HMN SHOW COVERAGE
The Glas ‘Isar” 50th
Birthday
A big party for tiny cars
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY AXEL COELLN
T
he Glas Club International meets
every year, but this year was spe-
cial; the club celebrated the 50th
anniversary of the Glas Isar.
The Glas Club International was
founded in 1975 as an automobile club
with its membership devoted to the
82 HEMMINGS MOTOR NEWS • SEPTEMBER 2008
082-083_HMN0908_glas meet B.indd82 82
vehicles manufactured by the Bavarian
Hans Glas GmbH in Dingolfing. Even
though this small German car manu-
facturer closed his doors at the end of
1966 when the firm was taken over by
BMW, this club has nearly 800 members
worldwide in pursuit of maintaining or
restoring their cars and scooters. Most
of its members are from Germany, Swit-
zerland, Austria, France, Holland and
Scandinavia; however, there are also
members in other countries,
Microcars aren’t im-
mune from the racing
bug, as this souped-
up Goggomobil coupe
demonstrates.
including Australia and the USA.
There are many regional meets
throughout the year, but once a year,
always on the Whitsun weekend, which
is a long weekend in most of Europe
with the Monday being a holiday as well,
the club meets for its general meeting.
The city where the meet will take place
is selected two years in advance to give
the organizers time to make all the nec-
essary arrangements to accommodate
about 250 people with well over 100 Glas
cars. This year the city was Bad Wind-
sheim, a small historic city in the Fran-
conia region of Bavaria.
It’s just like a big family get-together,
the common factor being their Glas auto-
mobile. Every year you’ll find a large con-
tingent of Goggomobils, Glas -04, Glas
1300 and 1700 GTs, 1700 Limousines and
V-8 Coupes, but maybe only one or two
Isars. This year, however, was different.
There was even an Isar from England
with right-hand steering. The car, called
7/10/08 12:45:08 PM