CarBrandLogos archive · Borgward · 1959

BorgwardP100

The first German car with self-levelling air suspension, and the last of its maker.

Photo: User Spurzem on de.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

The story

A defining chapter in Borgward history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Borgward P100, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Borgward's final flagship, launched in June 1959, replaced the unloved Hansa 2400 Pullman with a cleaner four-door body, a 2,240 cc straight-six and a four-speed all-synchromesh gearbox driving the rear wheels. Its one genuine technical claim was the suspension: from 1960 the P100 was offered with self-levelling air springs, the first German production car so equipped, beating Mercedes-Benz to the idea by several years.

Borgward P 100 3 Heck r · Lothar Spurzem · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Design and engineering

It was not enough. The car was expensive to develop and slow to sell, and it arrived just as the group's finances were collapsing. Only 2,530 were built by Borgward before liquidation halted production in 1961. The story continued elsewhere: the tooling was sold and the car was assembled in Mexico as the Borgward 230, giving the P100 a second life in a market where its maker's name meant nothing in particular.

At a glance