Troll Plastik – 1956

Troll Plastik


Troll Plastik – 1956


Marca : Troll Plastik & Bilindustri
Modello : Troll
Anno : 1956
Esemplari prodotti : 5
Motore : 2 cilindri in linea 2 tempi
Cilindrata : 700 cc
Alimentazione : 1 carburatore
Potenza : 30 CV
Top speed Km/h : 130


The Troll Plastik was a small car made by Troll Plastik & Bilindustri of Lunde, Norway, from 1956 to 1958. It was one of few attempts at car production in Norway, but only five cars were ever built.

The Troll Plastik car was built as a 2+2 sports car with a glass-reinforced plastic (or fiberglass) body. The idea was to build the first mass-produced car outside the US in this material. In the US Chevrolet made its Corvette in fiberglass, but no one in Europe had built cars in plastic, except for the East German Trabant, which was also a 2 cylinder, 2-stroke car.

Fiberglass was a relatively new material in the late , and the benefits were many. It would not rust, it would be 130 kg lighter than an equivalent metal car, and the production would be significantly simpler and therefore cheaper.

The chassis was taken from a Gutbrod Superior and made 15 cm longer. The gearbox was a three speed Hurth gearbox.

The first Troll car was revealed to the press in October 1956. It was not completely finished, and although the form of the chassis was final, the car could not be driven. This car was later used as a prototype, and many changes was made during later testing.

As the production commenced, Kohl-Larsen had to work hard to get a permit from the government to sell the car. He was only allowed to sell 15 cars in Norway. The reason for this was a barter treaty Norway had with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to buy cars from them as they bought fish products from Norway. The government was afraid that domestic car production would disrupt this trading balance. Kohl-Larsen therefore started plans to export the cars to Germany and Denmark. There were also requests from other countries like Finland and Belgium. At one point there were plans to build 2000 cars per year, but after some moderation they said they would be happy with one finished car per day.

However, the company was never allowed to sell more than those 15 cars on the Norwegian market. In addition they did not get hold of the investment capital necessary to start large scale production. When the government made it clear that they never wanted to support the Troll car, all the potential investors closed negotiations. Hence, one of Norway's few ventures into car production went bankrupt in early 1958. Only five complete cars had been produced.

Fonte : Wikipedia



 

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