Volkswagen Beetle 1st generation
Volkswagen beetle 1st generation is so famous model that still nowadays we can see the car running on the road.
Production
1938–2003: 21,529,464 built
(15,444,858 in Germany,
incl. 330,251 Cabriolets)
(3,350,000 in Brazil)
Class-----> Subcompact, economy car
Body style-----> 2-door saloon;2-door convertible
Layout----> RR layout
Engine
1100 cc H4
1200 cc H4
1300 cc H4
1500 cc H4
1600 cc H4
Dimension
Wheelbase --- 2,400 mm (94.5 in)
Length --- 4,079 mm (160.6 in)
Width --- 1,539 mm (60.6 in)
Curb weight --- 800–840 kg (1,760–1,850 lb)
Story about the Volkswagen
The need for a people's car ("Volkswagen" in German), its concept and its functional objectives, was formulated by the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap, simple car to be mass-produced for his country's new road network. Lead engineer Ferdinand Porsche and his team took until 1938 to finalise the design. The influence on Porsche's design of other contemporary cars, such as the Tatra V570, and the work of Josef Ganz remains a subject of dispute.The result was the first Volkswagen, and one of the first rear-engined cars since the Brass Era. With 21,529,464 produced,the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single platform ever made.
Although designed in the 1930s, the Beetle was only produced in significant numbers from 1945 on (mass production had been put on hold during the Second World War) when the model was internally designated the Volkswagen Type 1, and marketed simply as the Volkswagen (or "People's Car"). Later models were designated Volkswagen 1200, 1300, 1500, 1302 or 1303, the former three indicating engine displacement, the latter two derived from the type number. The model became widely known in its home country as the Käfer (German for "beetle") and was later marketed as such in Germany,and as the Volkswagen in other countries. For example, in France it was known as the Coccinelle (French for ladybug).
The original 25 hp Beetle was designed for a top speed around 100 km/h (62 mph), which would be a viable speed on the Reichsautobahn system. As Autobahn speeds increased in the postwar years, its output was boosted to 36, then 40 hp, the configuration that lasted through 1966 and became the "classic" Volkswagen motor. The Beetle ultimately gave rise to variants, including the Karmann Ghia, Type 2 and external coach builders. The Beetle marked a significant trend, led by Volkswagen, Fiat, and Renault, whereby the rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout increased from 2.6 percent of continental Western Europe's car production in 1946 to 26.6 percent in 1956. The 1948 Citroën 2CV and other European models marked a later trend to front-wheel drive in the European small-car market, a trend that would come to dominate that market. In 1974, Volkswagen's own front-wheel drive Golf model succeeded the Beetle. In 1994, Volkswagen unveiled the Concept One, a "retro"-themed concept car with a resemblance to the original Beetle, and in 1998 introduced the "New Beetle", built on the contemporary Golf platform with styling recalling the original Type 1. It remained in production through 2010, being succeeded in 2011 by the more aggressively styled Beetle (A5), which was also more reminiscent of the original Beetle.
In the 1999 Car of the Century competition, to determine the world's most influential car in the 20th century, the Type 1 came fourth, after the Ford Model T, the Mini, and the Citroën DS.
The originating concept behind the first Volkswagen, the company, and its name, is the notion of a people’s car – a car affordable and practical enough for common people to own.Hence the name, which is literally "people's car" in German, pronounced [ˈfɔlksvaːɡən]). Although the Volkswagen was mainly the brainchild of Ferdinand Porsche and Adolf Hitler,the idea is much older than Nazism, and existed since mass-produced cars came around.Contrary to the United States, where the Ford Model T had become the first car to motorize the masses, contributing to household car ownership of about 33% in 1920 and some 46% in 1930 — by the early 1930s, the German auto industry was still mostly limited to luxury models, and the average German could rarely afford anything more than a motorcycle. As a result, only one German out of 50 owned a car.
In April 1934, Hitler gave the order to Porsche to develop a Volkswagen.The epithet Volks- literally, "people's-" had been applied to other Nazi-sponsored consumer goods as well, such as the Volksempfänger ("people's radio").
In May 1934, at a meeting at Berlin's Kaiserhof Hotel, Chancellor Hitler insisted on a basic vehicle that could transport two adults and three children at 100 km/h (62 mph) while not using more than 7 litres of fuel per 100 km (32 mpg US/39 mpg UK). The engine had to be powerful for sustained cruising on Germany's new Autobahnen. Everything had to be designed to ensure parts could be quickly and inexpensively exchanged. The engine had to be air-cooled because, as Hitler explained, not every country doctor had his own garage. (Ethylene glycol antifreeze was only just beginning to be used in high-performance liquid-cooled aircraft engines. In general, radiators filled with water would freeze unless the vehicle was kept in a heated building overnight or drained and refilled each morning.)
The "People's Car" would be available to citizens of Nazi Germany through a savings scheme, or Sparkarte (savings booklet), at 990 Reichsmark, about the price of a small motorcycle. (The average weekly income was then around 32RM.)
Volkswagen Beetle is a very old and famous model among the all cars in he world. The model has highest selling record in the history
Logo image source : From google
History source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Beetle
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