Rumpler Tropfenwagen at the Moving Beauty exhibition

July August 1982 issue of Antique Automobile

Edmund Rumpler had worked in the automotive industry until WW1 when he focused his attention to aircraft, this mix of experience led him back to car design when after the war he was not allowed to continue with the aircraft industry. he instead designed this revolutionary streamlined car, the Tropfenwagen (tear drop car) introducing it in 1921. From the top, it resembled a fish, the pictures of wind tunnel tests seem to ignore that. It was the hit of the Berlin show but of course so being so far out there as well as being quite expensive, it never gained much popularity. It was sold in small numbers for 4 years. It was tested in Volkswagens windtunnel (bottom picture) where it showed drag coefficient of just .28, right up there with the best of the modern designs.  

 

Bottom two pictures from the book Moving Beauty, a catalog of the 1995 art exhibition; Moving Beauty at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. 

More here; Moving Beauty

The show, itself was controversial, cars in an art museum? but it apparently drew more viewers than any show before it.  There were about fifty spectacular vehicles on display, many of them we had only seen in pictures.