Goliath (car)

Goliath was a German car brand, active from 1928 to 1959 and which was part of the Borgward group. Goliath was based in Bremen and specialized in three wheeler cars and trucks and medium sized cars.

Early history

The company "Goliath-Werke Borgward & Co." was created by Carl F. W. Borgward and Wilhelm Tecklenburg in 1928. The first models where three-wheelers trucks derived from the "Blitzkarren" previously built by Borgward. The first passenger car was the "Goliath Pionier" in 1931, which still had three wheels and a one-cylinder engine. Until 1934, 4000 of these small cars where produced in various types of body. The "Pionier" was considered as a forerunner of the Hansa models 400 and 500.

After World War II

Personal car models

These were front wheel drive two door sedans.

* Goliath GP700 (1950-1957) — two cylinder, inline, two stroke, water cooled, transverse engine (anticipating the Mini and many recent cars). In 1952 introduced Bosch direct fuel injection, around the same time as the Gutbrod Superior 600; they were the first two cars to use this technology.

* Goliath GP900 (1955-1957) — two cylinder, inline two stroke, water cooled, transverse engine, Bosch direct fuel injection.

* Goliath 1100 (1957-1958) — four cylinder opposed four stroke water cooled engine

Light trucks

* Goliath GD750 three-wheeler (1949-1955)
* Goliath Dreirad (1955-1961)
* Goliath GV800 (1951-1953)
* Goliath Express (1953-1961)

The End

From 1958, the Goliath 1100 models were sold under the brand Hansa, the Borgward group wanted to forget the two-stroke engine and three wheeler image.

Three years later, in 1961, the Borgward group collapsed.

External links

* [http://home.arcor.de/weisshauptr/index.htm Goliath Fanpage]
* [http://www.borgward-ig.de/ Borgward-IG]
* [http://people.freenet.de/Goliath-Autohaus/showroom.html Goliath Autohaus]
* [http://www.3wheelers.com/goliath Goliath on 3-wheelers.com]
* [http://www.3wheelermodels.com/ Goliath Scale Models]