The Sunday News
Lovert Mafukure
One of the most iconic cars of all time and the world’s most produced car ever — the VW Beetle — has been around for decades and a few still running with no issues.
History has it that Hitler wanted an affordable car for the people that could be driven in the desert heat where there was no water! He wanted a simple car to be mass-produced for Germany’s new road network.
It somehow seems like the beetle was a trophy that would eventually remind people of the Nazis but let’s look at it as a trophy that reminds us of the not so distant past and let it shape our future.
The design of the beetle was nothing less than majestic. For people to eventually call it a bug or beetle is or was because it really looked like a bug.
Mass production started in 1945 with the last Beetle produced in 2003 at some factory in Mexico. That makes the beetle the most produced car of all time. When production ended in 2003 with some 21 million Beetles had been sold. They cited decreasing demand for the Beetle with people opting for newer cars.
The Iconic bug was designed to have 4 cylinder flat four engine which was air-cooled.
Flat four meant that the cylinders were horizontally opposed. It had cast iron block and aluminium heads. Initially, the engine was producing 25hp, and later a daunting 40hp. By design, the engine was located at the back of the car.
This has been the tradition with Porsche ever since the inception of the Porsche 356, which sourced most of its parts from VW. Up to now Porsche has continued its classic tradition on the 911 and the 996. It does not look like it’s likely to change as the 911 has become one of the best super cars ever made.
Throughout its long life-time the VW Beetle featured a 4 speed manual transmission and a 3 speed semi automatic transmission. Since the engine was in the rear, the transmission transferred power to the rear wheels as well.
In proper boxer engine fashion, Vw Beetle owners noted that it wasn’t that good on fuel, from the 1300 motor to the 1600 all of them were heavy on fuel. They were made way before computer chips were even thought of and everything was just mechanical but no-matter how much you tried to adjust the carburettors, they drink drank like whales.
The location of the engine also brought into question the issue of safety. There were no airbags then or seatbelts and Hitler wanted a cheap and simple car and that meant they had to create a metal body on wheels that could be driven from point A to B and was affordable to everyone.
That said, this vehicular object was underpowered so much that it was only good for short trips and long trips were a pain.
Later on power increased from 25hp to about 40hp but still that did not solve the problem. One Beetle owner said, “they were so slow they could hardly get out of their own way”. So, if you were planning on getting a Beetle for a project you better be willing to spend a little bit of money on a Subaru STI Motor.
Overheating issues from the air-cooled engine have also been recorded throughout all the years it was in production. I’d like to believe the engine location wasn’t really a great idea for an air cooled engine. The very reason radiators are put in front of the car nowadays is the same reason the engine should have been in front. There isn’t that much airflow at the back and that is why most of them had issues with warped heads, melted pistons and the like. But for what it’s worth the Beetle did run a good mile and over 20 million of them were sold. A few remain up to day and that should say something about the Beetles.
In their quest to produce a simple car that was perhaps maintenance free or required little maintenance, they produced a somewhat bag of lemons though it lasted for so many years, perhaps because it was still in production for those many years. Its simplicity also meant they did not invest much in safety, the only thing that would protect you in a crash was that spare wheel and fuel tank under the bonnet!
The designers of the VW Beetle had interesting lines of thought I should say, the Beetle was flat-faced with a flat windscreen, and it had some bold curves but the windscreen just had to be flat, no curve, no nothing. Since Hitler wanted a simple car, adding fancy gadgetry like the windscreen washer fluid bottle with electric pumps was going to be more than just simple so they decided to have a washer fluid bottle which sourced its pressure from the spare wheel located in the front bonnet compartment and the tyre was apparently always over inflated for that reason. It may have seemed clever to them but I don’t think it would win them an award or a place in the Guinness book and it didn’t!
So, here’s a car developed for the people as per Hitler’s instruction. — The peoples’ car! The that car birthed the luxury Porsche 911s or the 996s that are so iconic today. Hitler himself owned the car as some point. It may have come out of an Era that is not worth remembering but it is a majestic piece of engineering with history passing through generations.
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