Auto Design

In the period from 1946 to 1949, Petermax Müller constructed a total of six racing car by dint of admirable improvisation from the scrap of the nearby Volkswagen plant. He drove these cars to become German Champion in 1948 and 1949. The shape of these cars bore a striking resemblance to the Wanderer he drove in the Liege – Rome – Liege race before the war. The car shown here from 1948 is Müller’s former private racing car and one of two vehicles still preserved.

One of the most successful racing cars in the years 1948 – 1950 was based on the maximum output of a 1,100 cc VW engine and a streamlined body. Four carburetors and enhanced compression increased the power from originally 24.5 hp to up to 78 hp running on methanol. The low weight of only 550 kg permitted speeds up to 215 km/h.

He designed the body himself with a very low air resistance and this was instrumental in achieving an average speed of 152 km/h over 72 hours and 10,969 km when driving over long distances such as the record drive in Montlery near Paris.

The engine still mounted in the car was partly made of spares from the engine that powered the legendary Porsche Typ 64 Berlin to Rome car built by the Wolfsburg test engineer Gustav Vogelsang.

After the start of the 1950s, Petermax Müller and his teammates Huschke von Hanstein and Helmut Polensky were the first Germans to take part in an international event after the war, when they competed in the race round Sicily – Giro di Sicilia.

The car was given the registration BN83 – 3300 that is still retained in its original form.

This prototype is property of the Museum Hamburg.