Tempo was a German automobile manufacturer based in Hamburg. Vidal & Sohn Tempo-Werke was founded in 1924. For the first dozen or so years they built military vehicles. After WWII, they started building light commercial vehicles. Many were 3 wheeled vehicles but some, like this one, were full sized (by European standards) vans and pickup-type trucks.
In 1971 Tempo was purchased by Daimler-Benz. Tempo continued building vans until 1977 (many were branded as Mercedes Benz) when Daimler-Benz closed down the firm.
The Tempo line of commercial vehicles was fairly popular in Europe and you still see them turn up for sale in Europe from time to time. In the US they are extremely rare.
Most Tempo Matadors came with an aircooled VW flat 4 engine that was placed up front and drove the front wheels. This one has a water cooled Austin A 50 engine in it. Apparently, they were sold this way in the US. (See brochure below)
(Click on the picture to enlarge it. Picture is courtesy of www.hanomag-kurier.de)Interestingly, Jensen built a few of these in the UK under license from Tempo. They are very, very rare. I'm pretty certain this is not a Jensen built Matador, but I wonder if Tempo's connection to Jensen lead to the Austin A 50 engines found in some of these vehicles.
This Tempo Matador needs restoration, but the seller says it runs and drives. At some point it was for sale in Montana, but is now located in New Hampshire. (The Montana ad contains a few additional pictures.)
I hope someone buys this, restores it, and brings it to some of the New England car shows. I'd love to check this out.
Located in Bradford N.H., click here to see the Craigslist ad.
A huge thanks to Jon for sending me this link!
