The Goliath business had been established in 1928 by the entrepreneurial engineer Carl Borgward in partnership with Wilhelm Tecklenburg.

The plant had been bombed to destruction during the war, but in 1949 Goliath managed to introduce a small three-wheeled delivery vehicle.

[2] By the time of the Frankfurt Motor Show in April 1951, it had acquired the name under which it would subsequently be marketed, and a light-weight two-door coupé sibling.

Another aspect of the car in respect of which the full significance became obvious only when adopted by other manufacturers was its front-mounted engine, installed transversely along with the gearbox, which drove the front wheels.

The Sport model was produced only in very limited numbers, but shortly afterwards fuel injection also became available on the GP700 saloon (designated GP700 E: E stood for “Einspritzung”) as an alternative to the carburetor-equipped version.

The very rare lightweight GP700 sport, offered from 1951 to 1953, its fuel-injected engine enlarged to 845 cc, managed a claimed maximum speed of 125 km/h (78 mph) on the basis of 32 bhp (24 kW; 32 PS).