1930-1939 — In the beginning

The Beetle story is the story of Ferdinand Porsche. Without Porsche, there would have been no Volkswagen. So while it is not difficult to cite many others who have made lengthy and valuable contributions to the formation and continuation of the Volkswagen legend over the years, it is with the Porsche story that we must begin. Each of his early designs - their successes and failures gave fascinating clues as to what could finally become the best selling car of all time.

Porsche was born in 1875,and produced his first blue print In 1900. The Porsche-Lohner Chaise was powered by hub-mounted electric motors that drove the front wheels and apparently lasted for 5 miles before being recharged. Later designs worked on what he termed the mixed fuel principle,using a small internal combustion engine that generated electricity to power the car,but eventually,he accepted more conventional drive methods.

As his career progressed,Porsche soon proved himself a hard worker and a designer of some genius. Here was a man who knew his own mind,though unfortunately, his ideas and plans for the automobile industry were not often shared by his employers. Having come from a working class background, his natural affiliations were less with the bosses and financiers as the workers. His first senior Job, at Austro-Daimler, lasted 18 years and earned him eventual promotion to managing director,yet he resigned in 1923 after a board room row over cutbacks in the work force. And when he went to the German Daimler company as technical director,another row caused a second resignation, though for different reasons.

Fresh employment was not long in coming and the post of technical director with the Steyr company in Austria was his next appointment. He began on New Year's Day 1929 with a fresh enthusiasm, but the Wall Street Crash and its attendant far-reaching consequences led to a merger between Steyr and Daimler-Benz to create Steyr-Daimler-Puch. Porsche was suddenly back where he had been two years earlier. The new company immediately dropped his new projects and yet another resignation followed. This time, however, he knew what to do. Although Ferdinand Porsche was now 55 years of age, he set up shop at 24 Kropenstrasse, Stuttgart in December 1930, forming his own design consultancy. Porsche was a man always destined to be his own boss the only surprise was that it had taken him so long. To give his business the all-round technical expertise it needed,he made sure that certain key people were with him, people he had worked with and grown to respect using his long years in the motor industry. Under the new order, Porsche was to lay down the ideas and rough concepts, while the rest of the team filled In the details and made it work. His colleagues included Josef Kales, an air-cooled engine specialist; Karl Frohlich, a transmission expert; Karl Rabe, who had been his chief engineer at Austro-Daimler; Josef Zahradnlk for axle and steering design, and Josef Mickl, his aerodynamics adviser. Mickl at 45 was the oldest member of the team and Ferry Porsche, Ferdinand's son,was the youngest at 21. For a short time,there was also a business manager by the name of Adolf Rosenburger but as a Jew,he was forced to flee the country in 1933.

Although It was at this time that Porsche began to lay down the basic parameters for what would become the Volkswagen Beetle, it as very much an evolutionary design. Each subsequent attempt at the same concept produced a better car which was better engineered, more reliable and better looking than the last. To begin with, however, the Porsche consultancy were concerned with smaller matters; a crankshaft here, a rear axle there. One of their early triumphs was to patent 'Spring Suspension of Independent Car Wheels, especially for Motor Vehicles' - basically a torsion bar design,from which the Porsche company has drawn royalty payments ever since. It was not until 1931 that work began on the first of the Volkswagen prototype series, though the design was barely recognisable as a Beetle. The Beetle as we know it was still some 15 years away and even then the path towards it would be long and very winding.

With work slow in coming (at one point Porsche even borrowed on his life assurance to pay the men),the company had decided to produce some plans on a purely speculative basis. One of these projects was the Type 12,a small car suited to the economic depression. Fortunately,they quickly found a customer when Porsche went to see the Zundapp motorcycle company under Dr Fritz Neumayer,who wanted to diversify into the car market. Neumayer, however,insisted upon a five-cylinder water-cooled radial engine and because they needed the work,Porsche agreed with It.

Despite this ludicrous engine choice,the design was still of some interest. Although it might have been considered unorthodox in terms of contemporary schemes In the USA or Britain,it was not so odd compared to some of its European counterparts. A backbone chassis carried all-Independent suspension with a transverse-leaf spring at the front and a swing axle at the rear. The Type 12 had hydraulic brakes (incredibly. The Beetle 1200 Standard did not get them until 1964) and all the controls ran through a central chassis member much as they would on the Beetle. there were other similarities too,mainly for weight saving reasons. the rear-mounted engine meant no prop-shaft or torque tube.

Three prototypes - two sedans and one cabriolet - were built with bodies by Reutter. And for someone who had designed some of the most beautiful sports cars ever seen,this new design was definitely an odd one. The windshield was sharply raked,there were rear wheel arch spats,no running boards, and the back of the car arched right over In a giant arc. is was the birth of the Beetle shape.

Needless to say,the car was not a success. the engine over heated so severely that on one test,the engine oil actually boiled and welded the pistons to the cylinder walls. In the end,Neumayer's enthusiasm and his money ran out. 1932 quickly developed into a miserable year for Porsche. At one point,he seriously considered a 'blank cheque' offer to work in Moscow. But another small car opportunity was waiting round the corner.

Baron Fritz von Falkenhayn,head of the NSU plant at NeckarsuIm,asked Porsche to design another light car suited to the prevailing hard times. What followed,the type 32,was just that and the next link in the beetle story. Type 32 was also designed around a backbone chassis,but for the first time it was forked at the rear to carry the engine and transaxle arrangement. In addition,the front suspension used two of Porsche's patented torsion bars crossed transversely at the front with friction-type shock absorbers. The engine was a very Beetle-like oversquare 1470cc air cooled history and was proved good for 75mph with no problems except excess noise. The bodies were designed by Erwin Komenda - still quite odd-looking but strangely futuristic for 1932,especially when compared with what Ford were producing In the early 1930s. Incredibly,one of the three original prototypes still survives in the VW museum,a steel-bodied version by the Drauz company of Heilbronn. The other two,by Reutter,another well-known coach builder,had fabric bodies with large,high-hinging trunk lids. Sadly, it was the steel-bodied car that caused the downfall of the whole project, simply because Fiat were also based at Heilbronn. Hearing about the new NSU car,Fiat reminded them of certain contractual obligations arising from their purchase of the old NSU car factory. As part of the deal,NSU had agreed never to make cars under their own name again. Once again Porsche was without a sponsor for the Volksauto(people's car) project. What it needed was a backer with a lot more cash,lot more belief and a lot more vision. What it got was Adolf Hitler.

When Hitler took power communications were high on his list. here was the Volksradio project,which took his propaganda into every house in Germany; the Volksauto,to get the country mobile; and the giant autobahn program to make travel quicker and simpler for everyone (especially his troops).

How Hitler got to hear of Porsche's project was quite simple. An old friend from Daimler-Benz,Jakob Werlin,happened to call into the Porsche offices soon after NSU had pulled out,and was naturally told about the little Type 32. Werlin happened to be close to Hitler at this time and saw this as a way of earning favour with the Fuhrer. So Hitler was told of the project and Porsche was driven to the Kaiserhof Hotel,Berlin to meet both Hitler and the Auto Union directors. Nazi propaganda also required that type30,type32s dominate the race tracks in the mid-193Os and few people knew more about car design than Ferdinand Porsche,especially after his experience with the giant supercharged Mercedes. As it happened,Hitler knew quite a lot about cars himself,as is evidenced by some of his correspondence on the matter he even gave Porsche some drawings of what he had in mind for the 'people's car',suggesting that it should be a four-seater family car with an air-cooled engine of one liter capacity. it should use only seven liters of gasoline per 100km and be able to maintain 100km per hour.

Hitler persuaded the RDA (Reichsverband der Deutschen Automobilindustrie, the car manufacturers trade organization) to put Porsche under contract to develop the new state financed car,even though they clearly saw it as a threat to their own business. Porsche was given around 23 ,000 Reichmarks to build the prototypes,but he was allowed only ten months not the full year he had requested,and his projected build and sell price of RM 1550 was slashed to a little over RM 900.

Designated Type 60,the new car carried many of the type 32's features. Hitler had actually seen the plans himself by this time and even changed them a little,lowering the front hood contour to give it extra streamlining. After the allotted ten months,the cars were far from finished. The Idea was that the other type30,type32 manufacturers would help Porsche produce the prototypes,but they didn't; jealousy still played a strong part in motor car design and manufacture. As the Porsche premises were only geared to design work,they built the cars in Porsche's own garage in Stuttgart. Then only consolation was that at last they were building the car they wanted. The had the backing and the apparently unlimited funds of the state; and a very sympathetic client,even if he was Adolf Hitler .

By the end of 1935 they had two cars testing in the Black Forest,a sedan and a cabriolet. The design was a natural progression from the previous Types 12 and 32. Once again,the chassis was formed around a central backbone rounded at the top like the later Beetle,with a flat underside and wooden floorboards,which were later replaced by metal. It narrowed towards the front,where the central spine continued forward to clamp on to the twin torsion bars that formed the front suspension. the pedals sprouted out of the central spine just behind a small bulkhead and the battery tray was pressed into the rear of the pan under the back seat. The transmission was mounted on a cradle bolted between the two chassis forks and the engine hung off the back of the transmission. Rear suspension took the form of twin transverse torsion bars hidden in the rear cross member with links to the rear hubs via a pair of thin blade-like radius arms. They had to a thin because they needed to flex for the suspension to work properly.

Engines were many and various. In fact with endless engine trials taking so long Porsche was granted a further 12 month's development time. Each new design was designated a letter and it was up to E before the found one that did a good job at the right price. The A-Motor (a two stroke) was rejected mainly because two-strokes didn't provide enough engine braking. The C Motor was a sleeve-valved air-cooled twin and the D Motor,designed by an engineer named Engelbrecht,was very like a noisy motorbike engine. Eventually they came up with the E-motor which by now was starting to look like a proper Beetle engine. The generator mount,front pulley,large heads, single wire mesh oil filter and distributor were all later Beetle engine features.

The body design was also evolutionary. The headlamp were mounted separately on the hood not on the fenders,it had vent windows and in line with Hitler's ideas for the car (he was financing it,after all),they lowered the hood line. The doors were of 'suicide' type they hinged at the rear but the most striking aspect of the car's design was its lack of rear window.

Two cars were built at first,a sedan (V1),coach built by Reutter and a cabriolet (V2) by Drauz. But a further three were soon commissioned and designated VW3,the first of which was finished in early 1936 and again differed slightly. They were built by Daimler-Benz,indicating that other German manufacturers recognised that Hitler was not a man to be disobeyed.

Strangely the car featured many of the classic Beetle body mouldings curves and lines,but the hood and trunk cut right across them. The doors didn't open right down to the bottom of the body,either,leaving a strange sill effect and the fenders looked cut off at the ends,like some latter day off-road racer. The hood opened from just below the screen line to a point about two-thirds down the nose,while at the rear the engine lid came right up the back of the car with a row of giant louvres.

It was that engine that stood out,though. A new member of staff,an Austrian designer by the name of Franz Reimspiess,joined the company in 1934 and almost immediately suggested a new four-cylinder engine every bit as cheap to produce as the two-cylinder design but producing far better results. A lightweight magnesium alloy crankcase,cast iron crank,overhead valves,aluminium cylinder heads and a very short camshaft with just four lobes to actuate the eight pushrods,were all aspects of the Motor's design.

By late 1936 the three VW3 prototypes were given to the RDA for extensive testing. They even re-engined the original V1 and V2 prototypes as Further test beds for the new engine. And the tests were strenuous, with two drivers covering over 400 miles a day over the Alps and the Black Forest new autobahn stretches. The results were worth it though, as a total of 50,000 miles of testing proved what the design could and could not do. The cast-iron crankshaft was the biggest problem, as its repeated failure later led to the adoption of a forged steel unit. But other problems included broken shift levers and the electric fuel pump,which was soon swapped For a mechanical one. Despite reservations regarding the cable brake and the front suspension design, the RDA's report, published at the end of 1937, gave Type 60 the go-ahead.

At the same time,Hitler decided that the whole project should be state funded through the German Labor Front (DAF),Hitler's state-run replacement for the banned trade unions. In reality however,this meant the German people themselves,as DAF funds comprised confiscated trade union funds and compulsory contributions of 1.5 percent of each worker's income. the Society for the Development of the German Volkswagen was formed in May 1937 and RM 500,000 was put forward for more prototypes.

The Series 30 (because 30 were built) cars were all put together by Daimler Benz. The front of the car was particularly beetle like with head lamps mounted on the front fenders and that characteristic hood line sloping right down to the nose of the car. Around the back,though,that unmistakable W shape that would become one of the early Beetle's most striking features, did not finish at the top of the engine cover,but continued over the roof, opening right out towards the corners of the front screen. The engine cover itself was now punched with massive louvres to give the engine as much cool air as possible. Mechanically,the Series 30 cars followed the VW3. A change in compression ratio to 6:1 and a new oil cooler making up the engine modifications,while new split-leaf torsion bars at last stopped them snapping and depositing the car on the tarmac without the slightest warning.

If the VW3 was extensively tested,the Series 30 tests went to the limits of endurance. At an estimated cost of RM 30 million,200 soldiers from the SS were drafted in to drive each car at least 50,000 miles over a variety of terrains. Ferry Porsche oversaw the operation.

All that was left was to finalise the styling. The job was given to Erwin Komenda and by 1938 the design was set. A Few details were cleared up at this point,like making the door hinge In the right direction,changing the hood so that it hinged right at the top,and fitting bumpers and hubcaps for the first time,too. But It was the rear that saw the real modifications as they shortened the engine cover,introduced the famous pretzel (because it looks vaguely like a German pretzel biscuit) or split rear window and fed the engine with air through a row of vertical louvres that sat beneath it. Forty-four of these new Series 38 cars were put together or further approval and testing.

When it came to Ideas for actually getting Hitler's new car into production, the RDA began by suggesting various schemes,which said little except the fact that they weren't really interested. Their suggestion was that the existing type30,type32 manufacturers would share the burden of production, which would involve the government in a subsidy to the tune of RM 200 for each car. Hitler obviously worked out the cost of his projected production (a million cars a year) and decided that it would be cheaper to build his own factory instead.

Following the lead of most of the giant car plants of the time,the prime requirement was access to a navigable waterway. As the factory would literally take iron ore in one end and throw cars out at the other,they needed to be able to ship the raw materials and finished cars quickly and easily. It would even have its own power station,serving a new town as well as the factory. Hitler's choice was the village of Fallersleben on the banks of the Mittelland Canal. The site itself formed pad of the 14th century estate of Schloss Wolfsburg,owned by Count von Schulenburg; needless to say,while he wasn't too happy about it,he had no chance of objecting to the plans himself and supporters were few and far between.

Like Ford's recently-built (1931) Dagenham plant in Britain the Volkswagen factory would also have its own town where the workers would live. The car would be called the KdF-Wagen (Kraft durcn Freude - Strength through Joy) and the town would be called KdF-Stadt. Officially,KdF as the leisure section of the DAF,its funds helping to finance bargain holidays for the workers,but in reality they were just misappropriated by the Nazis. Filled with the best American equipment and a large number of repatriated,US-trained workers,the major part of the factory was finished n early 1939. They needed the best of everything because right from the start,targets were high. Production was scheduled at 150,000 vehicles in 1940. building up to 1.5 million in two years. The car was available in only one colour, a bluish grey and there was only one method of purchase.

1940 - 1950 — WW-II

The factory that had promised so much. gave forth so little. Once Hitler had decided to extend Germany's borders, all vital resources were re directed to the war effort and the factory was still not complete by 1940.

The plant had been operational, but only just. By the time it moved over to wartime production, total KdF-Wagen production stood at 210 units but they had all gone to high-ranking Nazis. The first, predesignated Type 1, left the factory on 15 August 1940, and although production was kept up to provide much needed wartime transport, only 630 KdF-Wagens had been built by 1944. The factory was not idle, of course. In addition to cars, it was producing a host of other things including, at one time, 1.5 million primitive stoves for the German troops at the Russian front. Unfortunately, there were also V1 flying bombs and assorted parts for Junkers 88 bombers, which is why the factory itself was bombed by the Americans towards the end of the war.

The fact that the basic Beetle design had certain military possibilities had not escaped the army. In fact, one of the Series 30 chassis had been loaned to the army to have a gun and three seats fined. It was hardly surprising then, that even before war had broken out, Porsche was asked to adapt the KdF-Wagen for use by the German army. In 1938, Franz Reimspiess designed a sort of cross-country vehicle, based on the KdF-Wagen floorpan with 19 inch wheels and not much at all in the way of bodywork. This rough design was rethought in 1939 and later after German tests at the very start of the war with Poland. The job of producing the Type 82 or Type 2, as it was labeled, was given to Ferry Porsche and the resulting car became known as the Kubelwagen or 'Bucketcar'.

The Kubelwagen went into production on 21 December 1940, but it was some time before the car was officially approved for use by the German army. By the end of that year, total production stood at 1000 and by the end of the war, around 50,000 had appeared from the Wolfsburg factory.

The Kubelwagen featured a KdF-Wagen-type chassis with the stock 985cc, 22.5hp engine and modifications for improved ground clearance. There was a change to the 1131cc, 25hp engine in March 1943. The bodies were supplied by Ambi-Budd in Berlin and the chassis were assembled in one area of the Wolfsburg plant. The simple ribbed body with its folding windshield and canvas top came with four doors, the front pair hinging at the back so they all swung off the same center pillar. Exterior features included two front towing hooks and twin fender-mounted headlamps with canvas covers, while a spade, black-out light and spare wheel were mounted right on top of the hood, which did not open and had no facility for storage, except for a five-gallon spare fuel can which slid into a specially tailored hole just above the pedal assembly. The proper fuel filler was just behind the spare wheel. Lastly, as the vehicle's lighting had to be geared to wartime, it included an ingenious rear light system with differing thicknesses of green plastic, enabling the driver to judge distance from the Kubelwagen in front by the number of lights that were visible.

The interior was no more than basic. In front were small individual bench seats that looked more like fold up picnic chairs covered in a lightly padded canvas. Rear seating took the form of a simple bench, and for added military discomfort the air intake for the engine bay was right behind the rear seat. so quite what it sounded like with the top up and side curtains closed. one can only imagine.

The improved ride height was achieved in the most ingenious manner. At the front, Porsche changed the design of the spindle slightly so that the wheel sat lower in relation to the two trailing arm And at the back they used a reduction gear system at the end of each swing axle, which had the added benefit of allowing the vehicle to drive at a walking pace. This reduction gear system later resurfaced on the Volkswagen Microbus some years with the many and varied tasks of military life, there was naturally more than one version of the Kubelwagen. Others included one that carried an air siren, one with a heavy-duty chassis and a dummy tank body for training purposes, a pickup version, a tropical delivery van, a snow caterpillar with half-tracks and one that was specially modified to run on railway tracks. There were even six four wheel drive prototypes. As the war continued and Rommel began to penetrate North Africa, they designed a special model for use in desert conditions with protected electrics, extra cooling equipment and a larger air filter. fortunately for the Allies, an organizational muddle sent these special KubeIs to the Russian front while Rommel had to make do with ordinary ones, though they were at least equipped with special tires.

Extra protection or not, the Kubelwagen with its rear-mounted air cooled engine was a formidable desert performer. Captured German Kubelwagens were so popular with the Allied troops that the exchange rate became one Kubelwagen for two jeeps. And another story goes that a captured example, returned to Britain and dismantled for inspection, had 100lbs of sand removed from inside the body shell with the car still going strong.

If the Kubelwagen provided the German Army with basic everyday transport, the other high-volume wartime product from Wolfsburg did quite the opposite. Although it could easily trek across rough terrain, the fact that it was also amphibious was more than just a small bonus. In actual fact, the Schwimmwagen was so comfortable in the water that the Weapons Bureau seriously suggested that it should be fitted with colored navigation lights for port and starboard sides, The Schwimmwagen was really just a sealed steel tub on wheels. There were obviously no doors but like the Kubelwagen, it came with a folding canvas top. blackout light and hood mounted spare wheel. Apart from a few added exterior trappings like a paddle and a spade, the main giveaway, was the externally mounted propeller, hinged just below the engine lid, The propeller was raised and lifted with a detachable rod that extended right over the back of the car. It was stored above the exhaust muffler, which was high above the water level but also just behind the rear
passengers ears. The louvered engine cover incorporated a cutout for the propeller when it was in the raised position, and once lowered, it located automatically in a three-dog spline fitting, driven by the crankshaft. The engine air intake was obviously high out of the water but right below the muffler, so quite how it performed with a constant supply of nice hot air is another matter.

Like the Kubelwagen, the Schwimmwagen came in a number of different configurations The earliest version, the Type 128 began with the 984cc engine, but later versions all came with the bigger 1131cc engine (increased bore by 5mm to 7Smm), 25hp engine. The German Waffenamt (the weapons department) had set 25hp as the basic minimum military requirement. The Type 138 followed and eventually the Type 166, the most sophisticated model, with a shorter wheelbase and low weight, which was soon regarded as the hot rod Schwimmwagen, most of them going straight to the SS.

Not only could these cars swim, but they also came with four-wheel drive. The transmission was interesting in that it worked normally in two-wheel drive until fifth gear was engaged, though some bought in four-wheel drive with a second small lever behind the gear shift. It is interesting to note that Kubelwagens had two fuel tanks with fillers in the hood plus another filler for the front axle pressure lubrication system (to overcome water immersion). Going flat out, the Schwimmwagen was good for 5 MPH on dry land and just over 6mph in water. That the Schwimmwagen was indeed, waterproof was proved on many occasions by British officers at Wolfsburg after the war. Apparently, the practice was to drive the Schwimmwagen off the landing wharf straight into the Mittleland Canal at 40mph. The car would belly flop into the water, bob about on the surface and cruise back to the jetty.

In the end, some 14,238 Schwimmwagens were built both at the Wolfsburg factory and at Porsche's small facility in Stuttgart before the end in 1944.

Kubel and Schwimmwagens were not the only wartime Wolfsburg products, of course. Throughout the war, Porsche and his design team were busy producing designs for all sorts of military hardware. Others include the Type 82E, the Type 92 Kommandeurwagen and the Type 87 Leichte Kavallerie model, all of which combined the Beetlish body of the KdF-Wagen with one of the Kubel's high-riding chassis. The Type 87 was probably the most interesting as it used an experimental four wheel drive Kubelwagen chassis. Quite a number were built, as production totalled 34 in 1942, 382 in 1943, 151 in 1944 and just two in 1946. These last two even incorporated a roller at the nose to help them over lumps in the ground.

From April until August 1944. the Volkswagenwerk was subjected to a number of daylight air raids by US bombers. A mystery pilotless British bomber crashed into the plant on 29 April, but it is presumed that it was pure chance that it hit the factory at all. By the end of the war, attacks had totally flattened a large part of the plant. Floor area rendered totally unusable amounted to 33.8 percent, over 20 percent of the machinery was wrecked and a large part of the roof was brought down. Although the company claimed that only 60 percent of the factory was destroyed, what was left was hardly the basis for the production of anything, let alone cars. Production was revived, but output was slow at only a quarter of the previous average and did not last for very long either.

The plant at Fallersleben liberated by the American army on 10-11 April 1945. Knowing that the US army were close, however, the guards fled, leaving the workers, most of them foreign prisoners of war, to run riot. They wrecked most of the machinery and burned nearly all the records. Fortunately the Germans had taken the precaution of packing many of the key machinery pads in crates and stowing them in electrical conduit pipes under the factory floor. These would prove invaluable to the British who were to take plant and the administration of its remaining staff. Partly because the had nowhere else to go, and partly because the British at least had a little food to offer, some workers stayed on and another 522 Kubelwagens were produced between August and December that year. The war was over, but the problems at Wolfsburg had hardly begun.

By the end of the war, Porsche's dream must have looked less likely than ever. The postwar division of Germany into individual political zones had placed the Fallersieben factory under British control, out there still remained the question of what to do with it. Six successful bombing raids had left the factory all but wrecked and what machinery they had left was beginning to rust away. The whole place was inches deep in water , since there was no roof on most of the factory. Added to this, there were few staff and very little accommodation for them anyway, so the immediate call for the place to be pulled down and rebuilt elsewhere is understandable. An unexploded bomb nearly settled the factory's fate: found wedged between the two main generators of the power station, had it exploded, there is o doubt that it would have meant the final dismantling of the Wolfsburg plant and certainly no more Volkswagen cars. The fact that the factory picked itself up and got back to work was not so much through any grand plan, but more likely because there was nothing else to do.

When the British took over from the Americans In the early summer of 1945, they were quick to take advantage of what resources there were by in-stalling a REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) maintenance and repair shop in one part of the factory buildings. They renamed it the 'Wolfsburg Motor Works, and the few German worker that remained at the plant began to fix the machinery back together and even managed to produce two complete cars from the one surviving sheet metal press. One of these first postwar cars was immediately despatched to the local British Army headquarters and incredibly, solicited an order for more. To Major Ivan Hirst, the plant's commanding officer, this was tacit approval of the job they had managed to do at Wolfsburg and he took it as the go-ahead to make operational as soon as possible.

With typical military efficiency, the first thing the British did was to introduce a model number system to correctly identify the assorted models. The old KdF-Wagen was the Type 1, the Kubelwagen 5 Type 2, and the Kubel chassis with the KdF-Wagen sedan body was the Type 5, In addition, there was a second digit which Identified the actual body type: sedan was 1, convertible was 2 and soon.

It may have been comprehensive, but it was also wishful thinking at the time, because with no parts or raw material, finished cars were a rarity. Production did build up for a while in June, July and August as they used up what remaining parts they had. For a shod time, they were still supplied with Kubelwagen bodies from Ambl-Budd in Berlin, but this ceased once Berlin became part of the Russian sector. Actual production figures read 138 Kubelwagens in June 1945, increasing to 235 in July a d another 136 in August. By September rough parts were probably used up, as only 11 made it out of the factory that month; in December total Kubelwagen production had fallen to one a month, and in February 1946 the last example left the plant.

There was much more to do than just build cars, though, In 1945, the whole area was filling up with refugees from the East, most of whom were fleeing the Russian sector (what would eventually become East Germany). By the end of 1945 there were around 6000 workers at Wolfsburg, half engaged in the manufacture of what vehicles they could, the rest just clearing up the mess, attempting to patch some temporary covering over the roof and generally just trying to turn a mile long pile of rubble, into a car plant. While so many workers was obviously a good thing, their sheer numbers brought further problems. Food and decent living accommodation were every bit as rare in Germany as raw materials for the plant t. British army trucks brought coal for the generators, but because the rest of Europe was experiencing exactly the same problem, the only way to get what was wanted was to barter for it. Most of the time, they were building cars just to trade for the materials to build more cars.

Production wasn't limited to the Kubelwagen either. Using the old KdF sedan body on the Kubelwagen chassis, the Type 51 started to appear in August 1945, presumably as the supply of Kubelwagen bodies dried up. By the end of that first year, as many as 703 Type 51s had been built along with 713 Type 93 closed trailers, 275 Type 83 sedan-based closed delivery vans and 219 Type 28 Kubelwagen-based closed deliveries. When It came to the ordinary Type saloons, only 58 appeared that year, most of them built in December.

Setting the style for a further 36 million Beetles, those first, lonely few came with some very Interesting features, For a start there were new vent windows; in fact they didn't appear until October 1952 on the Export model. At the rear, there was still the famous 'pretzel' split rear window wit the large vertical air vents beneath it, while the rear engine cover featured tat classic W-shaped moulding and a small combined stop and license plate light. The rear lights, which were to undergo many a change over the Beetle's 35 year -history, began as tiny round units to fit the curvature of the rear fenders.

Compared with the cars of even a year or two later, the Beetles came with very little in the way of interior comfort. Simple plain cloth-covered seats were lightly padded with horsehairs, while the hardboard door panels were covered in leather cloth. A spindly black three-spoke steering wheel with its central horn button sat in front of the simplest of
dashboards. It comprised two central panels in relief, one housing the speedometer, the other just embossed with the circular VW logo, Optimistically reading to 120km per hour, the speedo had the Ignition switch directly beneath it and two nicely shaped knobs either side. A further knob, in the center of the dash worked the semaphore turn signals. Even at these early stages, the car came with heating, piped through a single heat exchanger on the back of one of the exhaust pipes to a single outlet in the front bulkhead on the driver's side, At the time, Volkswagens were available only in a blue gray, the original non--committal KdF color. There were special colors for the military however. The British Army had some in green, the Coal Board had black, the RAF and US Army sedans were gray and the Russians were allowed a few in maroon.

Those Russian cars count as among the first exported Volkswagens, the only others being the few that were taken home by foreign servicemen and a trainload commandeered by the French in 1946. Apparently the British had to entertain Soviet officers while their 50 drivers were taught to drive outside!

There was no chrome work on those early cars so the bumpers with their little overriders were usually black. The 'nipple type' hubcaps (the center bulge to clear the hub center nut) were also painted.

On the mechanical side, the first Beetles used the l13lcc motor from the -wartime Schwimmwagen, From a bore and stroke of 75 and 64m and a compression ratio of 5.8:1, the flat four developed 25 h at 3300rpm. It was built around a two-piece crankcase with bolt-on finned barrels and a centrally mounted camshaft, gear driven directly off the forged steel crankshaft, which sat above it. The pushrods ran in separate tubes to the aluminium alloy heads. The distributor was also driven off a gear on he end of the crankshaft, while the generator was mounted on a pedestal, cast-in as part of the crankcase. The other end of the generator was connected to the all-important upright engine cooling fan.

The very earliest KdF-Wagens came with a cylindrical fuel tank under the bonnet, but this was soon changed for an 8-gallon rectangular version. The reserve fuel lever, hidden away in the passenger footwells (it was later centralised) allowed access to the last gallon of gasoline through an ingenious dual-level tap device at the bottom of the tank, Gasoline was supplied to the engine through a mechanical fuel pump into a small carburetor, which until the war had always been a downdraft Solex, but as Solex were in Berlin (the Russian sector) after the war, they lost supply until April 1950. The home-built unit comprised a body and float chamber made at the factory from die-cast aluminium, with the smaller parts coming from the German camera makers. Exhaust gases exited from both ends of each cylinder head into a small single exit exhaust muffler, mounted under the rear valance. The driver's side (left-hand drive) exhaust had the small heat exchanger for the heating system, of course. And as the very early cars had little or no sound insulation around the engine bay, the excessively noisy.

In the suspension department, things were still very simple. At the front, two transverse tubes carried split-leaf torsion bars. Five eaves in the upper tube, four in the lower. These were fixed in the center of the tubes with a pinch bolt and connected to the four rearward pointing trailing arms. And these in turn were fixed to the spindles and spindle arms and link pins and traditional kingpins. Single-acting shock absorbers all round were by Hemscheid. And steering was a simple worm and nut box, connected to the steering wheel via a flexible 'doughnut'.

At the rear, following the Type 60 design, the four-speed transmission conveyed the drive via two swing axles, held in place at the rear hubs by single blade-like control arms which connected them to he transverse torsion bars.

Car production aside, the long running debate over who should actually own the factory and the facilities it offered continued throughout 1945. Technically, the Wolfsburg facility was on offer to the Allies as part of the war reparations, yet on repeated occasions no other country took up the offer. This was partly because a half-demolished factory and a few battle-scarred machines was hardly the most desirable of prizes, but also because the British motor Industry refused to see the value of Porsche's basic design, Because the military had found the little car so very effect during the war, one of the very first post war Beetles was sent to England for appraisal. The bastions of the British car industry did not share the Army's enthusiasm, finding the car too ugly, noisy and generally too odd, Compared with what was on offer in Britain In the immediate post war period, the Beetle was completely incongruous, so their reaction is understandable. Later that year, a delegation from the British Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) visited the factory and wrote a report, 'Investigation of the Developments in the German Automobile during the Post War Period'. This was followed by a further report, published In 1946. Entitled, 'Investigation into the Design and Performance of the Volkswagen or German People's Car', it contained a comparative road test between a Hillman Minx and the Volkswagen that had been sent to England some months No doubt on the say-so of the few engineers at the Humber car company evaluated the Volkswagen, the British eventually turned both car and factory down. And although this was proved very bad judgment, they can take comfort In the fact the they were by no means the only ones.

In February 1947 the Australian Reparations Commission turned down the chance, and in February 1948 Henry Ford II did the same At a well-documented meeting in Cologne in March 1948, Mr Ernest Breach, one of Ford's advisors summed it up with the words, 'I don't think what we're being offered here is worth a damn'. One wonders what his thoughts were 20 years later when Volkswagen became Germany's biggest company and Volkswagen vehicles were being built at a rate of one every eight seconds and exported to 130 countries across the world.

The only country who did express an interest was Russia, who a approached the British authorities in the summer of 1948. Unfortunately for them, East-West relations had already begun to cool and plans were in hand to give it back to the West Germans, so the bid was rejected, along with another idea which would have moved the Soviet border so as to place the plant lust Inside the Russian sector.

Despite the various rejections, it wasn't until 1949 that the plant was finally returned to the Germans. It was only through the in ingenuity and sheer stubbornness of the British officers in charge of the plant t at Wolfsburg survived the immediate postwar upheaval at all. Major Ivan Hirst had secured an order for 10,000 Volkswagens in 1946 and production was growing all the time. But struggle was very much the order of the day - Using the traditional, though frowned upon, method of bartering for the things they needed, whole train loads of coal were diverted to Wolfsburg, and much needed machinery was mysteriously 'acquired' from other parts of the country. The plant was steadily turned from a bomb site into a proper national car factory, although production stopped if it rained.

Production grew to about 1000 cars a month in 1946 for a yearly total of 7767 vehicles. There were a few Type 51s, the odd type 93 trailer and one Kubelwagen but for the most part, the factory mainly turned out the plain old Type 11 sedans. The total for 1947 was up slightly at 987 vehicles, but the problems of supply were still huge and what was produced was still only available to certain people. And 'certain people' didn't Include the general public.

1950 - 1958 — The Legend

The master plan depended on certain fixed decisions about what the company should do and be. The first was that they should pursue a one-model policy, much as Henry Ford had done with his Model T. True, there were variations on the theme, but the basic design philosophy that ran through the whole range was one of unity of design ideas. Although the introduction of the Type 2 van and the Type 3 and 4 passenger cars later prove this policy both hasty and commercially not viable, all those models share much the same suspension and engine design principles. Another decision was that the basic beetle body shape should remain the same, despite strong pressures, especially from export markets to change it. A third policy was to open up new markets throughout the world, partly by creating a special upmarket export version of the basic German Beetle. The first export model was launched in July 1949 and along with the introduction of two new Volkswagen Cabriolets, the Karmann 4-seater and Hebmuller 2-seater versions (of which, more later), heralded yet more changes to the Volkswagen model numbering system.

The Volkswagen model year, ran from January to December until 1955. The 1956 model year began on 1 August 1955 and subsequent years always ran from August to August. So dates quoted here for changes in the car's equipment or construction refer t model years, not the strict calendar dates. it must also be remembered that changes introduced in Germany may not correspond immediately with those in other countries. New in 1949 was a cable-release hood catch to replace the previous locking external handle, while at the back, the manual engine starting handle and its bumper-mounted support bracket were finally discontinued. There was also a change in the floor pan about this time which gave rear passengers proper footwells.

Volkswagen engines did not have the best reputation for reliability and long service, and 1949 saw the first steps to improve them. In June, better crankcase breathing was introduced, while in September the metal composition of the cylinders was altered to increase the amount of phosphorus for longer engine life. Magnesium replaced aluminium for the transmission case to make it even lighter. The chassis did not escape modification either, and the Beetle gained improved road holding with new double acting shock absorbers, soon followed by an extra leaf in the bottom torsion bar in 1950.

Bumpers were now chromed with a groove along the enter and the new style hubcaps with their bigger VW badge were chromed. The new bright trim (chrome plated brass) extended along the sides of he body and down the center of the hood, which also gained a bright VW badge at the top end of the chrome trim. To silence complaints about engine nose, export models had better sound-deadening in the engine compartment while at the other end, they moved the horn from behind the front bumper to beneath the front left-hand wing to give the front a less cluttered look. To ensure the horn blast could be heard properly, a small round grille was introduced to the bottom of both fenders; the dummy (without a hole behind it) right hand one was obviously just to balance the one on the left. For improved interior comfort, the export models had better trim with adjustable front seats and arm rests for both front and rear passengers. There were even optional bolster cushions, shaped like giant sausages with pretty gathered ends. The export instrument panel was an ivory colour with matching knobs and a new white two-spoked steering wheel, and there was even a clock to fill the right-hand dash space. The starter button was in the middle of the dash just below the pull-out ashtray the interior light was switched on from the windscreen wiper control!

In every way the Beetle was becoming more refined in April 1950 there came an optional full-length canvas sunroof, which provided the fresh air of a convertible when needed or the closed comfort of the Sedan. Sunroofs were manufactured by the German Golde company but installed by Volkswagen on the production line. They took the form of a canvas top with ribs that slid in tracks at the two sides to sit neatly on the back of the roof, and there were various designs over the years. The earliest version came in cloth with four square corners, then after 1955 it was shortened slight with rounded front corners. In August 1956 it was lengthened again and in September 1956 it was changed to vinyl before the introduction of the new sliding steel sunroof in 1964. Another option in 1950 was rear vent windows, but they were obviously not too much of a success as they were replaced in 1951 by small vents in the front quarter panels so instead of the rear passengers getting the draught, the front passengers did. This was hardly the best of ideas either, and once again it lasted just one year, to be replaced in October 1952 by the far more sensible front window vents.

By now the engine was fitted with a simple mechanical thermostat in the form of a sort of bellows that would heat up and open various flaps to allow more cooling air around the cylinder barrels. Volkswagen also introduced the Autothermik pistons with offset piston pins to held reduce piston slap. Along with better valve seals and exhaust valves, they improved the engine's overall reputation.

Incredibly, it was not until 1950 that the first major modifications and improvements in the braking system took place. In April the export model was lucky enough to get proper hydraulic brakes with it's combined master cylinder/reservoir lust below the fuel tank. The 1200 Standard however, kept mechanical brakes until 1964. In reality, there were few brake modifications over the years, more in the way of detail changes than anything else. Front linings were made wider (30mm to 40mm) in 1957, front and rear brake cylinder bores were increased at the same time and then decreased in 1967 back to 17.5mm. Disk brakes were not used until much later.

Setting the style for every future Beetle, the aluminium crankcase was replaced with the new magnesium alloy in 1951 and in March of that year they also swapped to single valve springs to reduce the reciprocating weight and, no doubt, the number of parts that might break. The new Solex 28PCI carburetor with its built-in accelerator pump mechanism and new inlet manifold, helped eradicate the acceleration fiat spots also.

Updates elsewhere were few and far between in 1951. Notable additions were that export Beetles gained a few more details with their trim, a chrome strip was added to the windshield surround, while the nose of the hood gained the attractive little Wolfsburg crest with its castle, slotted on to the bottom end of the chrome trim, just above the polished aluminum hood handle.

In contrast, 1952 was full of changes and new features. Production of new cars had now passed 100,000 per year and each new feature brought new customers in more countries around the globe. The major change was in the interior. The dashboard was re-designed and lost most of the character of the old one, not to mention the amount of storage space. The speedometer was now mounted straight into a flat dash panel, with a centrally-mounted rectangular grill that had provision for a radio speaker to be mounted behind it. There was also room for an optional radio mounted in the underdash area, filled with a blanking plate, and even special lump in the car's roof panel just above the windshield, which took the top radio aerial mount. The new dashboard is usually associated with the 1953 change - from a split rear window to the oval shape. But because the dash alteration came in October 1952 and the oval window was not introduced until March of the following year, there are some split-window Beetles with the later style dash, another new feature was the glove compartment lid, opened by a tiny button. Glove box lids had been standard on Beetle Cabriolets before, but only optional on sedans. There was a small ashtray on the new dash, flush-mounted and painted to match. And the control for the semaphores was moved on to the steering column like normal indicators stalk, but fixed to the side of the column with a metal strap.

Until now, operating the windows had been a major chore, but a new mechanism was fitted so that it now only required 3.5 turns to fully lift the window, not 10.5! as before. The interior light was moved from the back to the nearside, just above the door pillar and the rear view mirror became more rounded in shape.

On the outside 1952 saw new windshield wipers. Previously they had thin wire arms, driven by a small electric motor under the cowl. The new arms had a flat profile and they even self-parked. The proper vent windows introduced in 1952, not only replaced the front leg-level vents, but they also superseded another method of control of ventilation - the small cutouts in the front top corner of the windows that would let in a little air if you opened them just slightly. From October, the front horn grilles were an oval shape, and chrome-plated on the export cars, a feature which lasted on l200cc models right up to July 1973, though they were later swapped for a lightweight aluminium alloy pressing.

At the back, the engine cover now got a T-handle, replacing the previous loop type and the old rear light was swapped for a new one, but fatter. The new light dispensed with the stop light too, as this facility was transferred to the two rear fender taillights. Replacing the single red parker lights, these attractive little units had a small red oval main lightface with the stop light as a yellow, some red heart-shaped window in the top. Export rear lights had a chrome ring from around 1949. indicators were still the semaphores in the door pillar.

On the mechanical side, October 1952 also saw the old 16 inch wheels being replaced by 4 inch by 15 inch rim which gave rise to changes in the transmission ratios. Though they were already slightly different between Standard and export models anyway. The new transmission on the export model also received synchromesh on second, third and fourth gears. To help ride and handling six-leaf front torsion bars were introduced later changed again to 8 leaves in 1953, the suspension travel was extended by some 30mm to 135mm and the size of the rear torsion bars were reduced at the same time. Although 1953 is regarded by many as a great cutoff year, the end of the famous split rear window (last split window built on 10 March), it was hardly a remarkable year in terms of body work changes overall. A lock-button was added to the vent window catches and the brake master cylinder reservoir was relocated. The new steel reservoir pot now sat on the shelf behind the spare tyre under the hood. now the real chromed steel trim was swapped for polished aluminium alloy.

Australia was another country to fall to the all-conquering Volkswagen, though it never really caught on as it did in other areas. The first Australian Volkswagen was imported in 1951, a 1946 model taken over as part of the possessions of one Therese Hanael. Official imports began in 1953 and in 1954 Martin and King Pty Ltd began assembling completely "Knocked Down Beetles" in Melbourne. It did not take long for Volkswagen (Australasia) Pty Ltd to capture 10 per cent of the sedan car market passing that goal in 1954. In 1960 they produced their own 1200 Beetle model, 80 per cent of it originated in Australia. The 100,000th Australian Beetle left the line in 1961 and was swapped with the Hanael's original 1946 for the VW museum. Yet despite achieving their 200,000th car in 1964 with plans for bigger and better manufacturing plants, the Melbourne facility returned to C.K.D assembly in 1967 and the plant was finally sold to Datsun in 1975. The tooling was sold to Indonesia and production continued there.

The first increase in engine power for over ten years came n 1954 as capacity was raised from 1131cc to 1192cc, achieved by increasing the bore slightly from 75 to 77mm. At the same time, the engine got larger inlet valves(28 to 30mm), compression was raised to 6:1 and the cylinder heads were designed for better flow with more fins for better cooling. The distributor now came with additional vacuum advance too, all of which came together to squeeze out another 5hp - 30hp at 3400rpm. The last 25 horsepower engine appeared literally on the last day of 1953. Overall fuel consumption was logged at 34.5mph, worse than the previous 37.7, but the kerbweight was up 60 pounds.

Inside the car the starter, which had previously been a separate button left of the speedo was now incorporated into the ignition switch, the ashtray gained a smart chrome trim and there were buttons in the door jambs for the automatic courtesy light. The seats were made slightly more comfortable and the rear one was slimmed to give passengers more room. New style rear lamps ditched the heart-shaped lens in response to US laws. The lamp itself became larger to for a double filament bulb. In August of the following year Volkswagen moved the rear lamps two inches up the fenders to make them more visible. 1954 was also the last year the US had semaphore turn signals, replaced in 1955 by small bullet shaped indicators mounted low down on the front fenders to the outside of the headlamps.

With 1955 came the change in model year designation, the 1956 model year began immediately after the factory's summer shutdown in August 1955. The 1,000,000th Beetle was built in August 1955. Apart from changes we have already mentioned in taillight location and sunroof fabric little happened until 1958 when the small oval rear window finally disappeared.

The last Beetle with a single exhaust pipe, appeared on 31 July 1955, replaced by twin tailpipes, chromed on export cars, black enamel on the Standard model. Other engine modifications included a larger oil pump drive to reduce engine wear and later, in January 1957, the size of the internal oil passages were increased for the same reason. While at the front, a new fuel tank gave Beetle drivers slightly more luggage space, yet retained almost the same fuel capacity.

In 1956 new bumpers where introduced, which built on the basic blade bumpers by the addition of round tubes passing through the overriders, curving own to plug back into the bumper and braced to the body with yet further tubes. The front had one tube, running straight across the length of the bumper blade, the rear came with two tubes, one on each side. The gap was to allow opening of the engine lid. Interior upgrading in 1956 saw a cranked shift lever to allow the heater control to be moved forward, and the front seats were widened by 1¼ inches. They even had three-position adjustment for the backs. To allow the driver to get a good view of the speedometer, the steering wheel spokes were lowered so they came out of the bottom of the central boss and to aid with proper door location new adjustable striker plates were introduced in 1957. At the same time, the two front air outlets were moved back nearer to the door posts with slotted louvers replacing the old wire covers.

In 1958 the Beetle lost the famous small oval rear window increasing rear visibility by a sizeable amount and at the same time reducing the rear air intakes in size. The windshield was enlarged to match the rear window and the old engine cover was changed.

Extracts taken from "VW Beetle" by Clive Prew