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68-419: 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. 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

136-420: 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,

204-570: A 170,000 square meter site in the Cologne district of Köln-Niehl to Ford in order that they might massively expand and relocate their German assembly operations from Berlin : in 1931 the Ford Cologne plant started producing cars. Ford very soon became the most important customer for Karl Deutsch. By 1934 they were delivering to Ford 8 to 10 car bodies per day, and four years later this had increased to 30 daily. Customers also included Ford's business in

272-677: A habit that Ford would find hard to break in the ensuring decades. 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

340-546: 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,

408-499: 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

476-458: A relatively low cost, but the shock settings on the Baroque Taunus nevertheless must have contributed to its informally awarded “Flying carpet” title 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

544-493: A scale that the volumes available to a firm like Deutsch could never justify, and the continuing labour-intensive nature of the cabriolet conversion business created an ever-widening cost gap between the standard cars and the cabriolet versions with which, apart from the roof and some body strengthening inserts, they shared virtually all their components. The prices necessary to accommodate those cost differences became too high to be passed on to car buyers. Growing public debate about

612-532: 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

680-524: 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

748-568: A time when the United States 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

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816-513: 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 West Germany (which would soon be Europe’s largest national auto-market) became

884-501: 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. Not included in these totals are the saloons/sedans converted into two seater cabriolets by

952-477: 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

1020-555: The Netherlands . After the Second World War the founder's son, Werner Deutsch, took over the business. Ford Germany remained the largest customer. However, in the mid-1960s Ford withdrew cabriolets from their model range. The company for a time continued to perform cabriolet conversions on Ford models in response to end-customer requests, and also produced cabriolet conversions for other automakers including Borgward and, following

1088-463: 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

1156-484: The 1949 Borgward Hansa 1500 . 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. The planning for Ford Germany's new ponton bodied passenger car began in 1949. Several aspects of the car's development reflected

1224-657: 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 . Between 1957 and 1960 Ford produced 239,978 Taunus P2s. 45,468 of these were station wagons. This provided

1292-484: The Cologne based coach builder Karl Deutsch. 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 the major cathedral city Cologne, where

1360-499: The Deluxe version that had the same styling as the American counterpart. 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

1428-681: 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

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1496-489: The Ford Taunus 17M itself appeared as one of the stars at the Frankfurt Motor Show . 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

1564-591: The Ford Taunus designed in the 1930s, had had its body built by Ambi Budd , 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

1632-536: The Ford factory was located, 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

1700-411: 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

1768-562: The Taunus P1 came to an end, after 555,463 cars had been built. 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 1962, 245,614 of the Stripes Taunus models were produced. 56,843 of these were fitted with

1836-404: 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 Poor workmanship on the early cars

1904-470: 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

1972-525: 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

2040-404: 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

2108-432: 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

Ford Taunus P2 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2176-439: 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

2244-411: 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

2312-429: The car. Ford Taunus P1 The Ford Taunus P1 is a small family car which was produced by Ford Germany from 1952 until 1962. It was marketed as the Ford Taunus 12M , and, between 1955 and 1959, as the larger-engined Ford Taunus 15M . The company produced a succession of Ford Taunus 12M models until 1970, as the name was applied to a succession of similarly sized cars, but the first Taunus 12M models, based on

2380-481: The closure of the Autenrieth coachbuilding firm, Opel . Nevertheless, the economics of auto-production were changing, as increases in wage levels and employment taxes encouraged greater standardisation of components and sub-assemblies and the beginnings of the accelerating automation revolution that transformed manufacturing in the final decades of the twentieth century. These developments involved capital investment on

2448-487: The company's Taunus Project 1 (P1), remained in production only until 1962. In that year 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

2516-405: 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

2584-467: 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

2652-408: 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 its manufacturer's North American parentage and thereby conferred a certain glamour at

2720-420: 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. In 1955

2788-466: The larger 1.5 liter motor. Karl Deutsch GmbH Karl Deutsch GmbH was a coach building firm known, in its later years, for converting mainstream motor cars into cabriolets. The business was located in Köln -Braunsfeld, a district on the west side of what today would be defined as central Cologne . In 1913 Karl Deutsch acquired the wheel-making business of J. W. Utermöhle GmbH. In 1916 Deutsch changed

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2856-487: 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 Ford Taunus P6 . By 1961, despite its three-box body shape, the Taunus 12M had become 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

2924-438: 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,

2992-441: 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 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

3060-510: 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

3128-462: The model looking badly outclassed under the bonnet/hood. 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

3196-477: The name of the firm to Karl Deutsch GmbH, now concentrating on the production of trailers for the army. After the war ended the company started building car bodies to spezial order on chassis manufactured by automakers. From 1930 bodies were provided for several batches of Horch cars and the company also provided car bodies to the Cologne-based subsidiary of Citroën . In 1929 Mayor Adenauer made available

3264-450: 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

3332-418: 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

3400-405: 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 years 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

3468-460: 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,

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3536-413: 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

3604-480: 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” ( "Masterpiece" )

3672-440: 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. Early in 1954 the Ford Taunus finally received the 1500 cc engine that had been planned for successive Taunus models ever since 1939. Hitherto

3740-465: 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 car was mostly inspired from the 1955 Ford , especially

3808-459: The singing star Gitta Lind . Lind's singing style was not one with wide appeal in most of the US or the UK, where she may be chiefly noteworthy as a 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

3876-436: 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

3944-399: 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

4012-433: The time was never offered with more than two doors, and the two-door Taunus 17Ms of the period seem to have comfortably outsold the four-door versions. 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

4080-493: Was a separate model. 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

4148-404: 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 ,

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4216-512: 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

4284-461: Was also offered with the option of a "Saxomat" automatic clutch, married to the three-speed gearbox (though not with the four-speed box). 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

4352-572: 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 GmbH . In retrospect the inclusion of a four-door sedan/saloon in the range seems unsurprising. However, the West German market, in contrast to the French and British markets, still had more of an appetite for two-door models in this category. The Borgward Isabella of

4420-481: 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. The forward ones also positioned the turn signals high and in a spot where they could be seen through more than 180 degrees. For buyers who found

4488-404: Was no change in the listed power output or top speed resulting from this, but there was a 5% reduction in fuel consumption. Most of the cars produced were sedans/saloons, but the total of 239,978 also included 45,468 estate/kombi bodied cars and (evidently not included in these data) more than 3,000 cabriolets, converted from sedans/saloons by the Cologne based coach-builder Karl Deutsch. In 1960

4556-461: Was replaced, for the first time on a German Ford, with overhead valves . 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 hollow 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

4624-418: Was unava⁹ilable 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. During development it was intended that the car would be powered by

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