Lloyd LP300

Steel was scarce in West Germany in 1950, and press tools were dear. So Borgward built the body of its new small car on a wooden frame, panelled it in plywood and shaped sheet, laid felt over that, and covered the lot in synthetic leather.source 1source 2source 3source 4 The finish looked like Leukoplast, the German surgical tape, and Leukoplast was also said to be good for repairing it. The Leukoplastbomber, the sticking-plaster bomber, passed into German car slang; the Lane Motor Museum, in Nashville, translates it as the “Band-Aid bomber”.source 1source 2source 5

The name was older than the car. Lloyd had begun in 1906 as the Norddeutsche Automobil und Motoren GmbH, building electric vehicles; it merged with Hansa in 1914 to make Hansa-Lloyd, and Borgward bought Hansa-Lloyd in 1929.source 5source 3 After the war Carl F. W. Borgward revived the Lloyd name for the cheap end of a range that also included Borgward and Goliath.source 6source 5 The firm was Lloyd Maschinenfabrik GmbH, renamed Lloyd Motoren Werke in January 1951.source 1source 2

Engine and gearbox came from INKA, an engineering office at Hude, near Oldenburg, staffed by former Auto Union engineers from Chemnitz, and the likeness to the pre-war DKW F8 was unmistakable.source 1source 2 A 293 cc air-cooled two-stroke twin of 10 PS (7.4 kW) sat across the car ahead of the front axle and drove the front wheels through three speeds, with no synchromesh and a “walking-stick” lever coming out of the dashboard.source 1source 2source 6 The frame was a central tube with cross-members and a steel floor.source 1source 2 The doors were hinged at the back, the side windows slid instead of winding, and the boot could be loaded only from inside the car.source 1source 2source 4 At 3,200 mm (126 in) long it is over this site’s size limit for a microcar. It is here as a defining cheap car of its day, one that microcar collections keep.source 6source 4

Cheaper than the Beetle

The LP300 saloon went on sale in May 1950 at DM 3,334, well below the Volkswagen’s DM 4,600.source 1source 2source 4 The Lane museum gives April.source 5 In spring 1951 an LS estate, an LK van and an LC coupé joined it, and at the end of that year the very narrow bonnet lid was made wider. From January 1952 dampers could be had, for DM 70 extra.source 1source 2 In February 1952 the price went up to DM 3,664 just as the Beetle’s came down to DM 4,400, and 1952 was still the best year, with 9,981 built; Volkswagen built 114,348 Beetles that year.source 2 The Lane museum says the Lloyd ranked third in German sales, behind Volkswagen and Opel, and cost 25 per cent less than a Beetle.source 5

English Wikipedia’s verdict is that the Lloyd and the Beetle were both small, cramped and slow, but that for most purposes the Lloyd was a class smaller; it also used markedly less fuel.source 2 The Weiner museum preferred it to the more intimate bubble cars, such as the BMW Isetta or the Heinkel Kabine: it had large wheels, enough speed and room for four.source 6 The Lane museum also calls it the first car with a transverse front engine driving through an in-line gearbox. It is a claim no other source makes, and it remains unverified.source 5

The 400, and a postscript

The Lloyd 400 replaced it at the start of 1953 and was shown to the press on 30 January: 386 cc, 13 PS (9.6 kW), and hydraulic brakes from March. The leatherette went in stages, with steel side panels from March 1953, a steel bonnet and tail from January 1954 and a steel roof from November 1954; the Weiner museum dates the change 1954–⁠55.source 1source 7source 6 The bigger bore brought cooling and lubrication failures. Rather than a public recall, Lloyd reportedly invited owners to the factory for coffee and cake and swapped their engines while they were shown round; the press, it is said, never found out.source 7 A 250 cc version followed in 1956 for drivers with the old class IV licence, and 109,878 Lloyd 400s were built in five years.source 7 The Lloyd 600 came in 1955, and the Borgward group collapsed in 1961, in a famous bankruptcy.source 2source 6

A 400 also went record-breaking. The Wiesbaden racer and Borgward dealer Karl-Heinz Schäuferle built a record car on it in 1953–⁠54, the “Roland”, also called the “Weiße Maus”, and with Hubertus Ricker and Adolf Brudes he took 14 class records, including 120.85 km/h (75 mph) for three hours and 112.10 km/h over 5,000 miles (8,047 km).source 7 And in Japan, Suzuki took a Lloyd 400 apart, with a Beetle, a Renault 4CV and a Citroën 2CV, and chose the Lloyd as the model for its first kei car, the Suzuki Suzulight.source 8

Very few survive. Once better cars came along most were thrown away, which is why the Louwman Museum calls a good one remarkable.source 6source 3 The Louwman Museum in The Hague and the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville each have a 1951 LP300, and the ErfinderZeiten museum in Schramberg a 1952 car; the Weiner museum had a 1952 LS 300 estate (see museums and meets).source 3source 5source 4source 6 No auction results have been found. The marque has its own books: Peter Kurze and Ralf Kiese’s Lloyd – der Wagen für Dich (2006), Kurze’s Borgward Typenkunde (2009) and Georg Schmidt’s Borgward (1986).source 1