Elegant Thirsty Dinosaur makes a friend.

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rottenlungs

Member
Hi.

Discovered the other day that a colleague of mine has the classic car bug. When he mentioned his "restoration centre" my curiousity was piqued.

Sorry, it`s not a Rover but it turns out he`s NZ`s most significant collector of Borgwards and associated marques and a jolly nice chap to boot. The most unusual of his collection is this one , a 1959 Borgward Isabella Coupe. Apparently one of only 27 imported to NZ, of which 9 remain and just 2 are roadworthy.

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Cheers

James
 
Can't recall ever seeing a Borgward Isabella Coupe before,... :?

It looks American in design, but much smaller than I would have expected should that be the case.

Ron.
 
German, wonderfully over engineered cars and the inspiration for the Drifters' hit song Under the Borgward.
Isabella was the maker's wife, IIRC.
 
Willy Eckerslyke said:
German, wonderfully over engineered cars and the inspiration for the Drifters' hit song Under the Borgward.
Isabella was the maker's wife, IIRC.
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Funny bugga
Volvo stole the design - P1600 ?
The name in itself was a huge impediment downunder - sounds like awkward
 
Ooooh! that does look nice :) .

According to Wiki, Borgward's wife was called Elisabeth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borgward_Isabella

The name for the car said to have originated from a flippant remark by Borgward as test drivers were asking for a cover name for the prototype.

Whether coincidence or not, the name 'Isabella' is suitable for the as 'nice' perceived shape of the car and the time in which advanced auto nations make efforts women also to win as drivers and thus naturally as buyers. The Coupe derived therefrom succeed it even into the New York Museum of Modern Art.
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http://kfz-tech.de/Engl/Hersteller/Borgward/BorgwardI.htm

Some cracking old American Isabella ad's here http://cgdailydrive.com/the-1958-borgward-isabella-was-first-in-sales/ (including "Thunderjet" engine!)

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Isabella. Although you can see the influence of 50s American design it still has the looks of a classy European sports coupe. I think they look nicer than Mercedes coupes of the same era? Quite an impressive little 1500cc engine too.

Bit of a shame that the company went bust when it was apparently still solvent.
 
Apparently BMW and the aldermen of Bremen ganged up to kill Borgward. Borgward employed 30,000 people at the time. BMW were short of staff. They spread some rumours around there being design faults in the Borgward cars which the press latched onto and sales collapsed. When Borgward started to struggle, BMW picked up only 20% of the 30,000 people laid off by Borgward. Bremen suffered as a result.

Also, the Isabella was designed in response to Borgward`s wife saying that she thought the Karmann-Ghia was a nice car. There`s certainly a resemblance.

Cheers

James
 
rottenlungs said:
Also, the Isabella was designed in response to Borgward`s wife saying that she thought the Karmann-Ghia was a nice car.
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Thanks James, that must be the story I had muddled then, I knew his wife was involved somewhere!

I had a long chat with the owner of a Coupe once at a show. He said that performance was very respectable considering the relatively small engine (1500cc).
 
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