The Other German Car: 1957 Borgward Isabella
If you were looking for a project and had your heart set on one of German origin, the typical prospects would be an Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or Volkswagen. But if you went down the path less traveled, you could get a Borgward Isabella. A Borgward, you say? An Isabella, you say? The Borgward was a Bremen-based automobile manufacturer that saw its heyday in the 1950s and the Isabella is the model that kept it afloat from 1954-62. The seller is something of an expert on these cars as this 1957 Isabella coupe is his second attempt at a restoration. You can see the car in Vancouver, British Columbia and buy it for $3,800 as it’s available here on craigslist. Thanks, Barn Finds reader Roger, for this tip!
With its front-wheel-drive layout, the Isabella was available in a variety of body styles, including pillared and pillarless coupes, sedans, stations wagons, and even pick-up trucks. It was powered by a 1493cc inline four-cylinder with a 4-speed manual for the gears. Borgward managed a build a little more than 200,000 Isabellas in eight years, along with other models, but went bankrupt rather suddenly in 1961. Assembly continued into 1962 until the inventory of production parts was exhausted. Germany was hit by a recession in the early 1960s which may have contributed to the downfall of Borgward.
The seller offers a 1957 Isabella two-door pillared coupe which can be best described as a project. He had purchased another Isabella before this one that he was going to restore, but it turned out to be too far gone structurally, although it was mechanically sound. We’re told this car had been stored underground for 40 years. This Isabella is not without its own rust, but beyond the surface stuff, the seller says it’s not too bad. Apparently, the photos that were supplied are not recent, as the doors are off the car now, but they closed properly before. The seller goes into a lot of detail about current corrosion.
The interior is the best part of the car, with the seats being nearly-perfect after 63 years. The car will come with a spare front seat from that other car to help the buyer through the restoration process. While the dashboard and steering wheel appear good, the seller will throw in spares from the other Isabella. The original engine and heads are present, but the motor is seized.
The motor of the other car is good and has been stored inside since being removed. We assume that the motor is also part of the deal as the seller tells us he’s moving, so it sounds like he’s liquidating as much as he can. The seller says everything needed to get this car running again is there and he estimates their value to be about what he’s asking for the whole shebang.
Hagerty says that top dollar for an Isabela is $40,000 and the seller seems to have the parts market cornered on these cars. So it’s possible you could acquire the car, get it going, restore it to some extent, and have a bit of equity when you got done. Or not. You might just need to be as big a fan of these cars as the seller to see the potential of doing a restoration.
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Comments
I thought the Isabella was rear-drive, though granted my experience with them is limited to looking over a couple of them in a junkyard years ago. (On the other hand the Borgward/Lloyd Arabella was front-drive, with a 4-cylinder boxer engine that I’ve read was one of the design inspirations for the early Subaru boxer.)
It is.
The text still says front-drive, right after the 2nd photo.
Borgward Isabellas are rear-drive autos. They have a swing axle setup quite similar in design to Mercedes of the same period. I love these cars.
Someone with a lot more talent at fixing cars than I have is going to have a great little showpiece when they get this done. It will definitely be the only one at any car show they attend.
“Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella”
…we are going to start rust repair.
The Isabellas that are worth $40k are the much-prettier
coupes.
There we’re a couple of these in my neighborhood growing up. I can’t begin to say how many supposed car people have refused to believe me that there was a car named Isabella. I’m going to save this email so that the next person who tells that I am wrong…I’ll make a bet and then show them this car! Its only in places online like this that people really know what cars we’re around in the past. And, I have been told by others my age that this car is a figment of my imagination
Having managed to look under one that was in the middle of a lot of tall grass, I can join the crowd saying it’s rear-drive. Although having been a car freak from childhood I knew it already … What was truly impressive about that one (pretty much the twin of this) is that in spite of its resting place, a Tennessee pasture that had not been mowed, much less grazed, for some time, its body was less rusty even than this. The owners were a hippie couple who’d bought the land to build on, and the car was basically just really in the way. Everything they knew about it was thanks to the owners’ manual that was still in the glove box!
Having already bought one pasture-dwelling relic, which did not work out well, we voted to pass on it, but Mrs. O surprised me by saying she hoped it would find a good home. Just not ours.
I had a customer with a coupe version of the Isabella. He asked me to convert the carb from a single barrel to a side draft webber. He provided all the parts needed, and that included a different main valve cover so the dual ports could stick up thru the cover. I had cautioned him on my concern it wouldn’t make much difference in performance, but I was surprised how much a difference it made. The change also made the engine sound much more powerful!
My first car was a Borgward Isabella Combi. I paid $200 to another college student. I remember it fondly. My dad helped me rebuild the engine. It was my first engine rebuild. Parts were plentiful in junyards in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I sold it for $25 after a half roll trying to miss a squirell in Yosemite. It was easy to roll back upright, my girlfriend of the time helped. I missed the squirell. :D
“Stored underground.” Seem a strange place to store a car.
Mine was exactly the same color, but a later Isabella TS 5 seater. Dad knew I wanted a car and this is what I got when the widow paid Dad $35 to haul it away. He handed back the $35 when she gave him the shop manual. Lots of rust and the engine was blown from over-revving. We found a running junk yard engine and did the swap. The TS had a two throat downdraft Solex instead of the base Isabella which added horsepower. The intake was unusual as it was truly downdraft from the carb straight down through the head into the combustion chamber. Good torque, nice four on the column and decent brakes once rebuilt. It was only a 6 volt system so winter starts were tough until I learned to manually retart the distributor on full choke and then reset the timing at the mark once it was running. Carl Borgward was really a truck manufacturer and it showed in the car’s construction as it was overbuilt. They are not a pretty car, mine was nicknamed “The Warthog”. Isabella was Carl Borgward’s wife’s name.
Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder….I converted my Borgwards to 12 Volts, which can be done easily. The name of Carl F.W. Borgwards wife was Elisabeth, not Isabella.
That’s interesting. Almost every historical post I have read on Borgward, says the Isabella was named for Carl’s wife. Perhaps that was her nickname or a daughter’s name?
The same or a very similar car was written up maybe a bout a month ago. That time I had commented that the dissolution of Borgward was a dishonest piece of work with benefited Mercedes Benz. Imagine disolving a company supposedly in a financial crunch and giving him the money left over after paying off everybody. Such fish always smell.