Borgward Car Club of Australia

Why the Isabella is a safe car

Sunday, 11 July 2010 15:05

May none of us ever have an accident, but it´s nonetheless comforting to know: from all reports, the Borgward Isabella is one of the safest cars of its era in front-end collisions. As an example, Ray Harrison (founder of the Borgward Car Club of Austrlia Inc.) once rescued a motor from the wreck of an Isabella that was written off in a head-on collision. The driver and his wife and family had survived without injury.

Christian Steiger, in his book „Fräulein Wunder“ quotes a case of an Isabella owner whose car was destroyed in a head-on collision with a truck in 1965. The distraught owner ordered a replacement from Wolfgang Schätzle, a mechanic who built some 140 Isabellas from left-over or specially manufactured parts until 1967. All too early, the Isabella owner wrote, had he been separated from that wonderful vehicle – the odometer reading had been only 261 220 km. The significant thing was that, after a head-on collision with a truck, the owner´s biggest concern was to get a new Isabella.

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Last Updated on Sunday, 11 July 2010 15:08

Was this the new Borgward Isabella?

Thursday, 10 June 2010 09:48

In his book „Kaisen und Borgward“ (1), Georg Schmidt, a long-time friend of the Borgward family, reports on an interview about the dirty business that occurred at the time of the Borgward Group’s being compulsorily acquired by the government of the state of Bremen.

There was a break in the conversation, then Monica Borgward resumed. “And then there was also the mysterious story of the disappearance of the new ‘Isabella’ ....”

Her brother Claus Borgward took up the thread. “Yes, that’s a puzzle that hasn’t been solved up to the present day. It gives an indication of how our father thought ahead – or, in this case, built ahead. Together with his head constructor Heiko Dziggel he had – as was his way of doing things – built the prototype of a new, improved and even more elegant ‘Isabella’ in a secret chamber. There it stood in a locked room, ready to go into production. Only two people had the key to that room: my father and Director Wilhelm Gieschen – so that there would be no premature publicity. People from the press are like wild animals when they get the scent of something new, as we all know! Well, one day the lock was broken open and the ‘Isabella’ had disappeared. My father had seen it in January, shortly before he was dispossessed of the firm. It was expected to be a huge commercial success, and it would have been that, too, if it hadn’t been for ...

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Last Updated on Thursday, 10 June 2010 09:54

Interesting Pictures of Borgward ads etc

Wednesday, 26 May 2010 21:28

Found this YouTube video, which shows most of the Borgward models, some ads and some pictures from the factory. It is comparing the cars against BMW etc. Unfortunately it is in German but even then it is worth watching just for the pictures.

Click here for video

Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 May 2010 21:33

Schöner leben mit Lloyd (Live finer with Lloyd)

Sunday, 30 May 2010 15:36

Schöner leben mit Lloyd (Live finer with Lloyd) Letzte Sonnenstunden des Jahres, würzige Herbstluft und winterliche Frische genießen auch Sie, von der Heizung wohlig durchgewärmt, in Ihrem LLOYD mit Schiebedach. (Also you will enjoy the last hours of sunshine of the year, the piquant autumn air, the freshness of winter, comfortably warmed by the heater, in your LLOYD with a sunroof.) So read an advertisement in the early 1950s. My trans-lation doesn´t capture all of its feeling, but you´ll understand how it struck a chord with Germans. Germany had lost World War 1 with a huge death toll, suffered humiliation and poverty, then had a brief boom in the thirties, at the cost of having an oppressive dictatorship that had murdered millions of its citizens, then there had been another terrible war with unimaginable destruction and death, followed by the loss of the eastern provinces with 16 million people being made refugees, and then a new period of poverty and hunger – not to mention the remainder of the land being divided into two hostile countries.

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Last Updated on Monday, 14 June 2010 09:45

Borgward starts testing new prototype

Sunday, 02 May 2010 07:53

Christian Borgward revealed that a prototype is currently being tested and that development of a new factory or outsourcing of production to manufacturers like Karmann or Magna Steyr will be the most likely route for the new model. Borgward is predicting sales levels of up to 50,000 units per year for his new model, which is estimated to cost between €65,000 and €90,000.

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