Solved: Wendax 556 - Hanomag 4/23 PS Cabriolet by Keibl

[Wendax]

Not Maybach and not DKW

[guido66]

Selve?

[Wendax]

No

[grobmotorix]

Hanomag?

[Wendax]

Yes, that's what I think it is looking at the radiator, but I need a proof what this car really is in order to grant a point.

[grobmotorix]

Yes, this looks definitly like a Hanomag logo.
But I do not have an idea about the type really, yet.
It might be an early Rekord or Sturm, but I´ve got to check...

[Wendax]

Regarding the size, the exquisite bodywork and the background setting I thought of an early Hanomag Sturm, but couldn't find any picture that resembled this car.

[grobmotorix]

It seems even too big for an early Sturm... Strange

Special bodies for Hanomags have been built by Ambi-Budd, Hebmüller, Karmann and Wendler in the mid 1930´s in bigger numbers.

But this body does not even look german in my eyes...

[Wendax]

It seems even too big for an early Sturm... Strange

That's the reason why - when I first saw this picture - I saved it under "Das ist doch kein Hanomag" (That ain't no Hanomag) 

[grobmotorix]

It looks like a ca. 1929-33 styling and the Sturm debuted just in 1934 with a much more modern body and a different grille.
All the Garant and Rekord models etc. were relatively small cars, not to speak of the tiny Kommißbrot.

This is indeed special...

[sixtee5cuda]

The emblem in the triangle certainly does look like some Hanomag symbols I have seen.

For a large german car to be made in the 1930's, by a small company, I suspect it was intended for royal or military use.

[sixtee5cuda]

Hmmm.  I was wandering in another direction, and found a screen capture from a 1965 movie called Shakespeare Wallah.  It shows a 1930's car, with the same type of grill, with the same triangular opening at the top.  The image claims the car is a Hispano-Suiza.  Strange.

[grobmotorix]

To be honest, Hispano Suiza at the beginning was my first intention, too.

But the Logo has never looked like this to my best knowledge.
There never has been an "H" in the middle of the Hispano-Suiza-logo:

[Wendax]

...and there is no hood ornament on our puzzle car, an item seldom missed at Hispano-Suizas of the Thirties.

[guido66]

The Selve Selecta had similarly styled fenders:

[RayTheRat]

I'm trying to think "outside the box" (or maybe just "out of my head") here.  Is it possible that the circular emblem on the headlight bar is not an emblem, but a siren?  Like maybe for a government official's limousine?

Then there's the radiator/grill shield.  If it (and whatever it is on the light bar) was removed, this angle photo would have a very different appearance.  More like the attached photo of a 1934 Hispano-Suiza.  Yeah, I know...there's the radiator mascot that's conspicuous by its absence, but then looking at the photo, if it had, say a Lalique mascot and the chauffeur was preparing to drive Madam et Monsieur somewhere of little importance on a winter's day, perhaps it was replaced by a dull and boring, merely functional cap.

The only thing I haven't been able to identify is the sculptured fenders.  Most of the Hissos I've run across have fenders that don't extend nearly as far down on the front edge.  I don't know if this is a characteristic of a certain coachbuilder or not.  If it is, that might account for it.

I've gotta quit searching for this on the web and leafing thru books and get to work on my race car. 

RtR
(out of the box and out of his head)

[Wendax]

I think that the round item on the radiator bar is just an ordinary horn.

[RayTheRat]

That's a more probable explanation, especially since there are no "ahh-oo-gah" horns below the headlights.

[sixtee5cuda]

What is the shiny thing at the bottom of the radiator?  On the last H-S shown, it is black.

On RtR's picture, that car has most of the features I was describing as common to H-S.  If you were to convert the image to B&W, the radiator emblem would look even more like a stylized H with a bar across it...

[grobmotorix]

I´m sure the puzzle pic is not a Hispano Suiza!

[sixtee5cuda]

I just wish I could find another source for the original picture, or another picture of the same car.  Especially since I think I have seen it before.

[RayTheRat]

What is the shiny thing at the bottom of the radiator?  On the last H-S shown, it is black.

On RtR's picture, that car has most of the features I was describing as common to H-S.  If you were to convert the image to B&W, the radiator emblem would look even more like a stylized H with a bar across it...

I think it's the magneto.  Not anywhere near positive and I'm sure someone will correct me.   

Funny thing.  The front end is very similar to a 1929-30 Auburn...all of the 8- series that I have in my reference libraries seem to have the same grill shell and "V"-shaped emblem:

[Manuel]

I have seen the pic before as well.

Manuel in Oz

[roger]

Another design point of note on this car, the wings / fenders curve down behind the front bumper.

I thought I had found another photo of the same model only to notice the front wings are still too high.

[grobmotorix]

I think it is indeed a Hanomag, but this one really kills me.

There has not been a Hanomag car this big in the 1925-1933 period, when the puzzle car must have been built.

Maybe it has been a prototype for a big limousine that never reached production because of the 1929 global depression?