Veritas SP90 Spohn

The German car brand Veritas is probably no longer known to many younger readers today. Ernst Loof, a former motorcycle racer and absolute engine specialist, who was employed as a race director at BMW before World War 2, began developing his own racing and sports cars from 1946. These sports cars used the chassis and technical components of the BMW 328, a sports car that debuted in 1937 in the two-liter class and soon achieved the status of the unbeatable vehicle for that category. A bit similar to the Grand Prix racecars from Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union of the time. In 1940 a 328 with special bodywork even managed the overall victory at the Mille Miglia in Italy. Due to the war, however, the once dominant cars were either destroyed, exported to other countries as spoils of war or dismantled for urgently needed spare parts. Once well-known race tracks in Europe were also damaged and only gradually rebuilt and cleaned by enthusiastic car club members.

The members of these clubs also procured components for their racing cars on the black markets. In exchange for cigarettes or food, they were lucky if they could get spark plugs, spare parts or petrol. The general shortage of raw materials in Germany also made the idea of new sports cars almost impossible. Nevertheless, Ernst Loof, together with Lorenz Dietrich (former commercial manager of the BMW plant in Allach/Germany), Werner Miethe (former six-day cyclist) and Georg ‘Schorsch’ Meier (BMW employee and racing driver), organized themselves to found the ‘Veritas-Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Sport- und Rennwagenbau’ (Veritas working group for sports and racing car construction) in March 1947. Loof, Dietrich and Meier had met in the army when they were all stationed in Paris. As they were all associated with BMW in one way or another before the war, the technical basis for their first products was obvious. While the prototypes were realized with parts that had been brought together especially for this purpose by the team, later customers had to organize their engines and other components themselves and make them available to the Veritas team. Incidentally, one of the first customers was racing driver Karl Kling, who won the two-liter class of the sports car championship with a Veritas in 1947.

Relatively quickly, more and more racing drivers began to get a taste of it, filling the starting fields with Veritas creations. This also created a desire for street-legal sports cars, which were finally included in the range from 1949. To this end, Veritas worked closely with the company Hermann Spohn Karosseriebau, which, depending on the customer’s wishes, formed coupés, convertibles or sports roadsters on the modified BMW chassis. Spohn had already made a good name for special coachbuilding based on Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and Horch before the war, and many old chassis received new bodies in the immediate post-war period as well. How many Veritas Nürburgring, Meteor, SP90 and Scorpion in total were fitted by Spohn can no longer be said exactly, as Veritas soon slipped into financial problems and had to close the doors several times.

However, one vehicle, which was first delivered in 1949, clearly stands out. It is an SP90 convertible, which originally came to the first owner with the standard Spohn body and chassis number 5089. Whether it was this customer or the second owner who sent the car back to Spohn around 1952 can no longer be determined. What is clear, however, is that the latest design developments from the USA had meanwhile arrived in Europe. For example, the Buick Le Sabre concept car was probably on display at a car exhibition in Munich in 1951, which led to an observer’s urgent wish to have his Veritas adapted to this look. According to our research, the car then underwent at least three conversion steps before the current result was achieved. Firstly, the SP90 was fitted with high tailfins at the rear, while chrome accents were added to the fenders and other details as well as additional headlights were fitted to the A-pillars. In the second step, the lights were removed again, while the front was lengthened and fitted with vertical headlights behind clear glass covers, and finally, the third step provided a fake, almost horizontal radiator grille below the front logo.

At that time the car was prainted in turquoise blue and according to some old photographs, at least temporarily, the interior was painted in a zebra pattern including matching door panels. In addition there were ‘sombrero’ hubcaps, as Cadillac used them at that time, whitewall tyres and chrome covers in front of the rear wheels. An American serviceman brought this unique Veritas to the United States in the 1950s and sold it to R.J. Mrofka in 1965, who couldn’t get the pre-war technology under control and therefore sold the car to his friend Lee Hartung. He put the car into his unusual collection in Glenview/Illinois, which he was able to run through his successful scrap metal business. Besides cars he also collected old furniture, motorcycles and bicycles. After his death, the collection was dissolved and auctioned in 2011, whereby the Veritas became the star vehicle. For about US$ 195,000 it got a new owner, who left the optical patina untouched, but made the engine and gearbox running again. The car made its public debut at the Concours d’Elegance in Amelia Island in 2013 and has been seen since at several other car events. Currently, Hyman Ltd. offers this special Veritas SP90 with Spohn bodywork for US$ 235,000.

Images: Hyman Ltd.