Rometsch Goliath GP700 Sport Coupe - out of hiding...

[SplitPersonality]

www.rometschregistry.org is proud to announce yet another amazing barnfind: A VW-based, Rometsch-built Goliath GP700 Sport Coupe. With this amazing find, the known world population of these wonderful cars just doubled! That tells you something about how rare these are.

The Goliath Werke was founded by Mr Borgward in 1928 and produced small 3-wheel trucks as a subsidiary of the Borgward company. After the war, Goliath launched their first proper car - the GP700 in 1950:

The car was intended to be small and cheap, yet innovative and modern. Its initial 700 ccm 2-cylinder engine was not known for getting speeding tickets ... so for 1951 the Goliath company in cooperation with Bosch were the first car company in the world to make fuel injection available on a commercial basis. In order to promote the sportiness and performance of the brand and this advanced engine, Goliath launched the "Goliath GP700 Sport" - a wonderfully designed sleek sporty Coupe not very unlike the just-launced Porsche. At 9800 marks, it was well above the 356 in price. The souped-up Sport was at 36HP, as opposed to the 29 in the Sedan.

As of now it is unknown who is responsible for the design of the GP700 Sport, but it is clear that Goliath and/or Borgward themselves did not have capacity to produce this special product. There was also a desire to utilise aluminium for less weight and added performance.

The task was first given to "Karosserie Rudi" in Delmen-Horst, near Bremen. The initial batch of 5 cars left much to be desired for the management at Goliath/Borgward - so for the next batch of production a company well known to us VW-enthusiasts was selected for the job: Karosserie Rometsch in Berlin.

The very first Goliath GP700 Sport was launched at the Berlin auto show in 1951, and there exists a few pictures of the GP700 Sport on the Rometsch-stand and on the Goliath-stand from the auto shows of that year.

[SplitPersonality]

Karosserie Rometsch produced a total of five batches of 5 cars of the GP700 Sport from 1951 to 1954, making the total production 30 sold from Goliath. 5 Rudi cars and 25 Rometsch cars.

Up until a few years ago, only two surviving samples have been known. And up until last week, only two had been seen. With the recent find, the world now knows of 3 Goliath GP700 Sport Coupes. One "Rudi"-car in a private collection in Austria and this wonderful sample, owned by a museum in Berlin:

This is one of the Rometsch-built cars and the museum even had Karosserie Rometsch restore it in the early eighties...so a "double-Rometsch" this one.

This survivor is currently on loan to the amazing PROTOTYP collection in Hamburg and can be seen there throughout 2010.

Rometsch reported to spend 1000 hours finishing one body for the Goliath. It was built very mucj like the VW-Rometsches, using a OEM floor-pan, a body framework constructed by folded sheet metal and a sculpturous skin of aluminium. The dashboard area and the inner structure is very very similar to the Beeskow Rometsch.

[SplitPersonality]

A few years ago, Mr Traugott Grundmann was contacted by a "very private" Borgward-Goliath collector with some questions regarding Rometsch. In his large collection he had a "green Coupe" and he would like to identify it as a Rudi or a Rometsch. Traugott helped him out, let him access the old Rometsch archives and helped him with a few parts.

Last week, the same owner called again... He was aging and wanted to thin the collection with the roughest cars going first. Several "enthusiasts" had tried to force the owner to let them see the rumored car, some had "lowballed" him and tried to force him to sell the Coupe. The owner wanted it to go to a genuine Rometsch-harbor and find place in ... you guessed it... The Grundmann Collection.

Only 11 hours later, Christian was on his way to Hamburg to be the first of very few to see the car...

[Simon uk]

wow, just when you think you have seen it all, something else emerges!

[peter schepens]

Congrats Christian and Traugott
...Just when you think you have seen all that can be seen in the VW world and connected coachbuilt factory's this thing shows up.
My tips is never give up, keep looking for rare cars.
And keep in touch with old contacts.

Thanks Oystein for sharing this info.
_________________
Zelensis, glassfibre body made in Belgium , disigned and built on a VW platform About 25 body's built.
Hebmuller info wanted for http://www.hebmueller-registry.com/home.html

[BlastMasterMannyFresh]

WOW, Amazing.

[SplitPersonality]

There was no doubt it was a GP700 Sport, but the question of Rudi or Rometsch-based was still unknown, and it was obviuos that the car has been subject to a "round of modification" sometime in the mid-70ies. A Beetle sunroof had been added and more substantially - it has been transplanted onto a Beetle floorpan (!). An obvious home-brew-job, note the rear wheel opening "adjustments" to suit a longer wheelbase chassis and the "scoop" on the engine lid to suit a rear-mounted VW-engine.

The Rometsch trademark of pink primer is obvious all over and the quality of the aluminium coachwork is undisputable. The sheet metal has a fair share of rust, but included in the deal is a normal GP700 donor-car that will give away its entire chassis and drivetrain. The VW-conversion was probably done because of lack of spare part access.

The Grundmanns struck a deal and went back to bring it home the day after...

[SplitPersonality]

Finally reunited with both a Rometsch Taxi, a Beeskow and most likely its original build log in Hessisch Oldendorf.

Under layers of bondo and paint - the proof of the pudding: A golden Karosserie Rometsch-sign on the one front fender, as seen on the Beeskows as well. One of now 2 known surviving samples in the world.

[pbaptist]

Great to read the whole story about this car and seeing more pictures

Patrick
_________________
Dutch Karmann-Ghia and coachbuild lover.
1* Karmann Ghia Coupe (1966 Teak)
2* Karmann Ghia Convertible (1958, 1971)
4* Rometsch Lawrence (nr 534, 555, 558 and 561)

Karmann-Ghia Lowlight page and registry
Karmann-Ghia Collectibles database

[Patty B.]

Ooooooooooo!!

[hugheseum]

unbelievable! very interesting and cool guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
_________________
Have a great day!

[overrestored]

Christian, Traugott,

You guys will need a bigger museum!

Congratulations!

so lets see... the coupe is done... so you do need another project!

Perfect... just slide it right in to the open spot.

[mightymouse]

This just made my day.
_________________
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
Thomas Jefferson


Note to EVERYONE.
Know your ZDDP levels or you WILL lose a cam and lifters.

[peter schepens]

2 picts I found somewhere that seems to be a simular car. You can see the Body badge on the left front wing.

Thanks for sharing the story and the picts. Christian Congrats for getting that one to Hessisch. I think you should expand the building...Or give some cars on a loan......I have some space left over
_________________
Zelensis, glassfibre body made in Belgium , disigned and built on a VW platform About 25 body's built.
Hebmuller info wanted for http://www.hebmueller-registry.com/home.html

[IIIA-0426]

Wow nice find.

An uncanny similarity to the VW38 project with it having had a chassis transplant!

Lucky that they already have a W30 chassis.... the chances are that if and when a body turns up it will have had a chassis transplant of some kind.

Enjoy the project guys.

[pbaptist]

Some more pictures of other GP700 coupe

I have always liked this one very much

And a nice drawing

_________________
Dutch Karmann-Ghia and coachbuild lover.
1* Karmann Ghia Coupe (1966 Teak)
2* Karmann Ghia Convertible (1958, 1971)
4* Rometsch Lawrence (nr 534, 555, 558 and 561)

Karmann-Ghia Lowlight page and registry
Karmann-Ghia Collectibles database

[beetlekey]

[SplitPersonality]

New York may be the city that never sleeps - but Hessisch Oldendorf is the village that never sleeps.. Just hours after arrival at the Grundmann Collection, the team went straight to work...

The modifications done in relation to the chassis-swap and the rear engine location was de-modified and the biggest dents hammered out.

[SplitPersonality]

Whilst the world is preparing for Easter, and Europeans are recovering from the VolksWorldShow, the Grundmanns & freinds went to work in getting the car back to bare aluminium. First stripped with airplane-chemicals and then buffed clean with a synthetic plastic rotating thing. The Rometsch craftmanship has survived very well.

The too-long VW-chassis puts things out of proportion, but undoubtably the designer of this car knew what he was doing. The bare-aluminium Rometsch will no go on display and wait for its place in the restoration-que. The Goliath donor-car and various bits and pieces also needs to be collected.

In the end of the evening, it was rolled into the Rometsch room and reunited with Beeskows, Lawrences and a Taxi - probably for the first time since the Berlin Auto Show in 1951.

Enjoy the nice pictures - and thanks to the Grundmanns for yet another epic car and thread.

[splitjunkie]

Man, those guys are fast.
_________________
Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld