Whos the nearest Heinkel/Trojan owner to me (DT4)

[adi]

I really need to have a look at a complete car. I want to get this Heinkel finished off in the next couple of weeks, and the fact that i dont know what its supposed to look like is kind of a problem. Alot of people suggested i find someone who has one and ask them to take a look at it. But how would i go about doing that? I assume since the bubble car world is a very tightly-knit community and everyone knows everyone and knows everything, then someone on here will know someone or something?

Any help much appreciated, like i said im trying to get this done asap for the summer and its pretty hard going.

[marcus]

Whereabouts are you?
Another benefit of joining the club is you get a list of other members, many of whom will probably be prepared to help. I am in South East London, if that is any help.
Sorry to go on about the club! Just to add: my new ignition coil has just arrived in the post, from one of the club's Spares suppliers....see what I mean?!

[Big Al]

I live near Marc in Oxford though I am out toward Swindon side. 100 miles from Taunton though.

Did you see the knackered NSU 1000 on eBay? To rough to swop but if the TT is for sale, also eBay, it would make one out of two and blow the crap out of most Minis.

[Bob Purton]

Did someone mention NSU's? My pal has a prinz 600 for sale, it also would leave a mini standing. I can pass on any interest to him.

[Big Al]

Damn fine car in its day. Economical too. Trouble is it does not look kewt so they are worth naff all despite being the best in their class. The 600cc NSU could outperform the 1200cc Beetle. The four cylinder version was quick but a bit thirsty. The TT was better still. VW bought out NSU and the TT morphed into the Golf Gti after a few false starts. No doubting the cars potential and success as an engineering product. Not sure the Mini can boast the same. I have done my time and would recommend the NSU with the priviso that you need to be self reliant for parts if you use it regularly as sources are not very speedy unless you go to Germany.

[Bob Purton]

Yes, thats what I also heard, anticipate what parts you may need, apply in writing and if you are lucky in six months you may hear something!

[Big Al]

Well without getting into an argument I have had many NSU cars. Maybe that was part of the problem as the normal club official line was there were only x number of these cars and y of those. In that case I had a third of the Sport Prinz, a quarter of the Spyders etc over the years. Basically the figures were not correct but also the support for the certain types was not great. Thus I bought up several dealer loads of spares including 4 industrial cages of new bagged smalls from one place. VW were very hostile to NSU as a brand - they knew it was the better product I expect. There Audi was a RO 80 with a German three box body on it, the front wheel drive stuff was Prinz really. So the garages wanted rid. When I sold up the first time I offered the club the spares by dint of sending a list of parts I made up for retail sales suggesting they could make me an offer for the lot. Instead they chose to be silly and effectively 'marked' my list with price changes, availability and rude notes. They claimed to have new Sport Prinz bumpers so I called all the SP and Spyder owners and told them. Besieged with calls for stock that did not exist they then got funny about it. I therefore did two Mannhiems, took a huge amount of cash and sold the residual stuff to Mellmann who visited the club stash on his way home a did some trading with them for stock he wanted (seems a bit odd for a club to sell club stock to a trader to gain a few specific items. I leave you to work out what I think was going on). They then asked where the van full of stuff came from and apparently were really rather put out to find it was me.
I built up collections of NSU twice after this with spares to back it up and did the same thing. So the club lost the chance of obtaining a very large quantity of good spares because they preferred to play games with me. Wrong choice! Thus running an NSU now is not as easy as it could be and the prices are depressed here. Best light car I think to own and use is the Sport Prinz. Pretty, efficient, cheap to run and very under priced. A hard act to compete with. Trouble is finding one that has not been noshed is very difficult as the poor support has done for most of them. It is like looking for a perfect Goggo, there are about 3 left! The rest feature mostly ill restored cars as the prices do not reward effort. I have given up looking really, it is to depressing.

[adi]

Well, i been after a NSU of any kind for quiet a while, never quiet got my hands on one tho.

There was a guy on ebay recetnly (or was it one of the classified sites) setting a couple of RO80s, one with an Audi turbodiesel and one with the ford V4. He wanted a hotrod, so i nearly swapped my daily driver (a hotrod of course, what else would i drive to the shops?) for the one with the Ford V4. But it was very very rusty. And i had nowhere to put the Heinkel.

Hmm, know anyone who wants to swap anything NSU related for a very rotten Heinkel?

[bubble999]

Hi adi where are you I have a Heinkel that you can look at if your not to far away

[Big Al]

You do not really want a RO 80 with a V4 in it. From smooth as silk to the most sophisticated dumptruck engine made. A RO 80 is a strong car but they rust. A good one with a sorted engine, or Mazda engine, is a delight. I believe you could get a nice NSU for a part dead Heinkel.

[marcus]

RO 80s soon picked up a bad reputation because of failures in the rotary engine's seal's. Specialist materials and companies now exist that are putting original engines back in, with far better life expectancy. Fantastic cars!

[Big Al]

There were two issues with the original RO 80. The first was NSU were introducing new technology and decided to back the production with a guarantee that they would replace any engines that failed from mechanical defect. The second was that the tips of the rotor were not as advanced in materials as now but adequate for the envisaged parameters. The error was to not fit a rev limiter. So what happened is drivers thrashed the engines and the tips failed. The quantity of backed engines broke NSU allowing VW to pick up the business and the rest is history, well such as it is written by VW who just as they nicked the Beetle from Ludwinka proceeded to nick all NSU's best ideas and put their name to it. This is the reason I am always suspicious of VW as they were basically a production facility with ineffective R and D. This deception syndrome runs deep in the company and much of their product list shows a willingness to deceive. They did manage to make some real crap in fact, and still do.
Back to the RO 80. It failed because the drivers either did not understand or appreciate the technology and the company was to honest and perhaps leaped 20 years ahead instead of 10 years leaving the buying public in their wake. I will not hear an argument that the car was bad as it was not. It was a victim of circumstance and is, and should have been, an achievement like the DS Citroen. Interesting to note Citroen themselves looked at Wankel power. Before the economy argument appears you have to compare the car to a 1966 2.8/3lt for a direct comparison. It was not a gas guzzler in its class. It was a directors car not a Cortina.