I'm old enough to remember the Borgward Isabella. I think it had quite a good reputation for quality, but it was produced in too small numbers for adequate development: I seem to remember that neither the saloon nor the estate had a four-door option.

Borgward went bust in the early 1960s. BMW was in similar dire straits around that time, but was saved by a large injection of cash from the Quandt family, who still have a sizeable stake in the company.

In the late seventies the car parks where I worked must have hed a few thousand cars. This meant there were always a few unusual cars about. These included a Velox with a fluted bonnet, a £400 E-Type (wonder if it exists today and if so what it is worth), a 50’s Bentley and a 20 year old Borgward Big Six. After having a ride I the Borgward I thought it was a fantastic car and have been interested in them ever since. I once looked at an Isabella but although an excellent drive the body was totally shot!

An earlier post in this thread mentions the company going into liquidation. I am sure there was a political motive behind it as creditors were all fully paid. When a company I worked for went bust I dont think creditors got a penny in the pound!

The motorcycle parking area also had some interesting bikes including an HRD Vincent and an Aeriel Square Four.

I remember the Borgward Isabella too - a schoolfriend's dad had one.

I also have read that there was a conspiracy theory about the bankruptcy of Borgward in the early 60's being "encouraged" by a well known german car manufacturer who saw them as a strong competitor.

Even stranger was the appointment of the public auditor who handled the bankruptcy, to the board of that very same well known car maker after the affair!

A fellow car nut, at school, pointed out to me that Borgward had a unique design of fuel guage, so next time I had the chance I took a look.

Sure enough, there was a Teutonic beer mug with froth running down!

I guess that is something they will not be reviving.

In the spring of 1998 I had arranged to have a mapped ignition system fitted to the race car, a great deal since I paid for the kit and the specialist was paying for the fabrication of one off parts, fitting and mapping, more than 1/2 the normal bill. The benefit to him was the ability to sell an off the shelf kit in the future.

The address I was given was in Shepreth (Hertfordshire I think). Turned up as arranged and the place looked somehow familiar despite never having been there. It was a disused station and at the end of the buildings where I unloaded the car off the trailer were probably 6 Borgward Isabellas in various states of decay most with roll cages/bars fitted.

Then the light came on in a deep recess of my memory. The well known Vauxhall tuner and race car builder (he built the famous Big and Bay Berthas that Gerry Marshall raced for DTV) had premises at Shepreth known as Station Works. Before he became involved with Vauxhalls he prepared Borgwards and what I parked next to was the grave yard.

The guy I was meeting confirmed my thoughts and in fact told me he rented the works from Bill Blydenstein who was by then working from his garden shed still porting Vauxhall heads.