Many Britons encountered a Wartburg in 1960s Cold War films rather than on the streets of Croydon and Hatfield. It seemed ideal for lurking in the background of Funeral in Berlin and The Quiller Memorandum, but a small number was officially sold in the UK. Serial Eastern European car collector Peter Frost’s 1963 example began its working life in Poland and it is one of the few on the road in this country.
The 312’s history is almost as labyrinthian as the plot of any John le Carré novel. After the Second World War, the Soviet Union took control of the former BMW plant in Eisenach, about midway between Cologne and Dresden in what became East Germany. The 311 that appeared in 1955 represented a major effort from the renamed VEB Automobilwerk Eisenach to create a car appealing to export markets. The rather attractive bodywork was mounted on a separate chassis, with power from a 901cc two-stroke three-cylinder engine.
The 311 was also the plant’s first post-war vehicle to wear the Wartburg badge, which Autocar complained was “Scarcely a euphonious name”. In 1962 the modified 312 gained a more powerful 992cc engine. At that time East Germany had difficulty in obtaining large credits from Moscow for raw materials and the 312 needed to earn invaluable Western currency.
A Wartburg appeared at the 1963 London Motor Show, although Autocar rudely told East Germany’s head of state: “If this is the best your lot can produce, just don’t bother.” But such criticism did not deter Industria Ltd of Holloway from starting British imports in April 1964.
In its home market, the 312 was an expensive machine; a car for senior party members. A Daily Telegraph correspondent in East Germany reported bitter comments “that my Mercedes car was several hundred pounds cheaper than their own shabbily finished and much smaller Wartburg”. By contrast the UK-market 1000 De Luxe apparently represented “Luxury In Everything Except Price” for a mere £539 9s 7d. Motorists searching for a bargain were urged to call North 8261 to arrange a test drive.
The Wartburg’s specification included a heater, a cigarette lighter, a radiator blind and reclining front seats. Buyers also benefited from “two-tone colour schemes” and “pile floor carpeting throughout.” Despite these luxuries, the 1000 was more than £50 cheaper than the entry-level Ford Cortina Mk1. The Wartburg’s looks may have dated from the previous decade, but it lived up to the importer Industria’s promise of “the big family saloon at small-car cost”, with an 80mph top speed.
Some Western motorists found the two-stroke engine could rapidly overheat in traffic jams; a motoring phenomenon seldom encountered in early 1960s East Germany. However, Frost says: “My car has never overheated even in lengthy traffic jams. If the two-stroke engine rapidly overheated that must have been indicative of there being something badly wrong.”
For 1965 the 312/1 with a modified chassis and suspension replaced the 312 and the last examples departed the factory in 1967, a year after the launch of the replacement 353, aka the Wartburg Knight. In terms of sales figures, Frost says: “I have some details of chassis numbers imported into the UK, and they suggest a maximum of just over 300 saloons of the 311 (312) type could have been imported.” Today, he knows of “one right-hand-drive survivor, plus there are a few other left-hand-drive cars. Plus, there are two very butchered cars that were used in a film”.
Study of the fascinating How Many Left website reveals that there are 26 “missing” Wartburgs in the UK. Of the 44 of all types for which records exist, 15 are the later Knight, plus three of the Tourist estate version of that model.
Frost’s 312 is a Luxus-Limousine; a top-of-the-range version with extra brightwork, a map reading lamp, wooden door cappings and a full-length fabric sliding roof. He acquired his Wartburg 32 years ago and says: “The boss of a factory in Poland used it as his chauffeur-driven transport.” The Wartburg passed to his driver and eventually came to this country in the 1980s.
The public reaction to Frost’s 312 is usually one of intrigue, not least because of the distinctive two-stroke engine note. He greatly enjoys its finish, its road manners and such idiosyncrasies as the transmission freewheel. This operated on the top three ratios of the four-speed column-mounted gearchange, and Frost notes that “it makes clutchless changes much easier”.
Plus, who could resist a car with a dashboard that resembles a jukebox primed to blast out the hits of US singer Dean Reed, aka The Red Elvis or The Leningrad Cowboy, the bestselling Western performer in Communist countries?
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