Four-seater, mid-engined, sequential gearbox, what’s not to like? Short descriptions can be deceiving, but if you’re interested in an unusual and very versatile car, then the 1958 Zündapp Janus 250 may be for you.
Once again, a trip to the Lane Motor Museum (www.lanemotormuseum.org) in Nashville resulted in a car that had to be experienced. The Zündapp Janus is an interesting solution to moving four people cheaply and providing interior flexibility not seen in many, if any, other automobiles. Zündapp is not known for automobiles, although there were some notable exceptions. It is best known for its motorcycles—some of which were just beautiful—and scooters.
The company came into existence in Nuremberg in 1917 thanks to Fritz Neumeyer, Friedrich Krupp AG, and a machine tool manufacturer called Thiel. It was first named Zünder und Apparatebau, German for “Igniter” and “Apparatus” to produce detonators for the German military. Toward the end of WWI, Krupp and Thiel lost interest, and Neumeyer became the sole owner of the company. He added motorcycles after the war and renamed the company Zündapp, taking the first four letters of the former first part of its name and the first three letters from the second.
A particularly nice example of the motorcycles the company produced is the 1938 K 800. It is a 4-cylinder, horizontally opposed, shaft-driven motorcycle and it was the only 4-cylinder motorcycle used by the Bundeswehr during WWII. Post WWII, Zündapp left the large motorcycle market and concentrated on scooters and small motorcycles, including a 125-cc bike with which Andrè Mahlerbe won the European motorcross championship in 1973 and 1974.
The company’s first excursion into auto production appears to have happened together with Ferdinand Porsche in 1931. Together they developed the Auto für Jedermann or “Car for Everyone,” aka People’s car, aka Volkswagen. The Porsche Type 12 was not much like the VW known today as it used a 1.2-liter Zündapp 5-cylinder radial engine. Sadly, the three prototypes were destroyed during the war, but a reconstruction of the car exists in the Industrial Culture Museum in Nuremberg.
Other than the Porsche Type 12, the only other automobile the company appears to have produced is the Janus 250. The car was named after, the two-faced Roman god, Janus, who was responsible for time, therefore one face looking forward and one back in time. Introduced during the Suez crisis, it is a 4-seater like few others. The driver and front passenger face forward and enter through a forward facing door, like that of an Isetta. The other passengers face backward, and enter through a door in the back and a mirror image of the one in front. A clever design aspect of the interior of the car makes it a car for camping trips. The two seats can be repositioned to make a bed for two.
Between the two seats is a mid-mounted, single-cylinder 250-cc, 2-stroke engine. The Janus was not a unique design by Züdapp, but was a Dornier Delta designed by Claudius Dornier, famous for his push-pull airplanes, and built under license.
Driving Impressions
How hard can a little car like this be to drive? Turns out I was very happy that James Green from the museum’s staff was with me. Getting in and out is a learning experience, since few of us are used to entering a car from the front (or back). The driving position is fairly cramped – the car is only a little over nine feet long and has two bench seats with the engine between them. There was little to learn once inside, since gauges and controls are quite limited, and some of the controls defied understanding. When I thought I was using the blinker, it seems I was turning the lights on and off. Then there was the transmission. The shifter is beside the driver’s seat on the left. To go forward, you start the car in first gear, release the clutch and zoom, well, not really zoom since the car is geared pretty low. To shift into second, you first push the lever forward to engage neutral, then again for second, again for third, then fourth. Ah, just like the transmission on my BMW motorcycle! To get reverse, you pull the shift lever left, then back. To downshift, push the lever to the right and back. OK, that sounds reasonable, so off we go in first, then shift through neutral to second, then try it again, then try it again, and finally get second. Green comments, “You can’t be nice to it.” With that in mind, I am more, uh, assertive with the transmission. As we drove toward the park where we’d do the photo shoot, I got better with practice, but this is not a car that’s easy to shift. Green, who has much more time in the car than I’ll ever have, was much better at shifting it.
Thankfully, the early part of the trip was more downhill than up. This is a momentum car, so downhill is good, but the car has little power for going up, so you have to get the revs up before shifting into the next gear. That’s when you discover that the car loses so much speed during the shift that you need to go back down a gear. Except for going up hills, the car is kind of peppy. Green added, “Pretty capable for a micro.” But it is a micro with a small engine with a top speed of 80! Well, that’s 80 kph. We saw 60 on our drive, again kph. Handling is not great. It’s a tall car with small wheels, so the center of gravity is not your friend when cornering. Thankfully, you’ll probably not be going too fast when cornering. The suspension is stiff, and, with its short wheelbase, the car is not gentle on its passengers.
On the way back to the museum, Green drove, and I rode in the back. As you would expect when in a car this unusual, it generates a lot of head turns. Pretty much everyone who was behind us waved at me as they caught up in traffic. Some cars caught us at quite a speed differential, probably just to get a good look at the Janus, but I have to admit, it increases the pucker factor when you’re looking a 4×4 pickup driver in the eye as he closes the distance.
A total of 6,900 Janus were built, but 15,000 per year were needed to make it profitable. The car was dropped after a two year run possibly because, as one reviewer of the car noted, it’s “unsociable seating arrangement and a total lack of luggage space prevented it from becoming very popular.”
Thanks to Jeff Lane for letting me drive the Janus and Jeff Green for being my instructor. Having this museum close is a joy. I can’t think of anywhere else with so many very unusual cars. The Janus was a trip!
Specifications
Body Monocoque, two door, four-seat microcar
Engine Single cylinder, two-stroke, mid-mounted
Displacement 248-cc/15 cubic inches
Power 14 bhp/10.3 KW @5000rpm
Torque 15 ft-lbs/20 NM @4800 rpm
Drive Rear wheels
Suspension Coil strut
Steering Rack and pinion
Length 2860 mm/9 ft 4 inches
Width 1400 mm/4 ft 7 inches
Weight 900 lbs/408.233 kg
Performance
Top Speed 50 mph/80 kph
0-60 Forever
Mileage 64 mpg
Valuation
Price new $1190 fob NY
Auction Results 2011 – $22,000 (predicted value $25,000-$35,000)
2012 – $51,750
