1933 Röhr Tatzelwurm should be Tim Burton's new daily driver
Are you Tim Burton, about to go into production on a gothic thriller set in the Great Depression? Well boy, do we have the automotive set dressing for you. This spooky little son of a gun is a 1933 Röhr Tatzelwurm, a one-off prototype developed in the name of aerodynamic investigation whose name refers to a creature from German mythology with the head of a cat and the body of a serpent. Could it be more Burton?
Röhr was a German marque with origins in aviation that was pushed in period into other avenues that didn’t fall foul of the Treaty of Versailles, the peace treaty the Fatherland was bound to following the end of World War One. Not forgetting about their origins, Röhr’s automotive mission statement was to ‘build the aircraft for the high road’. By 1926 Röhr Auto AG was up and running, although the Junior on which the Tatzelwurm was based wouldn’t come out until 1934, eight years and one Depression-related bankruptcy filing later…
Anyway, the Tatzelwurm wasn’t an actually officially-sanctioned prototype. It was instead the development of a trainee engineer, Karl-Wilhelm Oswald (not of scream fame) who pilfered a forgotten Junior chassis on his departure from the marque. The home-grown hand-made nature is clear to see, with the sheet metal body and wooden framework sitting loud, proud and unfinished for almost 90 years.
Rather than serving as the basis for the foundation of a mighty automotive empire, as some of these offshoot prototypes built by rogue engineers do, this one lived a more humble life, as the daily hack of its creator’s family, for the better part of 40 years. You can keep your Paganis, Koenigseggs, Ferrari SP cars, Bugatti and Rolls-Royce special commissions. It doesn’t get much more ‘one-off’ and ‘unrepeatable’ than this thing. It just doesn’t quite have the Casino Square kudos of some special coach builds…
Given its unique appearance, unfinished presentation and shall we say, limited pedigree, the Röhr Tatzelwurm isn’t expected to sell for the GDP of a small country. Rather, the lease price of a small executive saloon. Artcurial estimates it’ll go for between £44,000 and £70,000 when it crosses the block, with no reserve, at Retromobile in February.
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