Borgward Isabella Coupé

The original Borgward company had its best years sales-wise during the 1950s.  Its product line in those days included the small Hansa 1500 and 1800 models, the comparatively large Hansa 2400 and the intermediate Isabella.

The subject of this post is the Isabella Coupé of 1957-1961.  Its styling seems flawed to me, but there are many images of preserved Coupés found via Google, indicating that the car has plenty of fans.

As I will point out in the captions below, its styling was somewhat awkwardly done even in the context of its time. I'm also inclined to think that the Isabella Coupé was inspired as a product concept and even stylistically by Volkswagen's Karmann-Ghia coupé.

Gallery

An early, perhaps 1955, Karmann-Ghia: a classic design.  Its wheelbase was 2400 mm (94.5 inches) and its motor produced 40 or less horsepower.

Borgward Isabella Coupé publicity photo.  Isabellas had 75 horsepower motors and wheelbases of 2600 mm (100 in.), putting them in a higher class than Karmann-Ghias.  Its passenger greenhouse's C-pillar / backlight area somewhat resembles the K-G, and the seating arrangements are about the same.  Otherwise, design details differ considerably in part because the K-G's motor was in the rear and the Isabella had a conventional powertrain.

Another publicity photo.  Borgwards had those too-large diamond-shaped logo elements as part of the grille design: would have been better smaller.  "Frenched" headlight assemblies and the turn indicator lights atop the front fenders make for a fussy looking front.

The most serious design problem is the effect of the small passenger compartment coupled with the long trunk as seen in this "for sale" photo of a 1961 coupé.  The car would have been better looking if the passenger compartment were a true 2+2 layout and the aft end of the greenhouse was positioned approximately above the rear axle line.

A for-sale 1960 Isabella Coupé posed at an angle that demonstrates the design's too-long trunk proportion.

Shannons (Australia) auction photo of a 1959 coupé.  The car looks best from this viewpoint.  Even so, the fenders look poorly styled.  I think the front fender drops at too great a rate abaft of the cowling.  Raising it and enlarging the greenhouse along with tidying the car's face would have made for a better -- though less distinctive -- design.