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PINZGAUER HISTORY
The Pinzgauer vehicle made by Steyr-Daimler-Puch was named after a horse breed in Austria, not the breed of cow that also lives there. Pinzgau is a district in the Salzburg province of Austria where they have bred this ancient Noriker horse for thousands of years. The Pinzgauer-Noriker horse originally came from the Roman province of Noricum located in central Europe. Bishops in Austria bred the horses in the 15th century where they mixed it with Spanish Andalusians.
The resulting breed is spotted and resembles the American Appaloosa, but the Pinzgauer is slighter heavier from its draft ancestry. The spotted look is called a tiger horse in Europe. The spotted pure Pinzgauer horses are rare and bring much more money. Many Pinzgauers now have bloodlines diluted so much that they are a solid color. Most farms in Austria use the animal for work horses, but are good for riding because of their good dispositions. Another horse, the Haflinger also has the same ancestry from the Noriker and resembles the Pinzgauer.
In 1959 Steyr-Daimler-Puch, the Austrian vehicle manufacturer made a small and very light cross country military vehicle, and named after one of their unique breeds of horses. This vehicle was call the Haflinger. Probably the name meant that the vehicle would be used like the work horse, to haul people or cargo around the forest and farm. This ultra light vehicle could be moved by three men, and was designed for cross country use.
In 1971, a new vehicle was introduced that was an improvement of the Haflinger, and was called the Pinzgauer. The name choice was deliberate since the two horses have a lot in common. The Pinzgauer vehicle was unique since it was of very light weight at 4300 lbs, and yet could carry a payload of 2200 lbs (1 metric ton). Its proper title from the user manual is a "Light Cross Country Vehicle". The engine was an air cooled 2499 cc in- line 4 cylinder with the cylinders sitting horizontally. The two Zenith dual carburetors are still used in racing cars since they will operate in odd angles or with high side G forces.
The exhaust system looks somewhat like that of a racecar combined with a Volkswagen microbus. Many of the design features seem related to the Volkswagen bus. The exhaust goes through a dual heat exchanger to provide cabin heat and then into a large diameter muffler. The vehicle uses the same idea of gear reduction boxes at the wheels that the Volkswagen bus used. This allows high ground clearance. The axles swing independently out of a central heavy cast steel tube that acts as a frame and protects the front to rear drive shaft. This is very expensive to build, but is very sophisticated. There are no swing arms or braces to the axle as one would expect to find, just the independent axle on each side. The engine internal design seems similar to that of a Porsche according to an auto expert, but the Porsche engine has two cylinders on a side.
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