Letters

Classic American Mail

Not a Yank… but German!

German ‘American’ identified

Dear Classic American, Just leafing through the latest issue and saw the mystery car on page 22. You’re half right, it is a Borgward, but not an Isabella, which was smaller, but The Big Six, which was launched near the collapse of the Borgward Group. A rare car when new, even rarer now. Sorry to be pedantic! Anonymous Via email

Dear Classic American, The mystery motor featured on page 22 is certainly a Borgward, but not an Isabella. It’s one of its flagship six-cylinder P100s (also referred to as the 2.3-litre, at least in the 1960 Observer’s Book of Automobiles), produced only between January 1960 and July 1961, when Borgward was declared bankrupt after only 2500 examples of this model had been built. So, this is a rare survivor indeed. Not American, then – but, by way of a postscript, the tooling for this model was later shipped to Mexico, where it enjoyed an afterlife in the same way as the 1951-55 Kaiser in Argentina and the Aero-Willys in Brazil; it was manufactured by Ramirez in Monterrey between 1967 and 1970, with a further 2000 examples built (according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Borgward_P100). Tim Adams Liverpool

Dear Classic American, That Borgward would have fooled me for a while too but it’s not an Isabella, rather the much larger and short-lived P100 which only ran for about 18 months until the marque’s demise in 1961. Unfortunately for Borgward, its introduction coincided with that of the Mercedes W111 ‘fin tail’ range (220SE etc), which easily outsold it. Technically and pricewise there was not much in it, but the Merc was probably the better overall package; the P100 had excellent air suspension. But how nice to see a rather scruffy right-hand-drive example still in use; very few can have been sold in Britain. Anthony Richards Via email

We knew our eagle-eyed readers would know what this weird and wonderful vehicle was and even throw in a bit of potted history.

Rare Olds Down Under

Dear Classic American, I enjoy your great magazine here in Australia and thought you and your readers might like to see what I have. My 1975 Oldsmobile Omega is an almost invisible vehicle even in the US and apparently very few remain. I have had it for almost 12 years and it is used very regularly and is completely reliable. It is totally unrestored (my only real interest in classics) and is a credit to its only other (original) owner. It is of course the sole example in Australia and even the model expert from the US owners’ club (Oldsmobile), says he does not know of a single person with one there. It is a 350 Auto. Parts are generally quite obtainable as it is really a badge engineered Chev Nova. Interestingly, GM put Buick 350 motors in the ‘75’s. Kenneth Cooper Blue Mountain Heights Queensland, Australia

Interestingly this car is left-hand drive as well; it was our understanding that until fairly recently all left-hand-drive cars imported to Australia had to undergo right-hand-drive conversions. It has to be said, we’ve never seen anything like this in the UK – although who knows, the readers might know different!

Dash or creepy alien?!

Dash delight?

Dear Classic American, I was somewhat surprised by the total dismissal of the 1960 Plymouth’s dashboard by the article writer as boring! It’s certainly not my cup of tea either, by 1958 instrument gauges were being replaced by warning lights which prompted an in-period reviewer of a new 1958 DeSoto to praise it for still having a full set of gauges despite trends to cheap warning lights. However the 1958 DeSoto has the soon-tobe-commonplace strip speedometer, as does this two-years-later Plymouth.

What I see in the ‘60 Plymouth’s dash is the then popular preoccupation with alien invaders and flying saucers! The pod hovers over the actual dash like a flying saucer; also when looking at it you see a pair of alien eyes staring out at each side....! At least I do, so I feel that the designer had just been watching one of the many alien invasion movies then popular, hopefully at a drive-in! That’s my take on this interesting period dashboard idea. Chris Drucker Via email

We want what you’re on! We think Zack was probably thinking about the dashboard extravaganza that was the 1960 Chrysler so-called jukebox dash, with its goldfish bowl styling and electroluminescent illumination. Now that was what you call a ‘rock ‘n’ roll dash!