Used 1951/54 DKW F91 Sonderklasse Suicide Doors & Semaphores - cars & for sale in Portsmouth, VA

1954 DKW F91 Sonderklasse Sedan on a 1951 DKW Meisterklasse chassis, titled as 1951 in Virginia.
I thought this was a cool car, so I bought it. Kind of looked like a Beetle with the covered headlights, but stretched out with a grille. There's not a lot of them in the US, only Europe, UK, Australia, Brazil and South Africa had a lot, and still have clubs. Has a 2 stroke 2 cylinder engine, manual tranny, shifter on dashboard, the shifter is on the dash, and shift rod goes through the firewall and top of radiator, has front wheel drive. Water cooled but no water pump, works by thermo siphon. The oil is added when you put gas in it, smokes when it runs. Also has suicide doors and semaphores, the seats look like living room furniture. Non running, haven't tried to start it. Definitely a unique car, there are some in museums such as Lane Museum in Nashville. DKW was part of Auto Union, which later became Audi, and they used some VW parts. It may have been used by a diplomat in Washington DC, came with German tags still on it.

From Audi tradition:
Dear Sir, I received your email from my colleague Peter Kober who asked me for some information on your recent acquisition. The VIN indicates, that the car in its first life was a 1951 DKW Meisterklasse Sedan with two-cylinder two-stroke engine plus three-speed-gearbox with freewheel device. Delivery took place on April 30th, 1951 to a customer in Dieburg. Original color was green. Engine number 21.005.173.

The body was at some time changed against one, coming from a 1954 DKW F91 Sonderklasse Sedan, which fits the chassis apart from the gear shift lever. An interesting piece of early 1960’s “customizing” – I suspect due to an accident or severe corrosion. To make things clear: this not a genuine factory model.

Speedometer, fuel and temperature gauge are genuine DKW F 91 Sonderklasse parts and belonged to the donor vehicle from which the body war “borrowed”. The interesting detail is the separate counter for the daily distance; this kind of speedometer was available on special order only. Normally, the speedo comes with only the five-digit main counter.

For a Munga steering wheel the rim is to thick. I think, it came from a contemporary DKW Schnellaster van – see attached screenshot.

Kind regards from Ingolstadt, Ralf Friese

It has some bottom of door and rocker panel rust, but it's mostly strait 90 degree bent panels easy to duplicate. The floors and jack points are solid.
Many more pictures in flickr album here: