Glas Isar – Driven To Write

Book of the Dead – Glas

Memento Mori.

In well over a century since the birth of the automotive industry, many scores of automobile manufacturers have been established, with just a tiny minority of them ultimately surviving to the present day. This series aims to provide compact accounts of a selection of nameplates that have fallen by the wayside, starting with Glas. This is the story of how overambition fatally undermined a healthy company in the space of little more than a decade. Continue reading “Book of the Dead – Glas”

Die BMW Dit Was Nie’n BMW*

We all know our BMWs, don’t we?

This car, especially from the angle shown above, looks at first glance to be an ‘E3’ BMW 2500-3.3Li, but is nothing of the sort. In fact, it did not even start life as a BMW. In the mid-60s, Praetor Monteerders, the South African BMW importer – was in discussions with Munich, the aim being to be allowed to Continue reading “Die BMW Dit Was Nie’n BMW*”

Anniversary Waltz 2017 : Wirtschaftswunder-Wagen

Three German cars, each of which share a birthdate and a complex web of gestational links, share one further distinction. Each helped put post-war Germany back on four wheels.

Sixty years ago, Europe was still reeling from the effects of World War Two. Germany was inching its way back to political credibility and prosperity thanks to the economic miracle and a little help from an American named Marshall. Mobility was very much the name of the game, with most domestic manufacturers focusing on simple, affordable cars for everyman.

BMW’s Eisenach works found itself on the wrong side of history by the end of hostilities, situated in what had become the Russian sector of a partitioned Germany. Producing exclusive and unprofitable V8 engined luxury cars wasn’t going to Continue reading “Anniversary Waltz 2017 : Wirtschaftswunder-Wagen”