Filed Under: News
Many defunct car manufacturer’s have left behind a history of innovation expertise and engineering excellence, we in our small way try to keep some of the names alive, most were household names, Riley, Morris, Austin, Sunbeam to name just a few, however sometimes an almost unknown or forgotten name comes to light.
The Borgward Isabella was part of a company that produced four different makes, unfortunately when the plug was pulled there was nothing left, it is ironic that financial experts now say that there was no reason why the company could not have been saved. Originally the car was a Hansa, then a Hansa Borgward, then the Isabella became Borgward, though the Hansa models were still being produced along with Goliaths and Lloyds, companies that Carl Borgward had taken over.
As far as I know the Borgward never made it to Ireland, one cannot say it was popular in the UK except that many of the armed forces returning from duty with NATO in the then divided Germany came home with Borgwards, which due to tax concessions to BAOR (British Army on the Rhine) made the car a bargain. The weird thing is that Borgward at one time was second to Volkswagen in sales figures, not only did the company produce cars it also was responsible for making lorries, buses, vans etc
So what is so special about the Borgward, in number one spot it has been described as indestructible, a very bold claim, the design was way ahead of it’s European counterparts due to Carl Borgward being a war prisoner in the USA, apparently he had access to magazines and designed the Isabella on American lines but somewhat Europeanized.
The body was a unitary construction with separate front and rear sub frames, the front frame was rubber mounted, the suspension comprised of unequal wishbones, coil springs with telescopic shock absorbers and an anti roll bar, the rear was fully independent swing axle, coil springs, telescopic shock absorbers with radius arms which pivoted in rubber bearings.
Some set up.
To stop the Isabella hydraulic drum brakes were fitted back and front, you also got a 4 speed fully syncro gearbox with a column change, the hand brake was the umbrella type under the dashboard which gave room for three people to sit up front on the bench seat.
The dashboard was functional polished bakelite, with 3 gauges, a clock, petrol and speedo, plus there was also a cigarette lighter and a map reading facility.
The engine a 1493cc 4 cylinder OHV unit 0f 75×84.5 mm, a single downdraft carb and a very unusual short intake manifold inside the rocker box.
In fact the engine looked more like an OHC engine rather than what it was a 60bhp pushrod job. The car weighed 1000kg, extensive use of light aluminium alloys were used especially in the gearbox, cylinder head and engine parts.
Another of Borgward’s idea’s was separate heaters for the driver and passengers, with both having there own independent controls, can imagine that could have caused a few arguments.
Petrol consumption was around 34 to the gallon and a top speed of about 87 mph so it was no slouch on the road, in fact the engine was used by some of the racing fraternity to good effect.
In 1955 the Isabella was updated, compression ratio went from 7.2.1 to 8.2.1, the exhaust and inlet valves were enlarged, pistons and bearings strengthened, the single carb was dropped in favour of a twin choke Solex and BHP increased to 75 and the top speed was now almost 100mph, the obligatory 0-60 was achieved in 15 secs.
Inside the bench seat was out and individual reclining seats took there place, more chrome was added to the body. It was said that the Isabella was at the time the fastest 1500cc saloon in production.
In 1957 a new 2 seater coupe was released.
The City of Bremen was home to this industrial giant, the original factory was somewhat destroyed during the war by allied bombing, however the Borgward was the first, so they say, new car designed in Germany. There is like a lot of things a mystery element, the current factory is owned by Mercedes Benz. Added to which that BMW had lost a great deal of its workers with its Eisenbach factory being in the Eastern Zone, the reason the Russians managed to turn out some decent Wartburg cars.
So you can imagine that when production ceased there were a considerable number made redundant, which was a bonus for BMW, now at the time BMW were having financial problems and needed a new model, which normally take considerable time from drawing board to production, however no one will admit to the reasons that the City of Bremen had for bankrupting Carl Borgward given that all his creditors were paid in full.
Now though Borgward designed all of his own cars he obtained the services of one Frau to design a new Borgward and it is believed also a new Hansa, these were highly secret projects and were kept in locked rooms before being released, alas the bankruptcy interveined, but no one knew what happened to the two cars, now there is a story which may or may not be true, in that Master Frau went to work for BMW and surprise surprise he produced a new model in a very short time
By the way there was a Coupe version plus the usual saloon and an estate, in total 202862 models rolled off the production line.
It is not quite the end of the story Carl Borgward died two years later, however in 1967 all of the Isabella machinery, presses, dies castings etc turned up in Mexico, it seems a few cars were made but it was soon an aborted effort.
There is even more this car will not lay down, a company has been registered in Switzerland with the intention of building Borgward cars obviously times have changed so rapidly one waits to see what if anything will materialise from the exercise.
If you can find an Isabella it is given 4 out of 5 stars for collect ability, apart from Germany and the UK cars were exported to the US, happy hunting.
Regards Ted
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