Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Bugorama Irvine 2011, Puma

The Puma began as a DKW-Malzoni, built by Rino Malzoni of Matão, in Sao Paulo sometime in 1964.  He was an avid race car driver and coming up in the ranks.  He built this straight-3, two-stroke engine with a light fiberglass body.  
They became so popular that he could not make enough to satisfy the demand so he started a manufacturing company and within 2 years went from producing 35 per year to over 100.  They were made for 3 years (1964-1967), but the import taxes and restrictions put a stop to production.  Enter Volkwagen and the Karmann-Ghia with air cooled rear engine.  The new composite vehicle was named Puma.  The Spyder (convertible version) came out in 1970 and the GTB (using a front mounted Chevy straight-6) was not exported.








I am definitely a cat lover and as such look at the above door handle and envision either a cat's upper teeth or front paw in the design....
For more photos of the different body styles, etc. go to Google images





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