The Borgward Hansa 2400 was an

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

six-cylinder The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balan ...

saloon (

E-segment The E-segment is the 5th category of the European segments for passenger cars, synonymous with the term executive car. E-Segment is a niche in Europe (2-3% penetration in 2010s). As of 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, E-segment sales account for 2.7 ...

) presented in 1951, and manufactured by the

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

based auto-manufacturer Carl F. W. Borgward GmbH from 1952 until 1959. The car was launched as a four-door

fastback A fastback is an automotive styling feature, defined by the rear of the car having a single slope from the roof to the tail. The kammback is a type of fastback style. Some models, such as the Ford Mustang, have been specifically marketed as ...

saloon; a longer-

wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...

notchback version appeared a year later. The Hansa 2400 suffered from teething troubles including inadequate brakes and problems with the

automatic transmission An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving c ...

Borgward developed for it.http://www.zeit.de/auto/2011-07/borgward-pleite "Anfängliche Schwachstellen wie schlechte Bremsen und Mängel am von Borgward selbst entwickelten Automatikgetriebe bringen auch die 1953 hinzukommende Stufenheck-Variante in Verruf." In a small closely contested market, the large Borgwards lost out to less flamboyant

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

from the German south.

Chronology and design

The Hansa 2400 commenced production in 1952 as a large

saloon, its profile reminiscent of the recently introduced Hudson Super Wasp. It had presence. Unusually at this time, all four

door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...

s were forward opening to presumably facilitate access and egress. The body was an all-steel

integral In mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented i ...

structure, similar to on the car's four-cylinder sibling. Sales material emphasized the car's luxury features, such as a

heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces. ...

and

ventilation Ventilation may refer to: * Ventilation (physiology), the movement of air between the environment and the lungs via inhalation and exhalation ** Mechanical ventilation, in medicine, using artificial methods to assist breathing *** Ventilator, a m ...

system ducting air direct to rear passengers as well as to the front, with each system and side separately adjustable. Luxury details such as the cigarette lighter, self-parking

windshield wiper A windscreen wiper, windshield wiper, wiper blade (American English), or simply wiper, is a device used to remove rain, snow, ice, washer fluid, water, or debris from a vehicle's front window. Almost all motor vehicles, including cars, tru ...

s, and side windows lowering completely into the doors barely-merited a mention. The spare wheel was stowed flat in a compartment beneath the

boot A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is cle ...

, accessible through a hatch behind a section of the rear bumper so a wheel change could be accomplished without the need to empty the luggage.

New shape

A year later a longer-wheelbase notchback

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a prof ...

version appeared. Options included a partition to enable the car to be used for traditional chauffeur operations. In 1955, production of the

saloon ceased. The long-wheelbase car underwent a minor facelift involving prominent headlamp surrounds. It was produced through 1959. 2005-08-27 Borgward 2400, Bj

Power

According to rumors, the vehicle was intended for the anemic four-cylinder 1758 cc engine. That engine went into an uprated version of the Hansa 1500. In the promotional event, the larger car launched with a six-cylinder engine of 2337 cc with a claimed power output of and a top speed of . The 1955 package of improvements included engine modifications increasing the advertised output to . Power was delivered to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual gearbox with synchromesh on all ratios. An automatic gear change option was also advertised, making the car, according to some sources, the first German car to be offered with automatic transmission.

References

This entry is based on information from the German Wikipedia Borgward article. {{Borgward timeline 1945 to 1970 Hansa 2400 Cars introduced in 1952 Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Executive cars Sedans Limousines