At almost a century, the lifespan of Hans Glas’s manufacturing empire was quite long, but in that period it made cars for little more than a decade, so it’s perhaps no wonder that his is a marque now forgotten by all but the most ardent motoring anoraks.
Based in Dingolfing, Bavaria, Hans Glas GmbH was founded in 1883 to make agricultural machinery. By 1951, the company had moved into motor scooter production, but just five years later this was wound up in order to focus on building small cars instead. Riding the microcar wave that was sweeping across Europe, Glas introduced the Goggomobil in 1955, and this awkwardly styled tiddler would go on to sire a range of small cars.
The original plan had been to produce a tiny car with a single door on the front, much like an Isetta or Heinkel, but motorcycle racer and Glas dealer Schorsch Meier persuaded Glas to take a more conventional route in the hope of improving sales. Although a single-door prototype was built, what Glas unveiled in 1955 was a two-door sedan called the T250 powered by a 242-cc two-stroke, air-cooled two-cylinder engine mounted in the rear and making 13 hp.
With its monocoque construction, rack-and-pinion steering, and independent suspension all around, the “Goggo” made some of its more expensive and more mainstream rivals look decidedly dated. However, the swing-axle suspension front and rear, with coil spring and damper units at each corner, was hardly the last word in sophistication, while the fitment of 10-inch wheels really rammed home the car’s diminutive proportions.
With fuel in short supply when the T250 was launched in March 1955, the Goggomobil was the ideal economy car for lots of families, and it received strong reviews in the motoring press. Over the next couple years, thanks to strong sales, T300 and T400 two-door sedans of larger displacement (296 cc and 392 cc, respectively) were introduced, as was a two-door coupe with unique styling but based on the sedan’s platform and running gear.
When Autocar magazine got its hands on an early Goggomobil T300, the review was quite favorable: “The little Glas engine delights in high revs, and the effect inside the car is almost that of a grand prix racer when a vigorous driver is losing no opportunities. Cheap economy machines can afford neither the weight nor the expense of thorough sound damping, and the sporting fraternity will be thrilled to bits.”
The tiny cars were far more popular in Europe than anywhere else, though they did find their way to America and the U.K. Here they were priced at just $995 for the T300 sedan and $1395 for the TS300 coupe; at at a time when the average American car cost about $2000, they were some of the least expensive (and least visible …) cars on the road. High import taxes in the U.K. kept them from taking off there, where they ended up costing nearly as much as more established small cars like the Ford Anglia 100E, Austin A35, and Morris Minor. Across Europe, however, the Goggomobil sold in strong numbers: In the first 15 months alone more than 30,000 of them found buyers.
The arrival of the coupe in 1957 brought with it some trick new technology that really marked it out from the crowd: a Getrag-built electric preselector four-speed gearbox. The driver could pick the next gear they required and cogs would be shifted simply by kicking the clutch pedal, which made urban driving that much easier.
Once again, Autocar tested an early Goggomobil TS300 coupe and came away impressed: “On the road the coupé exhibits the same fascinating manners as the saloon, giving an unexpectedly comfortable ride with almost complete freedom from roll. It can be drifted round corners on a wet and bumpy surface with extraordinary abandon. The steering is lighter and less sensitive than the higher-geared mechanism of the saloon, and the deep, curved windscreen and slender pillars allow a first-class view over the short, sloping bonnet.
“This little vehicle will certainly attract many buyers for its looks alone, but beneath the stylish exterior is a mechanical specification of great interest and worth, coupled with handling characteristics which have already earned for the Goggomobil the sobriquet, in its native country, of the Arbeiter Porsche – the Poor Man’s Porsche.”
If the coupe was unusual in period, the convertible of 1958 was even more so, much like the van and pick-up variants which were all launched in 1957. Import to America ended in 1961, but with such a complete range of body styles, and small but varied powerplants (eventually to include the four-stroke T700), the Goggomobil ticked over in Europe right through to the end of the 1960s.
Glas was no longer independently owned by then, however, because it had overstretched itself trying to move upmarket with more luxurious cars in the first half of the 1960s. By 1966, Glas had been swallowed up by BMW, which for a while continued to sell the V-8–powered 2600 and 3000 luxury sedans that Glas had developed in the early part of the decade. Just 71 of the latter were made, compared to around 285,000 Goggomobils in all their various tiny forms. And yet despite that rather impressive production number, so few remain today. When is the last time you spotted a Goggomobil in the wild?
Report by Richard Dredge for hagerty.com
