Solved TGF-10: Horch Sachsenring P240 #000001

[targhediferro]

Not so difficult to identify this wrech, but it's very particular, why?
Make, model...and peculiar quality of this car, to have a point.

[targhediferro]

Ok, this one is in ugly conditions...but easy to identify.

[frederick59]

Humber?

[targhediferro]

Not Humber, sorry.

[Zerk]

Sachsenring P-240?

[nicanary]

Sachsenring P240 but badged as a Horch?

[targhediferro]

The car actually is a Horch Sachsenring P-240,  so I will lock for both you...can you guess wy this car is particular?

[nicanary]

Is it the prototype?

[targhediferro]

Not the prototype, but you're on the right way.

[Zerk]

Was this the one-off car that was built as a retirement gift for the factory's manager?

[targhediferro]

No, wrong way.

[Zerk]

Is it a first production model, from 1955?

[targhediferro]

very close to the target

[Zerk]

It seems there were preproduction P-240 cars, with different grilles and perhaps other detail differences. Is it one of those?

[targhediferro]

you are turning around the target, the beginning of production is the right way...and the productions begin with...?

[nicanary]

I don't want to steal a point from Zerk, but he's given you "first production car" and "pre-production" and I've given you "prototype" - what else is there? Is it the first one made without Horch badges?

[Zerk]

I don't want to steal a point from Zerk, but he's given you "first production car" and "pre-production" and I've given you "prototype" - what else is there? Is it the first one made without Horch badges?

No worries, Nicanary, I'm just riding along.

Targhediferro, is the Horch the first P-240 made for distribution, ie. chassis no. 000001?

[targhediferro]

That's the right answer. The quiz car is Horch Sachsenring P-240 #000001, and that's why it has been rescued from a wood and become a restoration project.
I'll post the picture of the ID plate.
A point for you.

[targhediferro]

As I told you...

[Wendax]

Looking at the manufacturer's plate I have severe doubts. Either it is chassis #0001, then it should be from 1955, or it is from 1958, then the chassis number should be somewhere around 1000.   

[Zerk]

This is a puzzle in more ways than one.

The ID plate looks absolutely original, but the date on it, 1958, has been overstamped, with "8" over "9". This suggests to me that this car was actually finished in 1959.

Being unfamiliar with their numbering sequence, I'll ask if it's possible that the car is #0001 for the year 1959 production run...whether that run was realized or not?

[Wendax]

There were two different griils for the P240: an earlier one with vertical bars (compare http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=19298.0) and a later one with horizontal bars. I know that for quite some time both were applied at Horch, probably depending what was available. But the first press pictures always showed the vertical bar type. Funnily this #0001 has the grill with horizontal bars. The bonnet has the early crowned H Horch logo, but it looks as if the middle chrome strip with the winged globe never was applied, like at the later versions with the Sachsenring logo.
I don't think this car is a fake, but it was probably rebuilt in 1958, possibly after a major accident.

[Zerk]

In limited production a lot of unusual things can happen.

Perhaps an early car can be kept in a dusty corner of the factory as a reference piece or "demo," and not assigned a chassis number until the end of production. Odd but possible.

[Wendax]

An early brochure:

[grobmotorix]

An ad and a photo with the other grille version: