VW Fact #301: In 1965, 25% of all VWs produced were shipped to the US.
Right off the bat, let me make something absolutely clear: this is only freaky if you're a hard-core air-cooled VW geek (not from South Africa). Many of you won't even realize what the big deal is, but if you're a hard-core Beetle person, lay down a dropcloth since your mind is gonna be blown. Well, at least mildly blown. Since only really fierce hardcore gearheads will be shunning their families to check out cars on the web. So, it seems like a good time to get a little more geeky. Now, some background: as any VW enthusiast knows, the most dramatic change in the original air-cooled Beetle's life was the addition of the Super Beetle in 1971. The changes may seem relatively minor when you compare them to most other cars, but for a car like the Beetle, which only introduced evolutionary changes gradually, they were revolutionary. First, the front suspension setup was changed from torsion bars to a McPherson strut setup. This allowed the room in the front trunk to be more than doubled, which was pretty damn nice. The front bodywork became a bit more bulbous and wider as well. Then, in '73, VW's engineers went totally bonkers, giving the Beetle a real-car-like curved windshield and a real dashboard that was thicker than a wallet, finally. This was actually to accomodate the early airbags which never came. For most of the Beetle-having-and-building world, these two main variants defined Beetledom. In the US we called them the Standard (or just Bug, Beetle, Type I, Sedan, whatever), and Super Beetle for the fancy one. The rest of the world called the Supers the 1302 (for the flat-windshield '71-'72s) and the 1303 (for the curved window, made up until 1980 for the convertibles). We were all happy and content with our two Beetles. But not South Africa, they decided they needed to separate from the rest of the world in their Beetles. The result was an unholy chimera of a Type I Beetle, taking parts from both standard and Super Beetles with the gleeful aplomb of a mad scientist, I like it. Behold the VW 1600S: It had the standard Beetle torsion-bar suspension, but with the curved windshield (6% more glass area! Holy crap!) and big dashboard of the '73 and up Super Beetle. It also had a special hood to bridge the divide between standard- Beetle front valence and Super Beetle cowl. Plus, the 'elephant's foot'-style big taillights were mounted to old-style fenders with a strange extra cuff, which I've seen described on one forum as "uncircumcised." Oh, and it had real fake wood dash inserts! Like the US special additions and Cabriolets. The hybrid Bug came to be as a way for the South African factory to update their cars with the absolute minimum of production changes and costs. The tooling changes were reported at the time as being about 1 million South African Kruggerands or Rands, or $1,410,000 USD. All joking aside. The car looked good with the curved windshield (windscreen). Most people didn't like the "pregnant" hood of the Super Beetle. And retaining the porsche tortion suspention was cost effective, maintenance wise. It was also stronger, that's why you don't see many Super Bajas. VW of South Africa also had Project 1021 (Ten-twenty-one) with a Beetle chassis and running gear.. Looks alittle like a Suzuki Sidekick. I'd drive it, i bet it was a tank off-road. Project 1021 was designed by two British guys in the
70's. Tim Fry and Reg Myatt both ex Rootes designers.Based on the Beetle the prototypes were made in SUV and pick up versions. But cancelled because they decided to go with the Golf in South Africa, instead. Ok, we'll maybe Chrysler didn't copy the Karmann Ghia. However, I bet they wished they wouldn't have passed on it. Dodge made the first clone of the Vollswagen Transporter Type 2. Then followed Ford and Chevrolet. The Ford Fiesta was the most blatant copy of the VW Golf. From the side profile they are almost indistinguishable.
I'm not going to get into engine specs, or paint and interior. But, one easy way to tell, if not the exact year, at least a ballpark figure of a Beetle. And that would be the taillights. Another was by the rear window(s). Also the badges can help to identify the year. (As long as they are still stock.) Another way would be the head lights. You can tell if the Beetle has headlight lenses, that it would be pre-1967 and earlier. And it will have non-covered headlights with benzels, if it's post-1966. Any beetle without a dash mounted gas gauge would be pre-1962. Any beetle with front struts is a Super beetle. And would have a curved windshield and dash after 1972. Also the Super allowed for the spare to lay flat allowing extra space in the truck. In '67 VW added a padded dash. ('68 model year). The Super Beetle also had the flat padded dash and the half-moon steering wheel until '73. 1973 Super Beetles had a curved windshield. And a new steering wheel was added to both the Standard and the Super Beetles. Also the generator was replaced with an alternator in mid-'73. Moon vents were added to increase fresh air flow in 1971.
So, in conclusion Hilter designed neither the Beetle nor the Autobaun. This website was started to share information on all classic and vintage Volkswagens. So, if anyone has any tips or tricks they want to share you're more than welcome. I would also like to use the site to connect other VW enthusiasts in the Ohio Valley and surrounding area.
Ok, a little bit about myself, I have been fascinated about VWs as long as I can remember. My dad always had one while I was growing up. In fact, the first car I ever drove was an autostick super beetle, in a field behind our house. Eventually Dad bought a square back, that I loved. My first Volkswagen was a yellow '73 super. No heat what-so-ever. Well, except for a 12 volt space heater that could barely keep your hands warm. The wipers didnt work, the brakes were shot, and it had the dreaded, "super shimmy". It was produced during the first half of 1973 ,so it had a 12 volt generator. And many, many ,many more problems. It was a learning experience, but i still loved it. I love finding rare VW models and sharing them with you. Do you know about the VW Dannenhauer? Here is a great write up from TheSamba.com:
Shortly after the war Dannenhauer, along with his son Kurt Stauss set up their car building firm. Dannenhauer had had experience with the early Volkswagen prototypes before the War, he had worked for Reuters, who had built the bodies for the 1937 VW38 prototypes. While Dannenhauer and Strauss were keen to build their VW based sports car they’d decided to let another team design the bodywork for their car. Herren Wagner and Oswald were given the task. These two had studied in Stuttgart under Professor Dr. Kamm, who before the war had been a pioneer of streamlining and was among the first people to use wind tunnelling to achieve areodynamics. Wagner and Oswald had already built a streamline Volkswagen based car, only one of these was built but as can be seen this was a definitive forerunner of the car they designed for Dannenhauer and Stauss. D & S built what is too many the most Porsche like Beetle based sports car to have been produced in 1950s, but unlike the 356 body construction; the Dannenhauer and Strauss was still built on a Beetle floorpan and chassis. The body for the prototypes, and the eventual production cars were largely hand-built, the metal steel sections being hand formed over wooden “moulds”. Only the doors, engine lid and front bonnet where press steel components. The doors featured hidden hinges, placed at the rear (so-called suicide doors); early cars featured VW door handles, while later cars featured Porsche handles. Exterior trim was kept to a minimum-perhaps because the designers were such streamlining enthusiasts The first cars had a split front windscreens, as seen on the Drews cabriolet and many other sports cars of the time. By 1953 many changes had been made, both the nose and tail ends had been made longer and a one-piece windscreen had been added. Early grooved bumpers also gave way to clean blade type bumpers. A Porsche type grill was also added to the rear deck lid, while Porsche also supplied the chrome-plated numberplate light, which was also the cars only brake light. Inside, the car sat much lower than the Beetle it was based upon, this meant that the low seats were Dannenhauer and Stauss custom items; sitting on narrower runners. Real leather seat trimming was available as an added extra. The rear seat was a rather spartan affair, being just a padded wooden board. There was still a luggage space behind the rear seats. The folding hood was of a quality found on the Karmann Beetle Cabriolet, being well insulated with horse hair and covered on the inside with a full headlining. The small wooden-framed glass rear window was later replaced by a sown in plastic window. The dash often echoed the Volkswagen it was based on. Early cars featured the vintage Volkswagen twin open glove box with two centre instrument panels, one installed with the speedometer, the second with a radio. By 1953, following Volkswagens lead; the dash was updated with a central chrome Grill, closeable glove box and a new speedometer. Headlights were pure Volkswagen; rear headlights were made by Hella and can also be seen on some Porsche 356s. Although semaphore indicators were fitted to early cars flashing indicators were installed on all production models from the beginning. All in all the Dannenhauer and Strauss was a very sporty looking, sleek sports car. However the production car retained the Beetle engine and while the cars’ streamlining gave it the edge over the Beetle; it was no powerhouse. Early cars featured the vintage Volkswagen 25 hp engine, later updated to 30 hp. 32 mm Solex carburetors were also fitted to the standard Volkswagen engine raising this to 34 hp. Many owners obviously wanted a bit more performance from their sports car, modifying the engines with superchargers and a popular early twin carburettor system from the firm of Okrasa. The engine bays on Dannenhauer & Stauss cars was wide and spacious making these modifications relatively easy. Interestingly enough, somewhere in the region of three hardtop coupe versions were built. The first of these coupes was probably made in 1953, and possibly featuring the rather mundane 34 hp engine. The final Coupe, built in 1954 was ordered by a rich tobacco dealer, who stipulated that Porsche engines and breaks be fitted, which gave his sleek D & S coupe the Porsche performance it deserved. As is often the case at these times, with these small firms, production figures remain a matter of guesswork, with estimates varying from 80 to 135 cars being built, 18 of which are known to have survived today. Production began in 1951 and continued until 1957, it was the cost of building these hand-built cars, and stiff competition from the Karmann Ghia Coupe, introduced in 1954 that eventually ended the production life of the Dannenhauer and Stauss. In 1951 the car would have cost you DM 4,250 (you would have had to add the cost of the engine and beetle chassis to this figure), the last example built cost DM 8,742 by the time all the extras were added. Compare this to the deluxe export version of the Beetle which cost DM4,600 and the Karmann Ghia Cabriolet version which was introduced in 1957 and cost DM8250. The firm of Dannenhauer & Stauss is to the existence today, but sadly no longer producing such curvaceous VW based sports cars. All in all the Dannenhauer and Strauss was a very sporty looking, sleek sports car. However the production car retained the Beetle engine and while the cars’ streamlining gave it the edge over the Beetle; it was no powerhouse. Early cars featured the vintage Volkswagen 25 hp engine, later updated to 30 hp. 32 mm Solex carburetors were also fitted to the standard Volkswagen engine raising this to 34 hp. Many owners obviously wanted a bit more performance from their sports car, modifying the engines with superchargers and a popular early twin carburettor system from the firm of Okrasa. The engine bays on Dannenhauer & Stauss cars was wide and spacious making these modifications relatively easy. |