NSU Prinz: GP stars, German cars and the Armstrong 500 win you’ve never heard of
The famous Armstrong 500 production car race attracted a wide variety of marques, many of which have long since vanished. One of those was NSU and its Prinz, which with the help of two multiple Australian Grand Prix winners dominated its class in the first running of Australia’s greatest motor race in 1960.
The diminutive two cylinder German car, driven by none other than AGP legends Lex Davison and Doug Whiteford, was the smallest capacity car in the field. And it finished ahead of two others to score a resounding 1-2-3 against local showroom rivals including Renault 750, Fiat 600 and Lloyd Alexander.
The NSU trio achieved this historic result on a Phillip Island circuit which fell apart during the race, placing extra emphasis on rugged durability if any of the standard road cars competing were to survive such punishment. The tough little Prinz proved more than capable of handling such brutal track conditions, during more than eight hours of racing.
The Armstrong 500 result is unquestionably NSU’s greatest motor sport success in Australia, but few Aussies would know that it was just one win in a long list of motor sport victories. The Prinz was also a prolific winner on home soil as well as numerous export markets throughout Europe. It also enjoyed competition success in the USA.
So before we can put its historic Armstrong 500 victory into context, we need to briefly recap the unlikely but remarkable competition history of the NSU Prinz.
NSU Prinz – evolution of a racing great
The name NSU was an abbreviation of the company’s home town of Neckarsulm near Stuttgart. Its history as a car and motorcycle manufacturer was seeded in the early years of the 20th century but its first car to emerge from the rubble of World War 2 was the Prinz in 1958.
It was the right kind of car for an austere post-war Europe; a small, economical and rugged sedan that was just over 3000mm long, with a tiny 2000mm wheelbase and 1200mm track width. Even so, it could seat four adults in reasonable comfort. Independent coil-spring suspension featured twin wishbones at the front and simple yet well-behaved swing axles at the rear. Steering was rack and pinion and braking was by finned alloy drums.
NSU’s proud two-wheeled heritage (in the mid-1950s it was the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer) was evident in the Prinz’s transversely rear-mounted, air-cooled twin cylinder SOHC engine of only 583cc in capacity. It drove the rear wheels via a clever low maintenance design that combined the engine, four-speed gearbox and final drive all in one chamber that shared the same lubricating oil.
This air-cooled twin only produced about 20 horsepower. However, given the Prinz’s feather-like kerb weight of just over 500kg, performance was spirited and with its largely vice-free handling and good braking made for an enjoyable driving experience.
Later variants (Prinz II and III) saw the addition of an anti-sway bar and an increase in engine output to 30 horsepower (which the Australian-assembled cars had). These upgrades resulted in an affordable and surprisingly effective competition car, particularly in long distance events like the Armstrong 500 in which its blend of speed, economy and durability could really shine.
Between 1959 to 1961 it scored three consecutive class wins in the brutally tough Gran Premio Argentino rally, wrapping up the final win in just under 50 hours (that’s more than two days non-stop!) while averaging more than 90km/h. It also scored two class victories in the gruelling 1200km Tour d’Europe. The Prinz’s light weight and rear-engine traction advantage also proved ideal for hillclimbs, cleaning up all production car classes on its way to the 1962 German title.
In 1961 NSU replaced the original model with the Prinz 4. Blessed with more attractive styling inspired by the Chevrolet Corvair, it was larger in all key dimensions (albeit heavier) yet still powered by the trusty rear-mounted twin.
However, in 1963 a new 996cc air-cooled SOHC inline four replaced it and the newly named Prinz 1000 continued to dominate German hillclimb competition, winning all touring car classes in both the 1963 and 1965 national titles.
Factory-built sporting derivatives followed, including the 1000 TT (in recognition of Germany’s historic Tourist Trophy races in the Eiffel Mountains), the 1200 TT (with larger 1170cc engine) and the hottest competition-only TTS variants which often outperformed many sports cars in both circuit racing and hillclimbing.
The Prinz 4-based TT and TTS cars were genuine, factory-built, 'turn-key' giant killers which became very popular on race tracks in Germany, Europe and even in the USA. In fact, according to Audi, they won a total of 29 national championships in Europe and North America between 1967 and 1976.
Sadly the exciting Prinz era came to an end when NSU, struggling under the weight of its disastrous rotary-engined Ro80 program, was bought out by VW in 1969 and merged with another VW purchase, Auto Union, to form Audi.
The rear-engined cars were phased out in 1973, but not before Australia was given an early and emphatic demonstration of NSU Prinz performance with a runaway win at Phillip Island.
1960 Armstrong 500: a perfect performance
“The very first car, Number One, an NSU Prinz entered in Class A, should have been dressed in purple,” Bill Tuckey wrote in his review of the entry list for first Armstrong 500. “Its drivers were both three-time winners of the Australian Grand Prix – Doug Whiteford and Lex “The Oulde Cobbler” Davison, with their relief driver John Sawyer, then Bob Jane’s mechanic.”
There were two more NSU Prinz entries; No.2 for local hill-climb aces Bruce Walton and Paul England and No.3 for Hoot Gibson and Jim Gorman.
The rules for that first race were simple, yet provided a stable foundation from which this famous event would quickly build. For starters, all cars had to be manufactured or assembled in Australia, with a minimum of 100 units having been sold and registered.
NSU was eligible because the Prinz was being assembled in Melbourne by Continental and General Distributors in West Heidelberg. It entered the three cars as a team, which was not unusual for local assemblers or manufacturers in those days.
What is intriguing, though, is the star-studded driver line-up for car No.1. How did C & G get the agreement of two racing superstars in Davison and Whiteford, with six Australian Grand Prix wins between them, to drive the smallest capacity car in the race?
Davison and Whiteford have long since departed so we will never know, but on reflection their joint decision to share the tiny NSU Prinz highlights two things. One is the Armstrong 500’s class structures, with no outright winner officially recognised in those early years. The emphasis was purely on class wins, so each winner was considered to be of equal importance in terms of prestige and (we assume) prizemoney.
The other was the adventurous spirit of Davison and Whiteford, who clearly enjoyed the challenge of testing their abilities beyond pukka sports cars and GP single-seaters. Davison’s determined efforts driving 48-215 Holdens in the Redex Round Australia Trials and Monte Carlo Rally in the 1950s, plus man-handling huge 7.0 litre Holman-Moody Ford Galaxies for Len Lukey and Sir Gawaine Baillie in the 1960s, are two examples of his versatility and bravado.
Whiteford was also a keen Redex competitor and later a supremo in production sports cars, primarily the Datsun Fairlady. And for many years his annual Bathurst 500/1000 efforts were focused on the Datsun Racing Team, for which he was a feared competitor in the do-or-die Japanese small car wars against Toyota and Mazda.
So, Continental and General had arguably the country’s two best drivers on board, but they couldn’t have picked a tougher assignment for the little NSU to prove its worth than the first running of the Armstrong 500 - the longest race of its kind in the world.
The ‘500’ was the brainchild of the Light Car Club of Australia with the enthusiastic naming rights support of Armstrong York Engineering, a local manufacturer of automotive shock absorbers keen to secure OEM status with local car makers/assemblers.
Armstrong couldn’t have picked a better event in which to demonstrate the durability of its products, offering almost £6000 in prize money (a huge sum at the time) shared across five classes based on engine capacities. It was billed as the world’s richest production car race.
The cars had to be in standard showroom trim with the only freedoms being aftermarket choice of items like shock absorbers (Armstrong of course), tyres and batteries. To improve driver safety, seat belts could be fitted (!) and hubcaps removed. Mud flaps were mandatory and windscreens could be either laminated or shielded by a sheet of Perspex as protection from debris.
Being a new event with such a rich prize pool, the Armstrong 500 attracted the cream of Australian racing talent and a long entry list. The 47-car field comprising Class A (up to 750cc), Class B (751-1300cc), Class C (1301-2000cc), Class D (2001-3500cc) and Class E (over 3500cc). These represented brands as diverse as GM, Ford, BMC, Peugeot, Renault, Simca, VW - and NSU, many with semi-factory or semi-distributor support.
The NSU Prinz trio faced Class A competition from imported but locally-assembled showroom rivals, including two examples of the Fiat 600. The baby Italian car mirrored the NSU Prinz in being rear-engine rear-wheel drive with a four-speed gearbox, but it had a slightly larger 633cc four cylinder engine offset by a heavier 585kg kerb weight.
There were also three examples of the Renault 750 (aka 4CV); also rear-engine rear drive but with a three-speed gearbox, larger 747cc inline four and even fatter 620kg kerb weight.
The strongest Class A entry in terms of number (4) was the Lloyd Alexander, also from Germany (Borgward) with local assembly in Brisbane. Like the Prinz it was powered by a small twin cylinder engine, which at 596cc was marginally larger in capacity. Like the Renault it had a three-speed gearbox and kerb weight just under 600kg, but unlike any of its class rivals it was front engine front-wheel drive.
With a total of 12 Class A entries, the scene was set for a great battle amongst the smallest and cheapest cars in the race.
However, adding an extra challenge to all competitors was the track surface which had been laid several years before using a cold-mix bitumen and gravel compound. Cold-mix road building was common at the time, as the smooth, hard-wearing hot-mix compounds we take for granted today were not widely available in Australia in the 1950s.
And as many Australian motorists of those times would attest, roads in those days could not withstand much punishment. After the first running of this new event, the Phillip Island track was badly damaged. After the third and final 500 held there in 1962, it was literally reduced to rubble.
It was to be a hellishly hard race on the equipment due to the disintegrating track surface, with stories of woe stretching the length of pit lane. There were windscreens and headlights cracked by large rocks, fronts of cars grit-blasted back to bare metal by airborne gravel, radiators wrecked by either severe chassis flex or more flying stones, suspensions deranged and tyres punctured by potholes. And so it went on.
However, the three NSUs, the smallest cars in the field, seemed unaffected by these dramas. With their light kerb weights, supple long travel suspensions and generous ground clearance, the rugged German cars seemed to thrive where others struggled.
Air-cooled engines meant there were no radiators to worry about. Being so light and nimble their tyre and brake wear was almost non-existent. And motorcycle-like fuel economy meant they could keep lapping for much longer than their rivals. After more than eight hours of racing, the inherent qualities of the tank-tough NSU Prinz shone through.
Davison and Whiteford won Class A at a canter, finishing three laps ahead of their team-mates Walton/England, who in turn were two laps in front of their team-mates Gibson/Gorman. The NSU team’s highest-placed rival was one of two surviving Renaults in fourth, some three laps behind the No.3 Prinz. The rest were nowhere. It was dominance on a grand scale.
Surprisingly perhaps, Continental and General chose not to defend the NSU’s Prinz’s exceptional Armstrong 500 victory in following years. This decision probably had as much to do with the original model not selling in sufficient numbers and being superseded by the Prinz 4 (which was not sold here) as it did with C&G figuring it could not improve on such a dazzling debut performance and decided to leave on a high note.
However, privately-entered examples of the original NSU Prinz were seen in other endurance events including the 1962 Bathurst Six Hour Classic (fifth in class) and the 1964 Armstrong 500 also at Bathurst (did not finish) before the model quietly disappeared from Aussie race tracks.
Seen through history's rear-view mirror, it was a shame Australia missed out on later versions, namely the Prinz 4 and its hot TT and even hotter TTS competition derivatives. Given the fanatical following these cars enjoy in Germany today and other European countries, Australian car buyers could well have embraced them with the same enthusiasm had they competed locally against the Hillman Imp GT and legendary Mini Cooper.
Even so, the 1960 Armstrong 500 whitewash will remain an indelible legacy for this high quality and innovative German manufacturer. Indeed, its ‘TT’ lives on in the Audi coupe of the same name.
