Early ISO prototypes

[Bob Purton]

No, I think it might have been this Spanish site

http://www.autopasion18.com/HISTORIA-HOFFMANN%20%28Hoffmann-Werke%29.htm

Well looking at the Hoffman chassis on that web site, its such a blatant copy of the Isetta, even the steering arrangement looks the same, rear axle etc.  As BMW had done things properly and bought the license I cant see how they could have done anything else other than sue them.  Also interesting that they used a horizontally opposed engine designed by Richard Küchen, and shaft driven.  Perhaps  fodder for a part 2 article by Chris. Or maybe time for a new article just on the Hoffman company.  Shame there isn't a survivor though.

[wilksie]

Wow, I have not seen these pics of the Hoffmann Autokabine before. Thanks to BMW it never made it into production.

Mea culpa! Apparently 113 of these rare beasts were produced before BMW intervened.

[Chris Thomas]

Is there anybody out there who is a Hoffman Expert who could write a Hoffman article for Rumcar News.

Of course the most obvious place to look would be Germany, but who?

Chris Thomas
Rumcar News

[Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker)]

Much of the information on the net appears to have been derived from the Detsche Kleinwagen book by Hanns Peter Rosellen. The Hoffman Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoffmann_%28motorcycle%29 does have a useful link to an article that appeared in Der Speigel in 1955. http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-31968734.html amongst other things this states that 80 of the cars had been manufactured. The book (it would be great to have a proper english translation at some time!) states that the 80 cars were "delivered" and about another 33 built between January and March 1955. The Der Speigel article implies that much of the reason behind the collapse was Hoffman painting a very rosy picture to his bankers about how well things were going when they clearly weren't, whilst other material suggests perhaps more extensive dodgy dealiings in post-war Germany's industrial hierarchy. http://www.sip-scootershop.com/community/blogs/classic_scene-blog_en/archive/2011/10/31/the-forgotten-end-of-the-hoffmann-factory-1954.aspx

[marcus]

Is there anybody out there who is a Hoffman Expert who could write a Hoffman article for Rumcar News.

Of course the most obvious place to look would be Germany, but who?

Chris Thomas
Rumcar News

I think the Hoffman was a featured car in RCN a few years ago.

[Jonathan Poll]

Is there any link with this wacky design?

http://www.microcarmuseum.com/tour/hoffmann.html

JP

[Chris Thomas]

Dear Malcolm

Thank you for all the links, there is some good stuff there.

Dear Marcus

According to my list it was issue 35 which would have been 19 years ago. How the memory plays tricks on us all

Chris Thomas
Rumcar News

[marcus]

Ah, that could be that when I started subscribing a few years ago I bought all the available back issues and gradually read them all over the years, so it would have been recent to me! I might be getting old, but my memory is still dammit I can't remember the right word!