Borgward Isabella
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The Borgward Isabella is an
automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
which was 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 1954 to 1962. The Isabella was to have been marketed as the Borgward Hansa 1500 but the Isabella name was used on test vehicles and proved popular with engineering staff and media.Marius Venz, ''ISABELLA, THE BEST-REMEMBERED BORGWARD'' 2010, Borgward Car Club of Australia Inc, www.borgwardisabella.com
Retrieved on 7 October 2014
The production car was subsequently renamed and only the first few hundred examples were built without Isabella badging. Hansa badging was also used through to 1957. Despite its aspirational positioning in the marketplace, the Isabella had a smaller engine (and was marginally shorter) than its immediate predecessor, the Borgward Hansa. Late in 1952, the firm had launched their six-cylinder Hansa 2400 model. The larger car never found many buyers; but in 1954, it made commercial sense to keep the two models from competing too directly with each other.


At launch

11,150 Isabellas were produced in 1954, an early indicator that commercially this would be the most successful Borgward ever. The early cars enjoyed an enthusiastic reception in the market place. Unfortunately, early models were afflicted by teething troubles, reflecting a rushed development schedule, and the marketplace would later prove unforgiving as Borgward's Stuttgart-based rival,
Daimler-Benz The Mercedes-Benz Group Aktiengesellschaft, AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It ...
demonstrated that new models did not have to involve customers experiencing such problems. The advertised launch price of DM 7,265 was higher than that of competitor family sedans from
Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
and
Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
, but significantly less than Mercedes-Benz was asking for their
180 __NOTOC__ Year 180 ( CLXXX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Condianus (or, less frequently, year 933 '' Ab ...
model. In view of the car's spacious cabin and impressive performance, the pricing was perceived as very competitive. A road test at launch reported a maximum speed of and fuel consumption of 8.4 L/100 km. The testers described the modern structure of the car in some detail: they particularly liked the wide cabin with its large windows, and they commended the effectiveness of the brakes. The inclusion of a cigarette lighter and a clock also attracted favourable mention. Unlike the Mercedes 180 however, (and unlike its predecessor) the Isabella was only delivered with two doors. The Isabella was constructed without a separate chassis, applying the
monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...
technique which during the 1950s was becoming the norm. Like its predecessor, the car was designed with a modern ponton,
three-box The configuration of a car body is typically determined by the layout of the engine, passenger and luggage compartments, which can be shared or separately articulated. A key design feature is the car's roof-supporting pillars, designated from fron ...
design, but the line of the Isabella was more curvaceous than that of the first Hansa, and the car’s body made greater use of chrome trim. Ground clearance was 6.9 inches. The Isabella featured a swing axle at the back: it was supported by coil springs on all four wheels. The four-cylinder 1493 cc engine had a claimed power output of , and was connected by means of a then innovative hydraulic clutch to the four-speed full synchromesh gear box. Gear changes were effected by means of a column-mounted lever.


Variants

A year after presenting the sedan, Borgward presented the Isabella estate version. Also introduced in 1955 was a two-door cabriolet, known as the Isabella TS and featuring a more powerful motor. Production of the cabriolet was contracted to the firm Karl Deutsch in
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
: converting an early monocoque design to a cabriolet necessitated considerable modification in order to achieve the necessary structural rigidity, and the resulting cost was reflected in a much higher selling price for this version. Initial sales volumes were not maintained. Responding to a sales decline of almost a third in 1955 and 1956, Carl Borgward decided to produce a more beautiful Isabella with a shortened roof line. The Borgward Isabella Coupé was developed, and the four hand built prototypes were well received by the press. Borgward gave one of these prototypes to his wife, Elisabeth, who would continue to drive it into the 1980s. Commercial production of the coupé, powered by the more powerful TS version of the engine first seen in the cabriolet, commenced in January 1957. The coupe appears to have achieved its marketing objective of further distancing the Isabella’s image from similarly sized competitors from Opel and Ford. By 1958, the more powerful TS motor had also found its way into the more upmarket Isabella sedan and estate versions. Vehicles were exported to several markets, including Australia, and New Zealand; ten were sold in Malaya. File:2005-08-27 Borgward Hansa 1500 Isabella (bearb).jpg, Borgward Hansa Isabella Saloon File:Borgward Isab Cabrio (2014-08-29 6584).JPG, Borgward Isabella Cabriolet File:Borgward Isabella Combi 1959 (1).jpg, Borgward Isabella Combi 1959 File:2015-03-03 Geneva Motor Show 3326.JPG, Borgward Isabella Coupé (2+2) File:2005-08-27 Isabella Coupé Cabrio (bearb).jpg, Borgward Isabella Cabriolet (2+2) File:Borgward Isabella TS 1961.jpg, Borgward Isabella TS Saloon 1961 File:Isabella-PickUp heck.jpg, Borgward Isabella PickUp File:Borgward Isabella 4-tür (2014-08-29 6621).JPG, One of probably two 4 door Borgward Isabellas


In competition

English Racing driver and tuner Bill Blydenstein raced a Borgward Isabella in the 1950s with some success.


End of production

Borgward had many unsold Isabellas when it went bankrupt, controversially, in 1961. Nevertheless, the model's production at the Bremen plant continued until 1962, suggesting that overstocking had not been restricted to finished vehicles. By the end, 202,862 Isabellas had rolled off the Borgward production line which was nevertheless an impressive volume in the 1950s: overall, and despite being hit by falling demand in the economic slump that briefly hit Germany in the early 1960s, the car is believed to have been the firm's most lucrative model by a very considerable margin. Borgward enjoyed a brief afterlife: the production line was sold and shipped to Mexico, where later during the 1960s the P100 (Big Six) was produced. The Isabella was never produced in Mexico. Back in the German market, BMW’s stylish new
1500 Year 1500 (Roman numerals, MD) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The year 1500 was not a leap year in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. The year was seen as being especially important by many Christians in Europe, ...
, launched by the Bavarians in 1961, convincingly filled the niche vacated by the Isabella, and was credited by at least one commentator with having rescued BMW itself from insolvency. In Argentina, the Isabella was manufactured from 1960 to 1963 by Dinborg, a local subsidiary of Borgward. 999 Isabellas were made in Buenos Aires.


Concept (2017)

A Borgward Isabella Concept was presented by Borgward at IAA 2017 as a four-door, four seat electric coupe.Borgward Unveils Future-Focused Isabella EV Concept
/ref> It has been designed under the direction of Anders Warming.


References

*
Peter Kurze Peter Kurze is a German publisher and author. He became known through his book series on the history of the automobile. Life Born 1955 in Bremen, after two one-year internships at a machine factory and a bank, he studied mechanical engineerin ...
: „Autos aus Bremen“, Band 3, Verlag Peter Kurze, Bremen 2001, *Völker, Heinrich: Der Weg zur Borgward Isabella - Unbekanntes aus der Versuchsabteilung - Bremen: Verlag
Peter Kurze Peter Kurze is a German publisher and author. He became known through his book series on the history of the automobile. Life Born 1955 in Bremen, after two one-year internships at a machine factory and a bank, he studied mechanical engineerin ...
2003 – *Georg Schmidt: „Borgward“, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1986, *„Motor-Klassik“, Heft 1/2004, Vereinigte Motor-Verlage, Stuttgart {{Borgward timeline 1945 to 1970
Isabella Isabella may refer to: People and fictional characters * Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Isabella (surname), including a list of people Places United States * Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...
Executive cars Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Cars introduced in 1954