Adler Trumpf mysterious roadster

Though I have been unable to crack the mystery of this particular beautiful Adler roadster so far, I would like to share a picture of another car featuring a very similar body - a Czech Jawa 700 from 1935.

A contemporary photo of this car is available at
http://www.classiccarcatalogue.com/JAWA%201935.html

The body was manufactured by Ulic in Prague. The distinctive section around the windshield is very similar to that of the Adler roadster.

Since many Germans lived in Czechoslovakia before the war, one cannot rule out the possibility that the Adler received its elegant body there.

This would explain why nobody of the many Adler enthusisasts in the German-speking world could solve the mystery to date.

Dear Kevin, dear Steve,

Thanks for your assessment - obviously you find the car as fascinating as I do!

Three points from my side: Firstly, I have taken a thorough look at the original (uncompressed) photo and cannot find any signs of fixing pegs on the rim and the frontscreen. Secondly, the headlamps are definitively German pieces featuring the distinctive "Bosch" pattern in the glass. And thirdly: Why (and where) would anyone go to great lengths combining parts of a 1930s British car and a German one, just to obtain that specific look?

I'd prefer a simpler explanation: Someone loved the sporting looks of contemporary British roadsters and had this special section made for his Adler roadster by a capable body shop. Or maybe the whole body is a one-off.

We shouldn't underestimate the prestige aspect which played an important role also for buyers of decent middle class cars. Even with regard to small cars there was a client segment where people would happily spend money for a beautiful body.

The fabulous luxury convertible and roadster bodies offered by DKW for their tiny 2-stroke cars perfectly illustrate this (if interested see my chronological online gallery of prewar DKW cars: https://klassiker-runde-wetterau.com/gallery-german-vintage-classic-cars/dkw-2-stroke-front-drive-cars/).

I still hope, anyone will solve the mystery of this outstandingly beautiful Adler!

Ok- my turn for a guess.

If you look at the very edge of the cowl over the dashboard there is a round bead. This could be a swage in the metal but looks more like a fabric piping. If it is a piping then that implies a joint at a very funny place, which in turn implies a home built body.

The windscreen frame does not appear to have started out life on those curved castings and the tops where Steve points out the hood fittings appear way too low.
I also suspect the headlamp glass to be a lucas pattern.

So if it is a home built body what could the parts be from? Take a look at the 1934 Singer Le Mans. It has the same scuttle humps with the rather distinctive double curve per hump. Most cars at the time (including Singer from 1935) only had a single curve per hump. Perhaps it is a Singer top grafted onto an Adler scuttle, hence the joint in an odd place. The windscreen shape would also seem to be a good match.

I have no idea where the curved castings are from but could easily be not automotive. All in all a really nice and thought provoking photo!

This looks to me to be a professionally built body. The top of the cowl, or scuttle?, is not an easy thing to make. Those windshield posts which curve down and forward are special castings. Look at the top of them and you will see what I am sure are securing pegs for a convertible top.

Heinzgerd makes an interesting point: Obviously, this peculiar Adler roadster didn't even have a proper top!

I also like Steve's idea that the car was inspired by contemporary British sportscars. Indeed, the very low windshield and the double arches on the cowl don't look particularly "German".

By the way: The photo from my collection was definitively taken before WW2, hence, it can't be a home-made postwar car (that the German army disdained front-wheel drive cars, is a myth, by the way. Wehrmacht officers simply loved the Citroen Traction Avant models, for example. And lots of wartime photos in my collection show front-driven DKW and Adler cars serving in army units).

From my point of view, the crucial question (apart from the girl's name) is: Which manufacturer could have made this fine body showing such distinct features like the curved upper dashboard rim?

Well, gentlemen?

Rein van der Mast is right: the ADLER from about 1935 shows a never seen before mix. Left wing and rim is Trumpf, the bonnet (37 louvres) is Trumpf Junior and the headlamp too. The frontscreen has no possibilities to fasten a Roadster- or Cabriolet-Roof. But there 6 knobs to fasten a persenning against sudden rain on the "hills" behind the window. So I think the Adler has no roof. Look where the blond "Fräulein" is sitting on: a round cut down jump-in-door. I´ve never seen such an ADLER model. In my opinion the foto could be taken after WW II. German army didn´t like fwd-cars like ADLER so a number of ADLERs survived war. Make one out of two, three or more was usual. This special car is one of those repaired from nothing models.

Could this be a British built body or at least inspired by that sporting style with the double flarings on the cowl?

As people say,this nicely curved section behind the windscreen serves as a windshild at great speed when the front glass is dropped and fixed by thumb-screws or taken off.

Left frontfender suggests Trumpf 1935 or even better a Junior when you look at the headlights, that where never seen neither on a Trumpf AV nor on a Trumpf Sports(so before 1936). Karmann had a rectangularbadge.

Stuart, the car in the picture is definitively not one of the "Sport Zweisitzer" which are well-documented in the literature.

Not only are the front windshield and the upper rim of the instrument panel different, but also the louvres and the side trim are distinctive.

While your suggestion of the man being Huschke von Hanstein and the lady being Madame Itier has some appeal, the Racing Baron was a very slim man and Madame Itier had dark hair, whereas the girl on the photo is a blonde...

There is a similar Photo of the 1935-1936 2-seater Roadster with 100mm longer bonnet (owned by Werner Nibuhr, Berlin, first shown in "Svet Motoru" magazine, Czechoslovakia) on Andrei Bogomolovs site :
http://www.autogallery.org.ru/adltr17.htm

Could this be the 1.7L Adler Trumpf Sport Zweisitser.
And more importantly could the gentleman and lady benon other than the Racing Baron, and Anne-Cécile Rose Itier, another of the few racing world's Grand Dames. In 1937, she entered the Le Mans 24-hour race together with Fritz "Huschke" von Hanstein, "the racing Baron" in a Rennlimousine.:
see :
http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/lord-k-s-garage-139-adler-rennlimousine