Glas

Hans Glas GmbH is a former German automotive company, which was based in Dingolfing.

History
The mechanic Andreas Glas founded a repair company for agricultural machines at 1895 in Pilsting. He named the company Andreas Glas, Reperaturwerkstätte für landwirtschaftliche Maschinen mit Dampfbetrieb (in [English: Andreas Glas, repair garage for agricultural machines supported with steam engine). During the summer periods about 16 people worked for him. In 1905 Andreas Glas' company built their first sowing machines. He then had sufficient work to employ all his employees during the winters. The production of sowing machines rose from year to year:
 * winter period 1905/06 - 10 sowing machines
 * autumn 1906 - 20 pieces
 * winter period 1906/07 - 40 machines
 * 1907 - 60 pieces
 * winter period 1907/08 - 254 sowing machines.

Since 1905 Glas had a branch office in Dingolfing. He started to produce in Dingolfing in 1908 with 150 sowing machines per year. The production count rose each year.

After World War II, the market for sowing machines was getting smaller and smaller. So the company had to decide what it would produce in the future. It decided to build little carrows and later working machines for bakers next to the sowing machines.

Products
Glas were known for small cars like the Goggomobil. However in 1964 the company introduced the Glas 1300GT coupe and later the 1700GT. The body was designed by Pietro Frua. However competition, mostly from British cars, was tough and in 1966 released the 2600GT powered by a SOHC V8 engine, with a volume just under 2.6 litres. However this didn't help and later the same year the company was sold to BMW. The Glas models were kept in production by BMW, but fitted with BMW engines. The Glas 1300 GT coupe was fitted with a 1.6 litre BMW engine and renamed BMW 1600 GT. BMW also fitted a 3 litre engine and named it 3000 GT. This model kept the Glas name, but had a BMW logo in the front and rear. In 1968 BMW created their own large coupe, the BMW 2500 CS, and this meant the end for Glas. 277 copies of 2600 GT was made and 389 of the 3000 GT.

Scooters
Andreas Glas made a trip to Verona, Italy. There he saw the Vespa scooter from Piaggio and asked himself whether his people could build a motorscooter. He was so enthused with this vehicle, that he also wanted to produce a motorscooter in his factory. Production started in July 1951

The scooter had 125 cc motor in the beginning. Then 150cc and 200cc in the end. Up until 1956 46,181 motor scooters were built. Then production of scooters stopped because of the Goggomobil cars. From 1953 on, load-carrying scooters were built as well. They had the 200cc engine and 9.5 bhp. They were able to carry 250kg.

Cars
GLAS built
 * The Goggo Motorroller (1951 - 1956)
 * The Goggomobil as sedan (1955 - 1969), coupé (1957 - 1969) and transporter (1957 - 1965)
 * The Isar as T 600 and T 700 (1958 - 1965)
 * The types S 1004 to S 1304 TS/CL (1962 - 1967)
 * The GLAS 1300 GT and 1700 GT (1964 - 1967)
 * The sedans 1700 and 1700 TS (1964 - 1967)
 * The GLAS 2600 V8 ("Glaserati") (1966 - 1967)

At the end of 1966 Glas became a part of BMW. The 04-type, the GT and the 1700 sedan were given BMW badges in the last year of their production.

The GT was reengineered and so it was built with a BMW-engine and a -rearaxle and sold as BMW 1600 GT until 1968.

The V8 got a bigger engine constructured by Glas and was also sold until 1968 as BMW-GLAS 3000 V8.

The 1700 sedan was built and sold by a South African importer with several changes as BMW 1800 SA until 1974.

BMW and Glas
In 1962 BMW released a new model: the BMW 1500. This car was very compact although it had four doors. This is only one reason why this car was so popular. A lot of customers decided to buy this car and the company could draw a lots of profit and became a very prosperous car manufacturer. Because of this success the production capacity in the plant in Munich was exhausted very soon and the management decided to buy the Glas GmbH in Dingolfing. Until this time the Glas GmbH produced here the Goggomobil and the new designed modells Isar and V 8. In the late 60s BMW closed down Glas GmbH and built a complete new firm which should become a very important location. Nowadays Dingolfing is the largest factory of BMW worldwide: 22,000 workers produce 1,300 cars of the 5th, 6th and 7th series as well as car bodies for Rolls-Royce.