NSU Prinz 4 - 1961

The NSU Prinz is an automobile produced in West

Germany by the NSU Motorenwerke AG. The car was built

from 1957 to 1973, and received a model change in 1961

(the old model was continued until 1962).

One  

of  

the  

revelations  

of  

the  

Frankfurt  

Motor  

Show  

in  

September  

1961,  

the  

Prinz  

4  

replaced  

the

original  

Prinz.  

Its  

new  

body  

closely  

resembled  

the  

then  

fashionable  

Chevrolet  

Corvair,  

but  

was  

of

course  

much  

smaller.  

Like  

the  

original  

Prinz,  

it  

was  

powered  

by  

a  

two-cylinder  

air-cooled  

engine

in  

the  

rear.  

The  

Prinz  

4  

was  

much  

improved  

and  

continued  

to  

be  

a  

well-engineered  

car,  

like  

its

predecessors.  

The  

engine  

carried  

on  

the  

tradition  

of  

eccentric  

rod  

driven  

camshaft  

inherited

from  

NSU  

motorcycle  

engines  

and  

interestingly  

had  

a  

dynastart  

(combined  

starter/generator)

built  

into  

the  

crankcase.  

Later  

four-cylinder  

engines  

adopted  

the  

more  

conventional  

(pre-

engaged) separate starter motor and alternator.

In  

1968,  

Britain's  

Autocar  

road  

tested  

a  

Super  

Prinz.  

They  

had  

tested  

a  

Prinz  

4  

in  

1962,  

and  

in

commenting  

on  

how  

little  

the  

car  

had  

changed  

in  

the  

intervening  

six  

years  

quipped  

some  

of  

their

road  

testers  

appeared  

to  

have  

gained  

more  

weight  

than  

the  

commendably  

light-weight  

Prinz  

in

that  

period.  

The  

test  

car  

achieved  

a  

top  

speed  

of  

113  

km/h  

(70  

mph)  

and  

accelerated  

to  

97

km/h  

(60  

mph)  

in  

35.7  

seconds.  

The  

home  

grown  

Mini  

850  

reached  

97  

km/h  

(60  

mph)  

in  

29.5

seconds  

in  

an  

equivalent  

recent  

test  

and  

also  

managed  

to  

beat  

the  

NSU's  

top  

speed,  

albeit  

only

by  

about  

3%.

At  

this  

time,  

the  

UK  

car  

market  

was  

heavily  

protected  

by  

tariffs,  

and  

the  

Prinz's  

UK

manufacturer's  

recommended  

retail  

price  

was  

£597,  

which  

was  

more  

than  

the  

(possibly  

below

cost)  

£561  

asked  

for  

the  

850  

cc  

Mini,  

but  

certainly  

not  

completely  

out  

of  

touch  

with  

it.  

The

testers  

concluded  

their  

report  

that  

the  

car  

was  

competitively  

priced  

in  

its  

class  

and  

performed

adequately.  

They  

opined,  

cautiously,  

it  

offered  

'no  

more  

than  

the  

rest'  

but  

neither  

did  

it  

'lack

anything important'.

1961

Engine 598 cc Top speed 113 km/h Lenght/width 3,4 m/1,49 m