Lamley Daily: Coffaro Wheels Auto Union 1000S

(Visit the Coffaro Wheels website here, and search the Grell listings on Ebay here)

It’s about time I got back to the business of sharing the more varied and wonderful models out there. And perhaps no brand in 1/64 quite hits that brief more than Coffaro Wheels of Argentina. If you are a regular reader of my Lamley ramblings, you’ll be familiar with this brand already. Dario’s work is very close to my heart and we’ve built up a good friendship over the past few years. He’s also been getting some much deserved attention for his efforts. His work was featured in a Dutch hobby magazine, on other hobby related blogs, and recently he was featured on a domestic news programme sharing his love for the hobby and the vehicles he replicates.

The Auto Union 1000S is one of his creations and in my opinion, the prettiest so far.

The Auto Union 1000S was introduced in 1958, replacing the earlier 3=6 “Sonderklasse” model. Powered by a 981cc two-stroke inline-3, the 1000S was available in coupe, saloon and estate body styles. The baby Ford Thunderbird-esque 1000Sp sports car was also based on the model.

Partly due to it’s mechanical simplicity, the 1000S proved a popular export model. Argentina was one of the most popular overseas markets for DKW, with license production undertaken by IASF, based in the city of Sauce Viejo in Santa Fe province. Production of Argentine models began in 1960 and outlasted that of the European cars, ending only in 1970, a full five years after the last examples had left Auto Union’s factories in Ingolstadt and Düsseldorf. Argentine sales of all variants were over 28,000.

Coffaro’s miniature is fabulously put together for a hand finished model.

The two-tone paint finish and details are incredibly impressive. The paint finish is good; shiny and with a decent depth to it that some mainstream diecast makers sometimes struggle to achieve.

Of course you can tell it’s a handmade item, but it only adds to the charm. There’s a detailed interior visible through the windows and the details like lights, door handles, window frames etc are all hand painted.

As I’ve come to expect with Coffaro cars, the Auto Union rolls nicely on some very attractive and accurate steel wheels, wrapped in treaded rubber.

It’s a wonderful model, and gave me a neat excuse to put it alongside the Grell IFA F9, a car I’ve previously featured on Lamley and one closely related to the Auto Union.

*The Grell IFA F9 is a little larger than the true 1/64 of the Coffaro DKW.*

At the end of World War Two, Auto Union’s Zwickau plant ended up in the Soviet zone of occupation, and subsequently in East Germany. In the area occupied by the Allied Powers, Auto Union assets were moved to the the refurbished Rheinmetall factory in Düsseldorf. But both factories began producing cars based on the DKW F9, a pre-war prototype that had been intended to enter production in 1940.

When vehicle production resumed post-war in Zwickau, F9 bodies were mated to older F8 drivetrains to create the basis for the new IFA F9 which went into production in 1949. In Düsseldorf, the design of the pre-war F9 was copied heavily for the DKW F89, introduced in 1950. And the 1000S was part of the F89 lineage.