Glas

The Glas 1700 was a middle-class four-door saloon produced by Hans Glas GmbH in Dingolfing between August 1964 and December 1967. The car was first presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1963 as the Glas 1500, but it soon became clear that the 1.5-litre engine did not provide sufficient performance for a sporting family saloon. Before series production began, the engine was enlarged to 1,682 cc and the car entered production in 1964 as the Glas 1700, delivering around 80 hp and a top speed of approximately 150 km/h. The styling was developed by Pietro Frua and featured clean, modern lines with the distinctive Hofmeister kink in the rear side window – a design element that would later become closely associated with BMW. In 1965 the more powerful 1700 TS was introduced with twin carburettors and 100 hp, raising the top speed to about 170 km/h. Despite its advanced design, limited production capacity meant the car never matched the success of rivals such as the BMW 1800, and production ended shortly after BMW acquired Glas in 1966.