Start with what the Sachsenring (Horch) P240 is: a 4-door saloon / 4-door cabrio / 5-door estate with 2407 , built from 1956 to 1959, at the height of the post-war boom. What it meant takes a little longer.
Where it came from
The Horch P240 or Sachsenring P240 was a luxury car built by the VEB Kraftfahrzeugwerk Horch Zwickau in East Germany between 1955 and 1959. The early pre-production models can be identified by the grille, which is divided in two and has vertical bars. Despite a provision issued by the Comecon limiting production of luxurious cars in Czechoslovakia to no more than 300 per year, Tatra was manufacturing more units than the limit.
This became an issue in 1957 and 1958, especially considering East Germany was producing the Sachsenring P240 as its own luxurious car. The Comecon decided that the two countries must reach a deal to decide which country would continue production to supply the other with luxurious passenger vehicles. In 1958 the Ministries of Interior of both countries took part in trials, which the East German Minister of Machinery personally attended. The Tatra 603 won, and subsequently East Germany's higher communist officials began to drive the T603, while lower officials had to drive imports from the USSR (especially Volga).
Under the skin
The engine is 2407 . On the scales it comes to 1480 kg. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Horch line-up the Sachsenring (Horch) P240 has a clear place: it replaced the Horch 830; it handed the line to the Audi 100; the factory was Zwickau, East Germany. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Nissan Skyline, the Fiat 500, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. Nearby in the Horch catalogue sit the Horch 853 Voll & Ruhrbeck Sport Cabriolet and the Horch 10.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Sachsenring (Horch) P240 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.