Büssing-NAG Typ 300 – Neo

1934 Büssing-NAG Typ 300
Neo - NEO46446 M (resin)  

Published 07/04/19

Formed by the union of DKW, Horch, Audi and Wanderer in 1932, Auto Union started racing soon after. With financing from the Nazi government, the manufacturer started a racing car project to compete in Grand Prix racing. Their first car, the Typ A, was ready for the 1934 season. Since races would occur all over Europe, they needed a race car transporter. With that necessity, the Auto Union Renndienst (“Auto Union Racing Service”) approached Büssing-NAG. Established in 1903, Büssing AG was one of Germany’s first bus and truck manufacturers. In 1923, Büssing introduced their first rigid three-axle chassis. It was a quite innovative design, and it allowed Büssing to lead the German market for commercial vehicles. In 1934, they acquired the Neue Automobil Gesellschaft (NAG), and from then on became known as Büssing-NAG. 

Auto Union bought three Typ 300 chassis from Büssing-NAG and delivered them to Wagenfabrik Hermann Schumann. At Schumann the chassis received a box compartment over the bed, integrated with the cabin. The engine was a 6 cylinder petrol unit with 3962 cm³ capable of 70 hp. With a maximum payload of 3210 kg, that comfortably allowed 60 km/h on the Autobahn. On a full tank the truck had a range of 480 km, which wasn’t bad for European affairs. Though it’s cargo capacity was pretty good, it only had room for one race car and spares. Consequently, the Renndienst always dispatched two or three Typ 300 to each race.

Like most trucks in Germany, with World War II, consequently all the Typ 300 were confiscated for military or public use. With that, none of Auto Union’s race car transporters survived the war. But in 1997 Audi purchased a Typ 300 that was mostly intact, and reformed it to “Renndienst specs”. Though the truck is not one of the originals, Audi only used original parts from the 1930’s. It’s currently on display at the August Horch Museum, in Zwickau, Germany. And it even has a mock-up of a Typ C Stromlinienwagen on the bed…

The Typ 300 carried all of Auto Union’s Silberpfeile, from the race cars to the record cars. From 1934 to 1939, the Renndienst’s trucks were at all European speed events where Auto Union raced. So just like Mercedes’ LO 2750, it would be a great acquisition for my Silberpfeile collection. In 1:43rd the model was available by one or two obscure brands, but always very elusive to find. One of those models I surely I would LOVE to have, but doubted that I would… However, in 2018 Neo announced that they would make a version of it and earlier this year it was out. This is my first Neo, and I’m VERY happy with it. From the pics I’ve seen of the real truck it certainly looks perfect in scale.

It comes with a loading ramp, so you can load a car. And you can display it with the door up or down. You also get a small section of the door to put on top of the frame, as if the door was rolled in. BUT, not all is roses. The “open door” on mine came with one of the handles missing. And a section of the front suspension came broken off (easy-peasy fix, though).

So, it’s a fantastic model with a couple of issues. However, these small issues are really not enough to be a problem. And even more importantly, this was a birthday gift from my adorable wife. Just like the LO 2750. Yep, I really love her 🙂