The need for basic personal transportation in postwar Europe resulted in the proliferation of some genuinely weird vehicles. Perhaps the most recognizable are the tiny Isetta, with its access via a hinged front end, the Messerschmitt KR200 reverse trike, and Vespa’s divergence from scooters, the 400 sedan. But another, lesser-known oddball, the “two-faced” Zündapp Janus 250—which might be the strangest of the bunch—also briefly vied for success in the pint-sized car segment.
As is pretty well known, the Messerschmitt came about because the company, which made warplanes for the Nazis, was banned from making aircraft by the Allies after the war and tried to survive by making ground vehicles that looked very much like aircraft, complete with bubble canopies. The Isetta’s odd, narrow track rear axle is that way because it allowed its manufacturers (it was licensed to a number of companies, including BMW) to delete the costly differential. Compared to the Isetta and Messerschmitt, the Vespa 400 sedan, by the scooter maker, seemed almost conventional, except for its minute dimensions.
Like the Messerchmitt, the Zündapp Janus 250 also had its origins with an aircraft maker banned from making airplanes, and like the Vespa 400 it was also the product of a company better known for two-wheelers.
The Janus’ story, though, began not at Zündapp but rather at Dornier Flugzeugwerke, a German aircraft manufacturer founded by Claude Dornier in 1914. In the period between the two world wars, Dornier was well known for its all-metal airliners and flying boats, though due to the Treaty of Versailles, they were assembled outside of Germany. When the Nazis took power and no longer felt restrained by the treaty, Dornier moved production to Germany. After the war, Dornier moved to Spain and then Switzerland, where the company consulted for aviation firms, later relocating once more to Germany in the mid-1950s.
Wanting to diversify in the postwar economy, Claude Dornier assigned his son Claudius the job of designing a small car. The junior Dornier had already been fascinated by the recently introduced 1953 Isetta, so he started designing a four-passenger microcar. He kept the Isetta’s front door, but hinged it at the top to provide shelter from rain when entering or exiting the vehicle. To keep length to a minimum, he situated the two bench seats back-to-back, with the backseat passengers facing rearward, and duplicating the top-hinged door in the back. To further reduce length, rather than put the engine at the front or rear of the car, he mounted it amidships beneath the seats.
Claudius made the little car as small as possible but still able to carry four adults, and then focused on reducing costs. He realized that if he made the car symmetrical laterally and longitudinally, he could not only use the same door stampings front and back, the side stampings and front & rear stampings could also be identical. He ended up with a car that looked the same whether it was coming or going. With simple pressings, the result was a car shaped like a triangle in profile, so Dornier called it, alliteratively, the Dornier Delta.
A prototype was assembled using a 197-cc two-stroke engine made by ILO, and the car was introduced to the media in the summer of 1955. Production was considered, but after running the numbers, the Dorniers realized that they could not mass produce the Delta profitably with their existing facilities.
Enter Zündapp. The company was founded in 1917 in Nuremberg by Fritz Neumeyer with backing from Krupp and toolmaker Thiel, under the name Zünder und Apparatebau GmBH. The name is German for Igniter and Apparatus, and the company made explosive detonators. With the end of the First World War, demand for such things declined, and by 1921, Neumeyer had Zündapp making motorcycles. By 1937, they had almost a fifth of the motorcycle market in Germany, offering a full range of models with displacements ranging from 200cc to 800cc. During WWII, they supplied the Wehrmacht with horizontally opposed twin-powered motorcycles with 597-cc displacement, which the German army typically equipped with sidecars, as well as some shaft-drive flat-four 800-cc bikes. Zündapp also made aircraft engines during the war, including for military trainers.
After the war, Zündapp diversified into the expanding scooter market with the Bella model, while concentrating its motorcycle line on smaller-displacement models. By the mid-1950s, they were ready to further diversify into automobiles. Since they were a motorcycle company with no experience designing or building four-wheeled vehicles, they looked to license an existing design that they could power with an engine of their own.
A contract was signed with microcar maker Fuldamobil, and modifications were made to their S6 model per Zündapp’s specifications, primarily to reduce the cost of construction.
Fuldamobil delivered two prototypes, but Neumeyer canceled the project. Instead, he licensed the Dornier Delta, perhaps because the symmetrical design meant lower costs due to the reduced number of stamped parts.
Zündapp may have licensed the Dornier Delta to create the Janus (the name came from the two-faced Roman god who presided over beginnings, transitions, and endings), but when they were finished, the two vehicles looked nothing alike. Zündapp gave the vehicle a nearly complete restyling. They specified a 248-cc single-cylinder two-cycle engine of the company’s own design, which produced 14 hp. The doors were hinged at the side, like on the Isetta, though without the Isetta’s swing-away steering wheel, entry was a bit awkward for the driver. The midengine layout was retained, and the opposed seats could be reclined to create a flat surface for camping. To keep costs low, the side windows flipped out slightly rather than rolling down, and it appears that ventilation wasn’t ideal. Aesthetics were much improved—other than the fact that the little car looks like a mechanical version of Dr. Doolittle’s two-headed ungulate, the styling is rather conventional for the 1950s compared to the Dornier Delta’s radical shape. Most people who see it think it’s cute and smile.
The Janus was fairly sophisticated for a microcar. It had a four-speed transmission and an actual reverse gear, unlike the Messerschmitt, which ran its two-stroke backwards to effect reversing. Other mechanical specifications included hydraulic drum brakes at all four wheels, unibody construction, fully independent suspension with leading arms up front and trailing arms in the back, along with coil springs and hydraulic shock absorbers. Tires were 4.40 x 12 inches, with wheels two inches larger than those fitted to the original Austin Mini. It weighed just 935 lbs and had a top speed of 48-50 mph.
In 1957, the U.K.’s Autocar magazine tested a development Janus and was generally pleased with it. They were impressed with the interior capacity compared to other microcars as well as how comfortably the car drove.
“Our experience of the Zundapp was confined to the fully laden condition, in which it gave a remarkably stable and pleasant ride considering its wheelbase of less than 6ft… the Janus proved stable and unexpectedly comfortable over some atrociously pot-holed dirt roads. Behind the wheel, one was conscious that the 248cc single-cylinder two-stroke engine had little in reserve with a full load, although with one or two up it probably performs quite heartily.”
Perhaps because they tested it with all four passengers, they missed a peculiarity caused by the unusual layout. With a fairly lightweight engine in the middle of the car, weight distribution and handling would radically change depending on how many passengers were aboard and where they were seated.
Whether it was odd handling, low power, or a relatively high price compared to other microcars ($1,190 shipped to New York City, about $14,000 today—about 20% more than a Fiat 500), the Janus was not a hit. Production started in June 1957 but fewer than 1,800 cars were made by the end of the year.
Zündapp apparently developed more powerful versions, including one with a 400-cc two-stroke twin and four-cycle flat-fours with 500- and 600-cc displacement, but they never came to fruition.
Barely a year after the Janus 250 was introduced, Zündapp discontinued the car and sold the Nuremberg factory after just 6,902 units were made. Today it’s estimated that fewer than 50 remain in running condition.
The Zündapp Janus may be one of those rare cases where youngsters might be more familiar with a vintage vehicle than older car enthusiasts. Professor Z (for Zundapp) was the villain in Cars 2, the second vehicle, ahem, in that animated movie franchise.