A ‘Sandfarben’ 1952 VW Deluxe Saloon carries home the ‘Tannenbaum’
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Category Archives: Volkswagen
The Allure of Period Colours
by J Kraus
Lord Brett Sinclair’s Bahama Yellow Aston Martin DBS in “The Persuaders!”
Ancient wisdom once held that in the vintage car market, red, white and black were the best colours for resale. However, as Bob Dylan once declared; The times they are a-changin’.
Early Porsche 911 collectors for example often seek out and pay a premium for the colours that made those cars unique to their time period: Signal Orange, Viper Green, Aubergine, Tangerine; even the more esoteric shades of Olive and Golden Green.
The Heyday of Cursive Script
by J. Kraus
1964 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS. A masterwork in the annals of badging: cursive lettering, gold-anodised finish, canted 45-degrees, and unique placement flowing over the curved transition from rear deck to rear quarter panel
Free-flowing cursive script is not often seen on automobiles today. It still survives at Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini, Maserati and Porsche. Outside this quartet it is rare indeed. In days past, cursive was common throughout the industry.
Such longhand script was often utilized to enable casting a complete badge out of a single piece of metal. The alternative was to either run block letters together, or connect individual block characters with a bar across the top (à la Ferrari,) a bar at the bottom (typified by BMW and Mercedes-Benz) or through the centre in the style of Alfa Romeo.
Pre-war cars used cursive scripting almost exclusively, although badging itself was generally minimal or nonexistent. In the 1900’s manufacturer nameplates were usually affixed only to the front of the radiator, and model designations were not displayed. In the thirties, even this practice declined, with most vehicles displaying the manufacturer’s name only via a stylized logo atop the radiator shell. After the war, marque and model badging began proliferating and begat its own art form.
Eine Woche in Volkswagenwerk, 1953
by J Kraus
VW bodies travel on overhead conveyor from paint shop to final assembly, Wolfsburg, Germany
In April of 1953, German photographer Peter Keetman (1916-2005) spent a week at the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg. Peter was a founding member of Fotoform, a group of German photographers whose work meshed abstraction with objectivity, often incorporating close-ups and repetition. The images resulting from the Volkswagen project eventually became some of his favourite and best known.
When Herr Keetman visited, VW was at a pivotal point in its history. The Beetle and the Type II Transporter/Microbus were the only two products Volkswagen produced. However, a third model, the Karmann Ghia, had been developed and was little more than a year from introduction. The Wolfsburg plant was still VW’s only automobile manufacturing facility, but their second European assembly plant (Hanover) was in the planning stage, and Volkswagen do Brazil was in the process of beginning pilot production.
The Sixties at Fifty: 1961
by J Kraus
1961 Porsche poster celebrating competition victories of the prior season
By 1961 the last vestiges of the fifties were ebbing and the currents of the sixties starting to more strongly assert themselves. The second year of the decade witnessed the first manned space flight, construction of the Berlin Wall and the first season of The Avengers.
It was a banner year for British sports car enthusiasts. Jaguar unleashed its dramatic new feline, the ‘E’ Type, dubbing it The Most Advanced Sports Car in the World.
Volkswagen Revisited
by J Kraus
When Volkswagens were unique. This VW 1500, introduced in September of 1966, is one of the most coveted among collectors with its unique blend of big motor and disc brakes combined with the final appearance of the Beetle’s original svelte bumpers and sloping headlamps.
Bloomberg has picked up a story line that Auto Universum explored back in May 2009. The issue is the risks that lurk behind the continuing brand proliferation and commodification at Volkswagen. Apparently people are getting wise to the fact that many of the overlapping Skoda, SEAT, VW and Audi models are distressingly similar under the skin. This phenomenon is worsening as time goes on and even affects VW’s higher-line models.
If you buy a new Audi TT, your car is riding on a platform shared with the Škoda Yeti and powered by a generic VW Group engine. If your wallet allows you to buy a new Lamborghini Gallardo, you end up with a very nice VW Group 5.2 litre V10 purring away out back, but the same motor is also found (with a different crankshaft, sump and tuning) under the hood of the Audi S6 Sedan, a car that sells for a third of the price of the Lamborghini.
Read the Bloomberg piece here.
The Advent of Fuel Injection
by J Kraus
Messerschmitt Me 109 fighter powered by a Mercedes-Benz V12 fed with Bosch fuel injection
World War II, and the events preceding, did much to seed the development of automotive fuel injection. The concept of injecting precise amounts of fuel into the engine, as opposed to relying on vacuum to draw in approximately the right amount always held promise. The potential of overcoming the carburettor drawbacks of sensitivity to g-forces and altitude changes increased the allure. The war sped things along.
By 1940, Italy was suffering from widespread fuel shortages due largely to the vast amounts of gasoline Mussolini sent to Spain in support of Generalísimo Francisco Franco’s Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. Shortages intensified when export of petroleum products to Italy was banned by the League of Nations.
When Volkswagen Took a Walk on the Wild Side
by J Kraus
“Place Pigalle” by Stanley Black and his Orchestra Montmarte, 1957. Capturing the atmosphere of a night in Paris.
At the height of the Swinging Sixties, everyone was (literally and figuratively) letting their hair down and doing things that would have been unheard of (or at least kept private) just a decade earlier. It was the era of satellites, moon launches, the pill, James Bond, The Beatles, the Twist and the Watusi.
Automobile manufactures were building family sedans with extra punch, and with the debut of the Lamborghini Miura, we witnessed the birth of the supercar.
Image from the Past
Swedish postal stamps depicting a Citroën DS, Ford Mustang, Volkswagen Beetle and Volvo PV 444
A Concise History of the Alloy Wheel
by J Kraus
1968 BMW 2800CS riding on unusually elegant alloy wheels featuring a polished chrome centre cap discreetly concealing the mounting lugs. Visible fasteners on a contemporary automobile are generally considered to represent a lack of refinement, yet seem to be embraced when they appear on otherwise highly stylized wheels. These were produced for BMW in Italy by FPS (Foundry Pedrini Siena).
Today, alloy wheels are all but ubiquitous and are used by automobile manufacturers as a key styling feature, often used to differentiate model ranges and equipment specification. They started becoming popular with the general public in the 1980’s, but were in fact offered sporadically since 1924.
Previous to the development of the alloy wheel, wheels were formed of two pieces of pressed steel, the rim and the disc, either welded or riveted into a single unit. Or, they were fabricated of a steel or aluminium rim, connected to a centre hub by metal spokes. A transitional design was a hybrid utilizing a steel disc for strength and an aluminium rim for weight saving. Such a design was used by Porsche and Jaguar in the 1950’s. Another example was the Borrani Bimetal, used on several Italian sporting models.
