Lot number	50
Hammer value	£2,700
Description	Wartburg 311
Year	c.1964
Colour	Blue
Engine size	992 cc

The Wartburg 311 was a product of post war car development from behind the Iron Curtain, the pre-war Automobilwerk Eisenach (AWE) having passed through Soviet hands after the War before becoming Eisenacher Motorenwerk (EMW) in 1952, part of the BMW empire but owned by the East German government.

Without official approval, the company began the development of the Wartburg 311 a modest, modern middle class vehicle which, it was hoped, would start to match the style and quality of products from the West. Rushed through the design phase, the prototype EMW 311's were driven to the parent company in Berlin for official sanction, which fortunately they received.

The first Wartburg Type 311 was launched in 1956. The name 'Wartburg' derives from Wartburg Castle on one of the hills overlooking the town of Eisenach where the cars were manufactured. The ‘311’ followed the tradition of naming the Eisenbach cars with numbers beginning with ‘3’, the 311 being a development of the earlier 309.

The 311 was a new design, but maintained the DKW-based engine. This was a 900cc three-cylinder, two-stroke engine, delivering 36bhp at 4000rpm, and a 0 to 60mph time of 16.4 seconds. The engine had just seven moving parts (three pistons, three connecting rods and one crankshaft). It was enlarged to 992cc in 1962 and the gearbox gained synchromesh on all speeds, although this made only a marginal difference to the performance. Another new innovation was the use of a freewheel mechanism to improve the fuel efficiency, although this was at the expense of engine braking.

The use of a separate chassis, although rather old-fashioned compared to the new unitary construction used by bigger companies, facilitated the adaptation of the car to a range of differing body shapes. After a re-design of the basic body shape in 1966, no less than 13 different body styles were eventually developed for the Wartburgh 311, including the Sportwagen, an open two-seat sports car, a five-door Camping Limousine, and a Pick-Up Truck.

Thought to date from 1964, the Wartburg offered to you today has been on display at Stondon for many years and is of course still wearing its foreign number plates and therefore is not registered with the DVLA. At the time of cataloguing no paperwork for the vehicle had been located.