Van
Chassis #: 22524620
Engine #: 66157370
Sold for $45,920 at 2023 Bonhams : Quail.
Prior to World War II, DKW had been the largest European motorcycle manufacturer, and it was a two-stroke specialist. So it was little surprise that their 3=6 (3 equals 6) would follow the trend. This naming scheme conveys the fact that the vehicle has a three-cylinder engine but the performance of a small six. The engine produced 42 horsepower and offered 57 foot-pounds of torque, which was adequate to carry the 'heavy' Karavan. The vehicle's closest competitor was Volkswagen's Micro Bus, which was notably smaller and lighter (and less expensive). The DKW 3=6 featured a flat floor, front-wheel drive, and a curbside door with five feet eight inches of headroom. During the 1950s, DKW's US marketing team tried associating their products with Hollywood. They were able to get Swedish actress Anita Ekberg to drive a DKW Sports Coupe in the 1957 feature film Valerie. They felt that the big screen could be more effective than promoting their product in newspaper ads. Unfortunately for DKW, the Volkswagen product simply overwhelmed DKW, which ceased production in 1966.
This particular example was found in a storage shed at a mining operation in southern Oregon in 1996. It is not known how many examples of the 3=6 models were actively sold in the United States, but it is believed that less than 1,000 of the Kastemwagen panel trucks were sold. In modern times, just six are known to reside in the USA. Two of them are restored, two are complete and unrestored, and two are parts vehicles.
By Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2014
1960 DKW Schnellaster Kastenwagen Vehicle Profiles
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Performance and Specification Comparison
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