Engine Punk

This splendid Belgian-registered example appeared at the 2022 Imp Club National at Borden in Hampshire. It's a developed version of the DKW 3=6 and uses a 981cc (74 x 76mm) version of the 3-cylinder two- stroke engine ( VT No.13 ) that's fascinated me for many years.  In later years, DKW was held to stand for  Das Kleine Wunder, or the little wonder but in 1916 it originally meant  Dampf-Kraft-Wagen when   Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen built a  steam-powered car in Zschopau, Germany. When that venture failed, he made toy two-stroke engines for children under the name of  Des Knaben Wunsch or "the boy's wish". Once fitted into bicycle frames, these became  Das Kleine Wunder although some called the little Deeks the  Deutsche Kinder-Wagen, or "German children's car".  After a brief flirtation with rear-engined, two stroke-powered cars using a pumping cylinder for supercharge (I love that sort of thing), DKW introduced the three-cylind...

The cutaway gives any idea of how few moving parts the GKW engine had. It had 3 coils through Following VT 10 about the Mercedes-Wartburg, I tried to find some more information about the DKW engine that was the basis of the Wartburg motor. The Deek also sired the early Saab and Auto-Union two-strokes. There's still quite a following for these little cars. Wartburg's and Trabants have a kind of retro-Commie Cool but I couldn't find the technical info I was after. However, in the course of my latest investigations into Trojan engines, I found a slim volume in the Anarchadia Publishing research library, entitled The Two-Stroke Engine (bit of a give away, that) by K G Draper, published by Foulis. Not only did it have a schematic diagram of the Trojan engine but also a cut away of the little Deek - DKW stands for Das Kleine Wunder, the little wonder. You can clearly see the seven moving parts - 3 pistons, 3 conrods and a crankshaft. This elegant design was first ...