Bruce Crompton describes a rare German vehicle that forms part of his collection
Right, here’s a cracker for you – among the myriad of motors we’ve had trundle through our shop, the Vidal Tempo G1200 takes the biscuit for being a right oddball! Tempo –
Vidal & Sohn Tempo-Werke GmbH – was a stalwart German automaker straight out of Hamburg, kicked off by Oscar Vidal in 1924.
They were churning out crowd-pleasers like the Matador and the Hanseat, and a slew of nifty little military vehicles through the ’30s and ’40s.
We snagged this quirky piece in 2011, part of a bigger haul from Finland.
When this beast rolled off the truck, it had us all gobsmacked! The Tempo G, knocked up from 1936 to 1944 by Otto Daus, was a bit of a mechanical marvel with its dual engines – one up front, one at the back – churning out 19hp each and powering a revolutionary 4-wheel drive system. Initially cooked up as a bit of a side project for the German Army and for export purposes, this G1200 was ahead of its time and a real thinker’s machine.
In 1934 the army brass were all about streamlining their motor pool and approved a plan for the standardisation of military vehicles, and one grouping according to the Wehrmacht, w…
