The Early History of the Beetle pt2

For the last part of this article see December's Wheelspin, meanwhile...>

1938 VW38 wooden mock-up

January 1937 the Manufacturers Association issued a report generally favouring the VW design, however it believed the car couldn't be manufactured for the projected RM 990, but was prepared to take the concept over. Hitler had over ideas and from May 1937 the Volkswagen became a state-funded project and the responsibility of the German Labour Front, an organisation which had taken the place of the abolished trade unions. The Front immediately made available RM 500,000 and Daimler-Benz was commissioned to produce a further batch of 30 cars. On their completion a second series of tests similar to the one supervised by the Manufacturers Association were undertaken by members of the SS. Once these tests were successfully completed Erwin Komenda finally refined and simplified the car's styling.

Komenda first created a wooden mock up that brought the final form of the Peoples car as we all know and love.

A rear window had not be included in the original design but this was incorporated by the Reutter coach building firm in the winter of 1937/38. A divided window was introduced and, with the output of the engine's cooling fan boosted, the number and size of louvres were reduced and located below the new window. At the front a one-piece boot cover, similar to the Type 32, was installed. Also, for the first time, small running boards were featured, the VW3 and VW30s had become very dirty during testing. Here at last, was the Volkswagen in its completed form. Another batch of 44 cars of this final design were ordered from Diamler-Benz and at the same time the engine capacity was increased by 1cc to 985cc.

One of the few surviving examples of the VW 38 series (chassis number 3803) owned by VW and used by Ferdinand Porsche until 1945. It is possibly the very car Hitler was driven to Fallersleben Railway Station by Ferry Porsche after VW Factory foundation stone laying. Most of the German car industry was located in the south of the country. Aware of the fact that Henry Ford built his factories close to the sea, canals or rivers to give ease of access for materials or exports, Hitler chose a site on the banks of the Mitteland Canal in the north of Germany near the village of Fallersleben.

Porsche has already been sent to America in 1936 and 1937 to study production techniques and to woo back skilled German personnel who had emigrated to America. In addition, orders for machine tools and manufacturing equipment were placed with American Companies. In May 1938 as Adolf Hitler ceremonially laid the foundation stone at the factory site, he announced the name of the new vehicle (to the horror of Porsche) as the KdF-Wagen. KdF stood for Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy), and the planned town to house the factory's workers was to be named Stadt des KdF-Wagens (Town of the Strength through Joy Cars).

A KDF saving book

In August 1938, Labour Front chief Robert Ley announced the only method by which the public could acquire one of the new cars. The KdF could only be bought on a hire purchase system but the car would be sold when the final - rather than the first - payment was made. A savings book would be issued on receipt of RM 1 fee and this would be considered the equivalent of placing an order for the car. The basic version would cost RM 990 (£85) a version with a roll back sun roof would cost RM60 (£5)) more.

There was only one colour (in line with Ford's Model T: "You can have any colour as long as it is black) and that was blue-grey. In addition there would be a RM 200 (£17) fee to cover two year's third party and part comprehensive insurance. The idea was that there would be no agents or middlemen, and customers would have to travel to the factory to collect their cars. If this was not possible an additional RM 50 (£4) delivery fee was charged. By the end of 1938 the Labour Front had received 169,741 applications, a figure that was eventually to rise to 336,668 ordered units.

Porsche approached the Labour Front to produce a competition version of the KdF-Wagen but was turned down as it was not "in the spirit of a utilitarian Peoples Car". So he pushed ahead on his own with a design of a coupe with a mid-positioned water-cooled V10 engine which incorporated no KdF-Wagen parts. Then the authorities recognised the a sports design based on the KdF would provide good publicity. Porsche was authorised to proceed with the concept with a view to running the car in the projected Berlin-Rome-Berlin road race in September 1939. Three examples of the Type 64 were built, closely following KdF chassis and engine layout. The power unit however was boosted from 22 to 50 bhp with larger valves, twin carburettors and higher compression ratio.

However the plans for both the race and to put the KdF-Wagen into mass production at the end of 1939 ended with Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1st. Two days later Britain and France declared war. Porsche however had a Type 64 as his personal transport and used it on those deserted wartime Autobahnen. It represented the first stirrings of the Porsche marque destined to blossom in the post-war years as the Porsche 356 of 1949, the first real Porsche sports car and Ferry Porsche's first great work assisted by Karl Rabe, his father's "right hand". On the 15th August, 1940 the first KdF-Wagen left the production line. At this stage the Porsche Type 60 designation was dispensed with and the car was re-titled the VW Type 1. A few cars were manufactured up until 1944, but wartime output only totalled 640 units. They were mostly distributed among the higher echelons of the Nazi Party, from Hitler downward.

Forunner of the Porsche - The VW 60K10 built for a Berlin-Rome rally, which never took place.

The final part of the early VW history relies on the victors of war, and the foresight of the British authorities that took over a ruined car factory in 1945, the story started with the genius of Porsche and the dubious ambition of Adolf Hitler, but the all but extinguished flame that is the beetle was rekindled, ironically, by the British army.