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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Volkswagen bus turns 65
The Volkswagen bus turns 65Kurt Ernst at 8:00 am
Volkswagen Transporter production in Wolfsburg, 1950. Photos courtesy Volkswagen AG.
It began with a simple idea, sketched on notebook paper by Dutch Volkswagen importer Ben Pon in 1947. Inspired by the Plattenwagen, a flatbed factory hauler built from the wartime Kuebelwagen, Pon imagined a Beetle-based bus that could meet the needs of commercial customers and consumers alike. The result was the Type 2 Transporter, which entered production on March 8, 1950, and remains in production (entering its sixth generation) for global markets today.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)LOL
lame54
(35,345 posts)if all the hippies lean forward
nykym
(3,063 posts)Parked in my yard. It's kinda a frankenbus...dash from a 69 chassis is a 71 if I remember.
and misc years of parts incorporated. Unfortunately it has a blown engine.
But have no fear I has another engine and it is going in this spring if the snow ever melts.
Ultimate plan is to swap a Subaru 2.2 engine if the rust doesn't beat me to it.
Xithras
(16,191 posts)Several friends of mine were killed in high school while driving down a two lane highway in a a 1960 21 window. It was a windy day and a large truck passed by going the opposite way just as a gust of wind hit them. The combined air blast yanked them across the roadway and into a muddy orchard, where they hit a tree. The driver (17 years old, IIRC) had one of his legs completely severed and bled to death before they reached the hospital. His 15 year old girlfriend was killed instantly in the front passenger seat. One of the passengers (another 15 year old girl, IIRC) in the back flew out the open sunroof and hit the tree head first. My best friend in high school, and one of the few high school buddies that I still keep in contact with today, was one of the two who survived. He also went out the sunroof, but missed the tree and landed in the mud. He busted a few bones, but he lived.
The witnesses and survivors all said that the bus slowed hard in the mud and was nearly at a stop when it hit the tree. The police never worked out the exact speed of the bus at impact, but they confirmed that it was doing less than 25MPH. It folded up like a soda can.
mopinko
(70,337 posts)my first car was a 63 beetle. driving it was a white knuckle experience in ANY kind of weather. no defrosters and all.
but it did get blown around horribly. and the trunk latch was less than stable, often resulting in the hood popping up from a truckers gust of wind.
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)It was a 1969. I used to carry a spare engine in it. It got so that I could swap out engines in less than a half hour!
I think that the rust got to it.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)mopinko
(70,337 posts)mini-buses that are clearly vw's. they were a quite popular toy.
most of their vehicles were jeeps, tho.
bluesbassman
(19,385 posts)The entire interior was paneled and trimmed to resemble the cabin of a sailboat. Spent many a Friday and Saturday night cruising over to San Francisco to see a concert at Winterland or the Filmore in that old girl. Great times!
olddots
(10,237 posts)I lived thru the experience , the thing was dangerous even in a parkimg space .
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)But we only ever had one like this (also much more beat up):
Happy Birthday VW Bus!
NutmegYankee
(16,204 posts)I loved driving that van.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)Didn't realize it takes this long to get one to 65.
hunter
(38,349 posts)These vans had 25 horsepower on a good day. That's plenty enough to get you anywhere, and it would be especially so in a modern hybrid electric car.
When I was a kid our family drove two V.W. vans all over the U.S.A.. The first van's engine burned up, literally, smoke coming out of the heater vents. Smoke always came out of the heater vents, but this was more than usual. Abandon ship!
My dad later replaced it with a newer van.
I took my first driver's license test in in the second van. Modern kids raised on video games and automatic transmissions have no idea how terrifying that was. We lived in a hilly community. Stopping uphill, at a light or stop sign, was the stuff of nightmares because letting the clutch out too fast would stall the engine, and letting it out too slowly meant you'd roll backwards into the car behind you. Furthermore these vans had the sloppiest stick shift of any car ever made, before or after. It seemed to be connected to the transmission with a rubber band. Stopping on hills and hitting the right gears under the judgmental eye of a DMV officer took major guts.
Awesomely I later took this van and a mess of friends to San Francisco to hang out, to a bunch of biology and geology university field work sites, and a few nuclear power public hearings and anti-nuclear events. I enjoyed the full California young adult 1970's hippie experience, predating the Australian version:
My dad started driving more sensible cars after he hit a deer in the van. The deer was killed instantly, but the front of the van was frightfully damaged too.
Some Highway Patrol officer took the deer and probably made sausages out of it, and my dad and my brother repaired the van but later sold it for some small amount of money.
Seeing what those vans are selling for today is astonishing.
They ought to have just left it parked in the yard.
denbot
(9,901 posts)If given a choice between walking home from school and me giving my daughter a ride in my van as opposed to our sedan, she would prefer to walk.
This is my '86 Vanagon Syncro 4X4 ( A.K.A The surf wagon)
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