Happy Holidays to all our readers! If you’re anything like me, you’re taking advantage of a little down time before the new year by searching endlessly for cars you can’t (or shouldn’t) buy. In truth, I never really stop looking. Today’s Good Find Friday car is one I found many months ago but is still for sale at a now-reduced price. This NSU Sport Prinz is an interesting little car that all German car enthusiasts should know more about.

NSU was a German automobile manufacturer renowned for its success in motorcycles, scooters, and cars. Established in 1873 as a knitting machine company, NSU transitioned to bicycles and later expanded into motor vehicles. The company gained notoriety for its innovative engineering, particularly as a leader in compact car design and the development of the Wankel rotary engine. The costly development of that engine — paired with reliability problems — ultimately led to NSU’s downfall. The company was purchased by Volkswagen and later merged with Auto Union in 1969, forming the foundation of the modern Audi brand under the Volkswagen Group.

The NSU Sport Prinz was a coupé version of a small compact car produced from 1958 to 1968. It was notably designed by Franco Scaglione at Bertone, evidenced by the strong tubular front fenders and dramatic tail fins. The Sport Prinz featured a rear-mounted, air-cooled two-cylinder engine initially producing 20 horsepower, later upgraded to a whopping 30. The car is said to have offered performance superior to a Karmann Ghia of the time, but was considered very reliable and economical as well. Additionally, it boasted an impressive claimed top speed of 99 mph. Approximately 20,831 Prinzes were manufactured during the entire production run for all models.

This 1964 NSU Sport Prinz was listed on Facebook Marketplace 44 weeks ago and is for sale with a clean title by the seller in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. I found it while searching for Volkswagens as Facebook doesn’t have a preset for NSU or the rare Prinz. It it said to be a low-miles running and driving example that will need a thorough refresh to be a reliable driver.

The exterior of this NSU Sport Prinz appears to be in solid overall condition based on the limited photographs, with dusty and oxidized paint showing some small areas of corrosion. The chrome bumpers have been painted white and have overriders that I haven’t seen on Euro-spec Prinzes.

Applied badging appears to be in place on both front fenders and the rear decklid, and the car’s trim seems to be complete. A single side mirror is mounted on the driver’s fender and glazing looks intact as well — glass can’t be easy to find for these rare vehicles.

The interior looks remarkably complete, if worn from use and its multi-year period of storage. The driver’s seat has a visible split and the sun visors look pretty worse-for-wear. The dashboard is in rather nice condition with intact padding and attractive dual gauges with “eyebrow” covers sitting ahead of the delicate steering wheel. Luggage space is…limited.

The engine bay on an NSU Sport Prinz is cavernous, with the two-cylinder engine taking up very little room. Hopefully the standing water in the rear pan is a new occurrance. This belies its intelligent construction, featuring side-by-side cylinders with valves operated by a single overhead cam spun by a complex trio of eccentric rods. The intake ductwork for the cooling fan looks to be intact but the single carburetor is missing its air cleaner housing. Would a single huge velocity stack be a fun look, maybe?

The suspension on a Prinz is pretty special, with a coil-sprung double-wishbone setup at the front and a wild but effective tubular swing arm setup in the rear. The suspension is mounted directly to the unibody chassis.

The NSU Sport Prinz doesn’t come to market often, as the car wasn’t made in insane numbers and was effectively a disposable economy car. Its rarity is both a plus and a minus for a collector; you will absolutely draw a crowd but finding replacement parts could be a challenge. 

In terms of value, the average price of an NSU Sport Prinz is around $11,000. This is based on sales and high bids over the last 5 years and includes cars in a range of conditions from fair to excellent. The asking price of $3,000 for today’s car could be a good value, if the paint can be shined up and the car’s unibody chassis isn’t completely rotted away.

I’m hard pressed to think of another German-built, air-cooled classic car that could be acquired for less money than this NSU Sport Prinz in today’s market. If I had the room, I would be quite tempted to pick up this little gem and try to get her to reliable driving status by the Spring. After all, “Drive a Prinz and You’re a King.”

Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisal and auction services for sellers and buyers of collector European cars. We also provide importation services. Give us a call or drop us a line!