it's a wonderfully obscure early example of the mini cars that were all the rage in the 1950s, complete with an interesting history to boot.
© André Ritzinger, Amsterdam, Holland
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