EQUIPMENT
Record holder
Volkswagen Ka.. FER
LAST FLIGHT
ALEXEY SPARROW-SHOES
On July 30, 2003, Volkswagen-Beetle No. 21 529 464 came off the assembly line of the Mexican plant in Pueblo. The "non-circular" copy was celebrated more magnificent than the 20 millionth, because it is the last. He has a way through the Atlantic to the company museum in Wolfsburg. Not a single car on the planet can (and probably cannot!) Boast of such a circulation. Even if Ferdinand Porsche did not construct anything else, the Beetle would be enough for immortality.
It all began in the first half of the 1930s, when Porsche took up the project of a compact car. Then the patronage of the work was the leadership of the German Reich. Then the word Volkswagen (people's carriage) appeared in the papers, without quotes so far. They decided to make this word their own name later, and at first they named the car in honor of the fascist public organization KdF - “Power through joy”.
The prototypes were opposed air-cooled engines with a working volume of only 700 cm3 and a capacity of 22.5 liters. with. Trials lasting three years, during which 30 prototypes ran 2.4 million kilometers, showed that the "cubes" and strength should be added. The first serial "bugs" received engines of almost a liter volume (986 cm3) with a capacity of 24 liters. with.
The prewar career of the rear-wheel drive news was short-lived. Volkswagen is obliged to take off further by the British, who organized production after the war in their zone of occupation. Initially, there were plans to take the equipment to foggy Albion as compensation for the damage caused by the Wehrmacht, but the stiff English car experts did not find anything worthy of a gentleman in the car. In December 1945, the first real Volkswagen cars rolled off the assembly line. Manufacturability and low cost are very suitable for post-war Europe, and not only it. Later, “bugs” were sold in 86 (!) Countries of the world.
Kafer was repeatedly modernized, but retained the generic features: a rear-engine layout, a characteristic silhouette, an opposed air-cooled engine, the volume of which reached 1.6 liters. In 1978, the production of beetles was stopped at home. In Mexico, where the car was called the Vojo, a 34-horsepower 1.2-liter version was built.
And the last 3000 copies were equipped with a 46-strong “opponent”, generously decorated with chrome and shod in elegant tires with white sidewalls …
What did not survive the legendary "Beetle" for a long 65 years of life.
He was "drowned" with wood …
… grassed.
He worked where he had never seen a car …
… plowed …
… hit the Book of Records for spaciousness …