Filed in archive
As We See Things
, German Cars
by Philip Powell on October 16, 2009

So far I've managed to avoid adding a "mystery car" category to this site, perhaps because of an earlier incident when I was Cars Guide for About.com. The lady who produced About's vintage car site included a mystery car every week which, for some strange reason, really annoyed the autos editor. Enough that he demanded the lady cease and desist. Said lady refused and was fired. I took over the site, changed the name to "classic cars," then was sacked by a new-and-long-gone editor who demanded that I include Web pages on maintenance, restoration, and buying/selling. As an automotive historian I knew little or nothing about those subjects so I refused.
Here I am now, entertaining you in Classical Drives, and my friends at Creative Weblogging don't give a darn whether or not I include a mystery car! Thus giving me an opportunity to feature this image from Nigel Matthews. As Nigel says, look at it carefully and you'll see a period Studebaker influence plus Volkswagen Karmann Ghia hints in the shape of the rear 1/4 panels. From the mid-point of the front fenders Nigel also sees a Porsche 356. Whatever the mix, it's rather pretty and I'll give you a hint. The car is German but was sued by an American transmission maker as it felt the name was too similar to its US brand name. Okay, another hint: Hansa and 1500 figured predominantly on the badge. Add your guess in "comments" below and tell us whether you'd like more mystery cars.
Permalink: About.com Rejects Mystery Classic Cars
Tags:
mystery
car
Hansa
1500
Volkswagen
Karmann
Ghia
Studebaker
Porsche
356
About
German
American
classic
Trackback: http://publish.creative-weblogging.com/publish/mt-tb.pl/163810
Mr Wong
Vote for About.com Rejects Mystery Classic Cars:
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Rating: 10.00 out of 3 vote(s) cast.
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Response from:
Yale
(10/16/09 2:55pm)
It's a Borgward Hansa 1500 not to be confused with the much uglier 1800, but then again, it was early 50s. Thanks to Philip and Nigel.
Response from:
nigel
(10/17/09 11:57pm)
Well this is not really fair on my behalf Philip, as I know this is a Borgward
Cheers Nigel
Cheers Nigel
Response from:
Harley
(10/18/09 1:09am)
Borgward was the only thing that popped into my old head. The "Hanza" part is interesting a very early model of Canon camera was sold as the Hanza Canon. Although I rewrote the history of Canon, I don't remember any details.
Response from:
Philip
(10/18/09 5:31pm)
I'm sorry if I gave the impression that Nigel Matthews was unaware of the make of this car. He provided the image, along with some interesting Borgward facts. Believe me, Nigel really knows his cars.
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