WEBVTT - Volkswagen: Beyond the Beetle 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.880 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.919 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.439 iHeart Radio and I love all things tech. And in 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:23.600 our last episode, we talked about the founding of Volkswagen, 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:29.080 how designer, engineer and entrepreneur Ferdinand Porsche and his son, 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:35.040 also Ferdinand Porsche, but known as Fiery, responded to a 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.760 call from Adolf Hitler to design a people's car and 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:44.040 how that led to establishing Volkswagen as a company. We 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:48.280 also talked about how the manufacturing facility would switch gears 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.320 so to speak, to go into wartime production for the 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:55.200 German military during World War Two, how that made the 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:59.600 new Volkswagen facility a target during Allied bombing runs, and 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:03.760 how a British officer named Hearst campaign to return the 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:09.520 manufacturing plant back to its originally intended purpose producing civilian automobiles. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.880 And then we talked a lot about the Volkswagen Beetle. 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.720 But there's more to cover than just the old love bug. 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:20.360 So what else did Volkswagen the company do over the years. Well, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.679 for the first few years after World War Two, the 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:27.400 company focused exclusively on building the Type one. That's the 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:30.040 car that was known in the US as the aforementioned 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:34.000 Beetle or the Volkswagen Bug. The first priority for the 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.520 company was producing cars to be used by British officials 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.800 who were largely in charge of running Germany after Germany's 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:45.200 surrender after World War Two in ninety eight, after successfully 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.559 restoring the manufacturing facility to working order, the British government 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.480 tried to find someone else to take over the facility. 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:56.320 They offered it up to companies and agencies in France, Australia, 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.360 Britain and the United States, but no one was eager 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.480 to take them up on it. A year later, the 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.320 British military found the person to take over the operations, 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:10.119 a man named Heinrich Nordoff. Nordoff was born in Germany 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.480 and had worked for a company called opal Ope L, 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.960 a property of US automotive company General Motors, during World 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:22.080 War Two. He oversaw the production of trucks. That facility 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.800 also reportedly relied at least in part on forced labor, 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.880 just as Volkswagen had during World War Two. After the war, 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:35.919 the British military relied on Heinrich's expertise and eventually made 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.720 him the managing director of the Volkswagen facility. Mainly due 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.359 to the urging of Major Hearst, the British official who 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.120 had taken it over, Nordoff was able to ramp up 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:51.040 production beyond the relatively modest levels that the British military 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.720 had managed. He optimized processes, he made the whole operation 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:59.280 more efficient, and he doubled the manufacturing output in short 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:02.079 order and technically. It was around this time that the 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.080 company would officially adopt Volkswagen as its name. It would 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.760 become one of the more important manufacturing companies in the 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.960 nation of West Germany, with the region of Lower Saxony 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:17.440 in West Germany receiving a twenty percent voting stake in Volkswagen. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:22.520 The company made Type one models with different engine capacities, 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:25.799 the earliest being the modest eleven hundred cc or one 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.960 point one Leader engine that worked fine for the early 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.160 days of motoring in post war Germany, but it didn't 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.240 quite match the expectations for people living in other markets, 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.480 so the manufacturing facility began making Type one vehicles with 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:43.480 slightly beefier engines. While operations were picking up financial limitations 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:45.680 meant that the company wasn't really able to focus too 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.840 much on expanding beyond the Type one car. Ter ben 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.960 Pone Pone was a car dealer in the Netherlands who 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.680 imported Volkswagen's to sell them in his home country. He 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.040 had taken over his father's business. Originally was all about 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.880 selling sewing machines, but had gradually over time added things 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:08.920 like bicycles, motorized bikes and motorcycles, and then cars to 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:13.200 its list of products. After World War Two, he visited 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.200 the Volkswagen plant and he was impressed by the Type 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.960 one vehicle. He and the company came to an agreement 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.800 that would make ben Pons Dealership the first outside of 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:28.000 Germany to offer the Type one the VW Beetle, and 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.360 while at the facility, Pone saw a curious vehicle. Now, 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.560 it was built on top of a Type one chassis, 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.720 but it definitely didn't look like a VW Beetle. So 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:43.680 imagine a pickup truck. Now imagine that the bed of 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.279 the truck isn't behind the cab where the driver sits, 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.360 but it's instead in front of the cab. Now, remember 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.720 the Type one was a rear engine rear wheel drive vehicle. 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:58.839 So in this design you would have the engine mounted 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.839 on the back of the chassis. Above the engine compartment 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:06.080 would be a cab where the driver would sit, so 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.800 the engine is essentially under the driver's seating area. The 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.080 area in front of the cab was a flat platform 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.039 upon which workers could put parts to transport them to 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.440 other areas within the manufacturing facility. So it's kind of 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.320 like a forklift, only without the lift part. Because the 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.719 platform on the chassis didn't move, it was called a 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.440 plot in vagin. Pond saw this and thought, hey, you know, 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.520 post war Europe is really going to need some commercial 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:37.480 vehicles for businesses of various sizes so that everything can 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.680 get up and running again. And the chassis for this 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.679 little car can be used for lots of different types 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:47.719 of builds. So Pond then starts to sketch out an idea. 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.359 His design called for a small van built on top 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.919 of the Type one chassis. The driver and passenger of 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.800 the van would sit up front in a cab that 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.280 was at the extreme front end of the via goal 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.279 and this was made possible because, again the engine for 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:05.360 the vehicle would be in the back. So think of 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.360 things like your typical school bus where that has that 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.040 flat front, those style school buses. That's what this one 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.680 would be like too. In a way. The body they 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.560 sketched out was essentially a box, and the idea was 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:20.599 that such a vehicle would be able to carry a 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:24.600 good deal of materials or passengers and serve as a 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.279 light commercial vehicle in Europe. Pone also said he would 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.760 want such a vehicle to weigh around seven rams when 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.840 empty that's about one thousand, six hundred fifty pounds, and 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.159 that it should be able to carry essentially an equal 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.320 amount of weight. Now, Poe wasn't in the manufacturing business himself. 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.960 He was a car dealer, not a car maker, so 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.240 he handed over his design to his contacts at Volkswagen. 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.880 Nordoff and his technical director, Alfred Hessner looked over Pone's 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.640 design and they liked it. They particularly liked that it 0:06:57.640 --> 0:06:59.919 would make use of a chassis that the plant was 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.120 already producing. So in their mind they said, well, there 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.600 would be no need to develop, test and build a 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.200 new chassis, so that cuts down on the development cost 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:14.520 of getting into producing this vehicle. So with these bonuses 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.960 in mind, they decided to pursue this new vehicle model. 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:20.960 It took a little time to schedule a prototype because 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.320 they were still in full production mode for the Type one, 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:27.200 and they then finally got things going. It only took 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:30.720 three months from the point where they started the process 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.720 to when they could roll off a prototype. But along 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.600 the way they also learned some valuable lessons. Now, as 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.800 it turned out, the weight of this new vehicle and 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.840 the weight that it would ultimately hold would require Volkswagen 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.800 to go back and tweak the chassis after all, because 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:50.960 it just wasn't gonna be strong enough to carry three 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.600 thousand or more pounds of weight if you're talking about 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:58.720 a fully loaded vehicle. So they went back and built 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.280 a ladder chassis. That's called a ladder chassis because it 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:04.360 kind of looks like a ladder, So you know how 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.560 a ladder has two long rails that are connected by rungs. 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.080 A ladder chassis is story of the same way. It's 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.000 the chassis or the base of a vehicle, and it 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.920 has those sort of horizontal rungs running across to provide 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.520 more strength and more stability, so it gives the chassis 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:26.400 a stronger frame. Despite this unexpected cost, the project did 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.960 continue and Volkswagen engineers had another challenge, how to make 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.800 a Volkswagen engine power a vehicle that could at max 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:41.520 wait top out at around three thousand pounds or um. 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.920 So to do that, they looked at one of the 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.000 vehicles that the factory had made during World War Two. 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.760 That'd be the kubel Wagen. Now, if you listen to 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:54.040 my last episode, you know that this was the lightweight 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.000 two wheeled general purpose military vehicles, sort of the German 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.760 equivalent to the United States g and Volkswagen had produced 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.360 these during the war. The vehicle, the kugol Wagon, that is, 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:09.000 had a reduction gear system to manage torque, and so 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.200 the VW engineers took that design and then adapted it 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:16.840 for this new commercial vehicle. Now, beyond these mechanical challenges, 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.600 Volkswagen faced some other hurdles. One was that when they 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:26.240 tested this design in wind tunnels, this boxy shaped bus 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.800 wasn't shaping up to be particularly useful. The wind resistance 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.400 was considerable, meaning that the engine was going to have 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.280 to work even harder to move the vehicle, and thus 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.640 you would waste fuel. Designers began to make some changes 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.080 to the structure, including a split windshield design that was 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:46.000 divided down the front. Eventually all the pieces fell into place, 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:50.559 and on November twelfth, nine, the first of the Volkswagen 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.920 Type two models rolled off the production line. By the way, 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.400 you should consider that date to have an asterisk by it, 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:00.920 because this is one of those cases where I found 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:05.760 multiple sources, all with different dates listed for that first 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:10.120 Type two, So depending on some that figure could be 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.960 off by as much as a year. But that was 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:14.640 the one that I found that seemed to be the 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:22.480 most reliable resource, So again uh ish. Now, the Type 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.840 two has many names. In the United States, you would 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.440 typically hear it described as the VW Bus. In other 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.960 places it was called the COMBI, which is short for 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.880 a combination vehicle more on that in a second, or 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.640 the splitty because it had that split windshield, or in 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.959 Germany it was called the v W Bully, among many 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:48.560 other names. At Volkswagen, the comby ko Mbi version referred 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:54.079 to a type of Volkswagen bus that had either side 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:58.120 windows and removable seats, which meant that you could actually 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.760 put passengers in there it should be fairly comfortable, or 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.360 you could get a second version called the commercial that 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.640 had no windows on the side. It was meant to 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.080 be a cargo van, so it wasn't meant to carry 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.480 people in the back. If you were in the back 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:13.280 of one of those would be very dark and probably 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.959 a little scary. And then it would emerge in the 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.839 early nineteen fifties, but here in the United States it 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.680 would really take off about a decade later. It would 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:28.160 become a symbol of the counterculture movement, and many people 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.840 would associate it with hippies. Now, the funny thing to 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.079 me is that the whole reason for the Type two 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.920 to exist in the first place was that Ben Pone 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:42.080 wanted a low cost, efficient vehicle to help European businesses 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.920 get up and running after the war. He wanted something 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.680 that was easy to work on, easy to maintain. It 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.560 was meant to be affordable and utilitarian, in other words, 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.440 not fancy, not necessarily sought after, but useful. Years later, 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:00.880 after Volkswagen ended production on the Type too, some of 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:05.320 those early models would end up bringing huge auction prices 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:10.080 among avid collectors and avid Volkswagen fans. Some of them 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:14.200 sold for several hundred thousand dollars. Quite the opposite of 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:18.480 Ben Poem's initial vision. The Type two was an instant 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.600 success in Europe, so much so that the demand actually 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.679 required Volkswagen to invest in a new manufacturing facility so 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.000 that it can meet its production goals for both the 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.480 Type one, the beatle, and the Type two, the bus. 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.120 The company selected a site in Hanover to build a 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.000 new manufacturing facility, and that plant became the main center 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:44.160 of operations focused on building Volkswagen vehicles for the commercial sector. Now, 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:47.760 I can't really get into every single vehicle Volkswagen had 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.320 produced over the course of its entire history. Uh, there 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.640 are a lot of them that only appeared in specific markets, 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.360 and we're virtually unknown elsewhere in the world. So I 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.920 would be spending all my time trying to blaine why 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:04.040 a certain car would appear in certain places the world 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.760 but wasn't found anywhere else. But this one story that 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:12.040 I want to convey next is really interesting, particularly to me, 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:14.800 and it shows how different companies were willing to come 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.680 together and collaborate when there was opportunity to tap into 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:23.000 an emerging market. Okay, so, by the mid nineteen fifties, 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:29.360 Europe was transitioning from recovery and into a more booming economy. 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.199 You know, and immediately after World War Two, it was 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.600 all about how can we get back to where we were? 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.760 Then it was we're actually prospering for the automotive industry. 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.560 This meant that there was a chance to make a 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:45.600 more upscale vehicle, something with a bit more luxury than 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:49.199 a workhorse Type one beetle or a Type two microbus. 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:52.120 And there were three different companies that would come together 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.439 to do this with UH for the Volkswagen picture, one 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.559 of them being Volkswagen, the other two i'll get into. 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.560 In fact, one of them was a company, a German 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:06.800 company called Carmen spelled k A R M A n N. 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.280 It was founded by a dude named Wilhelm Carmen, and 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.480 this company traced its history all the way back to 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.640 nineteen o one. Although that company was built on top 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:18.880 of an even older coach building business that was run 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:23.000 by a guy named Christianne Claugus. Bill Helm oversaw the 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:27.880 coach building business transition over to an automotive industry right away. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.960 Mainly his company would build car bodies, so he would 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.480 use car chassiss that were made by other manufacturers. He 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.880 wasn't building that part. He would bring the chassis and 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.760 then design and build car bodies on top of it. 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.040 So his business had gone into hibernation during World War 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:49.280 Two and he essentially was not doing any of that 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.360 business while the war was going on. But afterward he 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:56.280 got back into production. And then Volkswagen placed an order 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:00.400 for convertible tops for the Type one Beatle for variation 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.560 known as the Cabriole. So Carmen and Volkswagen had a 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.600 previously established working relationship. But that was just one of 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.920 the other two companies that worked with Volkswagen on this 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.000 new concept. And when we come back, I'll talk about 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.680 the other one, but first let's take a quick break, 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:28.960 all right. Before the break, I was teasing about that 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:32.320 third party. And the third party that I have hinted 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:38.520 at was the Italian automobile design company Carrazeria Gia. And 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:42.960 I know I've butchered the pronunciation, as I do all languages, 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.120 but this was a company that was established by Giacinto 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.840 Gia at the early twentie century, and the company didn't 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:54.640 produce cars. They weren't a car manufacturer. They designed cars. 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:58.880 They might build a limited number of cars, but it 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:03.120 was in a very pain staking, almost handmade kind of approach. 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:05.880 So Gia would work with a lot of other automotive 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:10.040 companies designing their car bodies or sometimes just specific elements 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:12.880 on a car. So for example, in the nineteen thirties, 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.640 Gia worked on the body for a Fiat five oh 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:19.760 eight S Spider sports car. Now, during World War Two, 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:25.720 Carozeria Guilla's facilities were all but destroyed. Giacinto Gia wanted 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.080 to rebuild, but before he could oversee those efforts, he 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.840 took ill and then he passed away in nineteen four. 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.960 His company, however, would live on after his death. His 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.160 widow gave the company over to Felice se Mario Boana 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:46.800 and Giorgio albert So. Buano, in turn would later bring 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.920 in a businessman named Luigi Segre, who pushed the company 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:55.360 to make more international contracts. This ultimately led to Seregre 0:16:56.000 --> 0:17:00.640 effectively taking over Gia. So we now get to the 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:05.600 weird part of this story. Villhelm Carmen thought that the 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.800 chassis of the Volkswagen Type one would serve as the 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:13.000 basis for a much more sporty body than the Volkswagen Beetle, 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.200 and he thought that that would be a valuable thing 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:21.440 to pursue. However, nord Off over at Volkswagen wasn't particularly interested, 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.400 so he turned elsewhere. You see, Carmen had run into 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.359 Luigi Segre several times at various automotive industry events in Europe, 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:31.879 so he met up with Segrey to talk about the 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.399 possibility of developing a sports car on top of a 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.359 Volkswagen Type one chassis. There was no real hope of 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.359 getting Volkswagen on board from the get go nord Off 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:44.840 you know again, the head of Volkswagen. He was more 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.600 focused on producing cars for the average European that didn't 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.600 really see the business case for more sporty vehicles. So 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:58.119 Segre agreed to have Carozeria Gia designer prototype after getting 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:01.359 hold of a Type one Volkswagen. They literally bought a 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:05.040 Volkswagen Beetle and they drove it over to Guia's headquarters 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.600 in Turin, and then they stripped it bare all the 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:10.840 way down to the chassis in order to build a 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.080 brand new body on top of it. Now, this was 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:18.240 to become the prototype for the Carmen Gia, and there's 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.280 controversy surrounding who actually designed the look of the thing. 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.600 If you've never seen one, you should look up Carmen 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.919 Gia on the internet, and it's as I said k 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.360 A R M A N N and Guia as g H. 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:35.840 I A look it up because it's a sporty little car. 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.000 I think it's adorable, really cute. And there were some 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:43.080 who said that Mario Bolano was clearly the designer with 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:47.119 the most input in the design process. Other people dispute that. 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.320 They said, no, it was this other designer who did 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:51.399 all that work. And some people say, you know what, 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:55.480 they actually pretty much lifted the design from an entirely 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:57.960 different car manufacturer. And there's a lot of back and 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:04.200 forth online in various car forums about this. So I 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:07.760 just don't know the real truth here. There's way too 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:10.320 much conflicting information out there, and I don't know who's 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.400 right and who's wrong. So rather than report on all 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.840 of that, we'll just say there's some controversy anyway. So 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:22.080 about a year after Luigi Segre had first met with 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.520 Wilhelm Karmen about this project, he presented Carmen with the 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:29.640 prototype and Carmen loved it, and he immediately said that 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:33.240 he wanted his company to produce the bodies for this 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.440 type of car using Gias design. But there was still 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.240 one little piece of the puzzle that was missing. Which 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:41.280 was the fact that they needed to get the Chassiss 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:45.199 from Volkswagen. So Carmen goes to nord Off and he 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.600 pitches this idea, and according to Carmen, I don't know 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.199 if this is actually true, but it's according to his 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:55.399 own records of it. Nordof's first reaction upon seeing the 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.040 Carmen Gia prototype was to say that it was really pretty, 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:03.920 but way too expensive, and Carmen then said, I haven't 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.479 even mentioned a price yet. How can you say it's 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:08.520 too expensive if you haven't heard what I think it 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.600 will cost. So again, I have no clue if that 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:14.760 particular part of the story is actually true or not, 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:19.000 but what is indisputable is that the various parties were 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:22.200 able to come to an agreement, and thus the Volkswagen 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:25.399 Carmen Gia was born. Like the Type one, it had 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.760 a rear mounted air cooled engine, but it definitely looked 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:32.760 more sleek than the Beatle. Over the lifetime of its production, 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.840 which spanned from nineteen fifty five to nineteen seventy four, 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:40.080 it would come with four different engine capacities, so at 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.000 the low end you had twelve hundred c c twelve 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.200 cubic centimeters or one point two leaders, and you got 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:48.480 all the way up to sixteen hundred cc or one 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.560 point six leaders. Now I'm not really a car guy, 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:53.880 but I do have to say there's a lot about 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.439 the Carmen Gia that I find particularly appealing. It's just, 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.000 like I said, cute. Plus the fact that it relied 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:02.479 it on the same chassis and style of engine as 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.639 the Volkswagen Beetle meant that it was relatively easy to 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.440 maintain and to work on, which is becoming pretty darn 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:12.800 rare these days with modern vehicles because they're incorporating more 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.600 and more computer technology and proprietary bolts and stuff like that, 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:18.679 it's harder for you to be able to work on 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:22.720 a car that you get for yourself. So this hearkens 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.120 back to an age where people could actually do their 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:27.359 own maintenance on their vehicles if they had to know 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:29.880 how and the desire to do so. Oh and one 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:32.439 other thing. Uh. The name Carmen Gia would also be 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.520 used by mel Brooks as the name for a supporting 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:38.960 character in his film The Producers, though in that case 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.960 the character's name was spelled as Carmen c A R 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:46.119 M E n UM. However, I love that movie, so 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:49.120 I had to give that shout out. So by the 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:53.199 mid nineteen fifties, Volkswagen had its workhorse Type one that 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.800 was doing well throughout Europe and was starting to pick 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.080 up sales in the United States. It was starting to 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:02.359 get popular. The Type two past one million cars produced 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.480 by nineteen fifty five, so it very quickly became a 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:09.400 pretty popular workhorse itself, and the karmen Gia switched things 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:13.119 up by adding a sporty option. Volkswagen's motto around this 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:16.399 time was it is a member of my family. No. 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:19.760 I like that a lot more than the motto I 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.840 remember with Volkswagen, but that we'll have to say for 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:26.000 the next episode. Anyway, the company appeared to be fulfilling 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.919 the initial promise of being the people's car. In nineteen 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.920 sixty one, Volkswagen began producing a two wheel drive convertible 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:38.200 called the Type one eight one, that's what was called internally, 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.440 and it was meant as a vehicle for the Army 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.439 of West Germany, and it looked like a descendant of 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:47.879 the old Kubu Wagan that Volkswagen had been producing in 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:51.560 World War Two. Under the surface of this angular and 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:54.840 flat metal sheets that made up the body. The type 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:58.280 was really similar to the Type one and Type two 0:22:58.320 --> 0:23:02.720 mechanical systems, so very similar chassis, very similar engine. It's sported, 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.160 removable and interchangeable doors, so you can take the doors 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:07.760 off the side of the thing if you wanted, kind 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:09.600 of like a jeep, uh, and you didn't have to 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:11.159 worry about which ones where the front doors or the 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:13.879 back doors because they were all interchangeable. The windshield itself 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:16.399 could also be folded down, so you could drive this 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:19.320 thing with no windshield up if you wanted, and you 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:21.919 didn't mind the taste of bugs. They would all go 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:24.480 on the market for consumers as well as the military, 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:27.520 and here in the United States we called it the 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:32.320 Volkswagen Thing the Thing. You should look that up on 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.720 Google Images if you haven't seen this before, because it's 0:23:35.720 --> 0:23:39.080 pretty funky looking to The company stopped producing them in 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:42.520 nineteen eighty three, so there hasn't been a new Volkswagen 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:46.160 Thing for a few decades. Uh. They're still collectors who 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:49.080 set by and sell the things. Um, they go for 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:53.000 around sixteen thousand thousand dollars. From what I've seen, it's 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:55.560 pretty expensive for a car that's that old and is 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:58.080 not like a sports car, luxury car or anything like that. 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:02.600 It's more of a curiosity. Also in nineteen Volkswagen with 0:24:02.760 --> 0:24:07.320 debut it's Type three vehicle. Now remember Type one were Beatles, 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:10.120 Type two were the Volkswagen busses. So what the heck 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:13.600