Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: When the Germans tried a Motorama Dream Car Continue reading the Original Blog Post
There's one I've never seen. Very sci-fi looking. What surprises me most is, it appears they never tried to even out the finish on the alloy body, even though it seems apparent they did not intend to paint it. I would have expected the finished car to be either brushed or polished.
Agreed. Seems like funding was running out even as they were building the car. Ill-fated from the get go.
The photos look like the basis for any number of the "Cars Of The Future" cover illustrations on a mid-50s Mechanix Illustrated or Popular Science magazine.
Well,...... No offense,.... but I can understand why there wasn't a huge influx of German custom cars that flooded the US show circuit,.... Personalty I'm not a fan, but there was certainly a lot of work put into it.
Motorama press photo, car beautifully finished and spotlessly clean, well dressed couple nearby, beautiful beachfront background. Borgward press photo, car looks like it's been driven daily through snowstorms for 20 years, piloted by a couple of German guys who look like they saw some serious shit in the war that they don't talk about. Unknown substance dripped over the front fender, don't even bother to wipe that off first. I don't know if anyone else here is a fan of the Fallout franchise but these could both have been stills from that show (or game), but on the the GM one looks like it's before the bombs fell.
I think the Borgward Isabella is a good looking car. Kinda like an upscale Karmann Ghia. Definitely missed the mark on the concept car!
Borgward cars had a good reputation for quality, regarded by many as superior to the BMW's of the time. The rise and fall of the group is a complicated and fascinating story. The group included Borgward, Hansa, Goliath and Lloyd. Karl Borgward was a bit of a Henry Ford curmudgeon - he like to do things his way, and when local politics got in the way of development plans, he shut it down. I think there was some production in Mexico? in the late '50s.
Something is amiss with the photos. They show a car that only one was built with 3 different set of plates on it. Two have Austrian plates and one has Hungarian plates. I would say someone has some explaining to do.
Late spring of 1965, I was looking to buy a used car to drive to my summer job. The Chevy dealer in Cambridge, MA showed me a used Borgward Isabella (it was an orphan at that time). I replied: "I'll wait for Borgward to open the factory in Mexico". I eventually bought a used 1960 Volvo PV544 (looks like an undersized 1946 Ford 2 door sedan). Russ
Considering it was 1955, very few futuristic cars ever came to fruition. In hindsight most show cars were pretty stupid (from any Country) but from a small company operating in a Socialist Environment it was a pretty good effort.
Two front war, lack of resources, failure to heed more experienced strategists advice, and most of world ganging up against them at the behest of a drunk bully and the worshipers of Mammon.
Yeah, I know... It was a tongue in cheek statement. It's kinda' like the Polish Astronaut's going on a mission to the sun... They're going at night.
Sorry, but I just don’t get European styling. But I can appreciate the engineering that went into the roof and door mechanism.
The Henry Ford comparison is apt. Borgward was also a bit of an autocrat who gradually went off his nut later in life.
This is not the place for political comments, and that is all I'd say about the 2nd part of your post.
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