The Goliath 1100 is a small two-door saloon that was manufactured by the Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

 based Borgward

Borgward

Borgward was a German automobile manufacturer founded by Carl F. W. Borgward . The company was based in Bremen...

 subsidiary Goliath-Werke Borgward & Co

Goliath (car)

Goliath was a German car brand started in 1928 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:...

 from 1957-1961. A three-door kombi (estate) version was also available from launch and a two-door coupe was offered a year later. For 1959, the Goliath name was dropped and the car was rebadged as the Hansa 1100, recalling Borgward’s prewar model of the same name.

The Goliath 1100 replaced the Goliath GP900 and apart from a completely new engine, little had changed. In place of the GP 700’s two-stroke engine, the 1100 featured a water-cooled boxer motor

Flat-4

A flat-4 or horizontally opposed-4 is a flat engine with four cylinders arranged horizontally in two banks of two cylinders on each side of a central crankcase...

, an engine format taken up by Subaru

Subaru EA engine

The Subaru EA engine is a series of automobile internal combustion engines manufactured by Subaru, a division of Fuji Heavy Industries. All EA series engines are of a flat-4 design....

 several years after the demise of the Goliath brand.

Goliath and Borgward

The Goliath business had been established in 1928 by the entrepreneurial engineer Carl Borgward

Carl F. W. Borgward

Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Borgward was a German engineer and designer and the creator of the Borgward group, based in Bremen. -Biography:...

 in partnership with Wilhelm Tecklenburg. The plant had been bombed to destruction during the war

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, but during the 1950s produced a succession of small front-wheel-drive passenger cars. The Goliath 1100 was the last of these.

Chronology

The Goliath 1100 appeared at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1957. From the outside, it was distinguished from the GP900 by a more modern front grill.

Later in 1957, the 40 bhp 1100 was joined by the 1100 Luxus version. The cars shared the 1094 cc engine displacement, but the Luxus, courtesy of a second carburettor and a higher compression ratio, boasted an output of 55 bhp. A maximum speed of 135 km/h (83.9 mph) compared with 125 km/h (77.7 mph) claimed for the less powerful car.

In October 1958, the Goliath 1100 was replaced by the Hansa 1100. Hansa had been the brand name used by the business in the 1930s and 1940s. The new Hansa 1100 used most of the same body panels, but it now featured sharper tailfins and, on the saloon version, an interestingly kinked chrome strip along the car’s flank. An optional Saxomat

Saxomat

Saxomat was a type of automatic clutch available as an option on Fiat 1800, Saab 93, Borgward Isabella, Goliath/Hansa 1100, Auto Union 1000, BMW, Opel, Ford Taunus, NSU, Glas, Trabant Wartburg and Volkswagen cars. Opel sold it as Olymat; Trabant and Wartburg named the system Hycomat...

 automatic clutch was offered.

Other countries

Established by the family Taubenfeld, according to an agreement signed between it and the Goliath BmgH Werk Bremen, Germany. The Hansa 1100 Lexus are made in Argentina by Goliath Hansa Argentina in the city of Villa Constitución

Villa Constitución

Villa Constitución is a city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, and the head town of the Constitución Department. It is located on the south-western banks of the Paraná River between the courses of the Arroyo Pavón and the Arroyo del Medio, about 214 km south from the provincial capital,...

, Santa Fe

Santa Fe

Santa Fe or Santa Fé may refer to:-Places:*Argentina**Santa Fe, Argentina, a city in Argentina**Santa Fe Province, a province of Argentina*Bolivia**Santa Fé , Bolivia...

for the 1960-1961 years in three versions: Sedán de Lujo, Combi y Súper cupé Lujo.
With a capital of $ 3,350,000, began operations on May 2, 1960, and September 15 began work on the construction of a 19,000 m2 manufacturing plant.