The first new product from Horch after the creation of the Auto Union was the 3-litre V8 engine
developed by Fritz Fiedler. From 1933 onwards it was used in the forthcoming “small”
Horch. By virtue of its number of cylinders and displacement,
it was known as the 830. In a similar way, the “large” Horch was known as the 850 because of its 5-litre
straight-eight engine.
Beauty on the move
One of Horch’s finest-looking production cars was exhibited at the 1935 Berlin Motor Show: a two-door, four- to five-seater sports convertible with a two-window body and admittedly monumental but nonetheless stylish lines. With the luggage rack extended, it was almost six metres long; over its boldly curved running boards, it was 1.80 m wide. The attraction went below the splendid outer skin as well: the chassis was an
entirely new development. The front swing-axle suspension featured two transverse leaf springs and wishbones. At the rear there were double universal-joint halfshafts and a De Dion axle tube. As a result this large car’s roadholding was outstanding. The smaller Horch models had already acquired this independent front suspension, and shortly afterwards were given the new rear axle layout as well.
In addition to these running-gear improvements, the manufacturer’s main concern was to increase power output. The opulent luxury equipment of these bodies took a severe toll in terms of weight, but more powerful engines were still some way from production readiness. It was not impossible to boost the output of the existing units: the 5-litre engine was accordingly given a camshaft with more aggressive valve timing and a higher compression ratio, which boosted its output to 120 horsepower. Similar measures applied to the smaller V-engine proved even
more satisfactory: its initial power output of 62 bhp went up to 70 and later to 82 bhp in 1937, and by 1938/39, a figure of 92 bhp had been reached – an increase of almost 50 percent in power output from the same basic design. The car’s performance now gave no grounds for complaint. On 25 November 1938 testers from the “Allgemeine Automobil Zeitung”, one of Germany’s most reputable car magazines, drove the Horch 930 V with the 92 bhp 3.8-litre engine on the motorway from Munich to Berlin in 3 hours, 53 minutes, an average speed of 136 km/h! Like most Horch cars from that year on, the car was equipped with the company’s “motorway gear” transmission, a planetary gear train with synchromesh attached to the main gearbox, and containing a direct-drive ratio and a higher ratio which reduced the engine speed when the car was in use on one of Germany’s new high-speed main roads. The effect was the same as with the overdrives or high top gears frequently offered in later years.
Horch’s car designers had an abundance of farreaching ideas and innovations up their sleeves, so to speak, for forthcoming models. One of the most dramatic examples was the streamlined body for the 930 S, developed in the wind tunnel in accordance with Paul Jaray’s patents. It was displayed at the 1939 Motor Show. The body had no B-post, and for the first time there was a fullwidth bench seat at the front instead of the usual separate seats. The body’s aerodynamic drag coefficient (cd) was 0.43, far lower than any rival model.
Such developments by Auto Union were evidence that it had identified future trends in automotive technology more clearly and effectively than other manufacturers. The demand for Horch cars had already risen rapidly, and by the summer of 1939 customers were obliged to wait up to nine months for delivery.
August Horch had declared many years before that he intended,
come what may, to build only large, powerful and above all good cars. In this respect, nothing had changed at the company that bore his name. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Horch company employed only the very finest designers. Zoller, Daimler and Fiedler created and shaped the Horch power-unit culture, the refinement of which has remained a byword to this very day.
Apart from the V12 units, Horch built only eightcylinder engines from 1927 onwards – almost 70,000 of them by the time production ceased. None of its German rivals succeeded in matching this figure. The Horch 8 symbolised the quality expected of a top product from the German automotive industry. Its reputation was based on quietness and high-quality workmanship: for the production of these large engines, the Zwickau engineers could call upon a concentration of skills and know-how unique in Germany. The crowned H emblem was effectively synonymous with the contemporary concept of the
elegant, distinguished car. The Horch name stood for the finest manufacturing precision and for restrained substance combined with elegance and an exceptionally high standard of luxury travel. As the annual registration figures confirm, Horch gained an increasingly firm grip on the luxury car class (engine size above 4 litres). In 1938, about 55 percent of the large cars registered in Germany had the crowned H adorning their radiator grille. Even in the class below, that is to say with engines between 3 and 4 litres’ displacement, Horch maintained a very strong sales position.
Company chronicle
About 15,000 Horch 8 cars had been built by Auto Union AG by the time production for civilian purposes ceased in the spring of 1940. The 25,000th Horch 8, counting from the start of production in 1927, had already left the production line in
Zwickau in July 1937. From 1934/35 to 1942 about 45,000 special-purpose military vehicles were also built.
The Horch workforce amounted to more than 3,000 wage-earning and salaried employees. In Germany’s 1938 new-car registration statistics, the Horch brand accounted for a 21.7 percent share of the market in the 3 to 4-litre class, with 55 percent of the class with 4-litre engines or larger. The “small” V8 Horch cost 8,500 Reichsmarks as a saloon and 9,700 Reichsmarks as a convertible. The “large” Horch, with straighteight engine was sold for 17,500 Reichsmarks as a Pullman saloon and for 15,250 as the Type 853 sports convertible. The open Type 951 six-seater, at 23,550 Reichsmarks, was the most expensive Horch in the company’s standard programme.