SOLD for $170,000...1938 Zundapp K800 with Sidecar // Mecum Las Vegas Motorcycles 2023

An amazing Art Deco masterpiece, this 1938 Zündapp K800 with period-correct 1938 Stoye TS Luxus sidecar is in amazing condition. A flat-four motorcycle built decades before the Honda Gold Wing, the Zündapp K800 is a sophisticated design in a stunning package. Zünderund Apparatebau GmbH (abbreviated as Zündapp) was founded in September 1917 to manufacture fuses for artillery shells. Post-World War II, the factory was purchased by Fritz Neumeyer, an engineer and entrepreneur who owned several manufacturing businesses around Nurnberg. As part of Neumeyer’s industrial empire, Zündapp added motorcycles to its production list, along with radios, steel cable, tractors, railway repair yards, radiators and more. The factory built five prototype motorcycles in 1921 and built a total of 3 million motorcycles over the following 63 years.

In 1933, Zündapp introduced the K-series of flat twins using pressed-steel frames and forks with handsome lines and a simple black-and-chrome livery. The first Ks used side-valve flat-twin motors of 398cc (K400) and 496cc (K500), but in 1936 the overhead-valve KS500 and KS600 appeared. All these models used designer Richard Küchen’s unusual mix of an all-chain 4-speed gearbox and a shaft final drive. The K800 was introduced in 1933, featuring a horizontally opposed 4-cylinder motor of 798cc. It was considered less a sporting machine than a sidecar tug, coming with a powerful, smooth motor, excellent handling and very strong chassis. The K800 has a unit-construction motor and gearbox, a shaft drive and a 4-speed transmission that was shifted by hand using the lever on the right side of the frame. The mufflers of the four side-valve cylinders merge into a single exhaust pipe on each side of the machine, giving a symmetrical elegance to the whole design. The K800 was manufactured from 1934 to '38 but was considered too sophisticated for military work, so it was dropped for 1939.

This 1938 Zündapp K800 with 1938 Stoye TS Luxus sidecar is a matching-numbers machine with many extras, including a Noris headlamp with Veigel scroll speedometer, period-correct leather saddlebags, a period toolkit and a luggage rack on the sidecar. It won First Place at the 2022 La Jolla Concours d’Elegance and First Place at the 2022 Quail Motorcycle Gathering.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/LV0123-546...