This article is about the Goggomobil microcar – famous in Australia for being featured in television advertisements for telecoms and car insurance – the same actor but different cars were used. The Goggomobil was originally built in Germany by Hans Glas GmbH owned by the Isaria company, which was the main company owned by the Glas family. Like many manufacturers, Glas … [Read more...]
Veritas
This history article is about a German manufacturer from the 1940s who like several surviving manufacturers used a Latin word for their name. Veritas means “Truth” in Latin. The company was not related to another German company with the same name who made tyres for a while and specialises in machine components - and who still exist today. The first incarnation of the Veritas … [Read more...]
Trabant
This week’s history article is about the Trabant – the classic small car from the other side of the Iron Curtain. It should really be classed as a sub-marque due to the way East Germany structured its businesses. After the Second World War had ended, the Horsch and DKW factories were taken over by the East German Government. The Iron Curtain was going up and Communism was … [Read more...]
NSU
This article is about NSU, famous for their late 1960s Wankel engined saloons. NSU were one of the original German manufacturers. They were founded in 1873 as a factory making sewing machines. Several European manufacturers like Triumph started out making sewing machines before moving on to other types of machinery. The founders Heinrich Stoll and Christian Schmidt saw that … [Read more...]
Alpina
Alpina is a world leading tuning house, specialising in building cars based on BMW chassis – in fact they are an official German manufacturer using BMW shells and some running gear, however, unlike Abarth and AMG, Alpina has remained separate from the donor company. They are based in Bavaria, southern Germany. The company that became Alpina was founded in 1962 by Burkard … [Read more...]