AutoCult Zunder Cupé (1964) (Argentinia)

About the Original:

The unequal brother

Under the designation “Industrias del transporte Auto SRL”, the brothers Nelson Joséand Eligio Oscar Bongiovanni founded a company for the production of vehicles in 1959. The responsible authority for the back-then government controlled economy of Argentina permitted the start of the car production.

Under the name “Zunder” the type 1500, which was fitted with a Porsche engine, was offered from 1961. To broaden their procut line both brothers were looking for an additional car in which they could fit the offically supplied Porsche boxer engines. The coice was narrowed down by the given installation of the boxer engine in the rear of the car. But probably after a short but careful consideration they made a find with the Karmann-Ghia. On the one hand the sportive two-seater was a bestseller on the German market since 1955 and on the other hand it was technically and without any major problems possible to replace the standard VW’ boxer engine with the more powerful engine of the Porsche 356. The South American engineers built two protoypes of their own interpretation of the coupé that nethertheless closely resembled the original Karmann at first sight. Some differences in the front area and on the hood could not hide the fact that the Karman served as a model for Zunder’s replica.

Due to the bad sales of the Zunder 1500, the budget of the further development of the Zunder Cupé has been probably affected negativly, with the result that a series production of a second type rededed into the distance. The missing finacial buffer quickly caused the termination of the car production of Zunder.