Borgward

stitchen1 · Nov 20, 2004

Has anybody had any experiance with the Borgward car? How similiar
are they to the Amphicars?

Thanks , Dave "stitcher" Bennett

WB6WSN · Nov 21, 2004

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<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<div style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black">From: stitchen1
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">To: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 4:15 PM
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">Subject: [amphicar-lovers] Borgward

<tt>

Has anybody had any experiance with the Borgward car? How similiar
are they to the Amphicars?

Thanks , Dave "stitcher" Bennett

</blockquote>

Well, I don't think Borgwards performed very well in deep water!

Seriously, I believe that Borgward went defunct just about the time that the Amphi was coming out. I recall that IWK had picked up Borgward employees, and that Amphi fabrication and assembly might have been done in the old Borgward plant (but I'm not really authoritative about that).

That said, the Amphi design relied heavily on existing European car parts (no need to design special parts when you can use something off the shelf). Maybe someone can tell us what Amphi parts were adapted from Borgward use.

Ed
El Cajon, CA USA
67 Rust Guppy
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David Chapman · Nov 21, 2004

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Borgwards are Fabulous vehicles !

Of course they don't float and the engineering design is 5 - 10 years behind Amphicar but the build, ideas and concepts are very similar - even the politics and the BMW connection. Karl Borgward was a friend of Hannes Trippel. In 1961 Borgward had financial problems and the factories were closed. Some of the machinery went to South America and production restarted so the cars were sold in the States during the 1960s but in 1961many of the employees went to work for Amphicar.

Many of the parts Amphicar used came form the same suppliers as Borgward which is why some are the same - things like the steering box, some door handles, but Borgward stuff is rarer and more expensive than Amphicar. 

The cars are very useable even today, someone near me has a 1959 Combi station wagon that is often seen flying along the motorway at 80+ There are also a number of cars that have done "spaceship" mileages. 

One of the most amazing stories about Borgward concerns how they came to build the Coupe. Around 1956 Borgwards wife saw the new VW Karmann Ghia and asked Karl to buy her one. Karl really didn't want to do that for a whole bunch of reasons and so asked his engineers to modify their current Isabella salon car so it looked like the Karmann Ghia. That is exactly what they did - and you can tell - they did a good job and many regard the Isabella coupe as a better car than the Ghiabut it's not the best way financially to run a company and was one of the reasons Borgward failed a few years later. 

David C

dave bennett · Nov 21, 2004

Thats interesting stuff , thanks for the information................Dave

David Chapman <david@manbus.com> wrote:
<blockquote class="replbq" style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">
Borgwards are Fabulous vehicles !

Of course they don't float and the engineering design is 5 - 10 years behind Amphicar but the build, ideas and concepts are very similar - even the politics and the BMW connection. Karl Borgward was a friend of Hannes Trippel. In 1961 Borgward had financial problems and the factories were closed. Some of the machinery went to South America and production restarted so the cars were sold in the States during the 1960s but in 1961many of the employees went to work for Amphicar.

Many of the parts Amphicar used came form the same suppliers as Borgward which is why some are the same - things like the steering box, some door handles, but Borgward stuff is rarer and more expensive than Amphicar. 

The cars are very useable even today, someone near me has a 1959 Combi station wagon that is often seen flying along the motorway at 80+ There are also a number of cars that have done "spaceship" mileages. 

One of the most amazing stories about Borgward concerns how they came to build the Coupe. Around 1956 Borgwards wife saw the new VW Karmann Ghia and asked Karl to buy her one. Karl really didn't want to do that for a whole bunch of reasons and so asked his engineers to modify their current Isabella salon car so it looked like the Karmann Ghia. That is exactly what they did - and you can tell - they did a good job and many regard the Isabella coupe as a better car than the Ghiabut it's not the best way financially to run a company and was one of the reasons Borgward failed a few years later. 

David C



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Borgward

stitchen1

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WB6WSN

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David Chapman

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dave bennett

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