Goggomobil Isar T700 (Royal) - a super rare 50s 60s classic car!
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2024
- Goggomobil T700 (Royal)
The Goggomobil might be the model name, but the manufacturer of this interesting little car is the company Hans Glas sometimes simply known as Glas.
Without a bit of background reading, I might’ve not realised quite how old they were; in fact, the company dated way back to the 1860s where they’d been known for making agricultural machinery.
Now it was never an enormous firm, but what they did evolved and as the 20th century rolled on, they made seeders to be pulled by tractors or horses; but times change and the sales fell.
There’s a lot of history in the middle here in those tricky years of two wars and the depression which I’ve skipped over because we’d be here all day - but what do you do once you’ve navigated all of that?
Well, a chance trip to Italy for a farm machinery exhibition by the founder’s grandson in the 50s gave them an idea, and the idea? Scooters for the German market very much inspired by the new Vespa scooters. They called the scooters the Goggo and within just three years, they’d sold almost 47,000 examples.
These scooters are an important part of Germany’s history, because they’re some of the first ever made, if not the first made, in Germany. They were a great means of cheap transport for Germans and they revived the company coffers which meant they could move onto their next ambitious idea: a car.
The cars they made from the mid 50s, at first, fell into the microcar category and as microcar fans will know; they were big business in Germany - look at the Isetta for example!
From the mid 50s when the cars launched, they did pretty well. There were 150 cars built daily; with licenses to places as far away as Australia. Within a very short space of time, Goggomobil becomes a roaring success with over 280,000 units being sold.
But then, things unravel.
Enter in the Izar - Glas’ foray into the bigger car market. The company were ambitious forward thinkers and saw themselves taking a share of this growing market.
However, there were risks taken which took up time and funding. The first Izar prototype was designed with FWD - but when tested properly - it was realised it was a swine to drive and they went back to the RWD concept they were comfortable with.
The car sadly suffered from really iffy build quality and seemingly too many faults and many customers were left wildly dissatisfied. With a decent warranty on the car, Glas had to honour these errors and put them right; which essentially decimated a lot of the great progress and profit they’d made through their earlier successes.
But what of the Izar? Well first of all, as I said earlier, they made over 85,000 of these cars and the vast majority were the T700 which sported the 682cc engine.
The Glas 70 engine as it was known, is a 2 cylinder, 4 stroke OHV horizontally opposed engine which is air cooled.
It kicks out 30 brake horse power and a The Motor magazine test from the early 60s shows the car giving a 0 to 50 mile per hour performance of 28.5 seconds and a top speed of 66mph. This might seem slow to you at home today, but if we take one of Britain’s most popular cars of the late 50s early 60s, the Morris Minor, it wasn’t much spritelier.
We talk mpg later on and it’s a bone of contention. Some places quote 56 miles per gallon, as indeed does the sales brochure, but The Motor reckoned it was more low-mid 40s.
Interestingly and great for the time, the gearbox is better than you’d expect - it’s 4 forward gears fully synchro and it’s Porsche synchro system - which the brochure proudly states as a key selling point.
On your suspension, the set up is independent coil spring with double acting hydraulic shocks to front and laminated springs with hydraulic shocks to rear.
It’s ZF Gemmer steering and braking is drums all round.
And size wise if you’re trying to picture this at home, it’s 134.8 inches long and 57.9 inches wide, so that’s 3.42 metres by 1.47 metres.
But where is Glas now?
Production of Glas vehicles ended in 1965 and the company was absorbed by BMW, who then mothballed the name and have never used it since.
Which all in all, is a rather drab ending to a name with quite an interesting story. 
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The Goggomobile in Australia was marketed by Bill Buckle a car dealer in Sydney it was the 'Dart' a two seater.
Goggomobile also starred in a TV ad for Yellow Pages with Tommy Dysart. There are about 50 still in existence out of the 700 assembled here between 1959-61
Gosh are there?! As I said in the video, amazing history, didn’t have enough time to tell it all! Xx
That advert was so iconic, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this video.
Buckles built a range of Goggomobils in addition to the Dart. They differed from the German cars in that the body panels were fiberglass.
As well as the Dart, they built a van which was uniquely Australian.
There's a Tommy Dyasart song too😂
"Oi not the Dart!"
These found their way into the "Ladybird Book of Cars" along with a few other oddities, in the 60's and 70's.
I can safely say that in 50ish years of being interested in anything automotive, I've never seen one in the wild although I have heard of Goggomobil.
Did you live in a coconut shell😮. Cos Goggomobils been rather very common in the late 50's till mid 60's. I remember them very well...( age has sometimes..her advantages 😂😂😂)
I hadn't heard of one either until 6 years ago and wine+eBay...and a difficult restoration later I did it😄
The two-tone paint and body shape looks a bit like a Wolseley Hornet. I think I remember seeing one as a small child over 50 years ago.
There is one thing that Steph is so good at in her job is digging out obscure little pieces of information on forgotten artefacts from long ago. Any fool can review an E Type or a Rolls or whatever because we all know what they are. A Gogomobile is on the invisible side of obscure, personally I would not want one but it's good to know that someone is happy to keep them running .
Got to be quite mad too😂
@@The-Rectifier That would depend on where you lived. I live in the UK. I'm 65 and have been into cars since before starting school.
They've always been very rare here.
That is beautiful. An elderly couple in the town I lived in drove a red Gog T250 well into the 90s. It looked really well made.
Ask any Australian aged from 35-50 about Goggomobil and they won’t know anything about the cars, but will remember a Yellow Pages ad where a guy delivers the iconic line “G-O-GG-O”. The ads played throughout the 90s on TV. The guy from the ads and his Goggomobil then went on to be the spokesman for Shannons Insurance (an enthusiast car insurer and auction house).
Shannons no longer do auctions now, though.
The look on the ladies face, when she said, "Blooming loud innit" was so amusing. Always love the videos. Peace be unto you.
What a nice little Goggo! When I was a kid in the early 60s, you could see the occasional Goggomobil here in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. So I knew about them from back then, when my Dad identified them for me. Those were interesting days, when we could import pretty much anything from “over there,” such as Anglias, Dauphines, Lloyds, DKWs, various Rootes models, DAF, and of course MG, Triumph, and the like.
My parents spent 3 days stuck on the Brenner pass during the tragic 1966 storm and floods. One of the cars in their group was one of those. It had an off road advantage. never seen before or since. Whenever they got stuck the four people in the Goggamobile would get out, pick it up, and carry it to a better place on the road...
Great story! They were good rally cars too
@andrewthompsonuk1 Maybe some disturbing memories for you! Did your parents came out of it well!? I hope so!
Rember seeing one of those when I was in my teens, usually outside a coffee bar. Yes it was back in the 60's.
My father had a sports model one of them when I was a kid bit of a legend they are in Australia
great little classic steph
I really enjoy watching your road tests. You seek out some very interesting and unusual vehicles
Thank you
It sounds like a tractor running on two cylinders but it does look nice and also lots of room in side it would have been I great family car back in the day happy Christmas to everyone who also love this channel 🎅🏼
I've always been intrigued by these. I've never seen one in the wild but I do remember there being a 1:18 scale model.of this doing the rounds some years back and I loved the look of it.
There's something great about a simple small car with clever use of space too.
With that engine, no danger of falling asleep at the wheel either
I have a 1:18 Goggomobil but it’s a rear-engined one.
In Australia they were known as Roo scarers because the noise they made frightened kangaroos.
Very informative video and a real gem of a car
A very interesting engine bay - that would kill you back leaning over to work on it. And I don't think I've ever seen a battery housed like that. Interesting rare car. Cheers
Who leans over backwards to work on an engine...,?
1st glance it looks like a mutant cross, between an A50 Austin & (East German) Trabant with a Austin A55/A60 wrap round windscreen. Give it cred though, prob be a good fun little car if had the right finance backing the company
You're right, I've never seen one. very unusual car.
Happy Christmas everyone.
Its actually more different than I thought it would be from my 1959 T400 Limo
What a brilliant little machine love it
Merry Christmas keep the great vlogs going and wow you look trim...
Lovely old car 👍👍🇬🇧
It's amazing how big the T700 looks when it's parked alongside the T250/300. Hope you get to drive one of those at some point.
Great review. An interesting little car. It definitely has a distinctive sound when you turn the engine on.
Wow, very nice in two tone, blue and white. I am from Germany and I new this small Cars from my Youth. I remember zhe smell of of
two-stroke engines (hope it is the right word in english) from this times. Goggo, BMW Isetta, Messerschmidt Kabinenroller... The most People had not enough money for bigfer cars like Mercedes, BMW, Borgward Isabella and a VW Käfer (Beetle) and NSU Prinz was nearly upper class the fifties. Thank you for this video, a better new Year for us all and Grratings from Germany.
by 1966 glas were making cars from microcars to a 1700 saloon and a V8 coupe and had over extended themselves,BMW needed factory space so they bought them over.the V8 coupe was rebadged as a BMW and stayed in production for a couple of years.
The Glas 1700 was also build in SouthAfrica by BMW (1800/2000 SA) and even in small numbers in Rhodesia as BMW Cheetah in the early 70s.
The car was in the beginning called as a Goggomobil T600 or T700. Started in 1958. This particular is from this first line up. 1960 came a Facelift. Different rear lights, bigger back windows and a different name. The model called after 1960 Glas Isar T600 or T700, and where also delivered as an Estate, called K600 and K700. In France were the car named Isard T... or K... from the beginning. It was produced untill 1965. From 1963 onwards Glas decided to build much bigger cars and were nearly bunkrupt in 1967. BMW bought the factory and build the 5-series BMW's in this particular factory ever since.
Thanks for the information!
Happy Christmas Steph!
Really look forward to your videos every Sunday.
You showcase a brilliant range of cars.
Your knowledge & enthusiasm is a pleasure to watch.
Wishing you every success & happiness in 2024! ❤ x
Hi Steph - I've heard of these cars but never actually seen one - what a fun little thing it is. Obviously a great video, and I'd like to thank you for all your videos throughout the year - always very informative and well presented. Have a lovely Christmas and New Year, wherever and however you spend it. Thanks again Steph - take care 🙂
Aw thanks lovely!!! I’ll be cooking, hosting and doing some secret filming ❤️
Great history and review. I am delighted with your sparkling narration.
Interesting little car! I have heard of them,but never seen one! Merry Christmas,Steph! 😘😘🎄🧑🎄🎁☃️☃️❄️❄️✝️
I'm glad to see that the T700 drove well. The really popular Goggomobils were the much smaller T250, 300 and 400 models;...sadly, these 'Isar' T600 and 700s had, I am told, a reputation for engine seizures! The cute Australian 'Dart' was based upon the earlier (2-stroke) version as was a very attractive factory-built Coupé. I think there was also a Coupé version of the T700;...perhaps there are one or two survivors in Germany? Thanks for seeking-out this healthy survivor.
I can see Vivian driving this in The Young Ones if it was filmed in Australia.
BEST CHRISTMAS EVER WATCHING STEPH AND GOGGOMOBIL!
Happy Christmas! I love your well researched and well made videos! Looking forward to many more in 2024. Regards from Australia.
I got a Goggomobil TS250 Coupe! Lovely review Steph!
Heard about these cars decades ago but have never seen one here in Canada. Neat little car and with an all synchromesh gearbox.
Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year. Looking forward to more from I D A C .
Yet another great video Steph, it amazes me where you find all these cars to test. Happy new year to you and yours. 🎉
Fascinating! I remember seeing pictures of this model when I was a kid. Though it's a small car, I actually thought it was even smaller due to its odd proportions. Thanks for another great video.
A lovely little machine .
Fantastic video Steph
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Merry Christmas love!
Later in the 1960ies Andreas Glas built the Glas 3000, a V8 160 HP powered car. I do love your channel❤❤❤
Aber vorher baute er den "Glas 1700", eine viertürige Mittelklasse - Limousine mit viel neuer moderner Technik.
Der "Glas 3000" war die Endstufe.
Neat interior, also the engine bay layout (especially the semi recessed battery and the bonnet mounted spare tyre). I wonder what the company would have produced in the 1970s.
It’s so clever! It actually makes me sad that so many of these ingenious little companies have gone to dust.
The company is gone, but the Dingolfing plant still exists,they are building the 5 er series bmw since 1972.
They produced a sportscar BMW took over as BMW and a V8 Limusine.
T700, what an appropriate name. "I am your boot, your Glas and your motorcycle...". Later, they changed the code and the update didn't go well...
You drive the most interesting cars nice work
When I was a child one of our neighbours had a Goggomobil and it had suicide doors
Hiya Steph and Merry Christmas. I have an article about the Goggomobil Royal in one of my many carbooks that I have a collection of. The first appears on page 76 of Cars of the Early 60s, the second of a trilogy of hardback books with original footage from Express Newspapers Plc's Reviews of the London Motor Show from between 1954 and 1969. The original UK price of that little car when available from 1960-61 was £690 : 16 : 0 (£690.80p). To be quite honest, I don't even remember seeing one of those rare little cars at the NEC Classic Motor Show where I met you and your work colleagues/friends 6 weeks ago.
Hello Robert I took it to the NEC in 2018, on the microcar stand but it was backed into a corner and not many people noticed it, I've only recently got it actually working 😂
Merry Christmas and I can't believe you met my wife in town
Haha was this the lovely lady I met in One Below?! I was helping Kev with his Christmas shopping.
Yes it was and I know you don't know me but if you need a hand with anything I would gladly help
What a gorgeous little car and putting it into context of the time, I think I would have bought this over the Fiat 500 purely on the practicality front. There's more space and it's easier to access everything you need to, a very well thought out car. Merry Christmas Steph, have a great one.
Well the Fiat 500 was almost half a metre shorter than the T700 (slightly short of 3 m) so it's hardly surprising the T700 is bigger on the inside as well.
@@Ragnar8504 I hadn't looked into it that far but when you say that, it's the difference between a Fiesta and a Focus, so of course the T700 is going to be more practical. In a way, a different classification of car so not comparable.
Very nice little car!👍 Have a great Christmas and new year!
Such a lovely little car.
you did not butcher his name ... was good this way ... greetings from berlin ;) ...glass did a lot of interessting innovative concept cars and designs ...
Very nice clean modern dash.
The goggomobil “Dart” was an Australian designed fibreglass micro sports car without any doors built on chassis and driveline imported by Bill Buckle, there is still some here in existence
Merry Christmas and thank you for your work
Thanks for watching, I deeply appreciate every view and never stop being grateful. Merry Christmas love xx
Fascinant,nice car,thank you👏👏👏
The first (and only) Goggomobile I ever saw, was at school in the 70's. Our metalwork class had a few scrap cars, for working on. I was fascinated by the name and the quirkyness when we sat in it.
Thank you Stteph! 😚🤗
What a great looking Car!
A excellent review as always Steph.
Thank you for a great review of this amazing car
Morris Christmas!
Hahahah and a head gasket new year 😉
And an Austin tatious new year.
Wow!! Never heard of this!. Thank you!,
Neither had I! I was chuffed to be offered jt.
Cistine chapel reference nice 👌
Fascinating! Ground clearance on this car and many of that era, rivals and surpasses that of many modern SUVs. A SUV that fails miserably on ground clearance is to my rather old-fashioned mind, not an SUV at all. Especially if they are also just 2WD. I'm especially looking at you Peugeot and Citroën, but not only!
They were rallied in the 60's in south Africa and Argentina 😄
I've put a link in the comments about the Goggomobil going around the world 😊
An interesting car to test.
These were very rare in the UK as they were expensive. I can't remember how expensive, but I think 50% more than a Minor or Anglia. They would have been perceived as a "Little" two cylinder car with a much smaller engine. The magazine where you got the performance figures would have comparative price lists.
This was also at a time when there was still quite a resistance in the UK to buying German products.
Happy Christmas Steph, and thanks for your videos.
I wakely remember that car from my childhood. The presented car has a kind of luxury aura to it, with its wrappedaround windscreen, padded armrests in the back and the two-tone colour.
Oh Steph! I love your channel. And you deserve to be on TV you're not getting enough coverage. I'm sharing the hell out of your channel. I love your videos and I love the cars you showcase. Keep up the good work. Sending love from Newfoundland Canada.
Thanks again for sharing Steph, it's a car I've never seen or heard of befoe. Have a great Christmas 🎄🎁 😊👍
Have a lovely Christmas Allan and thanks for the continued support. It’s so appreciated x
@@idriveaclassic thanks 👍
Thank you for showing the ISAR T700, a very nice presentation.
I remember seeing TV ads in the USA for Goggomobile. At the time they were promoting front wheel drive, I never saw any on the road or knew of any dealerships where they could be viewed.
The ISAR T700 is a very interesting and rather attractive package, a shame they didn't get to refine the development it looks like they were onto something useful.
Makes me want an ice cream for some reason.
What an interesting little car, one which I have never heard of before. Looks like a bit of Cambridge from front, Trabant from the side and Anglia rear lights turned on their head 😀. Have a great Christmas and a wonderful new year 🎅🎄❤️
I may have been 11 or 12 the first time I drove dad’s TR3 and I remember those words. “It’s not a fully synchronized box”. Thanks for the memory.
Gee, going the speed you were going I can only imagine how loud 65 MPH might be.
I spotted this very car at Thoresby classic car show in October - caught my eye then so good to see a review on it
Ha ha, I got there and back from Doncaster in it, great you spotted it cheers!
@@simonwilliamson2143 quite by chance I have a 'short' on Wednesday at 5pm featuring your car on my tiny channel - hope you don't mind 🤣
@@simonwilliamson2143 ps - good effort from Doncaster 😃😃
Happy Christmas 🎄
Happy Christmas my love
Cool
I love the way this car looks! I would be thrilled to own one here in Manitoba, Canada. I never have seen one of these before. Thanks for the video!
Like sitting inside a cement mixer.
I haven't actually watched yet but first impression is that it looks like a Standard
It’s got a touch of that and some of those 50s Austin’s.
@@idriveaclassic Yes, you're bang on there.
I'll be watching soon.
Merry Christmas
Great video, Steph. I've heard of Gogomobile, but never saw one in person. Lots of neat engineering in there. Well done indeed.
Well Steph, you got me with this one, I hadn't heard about these cars, I live and learn something every day. How many times have we ;earned that bad quality causes significant warranty claims which in turn results in companies doing serious financial damage to themselves.
Have a Happy Christmas Steph and a wonderful new year.
Goggomobil were seemingly some years ahead of the game,comparing these vehicles to the Japanese kei cars off the same period.
Absolutely!
Merry christmas to all our British Friends and car lovers !!!! Nice funny little car 😊
Thanks Steph, never seen one of these, in Australia. Thanks for the presentation. Happy new year.
Mele Kalikimaka from an old ex-pat here in Hawai'i!
Hope you’ve got some lovely plans this coming week!
@@idriveaclassic Yes...visiting relations I have here. It's gonna be a wet Christmas for the first time in a long while. The cold and damp...somehow...bring me fond memories of somewhere I've lived before...😆🤣
Really nice - over here in Germany Goggomobils were considered "Kabinenroller" - four wheel scooters with a roof. For me as an "Eastener", the Trabant is a land yacht in comparison :-) But Glas made quite nice cars up to the "Glaserati" V8. Lack of volume kicked them out of business as the car market matured. I didn't know though that Glas made right hand drives as well. The space for the left foot next to the clutch pedal is nuts
Hi Happy Christmas
First! ;) Merry Christmas to everyone from Linz, Austria, where these cars were once really popular!
Happy Christmas!!!
I've never heard of one of these - thanks for the video!
Neither had really until I was offered one!
....unser erstes Auto!
Great episode and great car, looks like an Autobianchi Bianchina of 1955. Thanks, and Merry Christmas from Italy ... ciao !!!
Wow, that's a rare car! It must have had some US influence as it looks a bit like a boil-washed example of the similarly inspired Austin A55; but a really neat, well thought out piece of design
Nice car Simon. Steph next time you venture to the IOM you could visit my Kombi (estate) version.
I like the design of the strip speedometer. It has an Art Deco appearance to it.
Merry Christmas! 😃
nice video. Goggos were some funny little cars. sadly went the way most microcar producers did back then.
They did quite well, working up the automotive hirachy with models like this and the later 1004, so they weren't as affected from the downturn in the microcar market as other manufacturers. Their cars grew and grew, with 1300, 1500 and 1700cc models offered - rivaling not only the Beetle, but going head to head with other medium sized cars like BMW (which just had barely survived a takeover attempt by Mercedes due to strong sales of the 700 and with the release of the "Neue Klasse" BMW 1500), Ford and Opel, although never reaching the production numbers of those. They were taken over by BMW just as they released the Glas V8 luxury car - stretched their finances a bit too far on that one presumably.
It’s incredibly sad. Had some smashing ideas.
@@idriveaclassic yes the gollowing Glas cars were amazing... but as Christian wrote The v8 killed them
Do a goggomobil ts400!
Back in the 1960's my father had one of these, It was always breaking down, we were expecting him to come home from a week working away in Wiltshire, he eventually arrived home very late, the car had broken down in the middle of Salisbury Plain, this was the last straw, he handed the keys to the owner of the first garage he came to, saying 'The Car's yours if you'll give me a lift to the train station'
😂😂😂 great story not surprising
I use to be the fibre glass shell of Goggomobil Dart sitting on a Garage roof for years in East Maitland NSW Australia for years wonder what ever happen to it