Topic: Solved: Welcome to the Pleasuredome

[Wendax]

One last hint from me, because you are so close: this children's car has a strong relation to a car Brütsch built before he started his microcar business. Still locked.

[4popoid]

Thanks for the extension, but I'm not sure I can add much.  Egon Brütsch had two full size racing cars built prior to his venture into microcars.  I believe that these were called EBS (for Egon Brütsch, Stuttgart) and EBSII.  In the press these were sometimes called the "Westenrieder-Maserati" and the "EBS II-Bugatti", but I doubt that either Maserati or Bugatti could be used in the name for the children's car.  However I suppose that it is possible that Brütsch could have called the children's car either EBS, or perhaps EBSIII.  I'm afraid that this is about the best that I can do on the subject.   

[Wendax]

EBS is what I was after, as this was called EBS Kinder-Rennwagen (= children's racing car).

[Wendax]

up again

[4popoid]

Time to return to the Pleasuredome and see if we (I will need lots of help) can finish this one off. 

I am going to try D & 15.

D is clearly inside a body shop, where a restoration (not new work) seems to be taking place.  The person in the foreground seems very over dressed for a body shop, so I suppose that he is the owner and/or designer, but if I need to know who he is, I don't have a clue.  The car under restoration appears to be from the late 40's, or early 50's, and possibly Italian, so perhaps the unidentified person is the original designer.

15 is an unknown building under construction.  From the picture I would guess the time frame is the 1930's, but it could be early post war.  If one imagines the finished structure, it seems to me that the restoration work in D is occurring inside this building, given the amount of the building visible in the background.

I going way out on a limb and guess that the person in the picture is Sergio Pininfarina, given that the Pininfarina establishment was founded in 1930, and Battista's, ("Pinin") son Sergio was in charge after Pinin's death in 1966, and was reputed to be a very "hands on" president.  Sergio was born in 1926, so, given the clothing style, the person in picture D appears to be about the right age.

I'm probably way off with this scenario, but perhaps it will trigger some ideas with other AutoPuzzlers who will proceed to complete the puzzle of the Pleasuredome.   

[Wendax]

Time to return to the Pleasuredome and see if we (I will need lots of help) can finish this one off. 

This is a very good idea.

I am going to try D & 15.

That is the right combination. Now we only need the fitting connection.

D is clearly inside a body shop, where a restoration (not new work) seems to be taking place.  The person in the foreground seems very over dressed for a body shop, so I suppose that he is the owner and/or designer, but if I need to know who he is, I don't have a clue.  The car under restoration appears to be from the late 40's, or early 50's, and possibly Italian, so perhaps the unidentified person is the original designer.

It is not a restoration and the car is not Italian, but the time is right.

15 is an unknown building under construction.  From the picture I would guess the time frame is the 1930's, but it could be early post war.  If one imagines the finished structure, it seems to me that the restoration work in D is occurring inside this building, given the amount of the building visible in the background.

Yes, it is the postwar construction of a building belonging to the company in question.

I going way out on a limb and guess that the person in the picture is Sergio Pininfarina, given that the Pininfarina establishment was founded in 1930, and Battista's, ("Pinin") son Sergio was in charge after Pinin's death in 1966, and was reputed to be a very "hands on" president.  Sergio was born in 1926, so, given the clothing style, the person in picture D appears to be about the right age.

No

I'm probably way off with this scenario, but perhaps it will trigger some ideas with other AutoPuzzlers who will proceed to complete the puzzle of the Pleasuredome.

D-15 locked for you to come up with the connecting company.

[4popoid]

Thanks for the lock.  I hope I can do something with it, but in order to do so I have to narrow the scope.  Is the location of the pictures in Germany?

[Wendax]

Yes

[4popoid]

Might the connecting company be: Carosserie Spohn of Ravensburg, Germany?

[Wendax]

I can see why you think of Spohn, but it's not.

[4popoid]

Well, Gerd, I'm pretty much at a loss as to the connecting company.  I'll give it one more shot, and if I'm wrong, as I think I will be, unlock it, and let the Professionals finish it off (which I hope they will).  Is the connecting company: Karosserie Dorr & Schreck of Frankfurt a.M.?   

[Wendax]

Not Dörr & Schreck. I think you guessed Spohn, because you noticed some similarities between the pictured car and a certain marque. The company in question was doing bodywork for that marque, too.

Open for all again.

[4popoid]

Is the company in question Baur of Stuttgart?

[Wendax]

No

[4popoid]

Is the company in question Automobilwerke Ernst Loof GmbH?

[Wendax]

No, it is a coachbuilder.

[4popoid]

Yes, I thought you wanted a coachbuilder, but I wasn't having much luck, so I thought I would try the car builder.  I haven't been able to locate a known (to me) coachbuilder, but I did locate a couple of unknown names who worked on a racing roadster of the same marque, so perhaps one of them is the mystery coachbuilder.  Those names are: Kurt Frick of Messkirch, and Karl Kling of (?).  One or or both may have been internal employees of the car builder, and thus do not fit the required parameters, but it is all I can find at the moment.

[Wendax]

It was an established coachbuilder, which is widely known for bodywork on a car by a different manufacturer.

[4popoid]

Perhaps I have been thinking too small, and/or too obscure.  Is the company in question Karosserie Hebmüller?

[Wendax]

Spot on! Picture D probably shows a design for Veritas, but I'm not sure about that. Picture 15 depicts the construction of the new factory building at Wülfrath after the old factory was destroyed by a fire (that finally ruined Hebmüller).

Two more combinations to go. One of them is not really that hard, while the other one ...

[4popoid]

It's the home stretch!  I have some ideas, but I'm not sure how they are related.  I'll start with: C&3.

C shows a boy standing on the hood of an unknown brand of car (I would have been severely punished if I had stood on a car hood!).  I have no idea of the identity of the child, or if that is even important, but I suspect that the brand of car is important, as the badge has been obscured, although the style of the auto is that of a European marque.

3 shows an industrial building, which is probably an auto assembly plant, given the covered autos sitting on the railroad flatcars adjacent to the building.  The identity of the autos is pretty well obscured by their covering, although, by their general shape, I would estimate late '30s (obviously much newer than the one shown in C).

Given the above, I'll guess that C shows an unknown young boy standing on the hood of an auto manufactured at the plant shown in 3.   

[Wendax]

You are absolutely right with your assumptions. All you need for the solution is the car brand, the car and the location of the plant. If you find the first one, the others will be quite easy.

[4popoid]

I believe the car in C is a 1925/26 Opel 4/14 PS, and the plant in 3 is the administration and factory buildings of Opel in Rüsselsheim, Germany.

[Wendax]

Perfect answer.

Who will find out what the last pair is about?

[4popoid]

One more to go, with the pair, F & 16, already determined! 

F is the picture of a adult male sitting in an auto (I think it is a Porsche 356A convertible of 1955-1959) surrounded by apparently admiring people, most of whom appear to be wearing Volkswagen shop coats.  I don't know who the person in the auto is for sure, or even if this is important to the puzzle, but I think that it might be Dr. Carl Hahn.  At the time of production of  the Porsche 356A, Hahn was assistant to VW Chairman Heinrich Nordhoff, who made him head of VW export sales, and later president of Volkswagen of America.

16 is something of a guess, but it appears to be the lobby of an office building, in which is displayed a 1950-1967 Volkswagen Type 2 (T1) van.  The displayed van appears to be a Westfalia-Werke camper conversion, so I am guessing that this photo might might have been taken in the lobby of Westfalia-Werke in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany.  This may have no connection to the puzzle, but the art displayed on the lobby wall appears to be of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers.

In any case I am guessing that the connection between photos F & 16 is Volkswagen.