PUNCH BUGGY BLACK!!!!!
It is hard to imagine a world without the VW Beetle and yet there was a time…
That time ended on June 22, 1934 when Dr. Porsche received permission to build a new kind of car. A car for the everyman. A car that would revolutionize the way we looked at cheap transportation. A car that would carry an untold number of free spirits to Woodstock. A car that has not only survived the last 75 years as an icon but has remained beyond cool. In all, 21.5 million Beetles were built, putting it very near the top of the most popular car ever category. It even formed the basis for one of the best car spotting games ever!
From June 22 till the end of July, the Porsche museum is hosting a display outlining the development of the VW and includes an early, pre-war prototype that was Dr. Porsche’s own ride.
Read the full history courtesy of Porsche after the break, along with some archival photos
Stuttgart. 22 June 1934 was not only one of the most important days in the early corporate history of the Company now known the world over as Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, but also the day that changed the history of the entire automotive industry: It was on that day that “Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionen und Beratung für Motoren- und Fahrzeugbau” received the go-ahead from the “Reichsverband der Automobilindustrie (RDA)” (the Association of the German Reich of the Automotive Industry) to construct and build the Volkswagen.
In those difficult economic times, automobile constructors had had the idea time and again to build an inexpensive car for the population at large. One of them was Ferdinand Porsche who, in the course of his career, had constructed no less than seven compact and small cars for various manufacturers. As the ultimate result of these projects in terms of technology and design he finally developed the Volkswagen concept in 1933, presenting the car to the Reich Ministry of Transport on 17 January 1934 in his “Study for the Production of a Germany People’s Car” (quite simply, the “Volkswagen”).
At the end of the day the political leaders back then were also convinced of the concept Porsche and his constructors had developed. So five months after submitting the study, Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH received the order to develop the car at the initiative of the Reich Government. And while the original agreement was to build only one prototype of the Volkswagen, the RDA increased the order on 7 December 1934 to three cars assembled in the garage of Ferdinand Porsche’s private residence.
The first Volkswagen prototype, the V1 (V = Versuchswagen or Test Car), was ready to go almost exactly a year after the official development brief, Ferdinand Porsche presenting the saloon to an RDA Technical Commission on 3 July 1935. The second test car, a convertible code-named the V2, set out on its maiden trip on 22 December 1935.
After construction of three further Volkswagen prototypes code-named V3 had started in February 1936, resistance to the project began to build up in the RDA. Quite simply because, with its central tube frame, the torsion bar suspension invented by Porsche and the air-cooled four-cylinder boxer engine at the rear, the Volkswagen was now seen – and feared – as a serious competitor to existing models. A further series of 30 prototypes (VW30) was nevertheless built in 1937 by the then Daimler-Benz AG and tested in a large-scale trial covering a total of 2.4 million test kilometres.
Contrary to the first idea to build the Volkswagen in a joint venture of German car makers, the Reich Government decided on 4 July 1936 to build a separate plant for the new car, the Volkswagenwerk. So the “Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH” or “Gezuvor” for short (the “Company for Preparation of Deutsche Volkswagen Ltd”) was established on 28 May 1937.
As one of the three managing directors of Gezuvor, Ferdinand Porsche received the official order for the technical development and planning of the future production plant, with construction work starting in May 1938 in the small town of Fallersleben, now Wolfsburg.
On two study trips to the USA, Ferdinand Porsche gained the latest know-how on modern automobile production and the rules to be observed in the production pro-cess.
By the second half of 1938 the prototypes, now having reached the level of VW38, had achieved a point in the development process hardly different from the subsequent production model. So now potential purchasers were able to save five reichsmarks a week for the Volkswagen in the meantime re-christened as the “KdF-Wagen” forming part of the German Reich’s “Kraft durch Freude” or “Strength through Happiness” strategy.
Priced at an extremely low 990.- reichsmarks, the Volkswagen was really to be everybody’s car, easily affordable for the average purchaser. But due to the War not one of the roughly 340,000 investors reached his savings target and not one single Volkswagen was delivered to a private customer.
Starting in 1939 Porsche developed further variants of the Volkswagen parallel to the “KdF-Wagen“ which were however intended for military use. Indeed, more than 60,000 of the jeep-like Kübelwagen, the amphibian Schwimmwagen, and the higher-ranking Kommandeurwagen (the commander’s car), some of which featured all-wheel drive, were built by the end of World War II.
Another model based on the Volkswagen was the Type 64 Berlin-Rome Car built in 1939. This motorsport version of the Volkswagen was developed for the Berlin-Rome long-distance race planned for September 1939 and is acknowledged by car historians as the great-grandfather of Porsche sports cars today. With its streamlined aluminium body and upgraded VW boxer engine, the Berlin-Rome Car reached a top speed of 145 km/h or 90 mph.
Regular production of the civilian Volkswagen started in Wolfsburg in summer 1945 – and bearing the nickname “VW Käfer” or the “VW Beetle”, the Volkswagen became as popular the world over as hardly any other car before or after.
The VW Beetle also sets the record in terms of its production life and volume, production of the last VW Beetle still coming off the line in Mexico continuing until July 2003. And accounting for 21.5 million units built, the Beetle is by far one of the highest-production vehicles of all times.
The Porsche Museum is dedicating a Special Exhibition to the 75th anniversary of the order to build the Volkswagen, held from 22 June – 31 July 2009. Apart from detailed information and original pictures from the Historical Archives of Porsche AG, the Exhibition also presents a rare pre-war prototype of the Volkswagen. This very special VW38 from the Volkswagen Foundation Collection was used personally by Professor Porsche, also on many business trips. Another rare car is the prototype of a VW Beetle powered by a diesel engine and built by Porsche in the early 1950s.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
WOW….75! That’s amazing that the VW Beetle has been around this long. They really are great cars for what they are. Thanks for the tidbit.
Quite a car eh! One of the first cars I owned was a dark green 66 VW Beetle and I simply adored it.
Simple and cheap. In fact, it’s a shame that car companies today can’t manage to still make cars like that. Everything today has to have power this and power that. Why? I never had an issue with winding down a window or manually moving my seat forward. In fact, if you think about it, what with our lifestyles today, a basic car could play a large part in our daily workout.
Thinking back, my VW did help keep me fit…It had a 6volt system and a duff battery which I couldn’t afford to replace, so I had to push-start it whenever I couldn’t find a hill to park on. The car was amazing, you only had to put your shoulder to it for a 8-10 feet, then quickly jump in, slap the thing in second gear and it fired up. Honestly, it was so easy to do that I never felt inclined to spend my beer money replacing the battery…Oh happy days!
What I find most interesting about them is how many you see on the highway today compared to the 60’s and 70’s. Back then it was next to impossible to ride even a few miles on any highway without seeing one. How many times have kids on road trips played the game of “Love Bug” just to pass the time. (I saw it first)
Since I was a mechanic as well as a young dude from the days of free love not to mention the fact that I moved to San Francisco, I couldn’t help but notice that the vehicle of choice amongst any Hippie worth his salt was in fact a VW, be it a van or bug. One reason being they were so affordable including tires, any part, and even the oil change only used 3 quarts and didn’t even require a filter. I have no idea how many times I saw or heard of some hippie and friends armed with only a half dozen wrenches, a VW shop manual and some papers and weed rebuilding his/her engine in the driveway over the weekend.
I would be interested in hearing from one of you guys how many VW were being driven on the highways in the 70’s versus how many Bugs (new style) are on the highways today.
I do know this much… We will NEVER see the amount of new style VW bugs on the roadways in our lifetime that we saw of the original ones. The main reason being, the new VW’s will never be as reliable, affordable and easy to service/repair as the originals.
Well said Gary, the humble VW Beetle in many ways truly did become the car of the people when you think about it. It’s a shame that car companies today can’t still produce cheap little no-frills vehicles like that. Obviously people were happy to drive around in something that simple back in the 60s &70s, and I don’t believe that people have changed that much over the years.
On another note, I’m off to the UK today to arrange the shipment of my new toy…A 1991 Volkswagen Transporter High-top Autosleeper Campervan (or Bus as you North Americans like to call them). The last of the rear engined models, with a 1900cc water-cooled motor and a 5-speed. My Father left it to me when he passed away last year and I’m really looking forward to tooling around in it over here.
In fact, I’m actually thinking of growing my hair long and becoming a hippy as I missed all that Free Love the first time around, so peace be with you guys, catch you on the flip-side
Crash, Not many people are aware of the “unannounced” recall or as we call it, “Dealer splits the cost” of replaced the heads on them with an ungraded version. They had LOTS of overheating problems as a result of a head design and gasket problem.
I have owned a VW Classic Super Beetle 1300 and after five years i traded it with a 1500. I never regretted having this car for it gives me no problem, I have never been stranded in our highways because of its trouble, very economical and suits all the rugged roads in the Philippines. Right now I have it generally repaired and will have it repainted hopefully it will be in the road again by the september.