Rare Rides: The DKW Wagon From 1962 - Deceptive Geography (Part II)
Last time, in Part I of this DKW wagon’s saga, we covered a condensed history of the Audi marque. From its inception as Horch, through separation, renaming, and merger into the Auto Union fold, Audi wavered along unsteadily. The company even performed a vanishing act between 1940 and 1964.
In the middle of all this history is our Rare Ride, a tidy DKW wagon from 1962. But all is not as it seems.
You see, something didn’t sit right between the historical timelines presented online and the model year of this DKW. Through a little research, I discovered the model-less wagon in the ad was actually a DKW 3=6 “Universal,” the name of the three-door wagon variant. But the front end looked a little odd, and it turned out that production of the 3=6 ended in 1959. So what gives with this 1962 model — an uninformed seller, perhaps?
Not quite. This photo betrayed one key detail of this DKW: “Vemag S.A.” Those two letters stand for “Sociedade Anónima,” a form of corporation in Brazil. Vemag produced licensed DKW vehicles with slight modifications in Brazil, between 1956 and 1967. The factory in Brazil made several models, which underneath were versions of the 3=6. Production of the F94 version of the 3=6 began in 1958, with sedan and wagon variants. Though initially the models retained their DKW nomenclature, Vemag renamed them Belcar and Vemaguet in sedan and wagon versions, respectively.
Vemag also produced a fiberglass-bodied sports car called the GT Malzoni, which would be the foundation for Brazilian sports car manufacturer Puma (still going today in South Africa).
Turns out what we actually have here is a Vemag S.A. produced DKW Vemaguet. The South American market was the very last place you could buy a new DKW, as Volkswagen wound down the Brazilian operation in 1967. And so concludes the story of DKW branded cars — a long tale for this little German/South American wagon.
It’s yours for just under $24,000.
[Images via seller]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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In the late 50's and early 60's DKW cars were often seen in and around London in addition the very stylish DKW two stroke motorcycles were popular. Compared to the pitiful James and BSA singles the DKW's were sleek, with much of the mechanical bits hidden beneath cowlings with leading link front suspension and most of the brightwork in polished aluminum and deeply valanced mudguards.
It wasn't uncommon back then for cars to be built under license in South America, with cars being facelifted, yet still recognizable. One example would be the IKA-Renault Torino, a '64-'65 Rambler American, refreshed by Pininfarina, built in Argentina by a subsidiary of Kaiser Motors, and later taken over by Renault. Whoa, now I've got a headache. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKA-Renault_Torino