… it is quite unattractive to the average buyer ... To build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise."
This was the response by the British motor industry when offered what was to become a motoring icon. Do you recognise it?
The photo shows a 1949 split window type. Over time, it received grille slots in the engine cover and larger rear light clusters, and a one piece rear window which improved vision via the interior rear view mirror.
One of the selling points on the 70’s Beetle was a rear light cluster the same size as a regulation UK football. It was the first time that a manufacturer decided that larger rear lights were a good safety feature
Mechanically, it was very simple, a flat four air-cooled engine, driving a gearbox which fed power directly to the rear wheels. The only mechanical connections from the front were gear change and accelerator pedal. Fuel and spare wheel lived up front.
The whole car sat on a floor pan to which were fixed all of the important parts, and were you to remove the original body, you could replace it with something more ‘groovy’… like a Beach Buggy.
Who said that a VW Beetle couldn’t be fun? Weatherproofing was a another question altogether..
Anyway, the old Beetles were made up until 2003, but there was already a new Beetle around, front engine, front wheel drive, better able to conform to increasing safety standards and the competition.
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