Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

This question arrived the other day, does anyone know anything about this obscure make??

"Hello there

I have a receipt dated February 1920 for a second hand
'Faffinier' 4 seater.
Having spent much time trying to find information
regarding this vehicle, I'm now wondering if the hand
written receipt has been mis-spelt and actually
relates to a Fafnir.
I would be most interested to hear your views on this
and also would appreciate any information you could
give me on this car.
Many thanks
Looking forward to hearing from you

Pat Williams"
_________________
Rick - Admin
Home:https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk
Videos:https://www.youtube.com/user/oldclassiccarRJ/videos
OCC & classic car merchandise (Austin, Ford ++):
https://www.redbubble.com/people/OldClassicCar/shop

[Peter_L]

I did find some information on Fafnir in Wikipedia.

It is in German and the Google translated link wouldn't work for me when I pasted it here.

Google (Advance "Fafnir Autos")

Maybe some other members will have more success.

[Old-Nail]

A quick translation of the highlights.
Fafnir was founded in 1894 and began with the production of bicycles and machinery parts.
Next, after the saturation of the bicycle market they developed an engine for both motorcycle and car use, it was a V twin which was of extremely high quality and very costly to produce and build.
The products from 1902 were built under the production name 'FAFNIR' which was named after one of the Dragons in the mythical story of the Nibelungen.

In 1904 they began to produce a two cylinder automobile called the 'Omnimobile', this was followed shortly by a four cylinder version. By 1912 the sales catalogue showed six different models, and in 1919 a name change occurred again - in " Fafnir Werke AG - Aachen steel goods factory ".

Fafnirs boom time came with motor racing, but the car's could not adapt quickly enough to the changes in circuit and the expense of racing became a strain. The end came as Fafnir was a hand built marque, and the competition such as Opel were using production line methods, add to this high taxes on luxury goods, insufficien standardisation of parts and competition from the model T in the US made it impossible to continue.
The end came is 1925 by which time each car cost more to produce than it's sale price.

[poodge]

I wonder if that's the same Fafnir that produced(-es?)ball bearings?

[Brian M]

[Scotty]

I'm really only adding a little bit more to O-N's already full answer -

Extract from "The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of British Cars" Georgano. G. N. 2000. -

FAFNIR (D) 1908-1926
Aachener Stahlwarenfabrik Fafnir-AG, Aachen.

Originally a producer of motorcycle engines, this firm developed the Omnimobil kit containing an engine and a set of necessary components which enabled a number of bicycle manufacturers to become car makers. These included CITO and FELDMANN. In 1908 they began to make complete cars, with 1520 and 2012cc 4-cylinder engines with overhead inlet and side exhaust valves, the smaller with separately cast cylinders, the larger having them pair-cast. Several different sizes of engine were made, none of them large. The 1924cc 8/22PS Typ 472 (1912-14) had automatic lubrication.

After the war the 472 and another prewar design, the 2496cc 10/25PS Typ 384, were reintroduced, and were joined by the Typ 471 with a 1950cc engine developing 50 bhp. It was made in sporting form, with some striking bodies, and with a supercharger gave 80 bhp.

HON.

There is no reference in this book to a manufacturer called 'Faffinier'.

Scotty.