Volkswagen Beetle

No other car in history has mobilised more people than the Volkswagen Beetle (рис. 22) - and yet it almost never made it into production. When the Allied Forces evaluated the prototypes at the end of World War II, it was considered too crude, ugly and underdeveloped for production. Sir William Rootes even said that it " does not meet the fundamental requirements of a motor car". Necessity prevailed and the Volkswagen - or Peo­ple's Car - was given life.

The Beetle's origins can be traced back to 1934, when Ferdinand Porsche began work on Adolf Hitler's dream of a Volksauto. This was to be a four-seater, air-cooled car to cost less than DM1000 (around £ 50/$250). However, the car couldn't be bought for cash, only through a saving stamps scheme. Two proto­types were completed by October 1936 and, after fur­ther development, a factory was opened in 1938 to build the ^‘Kraft-durch-Freude Wagen’ - the ''Strength Through Joy' car. Production never really began, since the war required that the factory was turned over to making the Kubelwagen - a military vehicle with the same mechanical basics.

After the war, Major Ivan Hirst was given the task of rebuilding the factory, which had been de­stroyed by Allied bombing. Among the ruins was found the remains of a KdF Wagen. The military advised that this should be produced

as a means of supplying local light transport. So a production line was set up - in appalling conditions at first - and supplies flowed to all of the occupying forces.

It was felt that the Volkswagen, as it was now called, stood a chance as a regular production car -it was cheap and simple, ideal for those austere post-war years. Exports to France and Russia began in 1946 and civilian orders were being fulfilled within two years. British control was handed over in 1949 and VW became a manufacturer in its own right.

The basis of the Volkswagen was a backbone chas­sis/platform with a rear-mounted, 1131cc, fiat-four engine, which was air-cooled to cope with severe Ger­man winters. Unusually for the time, it had four-wheel independent suspension by torsion bars. The simple steel bodywork bolted on top and because of its shape, it was nicknamed the ‘Beetle’ by the Americans.

The early Volkswagens had split rear windows and very austere trim with no chromework. Export models were slightly more luxurious and technically more so­phisticated. Early ‘split window’ Beetles are now treasured collectors' pieces.

Рис. 22

No Beetle is more highly prized than the con­vertible. Volkswagen sanctioned only two official con­versions. The first was a 2+2 version, manufactured by Hebmuller. The sills, bulkhead and rear were all strengthened, so it felt very rigid. The original windscreen was retained, though the side windows and engine lid were new, and the hood could be raised with one hand. Hebmuller never really recovered from a se­rious factory tire in the year of its launch (1949). It suffered financial problems and production ground to a halt after only 696 had been built.

The second convertible Beetle was a full four­seater, created by Karmann of Osnabruck, which became the definitive item. Rigidity was addressed by adding members under the sills and around the doors, which pushed the weight up by 901b (40kg). Externally it was identical to a Beetle below the waist (except for re-positioned semaphore indicators) but there were new winding front and rear windows and an elegant fabric hood with glass rear window, which grew larger as the years passed. The hood stacked up high behind rear seats. Production of the Karmann Cabriolet ceased as late as 1980.

The first major change to the saloon occurred in 1953, when the rear window became oval-shaped and the engine increased in size to 1192cc, pushing power up from 25 bhp to 30 bhp. The Beetle got into its stride from now on, becoming the definitive ‘people's car’ of Germany - and the world - notching up million after million sales, pouring out of factories across the globe.

By the time the rear window changed again to its more familiar rectangular shape in 1957, sales in America were soaring. They were up to 64, 000 that year and eventually peaked in 1970 at over 582, 000 units. The Beetle's success was partly spurred on by an in­ventive advertisement campaign which played on the contrast of the Beetle's unchanging appearance versus Detroit's chaotic annual revisions. The Beetle was also widely viewed as the most reliable car around.

Gradually things became a little more sophisti­cated, as the engines grew in size, the gearbox gained synchromesh, automatic transmission became optional and the improved 1302 Beetle came on stream. Volks­wagen, however, never lost sight of the attributes which endeared it to its owners: simplicity, value and reliability. Instead it created more up-market vari­ants on the same basic floorpan. like Karmann-Ghia's lovely coupe, a 1500 saloon and the 411 range.

On 17 February 1972, the Beetle passed the magic milestone of 15, 007, 034 units produced, overtaking the record set by the Ford Model T. That made it the most popular tar in history and its total is unlikely to be exceeded by any other single model. The Toyota Co­rolla' s claim to have caught the Beetle is only be­lievable if all the very different versions of the Japanese car are added together.

Even after German production ceased in January 1978, the Beetle continued to be made at factories in countries like Brazil and Mexico, where Beetles are still being churned out at the rate of almost 500 a day. The current total exceeds a staggering 21 million cars.

The popularity of the Beetle has never waned. It is still viewed with tremendous affection and owners are often loyal to the point of fanaticism. This is reflected in fairly high prices for Beetles sold as classics, especially the convertibles.

The Beetle also sired a whole series of crazes. The first of these was the American fad for racing off-road. A wide variety of ^‘sand rails’ were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and a sub-culture of performance tuning parts sprang up. This in turn led to the great dune buggy explosion, ignited when Bruce Meyers put a fibreglass body tub on a Beetle floorpan. Hundreds of firms sprang up overnight to supply an in­satiable desire for ‘Beach Buggy’ machines.

More recently, there has been a craze for cus­tomising. Young people attracted by the Beetle's time-less lines often spend large sums subtly evolving their cars.

For instance, ‘Cal-Look’ Beetles smoothed out the lines, lowered the suspension and added wild and gaudy paint schemes.

There is a strong case for naming the VW Beetle as ‘Car of the Century’ – indeed a panel German motoring journalists has already done so. It has brought affordable and reliable motoring to countless millions, not just in its home market, but in the United States, Australia, South America, Africa and across the rest of the entire globe and it will continue do so for some time to come.