Carl Borgward was born at the end of the 19th century and started building cars when he took over the Hansa factory in 1931. He was somewhat of a genius, both technical and commercial. He started producing the Hansa 1100 a very popular pre-war car. However, the Borgward factory also did not escape the Allied bombings during the second world war. It was fully destroyed, but Borgward was not down yet. After release from arrest in 1948 he started to rebuild his works and he launched the Hansa 1500 an upper middle class car. At the same time he started making small cars for the masses, like the Lloyds and Goliaths.
Arguably his most well known car was launched in 1954. The Isabella was a two door saloon, with a relatively capable 1500 cc engine and a modern all independent suspension, with swing axles at the rear. When production stopped in 1962 over 200000 examples were made.
During its live, many versions became available, the most sought after being the Coupe and the Cabriolet derived from that. A very elegant body style, matched with a souped-up 75 BHP version of the engine, it was capable of doing 150 kph at ease. Also a two door station wagon was available. The factory folded in 1962, after the launch of the big P100 4-door limousine (the first German car with air suspension) proved too much of a financial strain. Efforts to continue production in Mexico had only a limited success. Borgward died from a heart-attack in 1963, on the ruins (Financial this time) of his factory.
Shown are a Coupe, a Coupe/Cabriolet and a rare Cabriolet version of the sedan.
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