You know that:
- A prototype vehicle on a VW Beetle chassis was built in 1938 under the designation KdF 62.
- The author of the design was Ferdinand Porsche, a native of Vratislavice nad Nisou.
- Series production began in early 1940 at the KdF-Wagen, now Volkswagen, factories in Wolfsburg.
- Gradually, various versions were built according to the actual needs of the army, including prototypes of half-track vehicles for the Eastern Front, two-seater versions for transporting barrels, lighting vehicles, or dummy tanks.
- The simple vehicle design also had some clever solutions. The seats of the car could be easily removed and converted into a bed for two people. It took just two minutes to install the canvas roof with a steel structure. The vehicle was then completely enclosed and heated by hot air from the engine.
- An ingenious solution was to filter the engine air intake in desert conditions. The air, polluted with dust and sand, passed through a fleshy wire filter where it was trapped and dropped with the oil to the bottom of the filter. An injector was installed in the left exhaust manifold to suck the dirt out of the filter and then blow it out of the manifold when the throttle was added.
- Although the car was not armored, it had very good off-road handling due to its light weight and ingeniously designed differential.
- Production of the car continued in the post-war period in the basic VW 51 version, a firefighter version of the Type 25, as a Type 27 roller and a VW28 pick up.
- In total, 50,435 were produced in various versions.
- The price of one vehicle in 1940 was 2,780 Reichsmarks, about 10 460 € today, the amphibious version was more expensive at 15 730 €.
Technical Specifications:
- dimensions: length 3,74 m, width 1,60 m, height without roof 1,11 m
- wheelbase 2 400 mm
- ground clearance 290 mm
- weight 750 kg
- power unit air-cooled four-cylinder with a capacity of 985 cm3 and a power of 24 hp
- number of gears 4 forward + 1 reverse
- tank capacity 40 l
- consumption 8,5 l/100 km
- range 430 km
- top speed 80 km/h
- number of seats 4
Assembly instructions
