(first posted 4/8/2017) Hallo, Klassische Kurbseid Freunde, for our final German Deadly Sin – of this “Cycle” anyway. So after BMW’s near-death experience and Borgward’s obliteration and episodic re-births, let’s head back to Bavaria and look at another automaker that dug itself six feet under: Hans Glas GmbH. As with Borgward, it’s impossible to single out one specific model as a Deadly Sin – Glas were really a concentration of DSs, though they made some of the most interesting cars of the ‘60s.
Hans Glas in 1957, during those heady Goggo years…
The Glas family started manufacturing farm equipment back in the 1860s. Hans Glas, one of the third generation of this industrious family, went to America in 1910 and ended up working at Ford and Harley-Davidson. Around 1922, he went back to his home town of Dingolfing in Bavaria to settle down and get married. His father eventually handed him the family business.
Isaria advert, circa 1942.
The company, soon renamed Hans Glas GmbH, continued making farming equipment under the Isaria brand throughout the ‘30s and ‘40s. Hans Glas’ son Andreas (1923-1990) started working at the company after 1945. Hand and Andreas Glas wondered how they could help their business grow – perhaps vehicle production could be an answer. Circa 1950, Andreas Glas came back from a trip to Italy and told his father about the swarms of Vespas he had seen there. The pfennig dropped: nobody was making anything of the sort in Germany…
Hans Glas hired engineer Karl Dompert (1923-2013) to see if a home-grown scooter could be made. The result was the 1951 Goggo-Roller, named after a Glas family member’s nickname. It used a ILO 125cc engine, soon available as 150cc and a Sachs 200cc; its comfortable suspension, quality build and distinctive styling made it an immediate success.
Above: a field of Goggos; below: Andreas Glas (left) and Karl Dompert inspect the new coupé.
As Germany rebuilt itself and its people started to have more means, Hans and Andreas Glas saw the proliferation of bubble cars and realized that four wheels were perhaps the way to go. The profits from the scooters had been invested into new machine-tools and increased factory space, so now Glas could make their own engines. Dompert designed the chassis, with swing axles front and rear, and Adler engineer Felix Dozekal created a 250cc air-cooled 2-stroke parallel twin that produced 14 hp. The rear-engined Goggomobil was launched in 1955 and was another big hit for Glas. By 1958, they had passed the 100,000 unit mark – few “Rollermobilen” could claim such production numbers.
The short and sweet Goggomobil coupé and the rest of the Goggo gang.
Soon, 300cc and 400cc versions were introduced, along with a van and a snazzy coupé, usually painted in bright colours, styled by Hans and Andreas Glas themselves. A commercial van and a pick-up were also added to the range by 1957. Glas sold the Goggomobil license to Spain and Australia, where a locally-designed roadster, the Goggomobil Dart, was produced.
By this time, Glas felt the need to grow out of the bubble-car niche and conquer the mini car market. Glas tried to engineer a FWD car, powered by a 4-stroke 600cc flat-twin. A prototype was shown at the 1957 Frankfurt Motor Show, but further testing showed the car’s handling to be awful. Problem: a lot of the engineering had been finalized and the tooling for the unibody was already being delivered. The only solution was to turn the engine and gearbox around and make the “Big Goggomobil” a RWD saloon. This is what Glas launched in the summer of 1958 – with an optional 700cc engine.
Above: 1959 Dutch brochure for the new Isar; below: a 1st series wagon.
The car was renamed Glas Isar T600 / T700 in 1959, dropping the Goggomobil name. In some countries, “Isar” looked weird, so the alternate orthography was “Isard”. Though its panoramic windshield and rear fins seemed a bit over-the-top on such a small vehicle, it was contemporarily styled, but lacked distinction – park the Glas Isar, the DKW Junior, the Trabant P50 and the Lloyd Arabella side by side and most folks would have trouble telling one from the next.
The 2nd series Glas Isar with redesigned tail lights.
The early cars suffered from weak engines and were lacked structural rigidity, which led to quite a few cracked windshields and expensive warranty repairs. Glas hastily added a couple of box sections to the monocoque, along with a mild restyle, in 1960 – but the Isar’s reputation was tarnished. The first “real” Glas car was a semi-flop: fewer than 90,000 were made in Germany over eight model years (plus about 15,000 built under license in Argentina, where it is more fondly remembered). The Isar was launched too quickly, something that would become the hallmark for new Glas models from then on. It is also the only Glas model whose production was halted by its maker; the last Isar cars left Dingolfing in mid-1965.
Undeterred by this relative setback, Glas crept further up the ladder, now setting their sights on the 1-litre small family car segment with the new Glas 1004 – slap-bang into Volkswagen territory. Ex-BMW engineer Leonhard Ischinger joined the Glas family and developed a small jewel of an engine: a 992cc water-cooled straight-4 with hemi heads and, for the first time on a series production engine, an overhead camshaft driven by a toothed rubber belt. Glas lacked the means to develop an entirely new chassis, so they added 10cm to the Isar’s platform (plus additional box sections) and kept the smaller car’s RWD layout, as well as its rather unrefined leaf-sprung live rear axle.
A pre-production 2+2 coupé was displayed at the 1961 Frankfurt Motor Show – the production line only started ramping up in the summer of 1962. The new Glas’s styling was another strange in-house effort, and the substantial front and rear overhangs did not help the car’s penchant for pitching when the undersized drum brakes were used. Another point that irked many critics and customers was the “back-to-front” gearchange (1st and 3rd at the bottom), also inherited from the dreaded Isar. At least the gearbox was now fully synchronized.
In early 1963, a 2-door saloon and a convertible were added to the range. Soon after, the 1204 became available as well, with a 1189cc (53 hp DIN) version of the 1004’s engine; by the end of the year, the 1004/1204 (a.k.a the “04s”) were available in a twin-carb “TS” version with a revised suspension and front disc brakes as standard. This transformed the car into the proverbial pocket rocket: armed with 70 hp (DIN), the Glas 1204 TS was capable of reaching 160 kph (100 mph). All this for a price of DM6980! Though one segment above the Glas, BMW’s 1600 Neue Klasse was slower by 10 kph and more expensive by DM3000. Munich started to take notice of its small neighbour. In mid-1965, the 1204 was replaced by the 1304, with a 1290cc (60 hp DIN); the 1304 TS was initially rated at 75 hp.
Glas created six cars in total; Pietro Frua (above) designed three and even signed the 2600 (below).
It seems that Hans and Andreas Glas, by this point, recognized their limitations as car stylists and enlisted the help of Pietro Frua. Frua was by this time an independent car stylist, after having worked for other Italian houses as well as his own carrozzeria in the ’40s and ‘50s. The new Glas coupé was aimed at the likes of Alfa Romeo and Lancia, so employing a transalpine designer made quite a bit of sense – plus Glas’s production capacity was starting to get outpaced by its ambition.
The Frua-styled coupé was launched at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show with its the 75 hp (DIN) 1304 TS engine and 170 kph top speed (rising to 85 hp and 178 kph in 1965). A convertible version was soon proposed alongside the coupé, though it proved far less popular.
Production started in earnest in the spring of 1964, but the quality of the Italian-made body (subcontracted by Frua, who only had a design bureau, to one or more small Italian firms) was below par, compared to Bavarian standards. It did not matter too much: the 1300 GT was something of a halo car, and at DM11,600 a pop, Glas did not expect to sell them in massive numbers. The Frua connection was worth having, because Hans and Andreas Glas did not want to stop their car range’s irresistible rise.
When Borgward went belly up and all their assets were sold off in 1962, Hans and Andreas Glas travelled north to have a look. They happened upon the Hansa 1300 prototype, styled by Frua in 1960. Here was a virtually production-ready 4-door saloon with crisp styling and lots of potential, available for a song. The Hansa prototype went down to Dingolfing and Glas contacted Pietro Frua – the 1300 GT was a by-product of this initial discussion.
Nice sales brochure. Pity the car never actually came out…
Fura modified the Hansa prototype somewhat: the grille, the tail and the rear doors were given a makeover (the latter being given a rather cheeky “Hofmeister kink”), but the overall shape remained pretty much as was. Meantime, Glas had to develop a drivetrain and an engine for the new car. Eyeing the defunct Borgward Isabella and the very much alive BMW Neue Klasse, Glas went for a 1.5 litre engine, still based on the 1004’s bloc.
Very mid-‘60s dash, with door-to-door formica, angular shapes and a floor shifter.
The Glas 1500 saloon was presented alongside the 1300 GT coupé at the 1963 motor show, but Glas had jumped the gun once again. The 70 hp engine was too small for a car this size and weight, so a further increase in displacement was inevitable. This delayed production for another year.
Above: Frua created the Glas alongside the Maserati – and it shows; below: all-new brochure yet again…
Finally, the big Glas saloon was ready for prime-time at the ’64 Frankfurt Motor Show. Now called the Glas 1700, it sported a 1688cc plant capable of 80 hp (DIN) – enough to reach 150 kph and not be ridiculed by other mid-segment cars. The engine gained an extra 5 hp by 1965, but the one everybody was waiting for was the TS twin-carb, which also came out that year and promised 100 hp.
Alfa Romeo, BMW, Fiat, Lancia, Peugeot, Rover, Triumph and Volvo were now in Dingolfing’s crosshairs – on the German market, at least. On foreign markets, though the car may have been well-received by automotive journos and car nerds, few people were that aware of Glas. Some did know the Goggomobil, but that hardly helped matters. Glas cars were still subject to tariffs, even though the Common Market was bringing those down gradually in the six-country European Community of the ’60s. In the French 1965 advert above for instance, prices do not include the 33% luxury tax normally paid by most customers, making the Glas 1700 saloon about 40% dearer than its natural rival, the Peugeot 404, in France.
Glas tried cracking the US market with the 1700 GT (price: $3095)…
The Frua coupé / cabriolet was soon given the more powerful 1.7 litre engine, becoming the 1700 GT. This version was naturally faster and more desirable, though the 1300 version continued to have its clientele. But things were about to go up yet another notch…
As 1965 came to a close, the Frankfurt Motor Show was yet again the stage for a new Glas bombshell – this time, a bona fide grand tourer. The Glas father and son team and their engineers finally outdid virtually all their rivals and presented the Glas 2600 V8 coupé. The automotive press was awestruck, first by the audacity of the small family firm’s move, then by the product itself – yet another Frua masterpiece, and with an all-new V8, no less.
Frua cribbed his ’63 Maserati masterpiece again for Glas. Source (pic above): ranwhenparked.com
Based on the 1700 saloon’s platform, the car’s all-steel monocoque body sat on a double wishbone and coils front suspension and a de Dion axle with leaf springs and a Panhard rod at the rear, which also featured – for the first time on a German car – self-levelling Boge-Hydromat struts.
The engine was again based on existing Glas technology, being essentially two OHC 1300 4-cyl. plants joined at the hip. This was deemed to be a cheaper solution than developing a straight-6. The 2580cc V8 produced 150 hp (DIN), which propelled the heavy 4-seater coupé to 195 kph (121 mph) – frustratingly short of the magic 200 number, blamed at the time on the Solex triple-barrel carbs. This led Glas to develop a 3-litre and a 3.2 litre version by early 1966.
As was now almost expected, Glas had presented the car before they had worked out how to produce it. Deliveries were delayed until the summer of 1966, by which time the asking price had gone up a bit to DM19,400. This was still a very reasonable sum for this kind of car.
Above: the Glas range’s 1966 apogee; below: new 1304 CL came later that year.
The other new model – not ready in time to feature in Glas’ now very full 1966 Programm – was a practical 04 hatchback wagon launched in August 1966. Looking at the whole Glas range, so beautifully and completely described in the document above, leaves one wondering how a two-bit family-owned farming equipment firm that had produced nothing but scooters and 250cc bubble-cars ten years prior could have created such a broad range of cars. Many contemporary observers wondered the same thing, and in late 1966, they found out.
Build your moneymaker!
Simply put, Glas were subsidizing their car range thanks to the ever-profitable Goggomobil and Isaria farming implements. Most (if not all) of the cars that had followed the Goggomobil had cost the firm. The Isar had been a financial sinkhole, the 04 range had barely broken even and the other models were so far losing money because Glas could not build enough of them. The Dingolfing factory’s production capacity was 30,000 automobiles per year. The more models came out, the fewer of each could be built. Hans Glas was adamant that the company should avoid debt like the plague, which meant Glas never had enough money to invest in new production facilities.
Hans Glas leads a BMW delegation through his factory, circa 1966.
Hans Glas began to feel the weight of his 76 years. His health was failing, as was his beloved firm. The 1700 saloon and the V8 coupé were not the kind of cars Glas dealers were used to selling – and Glas cars still lacked recognition abroad. Glas could not produce enough to become bigger, nor could it sell what it produced quickly enough. The company’s financial situation was untenable. Glas went to the Bavarian State for a bridge loan to carry the company’s operations through to 1967. The State authorities agreed to issue a DM50m loan, but attached a substantial string along with that money: Glas would have to merge with BMW. There was no option but to agree. In November 1966, Glas and BMW became one.
The Munich boys were over the moon: Glas had been a thorn in their side for years now. Plus, the company had a few interesting cars, engines and a relatively large factory with 4000 fully-trained workers. Glas cars continued to be made in 1967, but BMW roundels started to appear here and there on most models, one after the other. The first to be nixed was the 04 range, which was stopped for good in late 1967, except the 1304 CL, which lasted a few months longer and (allegedly) inspired the BMW 02 Touring hatchbacks.
Above: BMW Glas 3000 GT brochure; below: actual cars had BMW badges front and rear.
In September 1967, The V8 coupé received the 3-litre V8 that Glas had been working on the previous year, along with six BMW badges (one on the tail, one on the hood and one on each wheel). The BMW-Glas 3000’s larger 160 hp (DIN) V8 finally enabled the “Glaserati” to break the 200 kph barrier. The price also went up quite a bit – to a few Deutschmarks shy of 24,000.
Production lasted until May 1968. In total, 418 of the 3-litre V8s had been made; only 300 Glas 2600s had been made in 1966-67. Pietro Frua started a fruitful collaboration with BMW at this point: he designed special bodies on BMW chassis for the next decade. One of the first ones was this BMW-Glas 3000 GT, made in 1967.
The other Glas coupé, the 1300 /1700 GT, suffered a different fate: BMW simply chucked away its Glas engine, gearbox and drivetrain and substituted BMW 1600 elements in their stead. The Glas badge on the grille was replaced by a couple of small BMW “kidneys” and the car was relaunched as the BMW 1600 GT in September 1967, but only lasted one model year. Though the BMW independent rear suspension and 1.6 litre engine were quite appealing, BMW’s bean-counters worked their slide-rules and pushed the sale price over DM15,000, which made the car pretty dear…
Glas had been working on several prototypes when Munich came a-knocking. A Frua-Styled replacement for the 04s was in the works (planned launch date: 1968) and the company was reconsidering a small 800cc car (possibly with FWD) to fill the gap left by the Isar.
These were nixed by BMW, who instead built an interesting prototype using the already-defunct BMW 700 LS, with a restyled nose and tail, and the Glas 1-litre plant in the rear. This BMW 1000 was apparently a lively little thing, but management preferred to keep pushing BMW towards the high-end market and not fight NSU and VW again in the rear-engined mini segment.
The Glas 1700’s last model year in Dingolfing – with BMW hubcaps.
The “big” Glas saloon was a special case. BMW were loath to admit it, but they thought the car had merit. The problem was keeping far enough away to ensure it would not compete with BMW’s saloons. The 1700 wore BMW badges for a year in Europe, then disappeared.
It had been sent to South Africa: BMW had signed a contract to produce cars there just before the Glas saloon fell on Munich’s lap. BMW simply started sending batches of Glas 1700 in CKD (albeit with BMW’s own 1800 engine) in mid-1967. About a year later, BMW shipped the entire line down to Rosslyn, near Pretoria.
Thus began the strange life of the BMW 1800 SA, which was also built in Rhodesia for a while as the BMW Cheetah. Munich also sent over some 2-litre engines from 1969 – creating the 2000 SA – and mooted the launch of a South-Africa-only wagon. Pietro Frua even made a prototype of one, but the project did not come through.
Finally, in 1972, BMW asked Frua to give the car a BMW-type snout and E12 rear lights. The range was rechristened BMW 1804 / 2004 SA, but only lasted until mid-1974. The Glas 1700 saloon was built in just over 13,000 units in Dingolfing. The South African BMW version saw roughly 6700 cars made from 1968 to 1974, along with 4000 Rhodesian Cheetahs.
Last but not least, the only Glas never to wear the BMW roundel: the Goggomobil. The invincible little thing had seen its maker rise and fall since 1955. Over 300,000 Goggomobil saloons, vans and coupés had been made (if one adds the foreign-built ones) when the body dies became worn out and production had to be stopped. The last Glas was also the first, and it rolled of the production line on 25 June 1969. Before the end of the year, Hans Glas passed away.
One final tidbit of Glas oddity: there were still a good number of Goggomobil chassis gathering dust in Bavaria after Glas stopped making bodies. In 1970, erstwhile Borgward dealer (and builder of “unofficial” Isabellas in the mid-‘60s) Walter Schätzle bought the lot and designed, perhaps blindfolded, a minicar called the AWS Shopper, which he tried to sell for DM5700 (more than a Beetle!) in 1972-73. About 1400 of the wretched things were made in a small works near Berlin until Schätzle hit the fan and went bankrupt in 1974.
The Deadly Sins that landed Glas into the dustbin of history were ambition on the one hand and an overly conservative approach to industry and financing on the other. Hans Glas could not have both total control and the means to achieve his company’s true potential, but he never understood it until it was too late and the wolf was at the door. Car-wise, the Isar and the V8 coupé could also be termed as Deadly Sins. The former because it destabilized Glas, kicking off the frantic activity that led the automaker to its demise; the latter because it probably was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
That’s it for this Bayern Cycle edition of the German Deadly Sins. I hope to have shown that these three automakers (one still thriving, one in the midst of a re-birth and one pushing up the daisies) were linked in several tangible and subtle ways. Time permitting, another Teutonic trio should be appearing on Curbside Classics next month. Vielen Dank und auf wiedersehen!
Fabulous series – well done Tatra87!!
In Australia, the Goggomobile is well known because of a memorable TV commercial, featuring someone slowly spelling the name over the phone:
G-o-g-g-o… it’s seared into the brain!
Very familiar TV ad but gogomobiles are remarkably rarem theres on live Dart in NZ apparently though Ive not seen it in the plastic.
What a story.. this series is as much about the brilliant yet flawed creators as the cars.
Thank you for explaining the Glas BMW connection in South Africa. I had a chuckle when I saw the somewhat sad looking re-snouted blue 1804 / 2004, to me they alwawys looked a bit bedraggled, even when new. They were popular for a while, but are just not seen about anymore. To this day the Rosslyn plant assembles BMW’s. They have changed, or are changing over from 3 series production to X3, again for local and worldwide distribution.
It would be interesting to know whether the Glas 1004 engine was capable of being further enlarged from 992-1682cc to a full 2-litre, same with the related V8 engine being enlarged to 4-litres. It is strange though that the only planned enlargement from the 3-litre engine was a 3.2 V8 prototype, when a pair of 1682cc 4-cylinder units would lead to a 3364cc V8 unless Glas planned to produce a 1600cc version of the Glas 1004 engine.
Apparently prior to the BMW takeover putting a stop to everything, Glas planned to produce a Twin-Cam version of the Glas 1300 GT putting out 120 hp in road-going form and 150 hp in motorsport spec, with 3 engines being produced and tested along with plans to install a De Dion system at the rear axle like on the V8 (with the De Dion prototype ready and tested at the Nürburgring). It would have been fascinating seeing the V8 featuring Twin-Cams / etc.
The following is my conjecture though it might more accurate to say that the Twin-Cam prototype engine used in the Glas 1300 GT actually featured the 1682cc engine rather than the 1290cc engine, since the 120 hp road-going figure makes more logical sense when compared to the existing 100 hp 1682cc engine used in the Glas 1700 GT.
Glas did look at replacing the Goggomobil in 1959 with a non-drivable model prototype being finished in 1961 and intended to carry over the 400cc engine, before Glas abandoned the project when they realise the car had no chance on the market and decided to focus on larger models.
It also seems the Pietro Frua styled replacement for the Glas 1004-1304 set to succeed the former from 1968, was a 4-door prototype known either as the 1964 Glas 1004-1704 Limousine II or Glas 3XL prototype
Interested in finding out more about the small 800cc car prototype intended to fill the gap left by the Isar that Glas was reconsidering (particularly the 800cc engine), since some believe Glas did not intend to replace the Isar after producing ceased in 1965.
Looking at the Glas-engined BMW 1000 prototype, it makes one wonder why BMW never produced it or similar entry-level / mainstream models under the Glas or even Goggomobil and Dixi names to avoid tarnishing BMW’s image.
After the German Deadly Sins series has been completed, it would be interesting seeing the Deadly Sins series focus on the Dutch (specifically DAF).
Never the profits in small cars as BMW knew only too well. Far better to sell the same number of premium priced cars rather than follow Glas and not maximize the production of any model. History has proven it the correct decision.
Borgward, now Glas. Seems like BMW could be really nasty towards potential competitors.
Glas factory does still exist. It is BMW Werk Dingolfing today.
And no one lost his job in the process. As for Borgward – that was not BMW but Mercedes. And even that production is still at work. (Mercedes Werk Bremen).
Are you saying the Quandts had no hand in sinking Borgward? Using their finance connections to deny bank loans Borgward needed, getting the State of Bremen to appoint Semler to oversee Borgward, actively recruiting Borgward engineers even before the “Spiegel” article came out, etc.?
Not saying Daimler-Benz didn’t also have a hand in it, but from what I’ve seen, BMW were pretty deeply involved. The fact that M-B now produce their C-Class in Bremen is due to their acquisition of Hanomag-Henschel in the ’70s.
… I just doubt that these takeovers were conspirations.
Dingolfing factory was always run by a member of the Glas family.
The very last one was a grandson of Hans Glas. He was chairman of the
Dingolfing factory until 2004. A meager 38 years after takeover by BMW.
What an absolutely fascinating series this has been, Tatra87! You’ve given us a lot of information that I have never seen before in English.
I clearly remember seeing a little Goggomobil with four people aboard bravely mixing it with the peak hour traffic every morning when I was young. That would have been in the late sixties, and it was the only one I ever saw. I had no idea Glas had such a meteoric rise, nor had set their ambition so high. But as I read your article, and saw one new model all-too-quickly joined by another, I knew this wasn’t going to end well. I’m just amazed they lasted as long as they did. And the V8! A for Ambition!
I’ll come back to reading this series again and again. You have set the bar extremely high for CC Article of the Year.
Another outstanding piece by RA87 !
Besides the Goggomobile I remember seeing a red 1004 in our small town.
At that time I had no clue that its engine had a toothed rubber belt to drive the camshaft. That rubber belt eliminated the noises of timing gears and chains. In the 80’s they were the dominant way of driving overhead cams —and driving car owners nuts who were resistant to reading the owner’s manual: replace after 60K miles (100 000 km) or else!
I see online ad for cars trolling thru Trademe thats the first question asked when was the timing belt replaced one car I seriously looking at had the belt done at 87,000kms the car has actually done 144,000kms and isnt due for its first belt change untill 160,000kms 100,000 miles, but everyone remembers the Japanese import they bought that went bang expensively at 100,000kms and thinks they are all the same.
These series are wonderful Tatra. I really enjoy them.
In the mid-sixties I was quite impressed with what Glas was doing. Stationed in Italy at the time I had an opportunity to look them over, but never drove one.
Aerodynamically they presaged the approach Honda took with its Accords and Preludes 20 years later, the low knife edge into the wind. (Like the 911 as well).
Here’s a link to a US Goggomobile print ad featuring the humorist Jean Shepherd:
https://shepquest.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/1959goggo_ad.jpg
Which shows a Glas Isar being marketed as a Goggo. No wonder they had trouble with the march upmarket abroad…
I always thought Glas was as much a missed opportunity for BMW as for Glas itself, a ready-made mass-market brand.
Great stuff, all of which is fresh material to me. It is amazing how ambitious the company was, especially given its modest size. Before now I had no idea how rough and tumble the postwar German auto industry was. BMW had some sharp elbows which it employed quite ruthlessly.
These articles have been so informative; they have stirred envy in me over the wild and woolly atmosphere in the continental market in the ’50s and ’60s. There was so much that was new.
As a former Goggo TS 250 owner, I can understand Glas’ plight. They got a lot out of those tiny cars, which could manage around town speeds just fine, but any kind of long hill was a frightening proposition. Count me among those who replaced a Goggo with a bigger car—a Honda Z600 coupe—to get more drivability (in 2011).
I got married on leap Year 1964. Broke as hell and needed a car to get to work. I found a 1957 Goggomobile T 250. What a great little car. The fuel tank sat above the engine and the carburettor was gravity fed, protruding through the back seat backrest was a little tap that had to be opened before driving off and closed when parked. Many mornings I would make about a block when the car started stuttering and I would lean back and open the tap and be on my way again. After about 3 years the generator/starter combo packed up and I could not find a replacement. I had to junk the little thing. I still have a Revell scale model in the red colour as my real car. I wish I still had the little thing.
They are incredibly fun cars. I wish I still had mine, too, but the lower Hudson Valley is so hilly that it got scary, even when I allowed for the risks we are willing to submit to in order to drive our old death traps for fun.
I had to do the reach back to the tap many times!
Another schlager!
The Goggo was so popular, and for so long, because cars under 250cc didn’t require a proper driver’s license, which is quite expensive in Germany, Austria, and many other countries. It only required a Class IV license, which was drastically easier and cheaper to obtain. That explains why these Class IV cars were made for so long, and why they’re still being made today (not the Goggo). It’s a way to get basic wheels for a lot less money.
I have no conscious memory of ever seeing a “04” series Glas when I spent the summer in Austria in ’68. They were just very uncommon. And their proportions very unfortunate.
I remember vividly the BMW takeover of Glas, and the BMW-badged 1600GT, and the V8 coupe. Curious.
Thanks once again for a superb series. Now what about NSU….
The NSU Ro80 was certainly a deadly sin:
https://ateupwithmotor.com/model-histories/nsu-ro80-history/
As with Glas, the Ro80 was an attempt to move upmarket from the small cars they’d been making.
Patience, friends, patience…
>>The NSU Ro80 was certainly a deadly sin:<<
Patience, friends, patience…
*perk*…looking forward to a piece on NSU. Something about the official accounts of the NSU takeover by VW that doesn’t sound quite right.
Goggomobile-what a GREAT name for a car!
Very entertaining read. I had no idea of the extent of the Glas company production beyond the Goggomobil.
Somewhere I have an old Autocar article describing a hill climb contest in Europe in the 1950’s. All vehicle classes were represented (including a full-sized American Ford), but especially memorable to the writer were the first-off Goggomobils “buzzing like angry bees”.
I was indirectly familiar with most of these since it seemed they were often featured in 1960’s issues of Road & Track or Car and Driver … examples of Euro unobtanium, I guess. Still, I learned a lot here, putting the puzzle pieces together on the Glas/Maserati styling similarities and seeing the Isar name for the first time. Aside from the Goggos, which were occasional sights, unlike the Lloyd and Borgward the other Glas cars were certainly not seen in my town when I was growing up.
Great article, Tatra! As a former owner of a 1300GT, I knew a fair bit of the history. But thank you for details of the South African and Rhodesian Glas BMWs. Given the mostly dry climate there, you would think a few have survived. One would be a real hit at Legends of the Autobahn, and BMW Oktoberfest.
Wonderful stuff.
There’s something anthropomorphic about that last Goggo foto, I think how the unweighted front tires hang down like paws.
(Today’s predictive spelling special is ‘Volvo’ for ‘Goggo’. This thing knows me well.)
Smashing job, Tatra87! Speaking of the ‘orphan’ manufacturing plants…
I wondered what compelled Daimler-Benz to establish the manufacturing base way up in the north. The second instalment clarified it for me.
Dingolfing proved to be the best thing happened to BMW. Not only did BMW have a bumper crop of engineers and technicians but got the manufacturing plant that was already built and ready to use. BMW could skip the long process of scouting the sites, acquiring the land, planning with the city government, lining up with the construction firm, and so forth. Its capacity and building size could be expanded many times.
If you could look at the satellite map, the BMW’s original plant next to the world headquarter and BMW Welt in Munich is already ‘landlocked’ and surrounded by houses, Olympic Village, and other commercial buildings.
That section view of the Goggomobil coupe looks really odd, with the extremely leaned-back seats and the “kink” in the floor pan to accommodate them. IMO it wouldn’t have made sense to do that, and the photo of a coupe doesn’t look like that. I wonder what was going on here.
I’ve never actually seen a Glas. Back in the 1970s “Road & Track” magazine had classified ads in the back where owners sold used cars and it seemed like there was always a Glas 1300 or 1700 coupe and often one of the larger V-8 coupes for sale.
Superb article! Thank you very much for this writing quality. These were facts that were known by me but as separate events. This article managed to line them all up in a full story.
If I am allowed I would want to guess about those next German three deadly sins;
NSU is pretty obvious with their obsession with rotary engines that were less than perfect.
My second guess would be DKW with their stuborness to hold on to two-stroke engines for too long.
My final attempt would be Gutbrod. To my knowledge this is a history similar to Glas’. Lots of ambition, little production capacity, and an undeveloped fuel injection system.
Thanks again for all the fun I had reading this series.
Hehehe… you’re close in your guesses!
Another fantastic, informative article! I was aware of the Goggomobil, and of the 1300/1700 coupe and V8 coupe. Always wondered how one company that was a footnote outside Germany managed such a divergent group of vehicles, but I didn’t know there was a whole range in between. Fascinating.
It’s also news to me that the company was named after the Glas family. I’d always assumed the cars were fiberglass-bodied and that ‘Glas’ was a rakish abbreviation!
One day ca. 1979 I was riding my bicycle in Los Angeles, a Glas GT pulled out abruptly from a side street, and I had to hit the brakes. I thought, but didn’t say, “Buddy, if you’re going to drive a distinctive car, drive it carefully!” Non-gearheads wouldn’t have been able to tell the police what hit them (other than by the license plate), if they’d been hit, but I would have!
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One thing that interests me regarding the Goggomobil and the Isar, is whether further enlargement was available on the 2-cylinder 2-stroke (up to around 500-550cc) in the case of the Goggomobil and the flat-twin (up to 750-900cc) in the case of the Isar.
Know there were plans for an uprated Isar called the S35 that was equipped with a 34 hp version of existing 700cc flat-twin.
Full 4-seater versions of the Glas GT and Glas 1004 were also looked at.
Could BMW have repositioned Glas as a lower-end marque in the same way Mercedes-Benz previously considered with DKW / Auto Union and at one point during the late-50s even BMW themselves?
Great piece! The BMW Cheetah was a common sight on the roads of Rhodesia during my childhood. They were known for having low ground clearance for some of the country’s rougher roads.
“until Schätzle hit the fan” – LOL!
I’d heard of Glas but never had any idea of the story.
I may be way wrong on this or it was one of the rebranded ones, but seems like I have heard of some semi custom BMWs, like the Baur convertibles done by Glas. Or am I hallucinating?