Puzzle #130 - Solved! 1957 NETÍK 600

[Otto Puzzell]

Know what it is?

Please, respond below and let us know what make and model you think you see here.


If you haven't registered yet, you need to do so in order to reply with your answer.  You can do so by clicking here.

Also, please be sure to check out our other puzzles.

Thanks!

[Tifosi]

It's the one and only [Thank God!] Snash...a combination of Studebaker and Nash styling cues dreamed p by Battista Pininfarina after a wild night of bad cannoli and chianti...


Dan

[porridgehead]

It's definitely either a Figoni y Falaschi Pontiac Aztec (unlikely given the whole timing issue, but it could happen in bizzarroworld) or possibly a Saoutchik Brubaker Box.

Or, there is the off chance that it might be a 1957 NETÍK 600.

Given the odds of that being correct, I'm betting on the Aztec.

[Otto Puzzell]

Pontiac is incorrect! 

[porridgehead]

Ok, I can accept that. Now howzabout that Netik 600?

[MG]

It has a sorta Nash Metropolitan character about it. Not that that is meant in any way to be construed as a compliment!   

Seriously, the setting appears quite European and I am guessing this thing is ugly enough to have been conceived and built somewhere in East Germany. It sure LOOKS like a 'designed by committee" car - a committee of midgets with below average IQ in this particular case......

[porridgehead]

It sorta looks like this car. Similar styling cues. Similar wheelbase, greenhouse... and the nose also seems to have a family resemblence. The colors, however, are way off.

Guess I'll have to keep looking.

[Stephen M]

It sorta looks like this car. Similar styling cues. Similar wheelbase, greenhouse... and the nose also seems to have a family resemblence. The colors, however, are way off.

Guess I'll have to keep looking.

+2&, the car in the pic you found is a bit bigger, and much less grainy. The people surrounding the car seem to be the same, though...perhaps you could track them down and ask 'em what it is.

[Otto Puzzell]

Ok, I can accept that. Now howzabout that Netik 600?

You are correct! Shoulda guessed that the first time. 

[Tifosi]

Looks like a reject from a bumper car ride at Disneyland...


Dan

[Arthur Dent]

why the heck was the designer thinking? Anyone got some background on this thing?

[Ultra]

   None of those people seem willing to touch it.

[Otto Puzzell]

why the heck was the designer thinking? Anyone got some background on this thing?

Here you go:

Netík 600, Československo 1957

Dvoudveřový čtyřmístný vůz, motor vpředu a pohon předních kol, řízení zadními koly. Dvoudobý řadový dvouválec, objem 616 cm³, vrtání 70 mm a zdvih 80 mm, komprese 6,0, výkon 15 kW (20 koní) při 3500 ot/min. Čtyřstupňová převodovka, délka 4500 mm, hmotnost 800 kg, maximální rychlost asi 90 km/h.

Vozidlo postavil Ing. Franišek Netík. Stavbu zahájil v roce 1953 a ukončil roku 1957. Zatáčecí byla zadní kola, zatímco přední byla pevná. Řízení zadních kol obstarával lanový převod. Mechanické brzdy působily pouze na přední kola. Celokovová samonosná karosérie měla centrální nosnou rouru. K sériové výrobě, která se plánovala v Brně v Královopolské strojírně, nedošlo. Vůz zůstal ve stádiu jediného prototypu.

Zdroj: velorexy.cz.

The little I've been able to discern is this car was made of plastic, and was not allowed to breed in captivity, or in the wild. Good thing, that.

[Arthur Dent]

ah that clears it up nicely. 

[Otto Puzzell]

I've tried to find something in English, to no avail.

[porridgehead]

Interesting. Looking at the man at the rear of the machine, it would seem this is some sort of mobile latrine. Or, at the very least, it should be.

[Arthur Dent]

Interesting. Looking at the man at the rear of the machine, it would seem this is some sort of mobile latrine. Or, at the very least, it should be.

if that is true then the guy standing next to him on right isn't all that subtle about checking out the business.

[porridgehead]

Meet Bob. Bob is looking cool. And with a call to Enzyte about natural male enhancement, Bob is living large. In a few short weeks, Bob has a big, new spring of confidence. A generous swelling of pride. And the one thing every man deserves: A little well-earned respect from the neighborhood.

[Ultra]

Meet Bob. Bob is looking cool. And with a call to Enzyte about natural male enhancement, Bob is living large. In a few short weeks, Bob has a big, new spring of confidence. A generous swelling of pride. And the one thing every man deserves: A little well-earned respect from the neighborhood.

[MG]

After MUCH searching, I have uncovered a translation:

Netik 600  Czechoslovaki   1957

Introduced by Netik Motorcar Company of Gmumpf, the Netik 600 features a one cylinder, horizontally opposed 3 stroke engine displacing 200 centimeters cubed. Due to the heroic three stroke design, which combines the features and benefits of a two-stroke design, a four stroke design and a diesel configuration, the Netik engine can run on anything from potato squeezings to gnu dung. Power is directed to the left front wheel via a series of pulleys and a belt made from finest yak hair. It has one forward speed, namely "Forward" and reverse if you park it on a sloping surface.

The interior features comfortable accommodations for 11 Czechs or one Russian grandmother sitting on boards stretched across cinder blocks left over from the construction of the Grand Residence for Stateless Persons in downtown Gmumpf, but please do not tell the State Security folks, who wanted the cinder blocks to hang around the necks of dissidents before throwing them off the Great and Really Large Bridge that traverses the Zelko River and which was donated by our Russian cousins as a sign of eternal peace and goodwill.

The designer of the Netik, Broz Natinmumfchek, employed the latest Soviet styling techniques, including a windshield from an old Chris Craft that had sunk in the Zelko River 47 years ago. Comrade Natinmumfchek said the inspiration came to him one night after a being drunk for two weeks of rotgut Russian vodka.  Shortly after his car was revealed to the public, he was treated to an all expense vacation in Siberia for the rest of his natural life.

Performance of the Netik was described as "lackadaisical" and "ludicrous" by automotive scribes of the era. One wag said that driving the Netik was "Better than a poke in the eye with a really sharp stick, but just barely."

This is the only surviving example of the Netik 600, as after it was built, the workers went on a rampage, smashing all the original dies and tooling with sledge hammers and dumping the resultant detritus into the firebox of the Grand People's Trash Incinerator.  At an asking price of 7 slotskies, the car remained unsold for 11 years, as most felt the car was overpriced by any standard. Finally it was purchased by Bruno Sebasipol, a wealthy industrialist and merchant of potato squeezings, popularly known as Bruno the Blind, who bought the car sight unseen. 

No further information is available.

[Arthur Dent]

haha - good stuff. Probably close to the truth 

[MG]

Reports from the time indicate that this engine DID run a bit roughly at idle.  Also at every other engine speed!   

[DeAutogids]

What's this car for one point please?

[Allemano]

I'm pretty sure we had this before, though shown from a different angle.

[DeAutogids]

I did do a search... PM me if you have found it (or merge it).