Volkswagen Beetle
69 years: 1934 – 2003
69 years: 1934 – 2003
69 years: 1934 – 2003
Beetles may have only featured small engines with meagre power, but their light weight, reliability and simplicity made them excellent rally and desert racing cars. Capable of outlasting more powerful, faster competition Beetles racing at desert events like the Mint 400 were soon modified into specialty race cars known as Baja Bugs, after the Baja 500 and 1000 races.
In 1964 Californian Bruce Meyer stripped down a Beetle and built an open, lightweight fibrelgass body to create the first “dune buggy”. The Meyers Manx became an icon of the 60s and was often sold in kit form. Cheap to build and run, dune buggies became wildly popular in the sunny Western United States.
Beetles were drag raced competitively from the 1960s, and this soon gave rise to a whole underground niche of heavily modified Beetle street cars. Today the “Cal look” (short for California look) involves period small-diameter wheels, with a ground-scraping stance, acres of polished or chromed accessories, and gleaming paint.
A symbol of counter-culture freedom today, the Volkswagen Beetle’s origins are actually found in 1930s Germany. Produced for 65 years, from 1938 to 2003, with more than 21.5 million examples built, the rear-engined, air-cooled icon of 20th-century transport was originally called the Type 1.
It was born from a desire for German residents to have access to an inexpensive, robust, and simple “people’s car.” While legendary engineer Ferdinand Porsche is often credited as its designer, it shares overwhelming similarities with a 1925 design from Béla Barényi, as well as taking heavy inspiration from a mid-1930s Czech Tatra 97.
The name Volkswagen translates to “people’s car,” and the Beetle, which didn’t get that name until 1968, really found its feet after World War II when its simple, dependable platform, cheap purchase price and running costs, and rugged reliability made it wildly popular the world over. Powered by a small, horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine, what started with just 1131cc eventually grew as large as 1584cc, while disc brakes, power steering, impact-absorbing bumpers, winding glass windows, 12-volt electrics, and other advances made their way onto the Beetle.
During the 1960s, they became an icon of the counter-culture hippy movement, and their familiar styling (which was left largely unchanged for the entire 65-year production) meant Beetles were a common sight on the roads, no matter where on the planet you were. Their simple bones also meant they were easily upgraded, and Beetles were being raced competitively as far back as the 1950s, including at the famed Bathurst touring car race.
The Volkswagen Beetle transcends car culture to often be regarded as one of the most important vehicles of all time.
Work on the Volkswagen Beetle began as early as May 1934, where the goals were set down for a “people’s car”; it had to fit two adults and three children, and not use more than 7L/100km worth of fuel. It had to be cheap to buy, quick to build, simply engineered, and ferociously reliable, and so Ferdinand Porsche (later of the famous sports car company) set about designing such a car.
Following a length development process which saw dozens of pre-production vehicles built and tested for over 2.5 million kilometres, production was about to commence when World War II broke out and civilian vehicle production was halted. By the time war finished in May 1945, some 1785 were built for the military forces occupying Germany as well as the local postal service.
Volkswagen evolved the Type 2 design with a new-generation model in 1967, though it retained largely similar rear-engined, cab-over underpinnings as the first-generation model. The new model was larger, heavier, and featured more square-set styling leading to its nickname as “Breadloaf”, while the large one-piece front windscreen on some models saw them referred to as “Bay Window” Kombis. Large upgrades were made to the rear suspension, removing the Beetle-based swing axle in favour of a modern system using CV joints to radically improve handling safety. The electrical system was also upgraded from the pre-War-era 6-volt of the first-generation to a modern 12-volt circuitry. Second-generation Kombis became iconic vehicles for surfers and holiday makers looking for a roomy vehicle that was cheap to run and ferociously reliable. This interest drove a cottage industry which saw many second-generation Kombis converted into camper-vans by aftermarket companies.
Volkswagen continually improved the Beetle from its inception, adding more features and improving mechanical specifications. By 1955 the engine had grown to 1.2-litres, there were hydraulic brakes and vent windows, flashing indicators (replacing the famous “semaphore” signals), among other touches. One of the most significant styling changes was the 1958 switch to a large, rectangular rear window in place of the early, small oval shape. Traditionally Type 1s had been sold as either “standard” or “export” model specifications, but this changed by the mid-60s to feature numerically differentiated models. The cheap purchase price, frugal running costs, practicality and simplicity made the Type 1 attractive to students and backpackers, which soon saw them become an icon of the 60s counter-culture scene.
The VW Type 1 had carried the “bug” nickname from before Elvis Presley was a star, but the Beetle name was made official in 1968. Volkswagen continued to improve the specifications of the Beetle, moving away from the swing-axle rear-end, switching to 12-volt electrics and disc brakes for safety, adding better impact-absorbing bumper bars, and increasing the engine size to keep pace with modern traffic. Appearances in films like Herbie, The Love Bug only further cemented their place in pop culture history, though sales dwindled in the 1980s as the Beetle faced increased competition from small Japanese and European hatchbacks, including VW’s own Golf.
While planning for a new-age Beetle began in 1991, development ended up taking a further 6 years before the New Beetle went on sale. While initial concepts had hinted at Volkswagen basing the new car off a City Car-sized vehicle, by the time the final pre-production cars were unveiled they were based on the front-engined, front-wheel-drive Golf platform. Where the original Type 1 Beetle was intended as a bare bones, simple, and cheap mode of transport, the 21st Century model would be positioned as a premium vehicle with much higher-end finishes and trim levels. During this time traditional Type 1 Beetle production continued in some parts of the world, where the rugged, reliable and cheap-to-build icon provided transport to millions of working class people. However, on 30 July, 2003, the final Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle rolled down the Puebla plant in Mexico. Across a 65-year history more than 21.5-million Beetles were built, making it the longest production run for a single model and the highest number of vehicles sold for a single model.