Fiat in Italy recommenced with the “500” changing to the “500B” in 1948,
replacing the side valve engine for one with overhead valves and an extra
3bhp, and the “508C” being revived as the “1100”., and Lancia also in Italy
recommenced production of the Ardea. The Ardea had been introduced immediately
before the start of the war, and very few had been made before production
was suspended, not that very many were made by the time production finally
stopped in 1949. It was a relatively high cost small car, constructed to
the then usual high standard expected of a Lancia. With many design features
similar to the better known Aprilia, such as a pillarless unitary body-chassis
unit, sliding pillar IFS, and a overhead camshaft, narrow angle Vee four
engine, in the case of the Ardea of 903cc, that produced 29bhp. The Ardea
was not advanced in all aspects, it had a gravity feed fuel tank and it's
four speed, gearbox was without synchcromesh, and unlike the other Lancia’s
of the time, it had a live rear axle and cart springs. Pre-war designs
available in Czechoslovakia were the Skoda the 1101 was produced until
1954, and the Aero A30 until 1946. The Germany motor industry has suffered
more than any of the others, with division and destruction, but at Volkswagen
at Wolsfsburg, 713 cars were assembled for from existing components for
use by the British forces by the end of 1945, The Volkswagen plant was
under the control of the British Occupation authorities until September
1949 and by then almost twenty one thousand cars had been produced, now
with a 1131cc engine. Also the exporting of Volkswagens had begun. Other
German factories took a little longer to get going.
The next decade would see a divergence in design philosophy with Germany consolidating on it's advanced designs, France producing a variety of new designs and the rest grudgingly making concessions to forward thinking. During the war years a team at Renault had been working on a totally new car design as had engineers at Morris in Britain. But unlike their British counterparts, the Renault engineers were then able to put their new design in to production without concessions to existing tooling, the whole car being radically different to any previous Renault. Louis Renault, the founder of the company had ordered it's development, but after the liberation of France, he was expelled from company that was nationalized. The new head of the company Lefaucheux decreed a one- model policy and that was the 4CV.
The 4CV were what France needed at that time, a compact economic up to date design and it was in production by 1946. Because it was of rear- engined layout and Professor Porsche had been had been asked to pass comment on the design, at times the design has been attributed to him, but that is not true. With a unitary construction for door body, a four cylinder water- cooled inline overhead valve engine of 760cc mounted at the rear behind a three- speed gearbox with final drive by swing axles, it was compact. Independent front suspension using wishbones with coils springs, Lockheed hydraulic brakes and rack and pinion steering, it was a state of the art design. Although the engine only produced 19BHP, it was almost unburstable, it had a top speed of 57 MPH. Over a million examples were made before it was phased out in 1961.
The Renault engineers were not the only ones in France creating new designs, at Citroen engineers led by Andre Lefebvre had been working since 1938 on their replacement for the pony and trap of the French countryside, the car that became the 2CV. Apart from the aim of providing inexpensive motoring, the 2CV and could not be more different in concept and layout from the 4CV, with a twin cylinder air cooled engine of only 375cc, mounted in the very front of a platform chassis, driving the front wheels. The all- independent inter-linked suspension was conceived to cope with terrible French country roads of the time and to be driven across country if required. The body was larger than that of the 4CV and had what would be termed today a flexible layout with a fold back roof, and removable doors and hammock type seat. The 2CV was durable and formed the basis for several other Citroen models and almost four million made, was itself developed in detail over the forty two years it was in production, with the engine size finally enlarged to 602cc.
Yet another French designer had been at work during the war, namely J.A.Gregoire who designed the Aluminium Francaise Gregoire as a freelance design to promote his ideas and the use of aluminium in car construction. Being a pioneer of front wheel drive, Gregoire again used it, with a 594cc, twin cylinder air cooled engine extensively using aluminium, and the overdrive gearbox ahead of the front wheels. The chassis was constructed around alpax castings. All independent suspension completed a light and spacious package weighting only 885lbs, capable of 70MPG. The design never went into production in the form that Gregoire had conceived it, despite selling the design to Henry J. Kaiser the American industrialist, but was produced in much altered form by Panhard as the “Dyna-Panhard” in France. The unitary chassis was originally also in aluminium, but no castings were used. Later versions used a steel shell. A torsion beam rear suspension replaced the IRS of the Gregoire design, an early example of a design feature that has become popular during recent years.
The only cars of less than one litre, produced in Czechoslovakia after 1946, was the Aero Minor, made from 1946 until 1951. The Aero Minor was a modernized version of the pre-war, DKW-based Jawa Minor, with a water-cooled two-stroke twin of 615cc, driving the front wheels, a backbone chassis, hydraulic brakes, and all independent suspension.
The first new small car from the British motor industry was the Morris Minor, it was designed towards the end of the end of the Second World War, in the Cowley works of Morris Motors and was the work of Alex Issigonis. He had been developing his ideas on independent suspension and unitary chassis-body construction, which was not then in general use, and when he was allowed to design a completely new car he incorporated his idea's in to it. The Minor front suspension was of the wishbone type, using a lever type shock absorber operating arm as the top link, a pair of steel pressings as a lower link with a torsion bar attached to their inner end. Torsion bars had been chosen as the layout used gave lots of room for a proposed flat four engine that didn't make it to the final design. A forged upright connected these links and had the steering arm and the stub axle attached. An unusual method was used for steering pivots in the form of screw trunnions top and bottom, similar to a nut and bolt arrangement. The final component a steel tie rod that linked the bottom of the upright forward to the chassis, versions of the latter component were used in various Issigonis designs, and was used on the Mini until production ceased in 2000. The Minor was in production by 1948 and due to it's front suspension, rack and pinion steering which was another departure from current practice, and a forward weight distribution it's handling was a great step forward. The engine, gearbox, transmission and rear axle fitted in the final design were those used in the Morris Eight series E, and were of pre war design, this turned a potentially great car into merely a good car. It was not until after the Morris and Austin merger that a engine of modern design was fitted to the Minor in 1953.
At the end of the war, the Audi and DKW plant at Zwickau in eastern Germany, was in the Russian zone of occupied Germany, later to be the DDR. All the tooling and drawings of the pre-war DKW production cars and prototypes were at the plant. The East German authorities therefore found themselves in a good position to produce cars to DKW design again once they had rebuilt the factory destroyed in the war. The F8 was back in production by 1948, but badged as an IFA. Production had ceased by 1955, after only 26,254 examples had been made. In 1949 Fiat replaced the 500B after 21,000 examples had been produced, with the 500C. The difference was a new body of up to date design, still a two-seater. With the improved engine that had come with 500B, maximum speed was now at 60 mhp, and 55mpg could be obtained at a steady 50 mph . 376,000 were made before production ceased in January 1955. There was also an estate car version, the Belvadere, made from 1954.
Saab is a Swedish aircraft manufacturer that felt a need to diversify and in the mid-1940’s work was started on the design of a small car that would combine the knowledge of aerodynamics of the aircraft industry with mechanical simplicity of the pre-war DkW cars. It was the creation of the Saab chief engineer Gunner Ljungstrom and stylist Sixten Sason, who together produced the form of the stunning prototype in 1947. The monocoque chassis body unit, bases on a steel floor pan was the major step forward with all independent suspension sprung by transverse torsion bars. The mechanical components being similar to the DKW F8, with some differences, the engine being of 746cc, the three speed gearbox having synchromesh with column change and a mechanical fuel pump was fitted. 9-inch hydraulic drum brakes and a freewheel completed the changes. A maximum speed of 65mph was attained with the slippery body, but unfortunately it was too extreme for everyday use, and after suitable modifications the Saab 92 went into production in 1949 after extensive testing. Over 20,000 were made before being replaced in 1956.
By 1950, Auto Union had re-established it self at Ingolstadt in West Germany, and in that year resumed car production. The car they produced was the DKW F-89, a combination of the body and rear suspension of the pre-war F9, and a modified version of pre-war F8 chassis. A major change was the moving of the transversely mounted twin two-stroke engine, to a position in front of the gearbox and final drive. By 1954 when production of the F89 ceased 59,475 had been made.
When Austin designed the new 803cc engine for their A30 model of 1951, no one could forsee that one of it's many version would still be in production in 1999 and around twelve million examples made before it was finally discontinued. Designated the "A", the smallest in a series of new engines introduced by the company after the war, . the A30 was a miniature and cramped version of the family saloons of the time, complete with four doors and a boot, although only 17 inches longer than a Mini, a two door and an estate version came later. The specification of the car was also similar to it's larger contemporaries, with coil spring i.f.s. and a live rear axle with half elliptic springs. A first for Austin, it had a unitary chassis. The A30 was replaced by the A35 an updated version with a 948cc engine in 1956.