The rarest variant of an exceptionally scarce model, with the larger 398 cc engine.

SPECIFICATIONS

Manufacturer: Hans Glas GmbH

Origin: Dingolfing, Germany

Production: 3,665

Motor: Glas vertical twin 2-stroke

Displacement: 398 cc

Power: 20 hp

Length: 9 ft. 6.5 in.

Identification No. 08233108

The majority of Goggomobil transporters were vans used by the Deutsche Bundespost, the German postal service. More than 1,500 vans were also purchased by tradespeople and cities for use as service and delivery vehicles. A tiny proportion was bodied in semi-open pickup configuration like this example, which bears the familiar Coca Cola logo.

Almost certainly, no worldwide brand is as recognizable as Coca Cola.

Over the years, almost everything bearing the Coca Cola name has become collectible, and “Coke’s” public is so loyal that efforts to update both the logo and the formula have been met with intense resistance.

It seems fitting, then, that the most popular collectible logo should be applied to one of the world’s rarest trucks. Of the 3,665 Goggomobil transporter vehicles built between 1957 and 1965, a tiny portion comprised open-back pickups. This vehicle is one of them. Unconventional even among pickups, it has a short canopy behind the cab, offering partial shelter to the truck’s cargo.

This rare TL-400 pickup has the larger 398-cubic centimeter engine and was restored with new-old stock panels discovered in Germany. Painted “Coca Cola Red” with a white top, it has Frank Robinson’s familiar script on the side and artist Haddon Sundblom’s “Santa’s elf,” a character from 1930s advertising, with the famous contour bottle. The interior has a single grey vinyl seat and varnished slatted wood floor mats. It has the correct translucent red windshield visor and 10-inch whitewall tires. The correctly detailed engine is neatly concealed below the floor of the pickup bed. The rarest of surviving transporters, it ranks almost certainly as the most desirable of both Goggomobil and Coca Cola collectibles.