April 26, 2009

Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer 710 K



This weekend I spent some time in Hershey, PA for the Porsche Club of America's Central PA Region swap-meet. The largest of its kind in the world. Anyway, one of the more interesting non-Porsche's at the show was a mid-1970s Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer.
The Pinz was designed in 1969 as a high mobility off road vehicle. Unlike a Unimog it's a pretty competent road vehicle capable of over 60 mph, but also capable of just as much abuse off the road - much more so than your average Land Rover.


This example is powered by a 2.5L air-cooled 4 cylinder gasoline engine of Puch design. It also features a four wheel drive system that utilizes a torque tube as a back-bone. The drivetrain acts as a stressed member. The 5-speed manual transmission also has a low-range with 5 off-road gears. All in all, a very impressive machine.

1 comment:

Slow Joe Crow said...

The interesting thing about the Pinzgauer is that is essentially a miniature Tatra 813 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_T813 Air cooled engine, spine tube frame, swing axles and all.
Military surplus ones a moderately common since some of the same dealers that bring in Unimogs also sell Pinzgauers, mostly ex Swiss Army.