Since the days of the 1937/38 Super 6 convertibles made by Gläser, apart from the saloon and the estate car (the Caravan), there had been no special types. With this creation, they were entering new territory, and as you can see, with as little effort as possible. They held on to the unshortened P2-chassis. The doors of the two-door had only to be altered towards the top, because the roof was 40 mm lower. They would not have typical coupé-doors without window-frames. If in this case, the word 'coupé' indicates that something has been cut back, it can only mean the roof. Indeed, the Americans are more familiar with this type of operation, and they're better at it. There, prestige seems to be more important than practical improvements. In this case, although there is substantially more luggage space, the interior space is less. Whether this combination and the extra DM 1000 compared with the price of the normal Rekord makes sense, we'll leave open to discussion for the time being. It does however, have an internal value increase. The coupé gives the impression of being much more comfortable than the fairly basically fitted saloon. E.g., the side-panelling and the carpeting are different. Apart from that, at the beginning of the coupé's appearance the somewhat stronger 1,7 litre, 44 kW (60 HP) engine could not be had for love or money in the saloon. The interior was fairly austere and straightforward, with the charm of the closing stages of the 1950s. The backrests were so low, that with the help of the reclining seat fittings and despite the shortened interior, a level surface could be created. The coupé had single seats, something which could also not be taken for granted in the standard P2. The dashboard (picture 3) was the same as that in the saloon. At that time it was quite common to have it painted in the same colour as the car. Here however, the heating, the high-beam flasher and the windscreen washer were standard equipment. In addition, the suspension was harder and the car was 40 mm lower. One could certainly do a recalculation, to see whether alone the extras in the coupé, weren't in fact, responsible for the higher price. As far as the bodywork was concerned, they did attempt to lessen the contrast between the underbody and the roof in the two-tone models, by always having the roof in the darker colour, this was to make the comparatively enormous lower body appear to be virtually invisible. Picture 4 shows the successor, which in the region of the rear windows, is somewhat more skilfully constructed. This model could even be ordered with a six-cylinder engine. 02/15