I don’t know when I first encountered Eegor the Eyesore on some Pacific Northwest regional Craigslist. Was it months? Years? Whatever the date, I am surprised to announce that the sweetest little pink racecar is back up for sale.
Eegor would be cute enough if it were a completely normal early-1950s circle track design, but there is something strange about it. The engine under the hood is a 1.5-liter Borgward four-cylinder, as noted in its Craigslist posting here. Borgward isn’t a name that most American car nerds will recognize, not like BMW or something. Borgward was a middle-class German car company making sports sedans and coupes into the 1960s. It was shaping up to take on Mercedes and upset rival BMW with a new design right at the turn of the decade, only to fall on hard times and need assistance from its state government. There was a wrinkle: BMW stood between it and the financial aid it needed, as Hemmings recounts:
Although Borgward needed just a small loan of about 10 million DM (USD $2.5 million) to stay in business, the Bremer Senate refused, and suppliers stopped delivering materials. No one would bail the company out. Instead, Borgward was forced into receivership. Ironically, the bankruptcy was handled by Johannes Semler, the founder and board chairman at BMW.
The conspiracy that BMW helped stifle the competition and kill Borgward is one of the more minor conspiratorial dramas in the history of the auto industry, but it’s still a notable one. Borgward always has the spirit of the underdog because of it.
Eegor the Eyesore, then, is double charming. Listen to how the sellers describe this little thing:
The hand-formed boat tail body has a classic look, with a single, central seat, small windscreen, and a racing three-spoke steering wheel just begging to be whipped around the track. It’s all business inside, with the four-speed floor shifter and metal dash containing only the essentials – and a few mementos of hot-rod events from the past. It’s an authentic presentation with enough wear and tear to show anyone that this car is the real deal, and actually raced by Kenny Parks.
Custom painted in pink, with hand-lettered graphics and louvered engine panels, Eegore has a single straight pipe out the right side and a hand-formed streamlined tail section, along with a custom front grille with devilish horns for fun. Headlights….taillights….turn signals – bah… who needs ‘em. Stay out of my way and follow the cloud of dust! #32 isn’t waiting for anyone, and we’re sure the next owner is in for just as much fun as the Parks brothers behind the wheel of this period classic.
Indeed, Eegor has everything: chunky wheels, an air cleaner half as big as the engine itself, an external...oil pressure hand pump? and a hand-lettered name over pink paint. I would commute in it if I knew how to bribe my local DMV. I mean, it has seatbelts. It’s safe enough.
How much I would love to rip around in Eegor, my sweet, ugly prince. I wish I could say how much it would cost, but it’s listed with no reserve, up for auction in the 2021 Spring Classic by Lucky Car Auctions on June 12th. Eegor is currently in Bremerton, Washington, and I’d say it deserves a home.
