Welcome back to the wonderful and sometimes weird world of European post-war cars. The Borgward Isabella, as mentioned here before, was a middle-class sedan that was slated to fill the gap in between everyman cars like Volkswagen and Opel, and the upper class of Mercedes-Benz and perhaps Glas. As an entry-luxury car, it faced one significant competitor – BMW. And that well-connected upstart was ultimately implicated in political conspiracies whose authors suggest that the government’s failure to continue to sustain them was due to the influence of BMW’s backers. Anyhow, for a while there they had some interesting cars that were well-engineered and provided sporting (for the time) performance combined with the austere German interpretation of post-war luxury. Have a look at this 1958 Borgward Isabella Kombi for sale for $2500 in Stanwood, WA.
Archive for May, 2014
GTI With a Bed – 1980 VW Rabbit Pickup
May 23, 2014The 1970s gas crisis brought us a whole bunch of neat little pickups, and even the Germans wanted in on the game. While their truck was not a raging success in North America (apparently nobody likes a front-wheel-drive truck), they took off well in other parts of the world and were sold in South Africa until 2007. The 1970s and 1980s desmogging era also brought us some pretty ridiculous sticker and spoiler packages.One of those was the VW Sportruck, which featured a front spoiler, name stripes down the side of the body, additional gauges including a “chronometer” (isn’t that how the Europeans measure distance? six chronometers to the next petrol station?), and some other minor upgrades, but the same engine as every other Rabbit Pickup (0-50 in 9.7 seconds!!). Fortunately, today’s feature vehicle has all the sport on the inside, and is fairly subdued on the outside – check out this 1980 VW Rabbit Pickup, for sale for $4000 in Portland, OR.
40 This Year – 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce
May 22, 2014Generally speaking, 1974 was the final year for chrome bumpers on US-market cars, so at this point, we’re at the 40th anniversary of FMVSS 215 and its diving-board-bumper impact on automotive styling. Some manufacturers (BMW and Mercedes, for example) were proactive and had their 1974 model year cars already restyled, but smaller volume manufacturers like Alfa Romeo, Fiat and most British makes were given some leeway. The Alfa Spider was one of those cars, and while you can see the 1974 bumpers protrude more and have little nipples on the strike face, they’re still much cleaner than the updated 1975 battering rams. Check out this 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce, for sale for $2700 in Austin, TX.


