Glas 2600
Having had much acclaim for its four cylinder GTs introduced in 1965, Hans Glas went one step further in 1965, when he presented the V8 2600 at the Frankfurt IAA as a full four seater Gran Turismo Coupe.
Sitting on a relatively short wheelbased chassis, the new car was once more designed by Frua, and almost immediately caught the nickname “Glaserati”, for obvious reasons, if one looks at the contemporary Maserati Quattroporte. Nevertheless the car stood up in its own right and a small number were produced from August 1966 until the beginning of 1967.
The leaf springs of the smaller coupes was retained, however the they now worked on a Dion Type rear axle, which greatly improved long distance comfort.
The engine was made up by joining two of the fabled 1300 cc engines into one block and produced 140 BHP, just 10 less than BMW’s 3200CS, of which the production had just stopped. In early 1967 engine capacity was increased to 3 litres. After BMW’s takeover the car was once more the car lived on for a while until May 1968 as the BMW 3000 GT. All in all just over 700 were built, almost half of them being 2600s.
Shown is a 2600 at the 2003 Technoclassica in Essen.