The Volkswagen Beetle :: essays research papers

The peoples car &8211 generically, Volkswagen in German &8211 is almost as old as the automobile, and the type was familiar in Germany long in front the advent of the Volkswagen. commonly these popular cars were minimal cars, though size and simplicity did not necessarily bring them within the reach of the ordinary man in the street.Henry Ford did create a successful universal car, to sell at a low price, and his Model T with its 2.9-litre engine was by no means a small car, nor was the Model A that followed it. When it was in production in the late 1920s, small proper cars in Germany ranged from the 700-cc DKW to the 1-litre Opel, with small Adlers, the BMW Dixi (a license-built Austin Seven) and the NSU-Fiats to come. These stimulated desire rather than a years wage for an average worker. This prompted motorcycle manufacturer Zundapp to commission a low-cost car design from Dr. Ferdinand Porsches new design studio. The project did not get far, but a Porsche-designed NSU that r eached that prototype stage in 1933 accurately foreshadowed the Volkswagen.The idea of a peoples car appealed to Porsche, and it fascinated Adolf Hitler. When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, adept of his pet notions was the concept of motoring for the masses, and a meeting with Porsche was to be a meeting of minds. Once again Porsche was commissioned to design a popular car, and when the start ludicrously tight financial limits were relaxed he accepted the technical challenge.It is possible that Porsche received too much credit for the design of the Volkswagen, for most of the technical elements had been seen before in the work of such men as Ledwinka, Rumpler, Rabe and Nibel. The Volkswagen reflected the Porsche Buros earlier designs, but it was to reach production and eventually succeed beyond the wildest limits of the Thirties dream.In 1931, the Porsche separatist front suspension was patented. It interested many manufactures, and was to be important to the Volkswagen. I t was devised around torsion bars, not new as such, but in this arrangement the devil transverse bars were housed in tubular cross members, with a lower trailing link at each end, and an upper link pivoted to the frame and feature with a friction shock absorber. This was lighter than the then-common transverse leaf spring arrangement, but it meant that the wheels rolled with the body.