Foundered on Price

In the early 1960s a little coupé, designated as the Adria TS, was built in Vienna. Basis was a subcompact of the company Steyr-Puch AG.
The Austrian Werner Hölbl, a skilled body maker and graduate of the study program applied arts, tried to give the Steyr-Puch 500 a more sporty appearance. Aged about 20 he designed a new body, which was, according to him, supposed to give direction to the motor vehicle industry at that time. After two test runs on the 500 chassis, the homogeneous body with Italian design elements was mounted on the 7 centimeters longer chassis of the Puch 700 station wagon. Only after the change of chassis a satisfactory driving quality was reached. How earnest the young designer wanted his car to be produced in series was shown by his disbursed costs. Back then he paid the tremendous amount of 1,000,000 Austrian schilling for a wooden master pattern made in Italy, which he used for thinning the tin parts of the car body. In his production facility, the car repair shop of his parents, he built 18 copies of the Adria TS. Werner Hölbl personally represented one of these copies to the chief of Fiat at that time in hope that the companies, Steyr-Puch AG and Fiat, would produce his Austria-Coupé in series. A sales brochure that offered the coupé in two different motorizations, 28 hp and 32 hp, was already handed out. Even the sales price was certain. Nevertheless Werner Hölbl met with a refusal.
The official statement for the refusal was, that the car would have been too expensive. But back then there were also suggestions that the company Steyr-Puch AG was unwilling to create an in-house competitor against its Steyr-Puch 500.

Collectors Resin model with plastic parts,
original acryl-showcase and cardboard box.

This product is not a toy. Not suitable for children under 14 years