Cyklon

Cyklon was a German motorcycle, three-wheeler and automobile marque whose corporate history crossed Erlau in Saxony, Berlin and Mylau in the Vogtland. Its automobile story begins with engineers Franz Louis Hüttel and Vasile Sfetescu, who built Cyklon motorized delivery tricycles at the Cyklon-Fahrrad- und Maschinenfabrik Hüttel & Kippe in Erlau in 1902. Archival commercial-vehicle research records 1.5-, 2- and 2.75-PS versions carrying 0.1–0.25 tonnes and says a Berlin department store had them in successful service from June. This was a genuine commercial product family, not merely a stationary prototype, but no source maps those three ratings to separately named chassis, so the catalog keeps one early Motor-Gepäckdreirad row with three power variants. The enterprise and production moved to Berlin in 1903. At the Leipzig Krystallpalast exhibition that October it publicly presented the developed Cyklonette, whose defining layout put its engine above the single steerable and driven front wheel ahead of a rigid two-wheel rear axle. This eliminated a propeller shaft and differential and made the vehicle an unusually early practical front-wheel-drive automobile. Sources often round the Cyklonette's opening to 1904, when Cyklon Maschinenfabrik GmbH became a subsidiary of Deutsche Kabelwerke AG; the dated October 1903 exhibition is retained as the model family's first evidenced appearance. Early Berlin addresses included Mainzer Straße 22/23, followed from September 1907 by Alt Boxhagen 17/18. The opening 3.5-PS Cyklonette used an air-cooled 450 cc single cylinder. It drove the front wheel by belt and later roller chain at fixed ratio, while a long tiller carried throttle and ignition controls. Bodies ranged from light delivery boxes to two- and four-passenger accommodation. The single-cylinder form survived until 1914. Twin-cylinder development began by 1904 and standard sources describe 750–1,290 cc across the family. The archival sequence identifies an early 3/6-PS twin and a 5/10-PS twin introduced in 1909. A preserved vehicle catalogued as a 1912 3/6 PS is reported with 733 cc, six horsepower and 45 km/h, which conflicts with the archival power-series chronology; the catalog therefore uses the defensible 1904–08 sequence for the 3/6 row and discloses the survivor's later label rather than pretending both ratings continued unchanged through 1923. Hüttel left Cyklon in 1907 and went to Phänomen in Zittau, where he developed the closely related Phänomobil. Cyklon won the resulting patent dispute in 1910; Phänomen then changed its front suspension. This relationship does not make Phänomobil a Cyklon model. By 1913 the Cyklonette was far more than a bare cargo tricycle. A price list preserved in the Deutsches Museum archive contained nine versions. The museum's published account names the narrow-track Gebirgs-Cyklonette, Reise-Cyklonette and Familien-Cyklonette for two adults and two children; it also records specialist small-trade vehicles, landaulet and four-door limousine bodies. Nearly all could have folding tops, and bodies accommodated two to four people. The 10-PS Doktorwagen was advertised at up to 60 km/h and added reverse and one-hand controls. Factory literature claimed roughly nine litres per 100 km, about 130 km range on the normal tank and more than 300 km with an auxiliary can and hand pump. A 1913 Cyklonette cost more than 3,000 Mark, with a two-person seat option adding 300 Mark. From 1915 highly equipped closed versions could include electric ceiling light, speaking tube, umbrella and cane holders, ashtray and even toilet accessories, lifting price above 7,000 Mark. Bodies evolved from steel-tube frames with wickerwork to pressed steel. These named forms remain body and market configurations of the relevant mechanical series because the accessible museum article does not reproduce all nine factory type codes. During the First World War Cyklon supplied special 5/10-PS Cyklonettes to the army, principally as ambulances. After Hüttel and Sfetescu, founder Paul Schauer's earlier role belongs chiefly to the marque's separate 1900–05 motorcycle program; those front-drive motorcycles are part of company history but outside this automobile catalog. A Mylau branch at Netschkauer Straße 26 was established in 1919 when Berlin capacity proved inadequate. In 1922 the Cyklonette received a front-transverse 10/12-PS four-cylinder engine, a final mechanical family absent from many general summaries. The archive history ends Cyklonette manufacture in 1923, while other local sources say Boxhagen stopped in 1922 and Mylau continued as late as 1924 or 1926. Without a dated later catalog or chassis ledger, the model endpoint remains 1923 and the competing claims stay in the notes. The Cyklonette name became so familiar that German usage generalized Zyklonette to other three-wheeled light vehicles; that generic usage does not admit rival makes. Cyklon moved toward conventional cars through its connection with Jacob Schapiro. Mylau supplied four-wheel powered chassis to Carosseriewerke Schebera, and in 1922 Schapiro helped convert the business into Cyklon Automobilwerke AG within his group. After sale of the Boxhagen works, the Tempelhof operation made 5/18-PS four-wheelers that the commercial-vehicle history explicitly says reached the market under both Schebera and Cyklon names, including 0.5-ton vans. The side-valve inline-four displaced about 1.3 litres and was normally rated 18 PS, though Schebera material also gives 20 PS brake output. Sources variously date first supply to 1920, 1922 or 1923. The catalog conservatively uses 1923–26 for the Cyklon-badged 5/18 while preserving Schebera as an independent marque with its own range; donor chassis do not collapse the two identities. A December 1926 general meeting approved merger with Gothaer Waggonfabrik, owner of Dixi. Cyklon's ambitious return to conventional passenger cars was the 9/40 PS of 1927–29. Designed under director Dr. Eisner and initially built in small numbers at Mylau, it was also manufactured and sold in completely identical form as the Dixi 9/40 through the shared central sales organization. The water-cooled 2,350 cc side-valve inline-six used 70 by 102 mm bore and stroke and produced 40 PS at 3,200 rpm. A single-plate dry clutch, three-speed unsynchronized gearbox and propeller shaft drove the rear axle. The pressed-steel frame carried rigid axles on half-elliptic springs, mechanical four-wheel brakes and a 2,950 mm wheelbase. Published dimensions are 4,350 by 1,650 by 1,780 mm. Its best-known four-door all-steel saloon body came from Ambi-Budd and was related to the Adler Standard 6 body; the range also included phaeton/touring, roadster and Karmann cabriolet. A 1928 newspaper advertisement directly prices the phaeton at RM 6,350 and four-door Innenlenker limousine at RM 6,950. Cyklon promoted it as Germany's cheapest six-cylinder car, yet sales remained modest and no trustworthy Cyklon-versus-Dixi production split survives. BMW's acquisition of Dixi removed the sales channel and ended 9/40 production in 1929. After Schapiro's empire collapsed, backing from the Richard Kahn group helped establish Cyklon Automobil-Vertriebs GmbH in Berlin. In autumn 1929 the revived concern presented its final car, the Type D 7/40 PS. Archival research identifies it as a development of the Cyklon/Dixi with an approximately 1.8-litre six-cylinder engine designed by an unnamed Swiss engineer; a surviving period advertisement independently confirms the 7/40-PS designation. The manufacturing site and body program were not recorded. General histories say only a few examples were made over the final two years, but give neither a serial range nor an exact total. The company was deleted from the official register in 1931. Eight catalog rows consequently represent the defensible automobile progression: the 1902–03 Motor-Gepäckdreirad family; 3.5-PS single, 3/6-PS twin, 5/10-PS twin and 10/12-PS four-cylinder Cyklonettes; the conventional 5/18 PS; the 9/40 PS; and Type D 7/40 PS. Motorcycles, Phänomobil copies, generic Zyklonetten, Schebera-badged cars, identical Dixi-badged 9/40s and body styles without distinct mechanical identities are related history rather than duplicate Cyklon models.

Text adapted from “Cyklon” on Wikipedia ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗