Quick, what does the tiny little car you see here have in common with a Porsche 944 and an Audi R8? All three came from the same plant, in Neckarsulm, Germany! In fact the name of this car is an abbreviation of the name of its hometown: NSU. Little known today, NSU built motorcycles as far back as 1901 and its first cars in 1905; the last NSU was built in 1977, at which point the company had been a subsidiary of Audi for eight years. This is NSU’s first postwar car, the Prinz. If you know the NSU Prinz, you likely know it as a sort of miniature Corvair, but that version was actually the fourth-generation Prinz. This is a Prinz III, from 1961, and it can be yours for just $900…with one little caveat: it has no engine, transmission, wheels, floors, or title. On the plus side, it can be lifted by three people and fit into a pickup bed, if the seller is to be believed! It can be found on craigslist in Youngstown, Ohio, but please: no stupid questions. Thanks to reader Justin B for the non-stupid submission!
Only two pictures are provided, but given that this is basically just a body, there’s not much else to show. I wish the ad told more of this car’s story, including how it got to its current state. Originally, this Prinz housed an air-cooled vertical twin cylinder engine at the rear, essentially two NSU motorcycle engines joined together. A version of this platform underpinned the NSU Spider, one of the first production cars to use the Wankel rotary engine; given that history of quirky powerplants, what could you envision stuffing into this bite-size car? Or, if it’s too far gone to ever be resurrected for the road, what might you do with this funky little shell?
Considering all that is missing from this miniature wreck, I think I will just stick with the photo. The only thing palatable about this wreck is the pallet it is sitting on.
You can wedge this in the fork of a big tree, and have yourself a nifty deer stand.
Define “stupid question”.
“with one little caveat: it has no engine, transmission, wheels, floors, or title.”
That’s five little caveats. :) And four and a half too many.
Fix the floors, drop in a SBC, find some seats and you are ready to go. At least, thank heavens, it’s not a four-door like that Falcon!
Easy peasy cheap-a-neasy. Why iis it that every quick fix suggestion includes a SBC ?
Because they are cheap.
Parts for these are almost impossible to find. They only imported a little under 2500 to the USA, of this body/model. This body style was built from 1958-1962, from Neckarsulm, West Germany. 1958 was their first car built, not 1905. Early 1900’s they built bicycles, then motorcycles, and finally cars from 1958-1967, which is when Audi bought them out. NSU is short for Necarsulm. The Necarsulm name was derived from the two rivers that surrounded the city. The Neckar River and the Sulm River.
By the way, I own a 1960 NSU Prinz II. Built the frame for it and it now has a sbc with a turbo 350 trans, 10 bolt rear. Straight axle front end. Runs like stink, gets a lot of attention, and has far exceeded my expectations. Super fun to drive at any speed !!!! Finished it 4 years ago, have over 7500 miles on it and many awards. Only proves, anything is possible !!!!!
I’d rather have the Falcon.
I use to see NSU’s when i lived overseas in South America a few Prinz .But never this early model later ones did look like a smaller Corvair early series.
The hotel my Family stayed @for 6 months due to long U.S. housing wait
an employee there had a NSU scooter moped my brother said it stood for
“No Stand Up” as in riding safely…lol
Drop an LS1 in it.
I’ll leave now…
What time is lift off?
Find a late 80s Suzuki Samurai and drop this body on the chassis (and keep all the Samurai running gear intact)
Never ceases to amaze me, in 1961, what, we had cross ram 413’s, dual quad 409’s, and the Europeans putt-putted along in this. Wonderful ad, crummy pics, no title, no drivetrain, no floor or wheels, but a solid body. No stupid questions? Wouldn’t it be nice if all questions were “smart” questions? Wait,,,is that a stupid question?
Europe also had Ferrari , Maserati, Aston Martin, Mercedes and Jaguar, not to mention a future exporting premium vehicles to the world.
In one way, NSU brand did appear on cars before 1958, NSU/Fiat building and distributing Fiats in Germanybetween 1929 and 1958, . This was a separate company, based in Helbronn, which became Neckar in 1958 because of conflict of interest with NSU´s move to car production with Prinz, as this car.
Car illustrated is a post 1958 Neckar Weinsberg coupé, special bodied Fiat 500. Early versions were badged NSU/Fiat
My cousin had a Prinz similar to this one except it might have been older. He drove it all over the place until the day it just collapsed. The rear suspension just gave out and he was aground somewhere east of Minot ND. But he drove and drove it until then. Just carried lots of oil with him as it had an unquenchable thirst.
My most memorable NSU would be the Kettenkrad http://military-vehicle-photos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/3772.jpg Strangest machine I ever saw.
Or you could try the Munch Mammut http://cdn.silodrome.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Munch-Mammoth-3.jpg I remember when these were brought in by Floyd Clymer. They had an NSU motor and went pretty well. Just about twice the money as an HD Electra-Glide though….
My grandpa owned one back in the day and my dad and his buddies picked it up and placed it across a ditch the old man wasn’t too happy!
They also made the NSU Sport Prinz, designed by Bertone. Beautiful little car.
When I was stationed with the Army in Northern South Korea in the late 70’s, there was an STD known as NSU. Coincidence ?
There was an NSU dealership in Terre Haute, Indiana, in the 60’s, where I grew up. It was on Walnut Street. I believe that it’s now a micro-brewery.
We must correct some erroneous information. First the engine: it’s not two motorcycle engines joined together, it was actually a version of the engine on the NSU Supermax sport bike. It was very advanced for the time and featured helical arm driven overhead cams.
Two: it’s relation to the Wankel Spider: absolutely none. Wankel Spider was Sport Prinz (designed by Bertone) sans roof. These two cars were based on the Prinz 4 chassis which shared nothing with the Prinz 3 save for a similar engine and the NSU nameplate.
Side note: the Prinz 4 was the first car designed by Klaus Luthe, who would go on to design the Ro80, Audi 100, and many BMWs like the E30 3-series and the E31 8-series.
My Dad was a Mack Truck mechanic and bought his first Prinz a red 1959 in 1966 for $50. He was impressed with the engine and the combination starter/generator which simply needed brushes to run and start. He drove it to work for a year and got 50mpg and it never broke down. He bought a new 1966 Sport Prinz and we had it for 2 years, I drove it to high school. They were simple dependable cars.
i stumbled across a first gen nsu prinz, on an on line auction. so far, iam the only bidder. has a bullet hole in the windshield and center back glass is gone. motor is in place but the rear axle and ring gear are exposed, so its probably junk. finding anybody who has parts on the internet, iam not having any luck. youtube i saw some videos, but cant find any emails to contact anyone… if i win the bid, ill need help finding parts to make it go again… 308-760-1396, if you can help…