Veritas (automobile)
Veritas was a West German post World War II sports and race car company, located in the village of Hausen am Andelsbach, near Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg. It later moved to Meßkirch and Muggensturm and finally to the Nürburgring.
The company was founded by Ernst Loof, Georg Meier and Lorenz Dietrich who initially re-built and tuned pre-war BMW 328 cars using components supplied by the customer, turning them into BMW-Veritas cars. The first car was used in 1947 by Karl Kling to win at Hockenheim and subsequently become the 1947 German 2-litre champion. After only a few cars were made, following an objection from BMW, the cars became simply known as Veritas.
Road cars
The first Veritas to be made for normal road use were made in 1949 with the launch of the Komet coupé which was little more than a Veritas RS made street legal. It was followed by the more civilised 2+2 Saturn coupé and Scorpion cabriolet, both being styled by Ben Bowden.The company moved to larger premises in Muggensturm in 1949 but they were badly undercapitalised. New cars were designed using a 1998 cc engine designed Eric Zipprich and built by Heinkel. Over 200 orders were received for the new car but there was not enough money to buy the components and production came to a halt in 1950. The company continued in operation until 1952 by making new bodies for Panhard cars.
Ernst Loof moved to the Nürburgring in 1950 where he rented the old Auto Union workshops and set up a new company Automobilwerke Ernst Loof GmbH and started a new range of Veritas cars with the Heinkel manufactured engine and saloon or cabriolet coachwork by Spohn. Money quickly ran out however and the final bodies were fitted with Ford or Opel engines. The number of cars made at the Nürburgring is estimated to be between 6 and 20.