CarBrandLogos archive · Horch · 1935

HorchHorch 850

Eight cylinders, five litres, and the bulk of Germany's pre-war luxury market.

Photo: BlueBreezeWiki · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Horch history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Horch 850, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Where the 830 made Horch affordable, the 850 kept it grand. Introduced in 1935, it used a 4,944 cc overhead-camshaft straight-eight, a configuration Horch had refined since the 1920s and which delivered the effortless low-speed torque and quietness that large formal bodies demanded. The chassis had independent front suspension and a four-speed gearbox with optional overdrive for long-distance cruising.

Horch 853 Coupé 1 · MPW57 · CC BY 3.0

Design and engineering

Around 2,200 were built at Zwickau between 1935 and 1940, a substantial figure for a car of this class and enough to make Horch the dominant name in Germany's large-car market rather than a specialist alternative to it. Bodies ranged from formal saloons to the cabriolets that are now the most sought-after, with the closely related 853 sports cabriolet the shape most often used to represent the marque.

Horch Horch 850 · nemor2 from Stuttgart, Germany · CC BY 2.0

1935 Horch 853 Coupe IMG 0961 - Flickr - nemor2

In production

Production stopped with the war and never resumed. The Zwickau works ended up building Trabants, and Horch survived only as one of the four rings in the Audi badge.

1935 Horch 853 Coupe IMG 0961 - Flickr - nemor2 · nemor2 from Stuttgart, Germany · CC BY 2.0

At a glance