BEETLE
MANIA
The unveiling of Volkswagen’s Final Edition variant
of the world-renowned Beetle at the end of last year
marked their much-lamented demise. Chris Dowlen
CEng CTPD FIED FIMechE REngDes looks back at
the Beetle’s remarkable history and infl uence
Essentially, there have been
two major categories of the
Volkswagen Beetle. The vision
for the rst Volkswagen, or
People’s Car, came from Adolf Hitler,
and was designed by Ferdinand Porsche
as a car for the people – a cheap car
to put the Germans on the road. But
production didn’t start until after the War,
in 1946, when the British took over the
factory. The last production examples
of Volkswagen Beetle is a
retrospective visual design,
based on the underpinnings
of the Volkswagen Golf. It was
rst put into production in 1997
and underwent a facelift in 2010. It is
production of this version of the Beetle
that was phased out in 2019. But this is
a good chance to put both versions of the
rear; a backbone and platform chassis;
Volkswagen Beetle into perspective and
review their design.
The main design features of the car
were there from the start in 1936 – a
rounded form, with seating for four; aircooled
horizontally-opposed engine in the
independent suspension all round.
Front suspension geometry was double
trailing arms and at the rear were swing
axles. The suspension medium was
transverse torsion bars.
HOLDING ITS OWN
Typically, in 1936, cars had started
to become more rounded. Many cars
at that time had channel-section
chassis and separate bodies, with
longitudinally-mounted, water-cooled
front engines with four in-line
cylinders, and with drive to the rear
wheels. Independent suspension had
just started to come in, usually at
the front. The Beetle compares well
of this Volkswagen Beetle were built in
2003. The second category
Left: Volkswagen Beetle 1962,
Vienna, and Ford C 1936, typical
of the cars when the Beetle
was originally conceived.
(Photos: Chris Dowlen)
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