When it comes to rare German coupes, a Glas GT is near the top of the list in terms of being near impossible to find in the wild. And, if you do find one, there’s a good chance it will be in pieces, victim of a stalled restoration when the caretaker of this model that was obscure even when new hits a roadblock. However, this garage find California Glas GT appears to be very complete with no evidence of being disassembled or otherwise messed with. It’s parked next to a Porsche 924 with vintage California “Sunset” license plates, and is listed here on eBay with an opening bid of $10,000 and no action yet.
It’s not surprising to see no bids at the moment, as the obscurity of a car like the Glas will have a limited pool of potential buyers. However, it will almost certainly find at least a handful of enthusiasts who are willing to enter the fray at the opening bid price, as they know how rarely these cars come up for sale. The Glas was a pretty little coupe made by an obscure German automaker and offered in very limited quantities here in the U.S. before the company was acquired by BMW. The coupe was styled by Carrozzeria Pietro Frua and built by the nearby coachbuilder Maggiora. A convertible version was also offered.
According to Hemmings, when BMW acquired the company (primarily for its production capacity), the Glas GT got the BMW treatment, including “...the Neue Klass independent semi-trailing arm/ coil spring rear suspension; cosmetic changes included adopting a kidney grille, roundel badging, and the 1602’s single round taillamps.” Even with BMW’s involvement, total production of the Glas GT was under 7,000 units. One of the more amazing details about this car is how intact the interior still is, which suggests that this Glas has been stored indoors for many, many years, safe from the California sun.
The base Glas coupe and convertible were powered by a SOHC, four-cylinder engine, pushing out 85 hp at 5,800 RPM and 80 lb-ft of torque at 3,000 RPM. The 1700 GT listed here featured bumped up compression numbers which gave it output of 100 hp at 5,500 RPM and 109 lb-ft of torque at 3,000 RPM. 0-60 times were around 10 seconds with a top speed of comfortably over 100 miles per hour. This is a rare model by all accounts, and one that is certainly collectible among German car enthusiasts. Its solid condition overall should make it a logical choice for restoration as well.
No interest in rolling it out and cleaning it up equals no interest in my book.
Looks a lot like an early 70’s Fiat.
Starting bid is now $5,000, and still no bids.
A difficult car to judge. It looks fundamentally solid and complete. It’s also scruffy, some rust, lots of dents and has a horrible paint job. And it’s unlikely that you can order a new cam belt from Rock Auto… So what do you do with it? It’s going to be expensive enough just to get it driveable again, that you will need to go all in also restoring the body and the brightwork. And by the time you spent all that time and money you could just as well have done a Porsche.
That said, I did briefly own the BMW 1600 GT version and it was one of my favorite cars. Quite similar to a SWB Porsche 911 in size and also in feel. Just better handling. (Not sure if the Glas was quite as good?) The interior is beautiful, well made and quite comfortable. Overall a strangely underrated car. So after all I really hope that someone will save this rare specimen.
True enough, strangely underrated. Having owned one, bought new in Belmont Ca in 1968 and also haviing owned a BMW 1600GT I can attest to these cars having been top notch. The sales slogan of the Glas was – If you like the Porsche, you´ll LOVE the Glas. It was a crime, when BMW pulled the plug. The interior was an ergonomic miracle, both seats being easily converted into a flat double bed, only the gear shift lever was in the way, but nevertheless a full blown bed. The dashboard was unequalled, strictly fabulous what with a complete set of VDO gauges, including an oil temperature gauge. Selling either one was a giant mistake. As far as the handling goes, it a bit sqirrely at first, but after a while one learned how far the car was pushable, similar to my Alfa Spider. The owner of this abused example ought to be ashamed.
Cool car, but the owner must not be too interested in selling it. He couldn’t bother rolling it out and cleaning it up
Lazy, lazy, lazy. Put air in the tires, pull the damn thing out and give it a clean. Never seen one, this could be a cool car to tinker with in the winter months. Wrong coast otherwise I could be a player on this.
There is a philosophy of selling barn finds “as is” with people actually being as careful not to disturb decades of dust and those at Monterey who furiously wipe away every speck. This one fails in both categories.
Much agreed, gippy- although this may be a case of a lazy/disinterested seller who couldn’t be bothered with cleaning it, there is an interest in barn finds (!) to show the more as-found condition. I am one who enjoys seeing the as-found condition, hence my membership to the site.
I wholeheartedly Agree that pushing it out into the open and taking better pics would warrant better interest.
TERRIBLE pictures!
This is when I wish I was much better at bodywork than I am. If I could deal with the metalwork myself, this would almost be worth going to look at. If it was on the east coast, I might do so anyway. Stunning little car in what looks to be restorable condition, but if you have to pay someone else to do all the work you will be upside down in it by the time you get it done. I hope the seller’s BIN price is not indicative of the reserve.
I like the Glas 1700 – either GT or saloon. But : be warned….the body was made in Turin and carted off to Dingolfing to be completed – the rust on the bare metal was already there. Everything is welded on – and carozzeria Pietro Frua is long since gone; do not expect a n y spares…even the timing – belt can be a problem – yes, Glas was the first car in Germany with a timing – belt ! – everything can be a problem. When BMW took over production, they used cheaper ( own ) components, for instance the rear suspension.
But the interior as well.
Rocker – arms got a nasty habit of falling apart – easy to change, provided you got them…
Having said that, the owner should not expect too much money – there are quite some hidden traps…
But it is a nice car !
I think I still have an owners manual for one.
And I believe the “timing-belt” had to be changed every 12,000 miles.
Update by the owner, He will put new tires and detail the car, (thank goodness)
Neat little car! Surely Red Green should be able to keep it on the road!?
I recall looking at a new one in a showroom in Pennsylvania in 1967. I bought a used Porsche (more practical) instead. Still, this is an interesting car that deserves to be saved, and doing so won’t be as difficult as some might think. See http://www.glasclub.de/index.php/en/home-en/. If this car was in Germany, it would have been snapped up in a minute.
The seller probably found it at an estate sale, shot photos there, bought it for peanuts, then had it trucked to his house. Dropping the minimum bid from $10K to $5K means he has much less than that in it.
IIRC Glas was one of the first, if not the very first to use a cog belt cam drive in a production car. Belts today are much better than they were then but it was known point of unreliability in these cars back in the day. The later ones with the BMW motor and rear suspension are highly sought after. Those came with 1600cc engines but since the downdraft Solex carb wouldn’t fit under the hood they got the TI motor with dual sidedraft carbs and more power. I was looking for one of those for a while but they’re as rare as hens teeth and now are commanding a pretty penny if you could find one. Because the TI motor didn’t meet emission regulations, they weren’t ever imported to the USA and without the US market BMW eventually shut down the GT as it didn’t sell that well as it was expensive for what it was. It’s really too bad as it was a really net car.
Great styling and apparently great handling. Probably fairly easy to swap in a BMW M10 engine and solve any parts issues.