Borgward Isabella
If Borgward is remembered in North America it will be from the 1950s and early sixties when the well regarded German marque was imported for a few years. Borgward was a long established car builder with roots going back to the Bremen Tire Company in the early twentieth century.
Bremen soon abandoned tires to make products like farm implements, kitchen appliances and automotive components such as radiators.
An employee named Carl F.W. Borgward rose to the position of chief engineer and by 1921 the 31 year old had gained control of the company. He renamed it Bremer Kuhlerfabrik Borgward & Co.
Always interested in motor vehicles, by 1924 Borgward was producing a threewheeled motorized delivery cart called the Goliath. The company prospered with Goliaths and some four-wheel models and in the late 1920s Carl Borgward earned a seat on the board of luxury car maker Hansa-Lloyd, also in Bremen.
By 1932 Borgward and partner Wilhelm Techlenborg were able to take over HansaLloyd, renaming it, rather awkwardly, as Hansa-Lloyd und Goliath Werk Borgward & Techlenborg.
Their first passenger vehicle was the 1932 three-wheeled Goliath Pioneer minicar with a 200 cc, two-stroke 5-1/2 horsepower engine in a leatherette-clad, wood-framed body. They graduated to conventional cars, but then in 1938 the company was shocked when German Chancellor Adolf Hitler decreed that each German car company must concentrate on one model size only. The small class was reserved for the state-sponsored Volkswagen.
Hansa-Lloyd had lost its prosperous small car business but it was hardly impacted because the Second World War soon ended car production.
After the war Carl Borgward, like others, was incarcerated by American occupation authorities for using slave labour during the war. While serving 34 months his colleagues were able to revive modest truck production in the bomb-damaged Bremen plant which fortunately ended up in the Western controlled zone.
Borgward reorganized into three brands: the small Lloyd, mid-market Goliath and upscale Borgward. Carl Borgward kept them strictly separated within Carl F.W. Borgward GmbH.
As each division pursued its separate path Borgward’s big post-war breakout was the Hansa 1500 sedan, soon renamed the Borgward Hansa 1500. Introduced at the 1949 Geneva auto show it had a full envelope body with a 1.4 litre, overhead valve, 52 horsepower engine.
This evolved into the most popular of all Borgwards, the Isabella introduced in 1954, the car that made Borgward known to North America. The Isabella was a thoroughly modern 1,012 kg (2,230 lb) two-door, unit constriction sedan with attractive lines and grille featuring a large, trademark diamond-shaped badge in the middle. The 2,601 mm (102.4 in.) wheelbase and 4,394 mm (173 in.) length gave ample room for four or occasionally five passengers.
Underneath was four-wheel independent suspension with A-arms in front, swing axles at the rear and coil springs all around. A station wagon and convertible were soon added. Price was in the $2,500 range.
The 60 horsepower 1.5 litre four sent power to the rear wheels via a column-shifted, fully synchronized four-speed transmission and hydraulic clutch. Performance was representative of this class of car, with Road & Track (7/55) reporting zero to 97 km/h (60 mph) in 22.4 seconds and a top speed of 130 km/h (80.6 mph).
It wasn’t long before the quest for more performance brought the Isabella TS (Touring Sport) version with the engine increased to 75 DIN (German industrial standard) horsepower which R&T estimated as equivalent to 82 SAE horsepower. It had higher compression, a hotter cam and more carburetion. This reduced zero to 97 km/h (60 mph) to 16 seconds and raised top speed to 149 km/h (92.8 mph). It was good performance for a 1.5 litre sedan and not far off the Volvo 444, known for its sparkling acceleration.
The real icing on the Isabella cake came in 1957 with the arrival of the very attractive Isabella sport coupe. Based on the sedan mechanicals it was to the sedan what the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia was to the Beetle.
Somewhat like a more luxurious, higher performance K-G, it had the same 75 horsepower as the Isabella TS sedan, although the sleeker body gave it a 114 mm (4.5 in.) lower profile. In spite of weighing 73 kg (160 lb) more than the TS, R&T (8/58) found its performance close at zero to 97 (60) in 17.5 seconds and top speed of 145 (90.2 mph).
Although the practical Isabella came in several configurations, a larger six cylinder P 100 luxury car and its line of Lloyd and Goliath small cars, questionable management practices brought the Borgward Group to financial difficulties.
When the Bremen government refused to give it life-saving loans, Borgward closed its doors in 1961. It had produced over 200,000 Isabellas in several forms, including the attractive and sporty coupe.