1937 Zündapp K800 4 cylinder SV

Frame number: 193895       Engine number: 193895

Year: 1937                         Cylinder capacity: 800 cc

Documents: German road registration document

The Zündapp K800 was the top of the range Model by Zündapp and has an opposed four cylinder engine with an 797cc capacity producing 26hp and drives the shaft driven rear wheel via a 4-speed manual transmission. The design of the K800 is un-mistakingly beautiful, the motorcycle looks like a work of Art Deco art.

Our ancestors were tough guys, if only because they were able to take part in off-road races and even achieve success on a four-cylinder, two-hundred-kilogram motorcycle. At first glance, the Zündapp K800 is suitable for many things, not just riding on dirt roads, and in comparison it was tested as a sports motorcycle, not to mention military service.

In 1933 a K800 took part in the International Six Day Race (ISDT) and after good results, the big Nuremberg machines became regular participants in off-road races. In 1936, the German J. von Krohn won the sidecar category in the 24-hour, 1,200-kilometer rally in Hungary without a mistake, and although there was no serious field test there, the domestic roads were in a shameful state at the time, obviously put a lot of strain on the machine and the competitor.

Zündapp presented the new four-cylinder boxer at the Berlin Motor Show in 1933, not alone, but as part of a completely new series. The owner of the factory, Hans-Friedrich Neumeyer, felt that with the end of the economic crisis it was time to strengthen the market weight of his company and break with the model policy, which was mainly based on single-cylinder two-cylinder engines. Two excellent designers helped with the realization: Xaver and Richard Küchen created the sheet metal frame, to which a fork made of pressed sheet steel was connected at the front, and the special engine design is also thanks to them.