Arrival

Strip & Metal Fab

Mechanical

Body & Paint

The need for this kind of car, and its functional objectives, were formulated by Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, wishing for a cheap, simple car to be mass produced for the new road network of his country. He contracted Porsche in 1934 to design and build it to his exacting standards.  Ferdinand Porsche and his team took until 1938 to finalize the design.  This is one of the first rear-engined cars. With over 21 million manufactured (21,529,464)  in an air-cooled, rear-engined, rear-wheel drive configuration, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single design platform, worldwide.

During the 1950′s, the car was modified progressively: the obvious visual changes mostly concerned the rear windows.  In March 1953, the small oval two-piece rear window was replaced by a slightly larger single-piece window. More dramatically, in August 1957 a much larger full width rear window replaced the oval one. 1964 saw the introduction of a widened cover for the light over the rear licence plate. Towards the end of 1964, the height of the side windows and windscreen grew slightly, giving the cabin a less pinched look: this coincided with the introduction of a very slightly curved (“panoramic”) windscreen, though the curve was barely noticeable. The same body appeared during 1966, with a 1,300cc engine in place of the 1,200 cc: only in the 1973 model Super Beetle did the Type 1 acquire an obviously curved windscreen. The flat windscreen remained on the standard Beetle.