The Opel Olympia is a compact car by German automaker Opel , then part of G.M. , from 1935 to 1940, and after World War II continued from 1947 to 1953. It was one of the world's first mass-produced cars with a unitary body structure, after the 1934 Citroën Traction Avant ; and it was a mass-production success, made in six-figure numbers. Opel achieved this even before the war, all while Hitler promised Germany a "Volkswagen" - a 'People's car', which didn't materialize until 1946. From 1967 to 1970 the Olympia badge was briefly reused on a later car.
60-423: The 1935 Olympia was Germany's first mass-produced car with an advanced all-metal unitary body - even a full monocoque in the case of the closed-roof saloon models. This for its time revolutionary technology supplanted the previously customary vehicle body, supported on top of a separate load-bearing chassis, reducing the car's weight by up to 180 kilograms (400 lb.) compared to its predecessor . Production of
120-593: A monocoque shell and more like a bowl. One thousand were produced. A key role in developing the unitary body was played by the American firm the Budd Company, now ThyssenKrupp Budd . Budd supplied pressed-steel bodywork, fitted to separate frames, to automakers Dodge , Ford , Buick , and the French company, Citroën . In 1930, Joseph Ledwinka , an engineer with Budd, designed an automobile prototype with
180-405: A C-shaped beam running the length of the vehicle. C-channel is typically more flexible than (fully) boxed of the same gauge. Hat frames resemble a "U" and may be either right-side-up or inverted, with the open area facing down. They are not commonly used due to weakness and a propensity to rust. However, they can be found on 1936–1954 Chevrolet cars and some Studebakers . Abandoned for a while,
240-461: A frame in a motor vehicle are: Typically, the material used to construct vehicle chassis and frames include carbon steel for strength or aluminum alloys to achieve a more lightweight construction. In the case of a separate chassis, the frame is made up of structural elements called the rails or beams . These are ordinarily made of steel channel sections by folding, rolling, or pressing steel plate. There are three main designs for these. If
300-540: A full unitary construction. Citroën purchased this fully unitary body design for the Citroën Traction Avant . This high-volume, mass-production car was introduced in 1934 and sold 760,000 units over the next 23 years of production. This application was the first iteration of the modern structural integration of body and chassis, using spot welded deeply stamped steel sheets into a structural cage, including sills, pillars, and roof beams. In addition to
360-470: A ladder frame, but the middle sections of the frame rails sit outboard of the front and rear rails, routed around the passenger footwells, inside the rocker and sill panels. This allowed the floor pan to be lowered, especially the passenger footwells, lowering the passengers' seating height and thereby reducing both the roof-line and overall vehicle height, as well as the center of gravity, thus improving handling and road-holding in passenger cars. This became
420-420: A ladder, the ladder frame is one of the oldest, simplest, and most frequently used under-body, separate chassis/frame designs. It consists of two symmetrical beams, rails, or channels, running the length of the vehicle, connected by several transverse cross-members. Initially seen on almost all vehicles, the ladder frame was gradually phased out on cars in favor of perimeter frames and unitized body construction. It
480-560: A lightweight, multi-tubular, triangulated frame over which an aerodynamic aluminum body was crafted. In 1994, the Audi A8 was the first mass-market car with an aluminium chassis, made feasible by integrating an aluminium space-frame into the bodywork. Audi A8 models have since used this construction method co-developed with Alcoa , and marketed as the Audi Space Frame . The Italian term Superleggera (meaning 'super-light')
540-516: A live axle at the rear and semi-elliptic leaf springs. This car was also assembled in Tanjung Priok , near Jakarta , in the then- Netherlands East Indies . Assembly there began in 1938 and the car was marketed as the "Opel 1.3". The car was made available in two versions, as a two-door saloon and as a two-door soft-top convertible: In 1937, after just a few years, the Olympia received both
600-404: A new engine, as well as a revised body. The new, larger motor now introduced overhead valves , and a capacity of 1,488 cc (91 cu in). It produced some 50% more power, increased to 37 PS (27 kW), with the car's top speed now reaching 112 km/h (70 mph). This engine was to remain in production until 1960 with only minor changes and its architecture was also used for
660-472: A platform frame. The frame of the Citroën 2CV used a minimal interpretation of a platform chassis under its body. In a (tubular) spaceframe chassis, the suspension, engine, and body panels are attached to a three-dimensional skeletal frame of tubes, and the body panels have limited or no structural function. To maximize rigidity and minimize weight, the design frequently makes maximum use of triangles, and all
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#1732787592026720-461: A premium price, but in other respects the new Olympia did not convincingly fill the gap in the range that had opened up between small family cars and big family cars, the Rekords having grown ever larger with each new generation. The Olympia was available in saloon and coupé-bodied versions. The saloon, available with two or four doors, shared the fast-back "Limousine" body of the "Kadett LS", while
780-456: A subframe). The unibody is now the preferred construction for mass-market automobiles. This design provides weight savings, improved space utilization, and ease of manufacture. Acceptance grew dramatically in the wake of the two energy crises of the 1970s and that of the 2000s in which compact SUVs using a truck platform (primarily the USA market) were subjected to CAFE standards after 2005 (by
840-584: A unitary body with no separate frame, the Traction Avant also featured other innovations such as front-wheel drive . The result was a low-slung vehicle with an open, flat-floored interior. For the Chrysler Airflow (1934–1937), Budd supplied a variation – three main sections from the Airflow's body were welded into what Chrysler called a bridge-truss construction. Unfortunately, this method
900-543: A weaker-than-usual frame and body framework welded to the chassis to provide stiffness, in 1960, Chrysler moved from body-on-frame construction to a unit-body design for most of its cars. Most of the American-manufactured unibody automobiles used torque boxes in their vehicle design to reduce vibrations and chassis flex, except for the Chevy II , which had a bolt-on front apron (erroneously referred to as
960-404: Is now "considered standard in the industry". By 1960, the unitized body design was used by Detroit's Big Three on their compact cars ( Ford Falcon , Plymouth Valiant , and Chevrolet Corvair ). After Nash merged with Hudson Motors to form American Motors Corporation , its Rambler-badged automobiles continued exclusively building variations of the unibody. Although the 1934 Chrysler Airflow had
1020-408: Is now seen mainly on large trucks. This design offers good beam resistance because of its continuous rails from front to rear, but poor resistance to torsion or warping if simple, perpendicular cross-members are used. The vehicle's overall height will be greater due to the floor pan sitting above the frame instead of inside it. A backbone chassis is a type of automotive construction with chassis that
1080-407: Is similar to the body-on-frame design. Instead of a relatively flat, ladder-like structure with two longitudinal, parallel frame rails, it consists of a central, strong tubular backbone (usually rectangular in cross-section) that carries the power-train and connects the front and rear suspension attachment structures. Although the backbone is frequently drawn upward into, and mostly above the floor of
1140-497: Is sometimes also referred to as a monocoque structure, because the car's outer skin and panels are made load-bearing, there are still ribs, bulkheads, and box sections to reinforce the body, making the description semi-monocoque more appropriate. The first attempt to develop such a design technique was on the 1922 Lancia Lambda to provide structural stiffness and a lower body height for its torpedo car body. The Lambda had an open layout with unstressed roof, which made it less of
1200-507: Is still used in modern-day sport utility vehicles such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Land Rover Defender . This design is also used in large vans such as Ford Transit , VW Crafter and Mercedes Sprinter . A subframe is a distinct structural frame component, to reinforce or complement a particular section of a vehicle's structure. Typically attached to a unibody or a monocoque, the rigid subframe can handle great forces from
1260-544: The Hornets and all-wheel-drive Eagles for a new type of frame called the "Uniframe [...] a robust stamped steel frame welded to a strong unit-body structure, giving the strength of a conventional heavy frame with the weight advantages of Unibody construction." This design was also used with the XJC concept developed by American Motors before its absorption by Chrysler, which later became the Jeep Grand Cherokee (ZJ) . The design
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#17327875920261320-581: The Opel Kadett B , readily distinguishable from the outside by its redesigned front end, together with the word "Olympia" appearing on the body sides behind the front wheels. Olympias were also often equipped with a black vinyl roof to help set them apart from their lesser brethren. Giving the Olympia its own name may have distanced it from the Kadett in the Opel showrooms and enabled the manufacturer to charge
1380-463: The article wizard to submit a draft for review, or request a new article . Search for " Miesen (Karosseriehersteller) " in existing articles. Look for pages within Misplaced Pages that link to this title . Other reasons this message may be displayed: If a page was recently created here, it may not be visible yet because of a delay in updating the database; wait a few minutes or try
1440-452: The skeleton of an organism. Until the 1930s, virtually every car had a structural frame separate from its body. This construction design is known as body-on-frame . By the 1960s, unibody construction in passenger cars had become common, and the trend to unibody for passenger cars continued over the ensuing decades. Nearly all trucks , buses, and most pickups continue to use a separate frame as their chassis. The main functions of
1500-511: The "Olympia" part of the name, and was sold simply as the Opel Rekord until 1986, although the Rekord was an executive car compared to the Olympia which was a small vehicle. In August 1967 Opel revived the Olympia name with the new Olympia A. The name had last been used, until 1959, for a reduced specification version of the Opel Rekord , but now it was applied to a luxury derivative of
1560-410: The 1960s, the boxed frames of conventional American cars were spot-welded in multiple places down the seam; when turned into NASCAR "stock car" racers, the box was continuously welded from end to end for extra strength. While appearing at first glance as a simple form made of metal, frames encounter significant stress and are built accordingly. The first issue addressed is "beam height", or the height of
1620-447: The 1967–1981 GM F platform , the numerous years and models built on the GM X platform (1962) , GM's M/L platform vans (Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari, which included an all-wheel drive variant), and the unibody AMC Pacer that incorporated a front subframe to isolate the passenger compartment from the engine, suspension, and steering loads. Miesen (Karosseriehersteller) From Misplaced Pages,
1680-466: The 2.5-liter "six" installed in the Opel Super 6 and Kapitäns . The car's body was also altered, not only giving it a facelift and adding a 4-door saloon version, but also making the cars somewhat bigger overall - both 7 cm (3 in) wider and 9 cm (3.5 in) longer, but also on a 6 cm (2.4 in) longer wheelbase. It was available in the same versions as its predecessor with
1740-566: The Kapitän before the Olympia since it used the same engine as the Blitz. However, occupation regulations prohibited civilian sales of passenger cars of over 1.5 liters' displacement at the time. Externally, the OL 38 looked unchanged to the pre-war car, but the fragile and complex Dubonnet front suspension was replaced by a more conventional control arm and coil spring one. Only the two-door saloon
1800-450: The Olympia coupé used the same body as the "Kadett coupé F". The Olympia was fitted with the "1100 SR" twin carburettor 60 PS (44 kW) engine, and could also be ordered with any one of the three high-compression Camshaft in Head (CIH) engines also fitted in the Kadett and providing 75 PS (55 kW), 90 PS (66 kW) or, in those export markets where the 1.5-litre version
1860-479: The Olympia was upgraded with more modern 15- rather than 16-inch wheels and a trunk compartment which enclosed the spare tyre. In just over three years of production (until March 1953), about 160,000 cars were made. In March 1953, the 18-year-old design of the Olympia was not directly replaced by anything, although the Opel Olympia Rekord used the name, with a modern pontoon body. In 1957 this dropped
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1920-455: The addition of a chassis. The terms "unibody" and "unit-body" are short for "unitized body", "unitary construction", or alternatively (fully) integrated body and frame/chassis. It is defined as: A type of body/frame construction in which the body of the vehicle, its floor plan and chassis form a single structure. Such a design is generally lighter and more rigid than a vehicle having a separate body and frame. Vehicle structure has shifted from
1980-539: The addition of the 6-light LV: Due to World War II, production came to a halt in late 1940. During the war, the Opel plant in Rüsselsheim was severely damaged by allied bomb attacks. After reconstruction, production of the Olympia was announced in November 1947 and restarted the following month. Opel had been building the six-cylinder Blitz truck since July 1946; it would have made sense to restart production of
2040-431: The axles and then back down on the other side for bumper placement. Kick-ups do the same thing without curving down on the other side and are more common on the front ends. Another feature are the tapered rails that narrow vertically or horizontally in front of a vehicle's cabin. This is done mainly on trucks to save weight and slightly increase room for the engine since the front of the vehicle does not bear as much load as
2100-479: The back. Design developments include frames that use multiple shapes in the same frame rail. For example, some pickup trucks have a boxed frame in front of the cab, shorter, narrower rails underneath the cab, and regular C-rails under the bed. On perimeter frames, the areas where the rails connect from front to center and center to rear are weak compared to regular frames, so that section is boxed in, creating what are called "torque boxes". Named for its resemblance to
2160-662: The components needs to be stamped with ridges and hollows to give it strength. Platform chassis were used on several successful European cars, most notably the Volkswagen Beetle , where it was called "body-on-pan" construction. Another German example are the Mercedes-Benz "Ponton" cars of the 1950s and 1960s, where it was called a "frame floor" in English-language advertisements. The French Renault 4 , of which over eight million were made, also used
2220-435: The engine and drive train. It can transfer them evenly to a wide area of relatively thin sheet metal of a unitized body shell. Subframes are often found at the front or rear end of cars and are used to attach the suspension to the vehicle. A subframe may also contain the engine and transmission . It normally has pressed or box steel construction but may be tubular and/or other material. Examples of passenger car use include
2280-537: The forces in each strut are either tensile or compressive, never bending, so they can be kept as thin as possible. The first true spaceframe chassis were produced in the 1930s by Buckminster Fuller and William Bushnell Stout (the Dymaxion and the Stout Scarab ) who understood the theory of the true spaceframe from either architecture or aircraft design. The 1951 Jaguar C-Type racing sports car utilized
2340-935: The 💕 Look for Miesen (Karosseriehersteller) on one of Misplaced Pages's sister projects : [REDACTED] Wiktionary (dictionary) [REDACTED] Wikibooks (textbooks) [REDACTED] Wikiquote (quotations) [REDACTED] Wikisource (library) [REDACTED] Wikiversity (learning resources) [REDACTED] Commons (media) [REDACTED] Wikivoyage (travel guide) [REDACTED] Wikinews (news source) [REDACTED] Wikidata (linked database) [REDACTED] Wikispecies (species directory) Misplaced Pages does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Miesen (Karosseriehersteller) in Misplaced Pages to check for alternative titles or spellings. You need to log in or create an account and be autoconfirmed to create new articles. Alternatively, you can use
2400-408: The front design was used on United States-bound Kadetts from the 1968 model year until replaced by the next generation, and on South African Opel Kadetts beginning with the 1971 model year. Body styles were: Unibody A vehicle frame , also historically known as its chassis , is the main supporting structure of a motor vehicle to which all other components are attached, comparable to
2460-706: The gap between the smaller Kadett and the larger Rekord more obviously and, in terms of the sales figures, more persuasively than the Kadett-based Olympia, defining in the German auto-market a new mid-weight family car class where it would be joined by the Ford Taunus TC and, a couple of years later, by the Audi 80 and the Volkswagen Passat . The Olympia design did live on in a manner, as
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2520-400: The hat frame regained popularity when companies started welding it to the bottom of unibody cars, effectively creating a boxed frame. Originally, boxed frames were made by welding two matching C-rails together to form a rectangular tube. Modern techniques, however, use a process similar to making C-rails in that a piece of steel is bent into four sides and then welded where both ends meet. In
2580-560: The late 2000s truck-based compact SUVs were phased out and replaced with crossovers). An additional advantage of a strong-bodied car lies in the improved crash protection for its passengers. American Motors (with its partner Renault ) during the late 1970s incorporated unibody construction when designing the Jeep Cherokee (XJ) platform using the manufacturing principles (unisides, floorplan with integrated frame rails and crumple zones, and roof panel) used in its passenger cars, such as
2640-548: The main body. It was so successful that the Soviet post-war mass produced GAZ-M20 Pobeda of 1946 copied unibody structure from the Opel Kapitän. Later Soviet limousine GAZ-12 ZIM of 1950 introduced unibody design to automobiles with a wheelbase as long as 3.2 m (126 in). The streamlined 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr with conventional front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout utilized a unibody structure. By 1941, unit construction
2700-578: The material is folded twice, an open-ended cross-section, either C-shaped or hat-shaped (U-shaped), results. "Boxed" frames contain closed chassis rails, either by welding them up or by using premanufactured metal tubing . By far the most common, the C-channel rail has been used on nearly every type of vehicle at one time or another. It is made by taking a flat piece of steel (usually ranging in thickness from 1/8" to 3/16", but up to 1/2" or more in some heavy-duty trucks ) and rolling both sides over to form
2760-587: The overall height of the vehicles regardless of the increase in the size of the transmission and propeller shaft humps since each row had to cover frame rails as well. Several models had the differential located not by the customary bar between axle and frame, but by a ball joint atop the differential connected to a socket in a wishbone hinged onto a crossmember of the frame. The X-frame was claimed to improve on previous designs, but it lacked side rails and thus did not provide adequate side impact and collision protection. Perimeter frames replaced this design. Similar to
2820-505: The prevalent design for body-on-frame cars in the United States, but not in the rest of the world, until the unibody gained popularity. For example, Hudson introduced this construction on their 3rd generation Commodore models in 1948. This frame type allowed for annual model changes , and lower cars, introduced in the 1950s to increase sales – without costly structural changes. The Ford Panther platform , discontinued in 2011,
2880-648: The traditional body-on-frame architecture to the lighter unitized/integrated body structure that is now used for most cars. Integral frame and body construction requires more than simply welding an unstressed body to a conventional frame. In a fully integrated body structure, the entire car is a load-carrying unit that handles all the loads experienced by the vehicle – forces from driving and cargo loads. Integral-type bodies for wheeled vehicles are typically manufactured by welding preformed metal panels and other components together, by forming or casting whole sections as one piece, or by combining these techniques. Although this
2940-453: The transition areas from front to center and center to rear reduce beam and torsional resistance and is used in combination with torque boxes and soft suspension settings. This is a modification of the perimeter frame, or of the backbone frame, in which the passenger compartment floor, and sometimes the luggage compartment floor, have been integrated into the frame as loadbearing parts for strength and rigidity. The sheet metal used to assemble
3000-530: The unibody design required new production methods and materials. Wood framing in the car's body was all but eliminated - instead, advanced types of sheet-steel, fastening by spot welding , and a new production line layout were among the many advances introduced with the Olympia. The car was first presented in February at the 1935 Berlin Motor Show; production got under way later during that year. The Olympia
3060-433: The vehicle, the body is still placed on or over (sometimes straddling) this structure from above. This is the design used for the full-size American models of General Motors in the late 1950s and early 1960s in which the rails from alongside the engine seemed to cross in the passenger compartment, each continuing to the opposite end of the crossmember at the extreme rear of the vehicle. It was specifically chosen to decrease
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#17327875920263120-533: The vertical side of a frame. The taller the frame, the better it can resist vertical flex when force is applied to the top of the frame. This is the reason semi-trucks have taller frame rails than other vehicles instead of just being thicker. As looks, ride quality, and handling became more important to consumers, new shapes were incorporated into frames. The most visible of these are arches and kick-ups. Instead of running straight over both axles , arched frames sit lower—roughly level with their axles—and curve up over
3180-537: Was available, 65 PS (48 kW). At this time, Opel also provided SAE power figures which were 67 hp for the 1.1 and 76, 84, and 102 hp for the 1.5, 1.7, and 1.9-litre versions. The Olympia A was withdrawn in August 1970, by when 80,637 had been produced. The Olympia's demise cleared the way for the Opel Ascona , produced from August 1970 and introduced to the market in November 1970. The Ascona filled
3240-513: Was built until 1953. The name Olympia was revived for a second time in 1967 for a luxury version of the Opel Kadett ;B. At 2500 Reichsmark it offered a true four-seater with 1.3-litre, four-cylinder, side-valve , 24 PS (18 kW) engine capable of 100 km/h (62 mph). Drive was to the rear wheels through a three-speed gearbox but a four-speed unit became available in 1937. The car had independent front suspension with
3300-533: Was named in anticipation of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games . The pre-war Olympia was made in two versions: From 1935 to 1937 the Olympia had a 1.3-litre engine; for the OL38 version made from 1937 to 1940 this was replaced by a 1.5-litre overhead valve unit. Between 1935 and 1940, over 168,000 units were built. The car was also Opel's first post-war automobile when it re-entered production in 1947. This time it
3360-449: Was no longer a new idea for cars, "but it was unheard of in the [American] low-price field [and] Nash wanted a bigger share of that market." The single unit-body construction of the Nash 600 provided weight savings and Nash's Chairman and CEO, George W. Mason was convinced "that unibody was the wave of the future." Since then, more cars were redesigned to the unibody structure, which
3420-515: Was not ideal because the panel fits were poor. To convince a skeptical public of the strength of unibody, both Citroën and Chrysler created advertising films showing cars surviving after being pushed off a cliff. Opel was the second European and the first German car manufacturer to produce a car with a unibody structure – production of the compact Olympia started in 1935. A larger Kapitän went into production in 1938, although its front longitudinal beams were stamped separately and then attached to
3480-432: Was one of the last perimeter frame passenger car platforms in the United States. The fourth to seventh generation Chevrolet Corvette used a perimeter frame integrated with an internal skeleton that serves as a clamshell. In addition to a lowered roof, the perimeter frame allows lower seating positions when that is desirable, and offers better safety in the event of a side impact. However, the design lacks stiffness because
3540-435: Was produced after the war. Until the end of 1949, 25,952 of these were made. In January 1950 the Olympia got a modernized body, but the car was still based on the pre-war Olympia. One change was the seemingly retrograde change to a column-shifted three-sped manual from the floor-mounted four-speed used before. The following bodies were offered: The kombi was built by Karosserie Miesen [ de ] . In February 1951,
3600-508: Was trademarked by Carrozzeria Touring for lightweight sports-car body construction that only resembles a space-frame chassis. Using a three-dimensional frame that consists of a cage of narrow tubes that, besides being under the body, run up the fenders and over the radiator, cowl, and roof, and under the rear window, it resembles a geodesic structure . A skin is attached to the outside of the frame, often made of aluminum. This body construction is, however, not stress-bearing and still requires
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