>>Ford Taunus P3

Ford Taunus P3

Ford Taunus 17M

Manufacturer	Ford Motor Company
Also called	Ford Taunus P3 “Badewannetaunus “ (Bath-tub Taunus)
Production	September 1960 – August 1964
Assembly	Cologne-Niehl, Germany
Predecessor	Ford Taunus 17M P2
Successor	Ford Taunus 17M P5
Body style	2-door or 4 saloon 3-door “Kombi” estate car 2-door coach-built (Karl Deutsch)cabriolet
Engine	1498 cc 4-cylinder in-line water-cooled 1698 cc 4-cylinder in-line water-cooled 1758 cc 4-cylinder in-line water-cooled
Transmission	3- or 4-speed manual Saxomat automatic clutch optional with 3-speed box
Wheelbase	2,630 mm (103.5 in)
Length	4,452 mm (175.3 in) 4,517 mm (177.8 in) (turnier/estate)
Width	1,670 mm (65.7 in)
Height	1,450 mm (57.1 in) or 1,490 mm (58.7 in)
Curb weight	940–1,015 kg (2,072–2,238 lb)

The coachbuilt cabriolet, converted by Karl Deutsch of Cologne was always rare.

The three door station-wagon/estate was badged as the Ford Taunus 17M Turnier.

The instrument panel ahead of the driver and the radio both carried over the shape of an extended lozenge which dominated the shape of the car when viewed from outside.

The Ford Taunus 17 M is a middle sized family saloon/sedan produced by Ford of Germany between September 1960 and August 1964. The Taunus 17M name had been applied to the car’s predecessor and it would apply also to subsequent Ford models which is why the 17M introduced in 1960 is usually identified, in retrospect, as the Ford Taunus P3. It was the third newly designed German Ford to be launched after the war and for this reason it was from inception known within the company as Ford Project 3 (P3) or the Ford Taunus P3.

Members of the press had apparently competed to find a suitably disrespectful epithet to described the controversially styled first Taunus 17M, and it was in the same tradition that the new 17M for 1960 became known as the “Badewannetaunus” (Bath tub Taunus).

The Ford Taunus P3 was a commercial success. 669,731 were produced during a four-year production run, giving an annualised rate more than twice that achieved by the predecessor model during its three years in production.

European design

The first post-war Taunus models had been designed in North America. The Taunus P3 was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, a German born designer who would dominate car design at Ford of Germany for nearly thirty years and whose subsequent designs included the 1969 Ford Capri and its successors. Towards the end of his time in charge of design with Ford of Germany, Bahnsen also led the teams that designed the Fords Sierra and Scorpio. In the context of 1960 the Taunus P3 can nevertheless be seen as Bahnsen’s most innovative design for a production car.

The 1960 Taunus design featured a recurring geometrical shape, which was a cross between a short sausage and a long lozenge. The rear panel and the side panels respected the same basic shape as did the front grill, subject to two large cut-outs for the headlights. At a time when it was an unquestioned article of faith that headlights were round, the Taunus featured headlights that were lozenge shaped. Ten years later this had inspired European automakers to come up with various non-round headlamp shapes, though many had by 1970 settled on a standardised shared rectangular shape. Non-round headlamps were also profoundly un-American: in the USA regulations followed the assumption that headlamps must be round.

The same shape was carried over to the interior of the car where the main dials and controls on the dash-board were surrounded by a thick frame in the shape that respected a short sausage (or a very long lozenge). The repetitious use of a single simple shape at different levels of the design gave the overall car a consistent visual unity which was in stark contrast to the high finned flamboyance of the previous Taunus 17M and was seen at the time as a radical switch by Ford of Germany away from American styling in favour of European styling. There were no tails fins and there was very little decorative chrome included. The efficiency of its superficially much more simple design enabled Ford to boast that the 1960 car, despite being fractionally narrowed on the outside, offered usefully more interior width than the car it replaced.

Despite the importance of sausages in German cuisine, the award for a catchy soubriquet was earned by the person who saw the car and was reminded not of a sausage but of a bathtub. It was and remains the “Badewanne” (bathtub) soubriquet that caught the eye of the press reporters, and it is as the “Badewannetaunus” that the car continues to be remembered by enthusiasts

Body

Most of the cars were sold as two- or four-door sedans/saloons. A three-door “Turnier” station wagon was also available. The confident determination of the car’s designers’ to celebrate the new decade with something new and different was reflected in the unusual positioning of the rear lights on the early station wagons, on the leading edge at the back of the roof of the car, as two red horizontal units lined up directly above the tailgate. Later P3 Turniers had their rear lights more conventionally positioned.

The P3 also followed the tradition of its predecessor in that coach built two-door cabriolets and coupes were offered, converted by a traditional Cologne based body builder called Karl Deutsch However, these special bodied cars appear to have been relatively expensive, and only about 150 were produced.

The cars were offered with an unusually broad choice of color and interior trim options.

The early 1960s were a period of rapid expansion for the west European auto-industry, and export markets for the new 17M included Greece and Australia where several cars were converted locally into “pickups” or, in Australian English, “utes”.

Engine and running gear

The cars were all branded as Ford Taunus 17Ms which might have led observers who thought they had understood Ford Germany’s naming conventions to conclude that the cars all came with 1.7 litre engines. In fact, there were three different engine sizes offered, being the 1498 cc unit first seen in the Taunus 15M of 1954, the 1698 cc unit originally introduced in 1957 to cope with the weight of the first Ford Taunus 17M and, from September 1961, a new larger 1757 cc engine. Power outputs initially ranged from 55 PS (40 kW; 54 hp) to 60 PS (44 kW; 59 hp), and these engine versions remained available throughout the model’s four-year life, but several more powerful engines featuring raised compression ratios in response to the increased availability of higher octane fuels appeared during the four-year period: by 1964 the most powerful Ford 17M offered 75 PS (55 kW; 74 hp). Approximately 50% of the cars built were delivered with the smallest of the three engines, the 1498 cc unit.

The engines were all gasoline/petrol powered four-cylinder inline four-stroke water-cooled units.

Changing gear involved a column-mounted gear change, which by now was becoming increasingly mainstream in Germany. It was possible to specify a “Saxomat” automatic clutch with the three-speed transmission,: drivers content to accept a fully manual gear change system could also specify a four-speed gear box.

There were several important technical innovations during the four-year model run which no doubt go some way to explain the car’s commercial success when compared to that achieved by its predecessor, and will have strengthened the Ford image in a market which had grown used to seeing Ford sales trailing those of General Motors’ Opel business. In April 1962 the 17M became the first mainstream production car in Germany to offer, as an option, disc brakes on the front wheels. Just over a year later front disc brakes became a standard fitting on all models. 1962 was also the year when the car acquired an “automatic starter” which reportedly made the traditional manual choke unnecessary.

Advertising

The 1960s was a period of rapid expansion in Europe both for the auto-industry and in the world of advertising. Ford tended to be ahead of the field in this aspect of marketing, even if some of the resulting slogans appear stilted fifty years later. The style of new Taunus 17M was advertised as representing a „Linie der Vernunft“ which loosely translates as a “rational form” offering an implicit rebuke to the by now unfashionably elaborate styling of the old Taunus 17M. The car was advertised with the balanced and pithy slogan “Zum Fahren geboren. Zum sparen gebaut“ (Born to drive. Built to save/economise).

Steel bodied station wagon equivalent models based on mainstream sedans were rapidly gaining in popularity. Giving the Taunus 17M station wagon a special name, “Turnier”, intended to be unique to the Ford brand also showed the Ford marketing department ahead of the German owned competition. The Opel Rekord station wagon had already been dubbed by Opel a “CarAVan” in 1958, but market leaders Volkswagen would not find their equivalent label until the launch of the Volkswagen 1500 Variant in 1962.

Commercial

The boldly styled and regularly upgraded Taunus P3 was a commercial success. 669,731 were produced. The figure includes 86,010 station wagons. In the sales statistics for several months of 1961/62 the success of the model even enabled Ford briefly to overtake Opel on the German market, becoming the second best selling auto-brand, beaten to the top spot only by Volkswagen.

The Taunus P3 was replaced by the Ford Taunus P5 which would come with a wider range of engines and which would sell at approximately the same rate. However, the overall market size was growing through the 1960s, and with it grew the sales of the Opel Rekord. After the Taunus P3 no future Taunus model would come close to challenging Opel’s dominance of the large lucrative middle-market portion of the German auto-market.

Fifty years on

The Taunus P3 continues to generate enthusiasm, and most of the surviving vehicles in Germany enjoy the financial privileges and responsibilities available, in Germany, to owners of cars designated and maintained as oldtimers.

In 2006 484 Taunus P3 sedans/saloons were registered in Germany along with 21 “Turnier” station wagons. There were thought to be fewer than 10 in the USA, and a handful probably survive in other countries where statistics are less readily accessible than in Germany.

>>Ford Taunus P2

Ford Taunus P2

Ford Taunus 17M

Manufacturer	Ford Motor Company
Also called	Ford Taunus P2 „“Barocktaunus “ (Baroque Taunus) „„Fliegender Teppich“„(Flying carpet)
Production	1957–1960 239,978 cars
Assembly	Cologne-Niehl, Germany
Predecessor	No direct predecessor
Successor	Ford Taunus 17M P3
Body style	2-door or 4 saloon 3-door “Kombi” estate car 2-door coach-built (Karl Deutsch)cabriolet
Engine	1698 cc 4-cylinder in-line water-cooled
Wheelbase	2,604 mm (102.5 in)
Length	4,375 mm (172.2 in)
Width	1,670 mm (65.7 in)
Height	1,500 mm (59.1 in)
Curb weight	1,010–1,110 kg (2,227–2,447 lb)

The Ford Taunus 17 M is a middle sized family saloon/sedan produced by Ford of Germany between August 1957 and August 1960. The Taunus 17M name was also applied to subsequent Ford models which is why the car is usually identified, in retrospect, as the Ford Taunus P2. It was the second newly designed German Ford to be launched after the war and for this reason it was from inception known within the company as Ford Project 2 (P2) or the Ford Taunus P2.

Because of its unusually flamboyant styling the first 17M also acquired various descriptive soubriquets of which „Barocktaunus“ is probably, today, the most widely used.

During a three-year production run 239,978 Taunus P2s were manufactured.

Development and launch

The early sketches for Ford’s new middle class sedan date from early in 1955. Originally it was intended that the car be powered by the 1498 cc ohv engine installed in the Taunus 15M which went on sale in the same year. The design for the body quickly grew too large and heavy for the 55 PS (40 kW; 54 hp) 1498 cc unit, however, and so the company developed a bored out 1698 cc version of the engine, now producing 60 PS (44 kW; 59 hp).

At the end of the summer of 1957, memorably, the car was launched at an upmarket Cologne restaurant by the singing star Gitta Lind. Lind’s singing style was not (and is not) one with wide appeal in the US or the UK, and in these countries she may be more noteworthy as the great niece of Beethoven’s piano teacher. The singer’s own compositional talent was on display with the song she wrote for the occasion which was entitled "Fahren auch Sie den neuen Taunus 17M" (You too [should] drive the new Taunus 17M). The next month the Ford Taunus 17M itself appeared as one of the stars at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Fashion statements

In addition to the relatively mild „baroque“ insult, Ford’s new middle-weight quickly gained other informal names including „Gelsenkirchener Barock“ and „Fliegender Teppich“ (Flying carpet). Gelsenkirchener Baroque, a term frequently applied to the Taunus P2 in press reviews, was a style more generally associated with heavy furniture in the newly confident German empire during the closing decades of the nineteenth century. The style, which contrasted with the uncompromised functionalism more usually associated with German design in recent decades, enjoyed a brief revival in the 1950s. Competitor automakers at this time also emulated US styling cues, using large amounts of chrome on the body work and incorporating exaggerated fins, but in 1957 it was nevertheless hard to find any Borgward or Opel decorated with more chrome, nor featuring longer or larger tail fins than the Ford Taunus P2. The sharp “markers” atop the four wings of the car did nevertheless confer a practical benefit by making it very easy to determine, from the driver’s seat, precisely where the car ended.

For buyers who found a standard Ford Taunus 17M unacceptably restrained, Ford offered the Taunus 17M deluxe: this provided a two tone paint finish, an interior enhanced with Brocade coverings, an exceptionally stylish steering wheel, a tachometer shaped like a kidney, and even more chrome on the outside of the body. More than fifty years later the Taunus P2 has become very rare, and surviving examples tend to be of these deluxe versions.

The “Flying carpet” soubriquet seems to have been the response of a keen drivers to the company’s attempts to give the car the ride and handling characteristics commensurate with its flamboyant bodywork, modelled on the North American boulevard cruisers of the day, set up for a country associated with straighter, wider and more even roads than those commonly encountered in Europe then or indeed now.

The French connection and the front suspension

The Taunus P2 seems to have been developed in close collaboration with Ford of France, and it closely resembled that company’s Vedette model which itself emerged with enlarged tailfins in 1957. However, in 1954 Ford had sold a majority holding in its strike prone French operation to Simca, and although Ford retained a minority shareholding in the Simca business until 1958, the P2’s French cousin, despite having been developed when the business was under Ford control, was in most markets badged as a Simca.

The Vedette had pioneered an independent front suspension system that involved incorporating an oil filled shock absorber within a spring in a manner intended to dampen the excessively rapid vertical movement of a simple steel spring. The resulting unit later became known as a MacPherson strut, and starting in 1951 with the British Ford Consul, Ford would fit them to many mainstream models produced by their German and British factories. The 1957 Taunus P2 was the first car from Ford Germany to feature a front end suspension configuration using MacPherson struts. The MacPherson strut arrangement would become known for combining good road holding and passenger comfort for a relatively low cost, but the shock settings on the Baroque Taunus nevertheless must have contributed to its informally awarded “Flying carpet” title

Bodies

The P2 came as a two- or four-door sedan/saloon. A three-door station wagon was also offered together with a van, which was in effect a station wagon with the side windows to the rear of the b-pillars replaced by steel panelling. The deluxe version was denoted with the letter “L” while the letters “CL” were reserved for a two-door cabriolet which was the result of a conversion performed by the traditional Cologne coach-builders (Karl Deutsch).

In retrospect the inclusion of a four-door sedan/saloon in the range seems unsurprising. However, the German market, in contrast to the French and British markets, still had more of an appetite for two-door sedans/saloons in this category.The Borgward Isabella sedan/saloon of the time was never offered with more than two doors, and the two-door Taunus 17Ms of the period seem comfortably to have outsold the four-door versions.

1959 facelift

After the annual summer shut down in 1959 the Taunus P2 received a minor facelift in time for the 1960 model year which would be its final year of production. The roof line was flattened, reducing the height of the car by 3 cm (more than an inch). The chrome decorations on the car’s body were rearranged. One of the results of that was that the basic model now flaunted the same front grill as the de Luxe model. On a more practical note, buyers paying extra for the four-speed transmission now enjoyed synchromesh on all four forward gears. Under the bonnet/hood September 1959 saw the introduction of a redesigned cylinder head and a slight increase in the compression ratio. There was no change in the listed power output or top speed resulting from this, but there was a 5% reduction in fuel consumption.

1960 replacement

In 1960 the Baroque Taunus was replaced with the Bathtub Taunus (Badewanne). The application of affectionately disrespectful names to Ford’s German models seems by now to have become a habit for the German press. In terms of the company’s own nomenclatures 1960 was the year that the Ford Taunus P2 was replaced by the Ford Taunus P3.

Commercial

Between 1957 and 1960 Ford produced 239,978 Taunus P2s.45,468 of these were station wagons. This provided a welcome boost to the company’s domestic market share at a time when its only other mainstream model, the Ford Taunus P1 was lagging badly in the marketplace.

However, during the same three-year period Opel produced 817,003 of their Opel Olympia Rekord model which competed in almost the same class. Coming second to General Motors in the high volume market segments in Germany (which would soon be Europe’s largest national auto-market) became a habit that Ford would find hard to break in the ensuring decades.

Reputation

Around the time the Taunus P2 was replaced by the Taunus P3 tail fins abruptly fell out of fashion even in the USA, which was generally seen as the country that had invented them. The Baroque Taunus had attracted adverse comment for its over-ornate styling even while in production, and the modern clean design shaped for the P3 by Ford’s new styling guru, Uwe Bahnsen, invited unfavourable comparisons between the old and the new models. Second-hand values for the P2 were never strong, and this combined with inadequate rust protection to ensure that few survived for long enough to acquire "oldtimer status".

Fifty year’s later, the car’s rarity and its 1950s style generate more positive reactions, at least among enthusiasts who are prepared to overcome the acute shortage of ready made replacement parts for the car.

>>Ford Taunus P1

Ford Taunus P1

Ford Taunus 12M (1952-1962)
Ford Taunus 15M (1955-1959)

Weltkugeltaunus (1952 - 1958)
Manufacturer	Ford Motor Company
Also called	Ford Taunus P1 „Weltkugeltaunus“ (Globe Taunus) till 1958 „Seitenstreifentaunus„(Side-stripes Taunus) from 1959
Production	1952–1962 (12M) 1955-1959 (15M)
Assembly	Cologne-Niehl, Germany
Predecessor	Ford Taunus “Buckeltaunus”
Successor	Ford Taunus 12M P4
Body style	2-door saloon 3-door “Kombi” estate car 2-door cabriolet
Engine	1172 cc Ford Sidevalve engine 4-cylinder in-line water-cooled 1498 cc Ford Sidevalve engine 4-cylinder in-line water-cooled optional from 1955
Wheelbase	2,489 mm (98.0 in)
Length	4,060 mm (159.8 in)
Width	1,580 mm (62.2 in)
Height	1,500 mm (59.1 in)
Curb weight	850–930 kg (1,874–2,050 lb)

The Ford Taunus 12 M is a small family saloon/sedan produced by Ford of Germany from 1952. Between 1955 and 1959 it was joined by the larger-enginedFord Taunus 15M. The company produced a succession of Ford Taunus 12M models until 1970, because the name was applied to a succession of similarly sized cars, but the first Ford Taunus 12M models, based on the company’s Taunus Project 1 (P1), remained in production only until 1962: in 1962 the Taunus P1 series was replaced by the Taunus P4 series.

At its launch, the car placed Ford ahead of the pack, being unusually modern in terms of the bits that showed. It was one of the first new cars to appear in Germany since before the war, and featured a radical ponton format “three box” body as pioneered (at least in Germany) by the 1949 Borgward. The three-box car body format would soon become mainstream, but when the Ford Taunus 12M appeared in 1952 competitor manufacturers including Opel, Volkswagen and Auto Union were still competing with models based closely on designs originating in the 1930s.

Globe Taunus / „Weltkugeltaunus“ (1952–1959)

Development

Planning for Ford Germany’s new ponton bodied passenger car began in 1949. Several aspects of the car’s development reflected the advantages and the disadvantages of running a business with management decisions necessarily split between two continents at a time when even international telephone calls needed to be pre-booked.

The original plan for the strikingly modern design came from Ford in the USA who drew up a proposal based on the ponton format Champion model introduced to the US auto-market a few years earlier by Studebaker. The Studebaker design had already proved highly influential on the domestic programs of mainstream US auto-makers. Cologne based production engineers adapted the US proposal for the German market. The Studebaker featured a large roundel directly above the front grill on which was displayed the propeller of an airplane. The Ford Project 1 also featured a prominent roundel at the front of the car, but in place of the Studebaker’s propeller design, the Ford roundel featured a hemispherical depiction of half a globe. This bold and unusual decoration led to the new car becoming known as the „Weltkugeltaunus“ (Globe Taunus).

The proposal from Ford in America called for a monocoque construction, following the lead (in Germany) of the 1937 Opel Olympia. Ford of Germany had no experience of this construction method, having spent most of the 1940s concentrating on building light trucks. Project 1’s predecessor, the Ford Taunus designed in the 1930s, had had its body built by an independent specialist pressed steel body builder in Berlin until 1948, and after the Berlin firm had its surviving plant crated up and shipped to the Soviet Union, Ford had in 1948 been driven to having Ford Taunus bodies produced by competitors and specialists from northern Germany, Volkswagen and Karmann. Ford’s Cologne management sought cooperation from other German auto-makers with developing the processes necessary for producing the monocoque Project 1 model, but the other German auto-makers had priorities of their own, and in the end it was with support from Ford of France that the production lines for German Ford’s project 1 were set up at the company’s Cologne plant. In due course, and not before a certain amount of confusion concerning the naming of the car, Ford’s Project 1 was released to the market as the Ford Taunus 12M. It proved a success. By the time the half globe was removed from the car’s nose, 247,174 of the 12M version had been sold along with 127,942 of the subsequently introduced Ford Taunus 15Ms.

The name

The naming of the car is another area which may have been complicated by the way that responsibilities were shared between different management teams in two continents divided by an eight-hour time difference and the Atlantic Ocean. The immediate postwar era was seen as a new beginning for a newly divided Germany with, in the west, new borders, a new constitution and a new political class. The monocoque bodied new model for 1952 also represented a new beginning for Ford, so identifying it as Ford of Germany’s Project 1 (P1) was evidently uncontentious.

In the 1930s Ford of Germany had, along with Opel, pioneered the use of model names that would have positive associations for customers. While Auto Union customers were enticed to buy cars with names such as DKW F8 and BMW were inviting customers to be seduced by names such as BMW 326, Ford were selling the Ford Köln, named after a major cathedral city as well as the Ford Eifel and the Ford Taunus named after hilly areas of great natural beauty. For Project 1, Ford Germany evidently intended to invoke another hilly region of natural beauty, and the name “Ford Hunsrück” was thought uncontroversial for a successor to the Ford Taunus. However, the “Hunsrück” name was blocked shortly before launch, possibly because of problems encountered explaining the pronunciation of “Hunsrück” to management colleagues in Dearborn. This left the name Taunus, and it was proposed to name the new car “Taunus 12 Meisterstück" in order to differentiate it from the existing Ford Taunus which was by now an aging model that would nevertheless continue to be listed in parallel with the new model throughout most of 1952. However, it transpired that the name “Meisterstück” was unavailable for any Ford vehicle, having been patent-protected by a German bicycle manufacturer. Therefore by the time Ford’s radical new car came to market it arrived under the name “Ford Taunus 12M”. The “12” in the name referred to the engine size of 1.2 litres and the “M” was the only part of the “Meisterstück” name available to Ford.

The engines

During development it was intended that the car would be powered by a 1,498 cc engine. This was in many respects the engine that had originally been intended for the previous Ford Taunus first produced in 1939, but now it was to be developed into an ohv unit. However, cost constraints intervened, and when the new Taunus 12M appeared in 1952 it was powered by the 1,172 cc side-valve unit that had powered not merely its predecessor, but also its predecessor’s predecessor, the Ford Eifel of 1935.

By 1952 sidevalve engines were already seen as old fashioned. In an analysis undertaken of the models shown at the 1952 Paris Motor Show it was noted that 48 of the cars exhibited were fitted with engines employing overhead valves while only 6 featured sidevalve engines. That Ford were still powering their entry level Taunus P1 with a sidevalve engine ten years later, in 1962, would leave the model looking badly outclassed under the bonnet/hood.

The body and running gear

The two-door modern slab sided Ford Taunus that appeared in January 1952 with an old fashioned engine married to a stylish new body was connected with the road using fashionably small 13“ wheels which will have saved on cost and maximised the space available for passengers and their luggage. Individually suspended front wheels marked a contrast with the approach taken with the original Taunus, but in 1952 the rigid rear axle was all too familiar to Ford’s existing German customers. The old Taunus had acquired the option of a four-speed gear box in 1950, but the new model at its 1952 launch came only with the older three-speed box, controlled using a column-mounted lever. (Until the 1960s European cars in this class never offered the option of an automatic gear change.) In the early years all the cars, regardless of equipment level, and whether saloon/sedan, or cabriolet bodied, came with a single bench seat across the full width of the car in place of the individual front seats fitted by most European manufacturers: this was a matter in respect of which the Taunus 12M was seen to reflect it’s manufacturer’s North American parentage and thereby conferred a certain glamour at a time when the USA was a widely accepted role model across much of Europe and especially in West Germany.

A maximum 38 PS/hp (28 kW) of power was delivered to the rear wheels. This was a useful increase on the 34 PS (25 kW; 34 hp) claimed for the previous model, and may have reflected a higher compression ratio and increases starting to come through across Europe in respect of available fuel octane levels.

In May 1953 the Taunus P1 finally became available with a four-speed gear box, though only as an optional extra. It was also at this point that a 3-door kombi/estate version joined the range. A cabriolet version had been offered since December 1952, being the result of a conversion by a coach building specialist based, like Ford, in the Cologne area and called Karl Deutsch

Broadening the range

Poor workmanship on the early cars was a source of some disappointment.Nevertheless, fairly soon (and in the absence of much direct competition during its early years on the German market) the Ford Taunus 12M, with its roomy modern body came to be seen as a high quality product, but on launch it was 37% more expensive than the 1952 price of the predecessor model. By this time another 1200 cc small car, the Volkswagen Beetle, was also gaining a foothold in the market place, and while the Volkswagen could not compete with the new Taunus 12M on cabin space, its lower price offered a compelling argument in a country still impoverished after the traumas of war and national defeat. By the end of 1952 the old Taunus had disappeared from the Ford showrooms, and in December 1952 management decided to offer a stripped down version of the new Taunus 12M, with all the chrome trimmings and various other "unnecessary" elements removed. In place of the US-style front bench seat the basic version had two individual front seats which comprised simple non-adjustable steel frames with a thin coating of plastic fabric. In place of the US-style column-mounted gear change the stripped down version featured a gear lever in the middle of the floor between the two front seats: this was considered very old fashioned at the time. The basic Ford Taunus 12 was offered only as a two-door saloon/sedan. The stripped down Taunus 12 nevertheless retailed at more than 10% less than the price of a Ford Taunus 12M. And for only forty marks extra, the buyer of the basic car could upgrade his gear-change mechanism to the coveted column-mounted device.

Facelifts and upgrades

In 1955 the Taunus 12M received its first facelift. The formerly split chrome grill was replaced by a simplified single piece grill. The prominent hemi-spherical globe design above the grill at this time remained in position, however. By now the base price for the Ford Taunus 12M had been reduced to below 6,000 Marks, and with incomes on the rise nationally the stripped down Ford Taunus 12 was quietly dropped from the range.

From 1957 the Taunus 12M joined other German automakers in offering the automatic “Saxomat” clutch as an option

In 1958 the wide chrome bars of the radiator grill were replaced by a less flamboyant grill. But the globe design directly above the grill lasted another year.

Taunus 15M (1955–1959)

Ford Taunus 15M

Early in 1954 the Ford Taunus finally received the 1500 cc engine that had been planned for successive Taunus models ever since 1939. Hitherto the Ford Taunus 12M had competed as a large (if rather underpowered) car in the sector increasingly led by the Volkswagen Beetle. Its size had always invited comparison with larger cars such as the Opel Olympia Rekord, the Borgward Isabella, the Fiat 1400 and the Peugeot 403. What these cars had in common, however, was an engine of approximately 1500 cc, which was something that till now the Taunus had conspicuously lacked.

Ford in Germany did not have the investment cash available to develop a new model of their own in the rapidly growing market segment of middle-sized (by the standards of the time and place) family cars, but by installing a 1498 cc engine in the Taunus 12M they were able to announce almost as a new car the Ford Taunus 15M which could be profitably produced and sold alongside the car with which it shared virtually every component apart from the engine block and cosmetic touches, including a strongly differentiated front grill, intended to emphasize the differences between the cars to potential customers.

The new engine was based on the unit that had originally been developed with a side-mounted camshaft for launch in the 1939“Buckeltaunus”. Now, however, the originally planned side-valve configuration was replaced, for the first time on a German Ford, with an overhead camshaft. This reflected developments also underway in England where a new ohv-engined Ford Consul had appeared in 1951. The crankshaft on the new German Ford engine was formed from tube rather than from a solid casting, which was seen as a way to save weight.

The Taunus 15M was offered with exactly the same choice of bodies as the 12M. It was also offered with the option of a "Saxomat" automatic clutch, married to the three-speed gearbox (though not with the four-speed box).

Broadening the range more

In September 1955, at the same as the Taunus 12M received its update, Ford also introduced a Taunus 15M de luxe. This top-line model was identified by a particularly elaborate front grill and a two-tone paint scheme. Various luxury features hitherto unavailable or else offered only as optional extras were included in the price for buyers of the Ford Taunus 15M de Luxe. These included items such as the windscreen washer, reversing lights, tubeless tires, vanity mirrors in the sun visors and a headlamp flasher. Many of these will have been regarded as relatively mainstream in North American cars, which will have added trans-Atlantic glamour to the Taunus 15M in a country where, especially in the south of Germany, the continuing presence of large numbers of US troops enabled Ford’s customers to be far more up to date than most other Europeans with trends in the US auto market.

Following the 1958 facelift, the Taunus 15M and 12M, for the first time shared the same front grill: by now Ford management were evidently losing enthusiasm for the strategy of promoting the Taunus 15M, as far as possible, as though it was a separate model.

Side-stripes Taunus /“Seitenstreifentaunus” (1959–1962)

Streifentaunus (1959 -1962)

By 1959, Ford’s US management had decided that the earlier policy of selling as separate models the Taunus 12M and Taunus 15M no longer made sense. This was partly in response to the lack of effectiveness with which the 15M model had been competing against Opel. General Motors were evidently cash rich at this time and Opel, between 1953 and 1957, offered an extensively redesigned or upgraded version of their Opel Olympia Rekord every year, and were dominating the middle-weight sedan sector of the German auto market. However, another important game changer had been the introduction in 1957 of Ford’s second new post-war model, the Project 2, known to customers at the time as the Ford Taunus 17M. The larger and flamboyantly styled Taunus 17M was seen as a much more powerful competitor to sell against the successful Opel and against the Borgward Isabella, which acquired something approaching iconic status in the later 1950s.

For 1959, Ford’s smaller Taunus no longer needed to try to compete half a class up. The Taunus 15M was withdrawn from sale. A redesign of the front of the car saw the prominent globe symbol removed, leaving a more restrained front for the Taunus 12M which competed now without distraction in the small car category, a sector increasingly dominated by Volkswagen’s Beetle. Having lost its defining globe mascot, the smaller Taunus acquired a thick painted stripe down each side, slightly below the level of the car’s waist. It thereby acquired its “Seitenstreifentaunus” (Side-stripes Taunus) soubriquet.

By this time, the Ford Taunus 12M's twenty-five-year-old underpinnings were becoming uncomfortably obvious, and the car was having to compete largely on price. However, that also meant that in terms of the amount of car offered for the money it represented something of a bargain. The 1959 entry-level price of 5,555 marks was barely more than that asked for the much smaller and more cramped Volkswagen.

As Ford’s management had feared, the arrival of newer models from competitor manufacturers was leaving the once fashionable Taunus 12M languishing in the sales charts. Its once broad niche between the small relatively cramped Volkswagen and the growing class of middle-weights was under increasing pressure from entry-level versions of more recently introduced models from Opel, Fiat and Peugeot. In September 1959, with the 15M itself deleted from the range, Ford responded to the intensifying competition by offering the larger 1.5-litre engine from the 15M in the 12M for a supplementary payment of only 110 marks. Cars with the larger engine were now identified simply by the name “Taunus 12M Super”. The Taunus 15M name would not reappear until 1966 when it was needed for certain versions of the Taunus P6.

Replacement

By 1961, despite its three-box body shape, the Taunus 12M had become hopelessly outdated and outclassed, with an engine, suspension system and gear-box which still followed pretty closely their original 1935 designs.

In August 1962 production of the Taunus P1 came to an end. The car was replaced by the Taunus P4 which retained the “Taunus 12M” name, but applied it to a Ford’s first German built front-wheel drive model, powered by a modern compact V4 engine.

During its three-year production run, between 1959 and 1961, 245,614 of the Stripes Taunus models were produced. 56,843 of these were fitted with the larger 1.5 liter motor.

Technical data

	Taunus 12M (1952)	Taunus 15M (1955)
Motor:	4-Cylinder Four-stroke / in-line	4-Cylinder Four-stroke / in-line
Engine size (cc):	1,172 cc	1,498 cc
Maximum Power:	28 kW (38 PS) at 4250 rpm	40 kW (55 PS) at 4250 rpm
Max. Torque:	74 N·m (55 lb·ft) (7,56 mkp) at 2200 rpm	120 N·m (89 lb·ft) at 2400 rpm
Compression ratio:	6.8 : 1	7.0 : 1
Valvegear:	Side-valve	OHV
Top speed:	112 km/h (70 mph)	128 km/h (80 mph)
Weight (empty):	850 kg (1,874 lb)	930 kg (2,050 lb)

>>Ford Taunus G93A

Ford Taunus G93A

Ford Taunus G93A
1939–1942
Ford Taunus G73A
1948–1952

Manufacturer	Ford Motor Company
Also called	„Buckeltaunus”
Production	Taunus G93A 7,092 1939–42 Taunus G73A 76,590 1948–1952
Assembly	Cologne-Niehl, Germany
Predecessor	Ford Eifel
Successor	Ford Taunus P1
Body style	2-door saloon a wide range of coach-built bodies, including cabriolets and station wagons became available after 1949
Engine	1172 cc Ford Sidevalve engine 4-cylinder in-line water-cooled
Transmission	3-speed manual with synchromesh on upper two ratios. 4-speed manual offered on some models after 1950
Wheelbase	2,387 mm (94.0 in)
Length	4,080 mm (160.6 in)
Width	1,485 mm (58.5 in)
Height	1,600 mm (63.0 in)
Curb weight	840–1,040 kg (1,852–2,293 lb)

The US-style fast back form of the Taunus called for a longer wheelbase than the car’s position in the market could justify. The result was a car which acquired the soubriquet „Buckeltaunus” (Hunchback Taunus).

In November 1948 the first Ford Taunus G73A emerged from Ford’s Cologne factory. The celebratory garland does not conceal the fact that very little distinguished the 1948 Taunus G73A from the prewar Taunus G93A

In its final years the "Buckeltaunus" acquired a one-piece windscreen and a lot of chrome

The Ford Taunus G73A is a small family car produced by Ford of Germany between 1939 and 1942 in succession to the Ford Eifel. It was the first car developed at Cologne by Ford Germany which previously had built cars originated by Ford businesses in the US or the UK. Production began on 30 April 1939, with the first car exhibited to the public in June 1939, less than six months before the outbreak of war in Europe.

In 1948 the car reappeared as the Ford Taunus G93A, and remained in production until 1952. This was the first (and until the 1970s the last) Ford Taunus to feature a fastback shape: in this application the rather severe slopes enforced by squeezing North-American style fast-back styling onto a relatively short wheelbase was not universally admired: the car became known as the „Buckeltaunus” (Hunchback Taunus).

Ford Taunus G93A (1939–1942)

On 30 April 1939 Ford Cologne began to manufacture the Taunus, a mid-size car intended to slot into the range between the little Ford Eifel and the company’s big V8 models. The car was presented to the public in June 1939. Although the structure of the car did not follow the revolutionary monocoque structure heralded by the Opel Olympia, the Taunus did have its body welded to the chassis rather than having the two elements simply bolted together.

The body

Stylistically the new car followed the 1930s fashion for streamlining, but with a North American flavour inspired by the Lincoln-Zephyr of the time. The bodyshell was supplied from the Berlin plant of pressed steel experts, Ambi Budd. Like the Eifel, the Ford Taunus came with rigid axles, but with the innovation of hydraulic brakes.

The engine

The Taunus was designed to take a 45 PS (33 kW; 44 hp) 1.5-litre side-valve engine developed from the 1.2-litre unit used in the Eifel. However, in March 1939 the government, anticipating war, introduced restrictions whereby Ford were permitted to produce only a single standardised engine in the class of cars covered by engine sizes between 1.2 and 2.0 litres, and so the Taunus used the smaller 1,172 cc engine, carried over from the Eifel model. This was essentially the same unit that Ford would fit in the Ford Taunus P1 (and, at their Dagenham plant the Ford Anglia) until 1959.

In the 1939 Ford Taunus the car’s 1,172 cc unit delivered a claimed 34 PS (25 kW; 34 hp), married up to a three-speed transmission controlled with a centrally mounted lever. Drive was transmitted to the rear wheels.

The war

The German auto industry did not undergo the same very rapid switch-over to war production as that experienced in Britain, but passenger car production in Germany was nevertheless restricted by government policy, and there was never more than a single prototype to represent the company’s original intention to offer a cabriolet version of the Taunus G93A. The pre-war car was produced only as a two-door saloon/sedan with rear-hinged doors.

As the war continued, Ford became increasingly important as a producer of light trucks to support the war effort, and in February 1942 passenger car production came to an end at the Ford plant. Only 42 of the cars were assembled at the Cologne plant in 1942, but production had held up well through much of 1940 and by the time passenger car production ended 7,100 Taunus G93As had been produced.

Ford Taunus G73A (1948–1952)

After the war, with other German auto-plants destroyed by bombing or crated up and shipped to the Soviet Union, the priority for the occupying powers at Ford’s plant was for the continued production of light trucks. However, even in 1946 various detailed improvements had been built into the prewar Taunus design. Two years later, in May 1948, the new Ford Taunus G93A was exhibited at the Hanover Export Fair.

The tooling for the pressed-steel bodywork had during the war remained in Berlin with the US owned body builders Ambi Budd, and after lengthy negotiations with the Soviet military authorities was eventually released. Due to lack of available space at Ford’s Cologne plant, production of the first 1948 cars was subcontracted to Volkswagen in Wolfsburg and Karmann in Osnabrück, but in November 1948 the entire production process was taken in house by Ford. At this stage, as in 1942, only a single body style was available. The 1948 Ford Taunus was a small fast-back saloon with two rear hinged doors, and available only in “night shadow grey”, presumably reflecting paint availability in the aftermath of war.

Broadening the range

In 1949 Ford added a Taunus version with body panels fitted only as far back as the A-pillars, and several alternative body shapes became available, added by traditional coach-builders such as and Karmann of Osnabrück, Drauz of Heilbronn and Plasswilm in Cologne. Coach-built Ford Taunus versions include two- and four-seater cabriolets with two doors, a special four-door cabriolet for use by police forces, small three-door station wagons and even four-door taxis.

Upgrades in 1950 and 1951

In May 1950 Ford introduced the Taunus Special, which featured a four-speed gear change controlled with a column-mounted lever. Externally the “Special” made extensive use of chrome, notably on an enlarged front grill and on the bumpers. The rear window was enlarged and flashing-light direction indicators replaced semaphore-style flippers.

January 1951 saw the introduced of a Taunus de Luxe, with a one-piece windscreen and many extras.

Technical

Technically the Taunus G73A was little changed from the 1939 G93A, retaining the familiar 1,172 cc side-valve engine first seen in the 1935 Ford Eifel. With gasoline/petrol availability in Europe restricted to low-octane fuels, the 34 PS (25 kW; 34 hp) maximum power output was also unchanged, supporting a claimed top speed of 105 km/h (65 mph). It was not possible to adjust valve clearances and engines typically lasted for 80,000 km (50,000 mi).

Until 1950 all the cars came with a three-speed transmission incorporating synchromesh on the top two ratios. The gear boxes were prone to problems, especially regarding the second gear, and in order to rebuild the gearbox it was necessary first to remove the engine or, better still, the back axle.

Rigid axles front and back were suspended using leaf springs. The drive shaft was enclosed in a steel tube and featured only a single universal joint, positioned just behind the gearbox. The rear wheel bearings were positioned directly on the rear axle. The overall rear axle assembly seems to have been unusually simple, but the resulting stresses gave rise to a shortened axle life.

The hydraulically operated simplex brakes were operated via a single circuit, which was usual at the time. The handbrake cable was prone to rust.

The 6-volt electrical system was normal for small cars of the time, as was the requirement for an oil change every 1,500 km (roughly 1,000 miles) and a larger inspection every 4,500 km (very roughly 3,000 miles)

Replacement

In January 1952 the successor model, Ford’s ponton format Taunus P1 went on sale, although availability of the old G73A model continued until the Autumn: by this time 76,590 had been produced.