The Road that Led to the Beetle
There is no denying that the Volkswagen Beetle had a great impact on
the world, but was the Beetle a major advance in automobile design
just another step forward following a road started mostly in Central
Europe in the early 1920’s.
Ferdnand Porsche was Born in Maffersdorf in Northern Bohemia now
of Czech Republic, the son of a tinsmith. His first automobile
were for Lohner of Vienna in 1899. He went on to design for
Austro-Daimler 1906-23, Then Daimler-MotorenAG, later Daimler-Benz,
1923- 29. Followed by Steyr, in Austria in 1929. Later in 1929 he
up his own design office in Stuttgart. Although he was actively
involved in motorcar design for over fifty years, only one of his
car designs reached series production, that was the Volkswagen
Precedent's time line.
In the United States Franklin had been producing fan cooled
engines for automobiles since 1902, and continued production until
General Motors began producing the so called "copper-cooled" models
Chevrolet, Olds, and Oakland between1921 and 1923 but it was not a
success and very few were made. The "copper-cooled" referred to the
copper cooling fins on an air cooled inline four engine, not a good
layout for fan cooling.
While at Austro-Daimler in 1922, Ferdnand Porsche designed an
1100 cc sports car. Hoping that it would form the basis of a wider
range of cars, but he was not supported by board of directors of
Austro-Daimler. A handful of cars were produced and given the name
"Sascha", in honour of Count Shascha Kolowrat who underwrote the
venture. The "Sascha", proved very successful in motor sports events
throughout Europe. Apart from the overhead camshaft four cylinder
engine, the Sascha was of conventional design for the period
a channel section chassis frame, a beam front axle with half
springs, a front mounted water cooled engine and gearbox with a
propeller shaft to a live rear axle with quarter elliptic springs. A
description that could describe the then new Austin Seven and
many other contemporary cars.
While working at Steyr Hans Ledwinka had been creating the
design of a small car in his own time. His design had been rejected
the Steyr, management, but he was able to develop and produce this
design after he left Steyr in 1923 to work for Tatra. Designated the
Tatra T11 it made the name of Tatra well known throughout Europe.
T11 was the first of his designs using a backbone chassis, a fan
horizontally opposed engine and a jointless independent rear
axle. The engine in this design was a overhead valve 1056cc twin,
mounted in unit with the gearbox on the front of the chassis. The
beam axle being attached to the engine.
This was the first of a line of light car design’s to a similar
that were produced until 1948. The T11 was produced from 1923 to
and replaced by the T12 with a similar specification. The T12 was
produced from 1926 to 1936. In 1931 the T54, with a 1465cc
flat four engine was introduced. It was made until 1936. Also in
the T57 a 1155cc air-cooled flat four was introduced, and through
T57A, T57B and T57K versions remained in production until 1948. The
later models having a 1256cc engine. A total of thirty eight and
thousand of these small Tatra's were made between 1923 and 1948.
Hans Ledwinka 1878-1967, was born in Austria when it was part of the
Austo-Hungarian empire. By 1906 he worked for Nesseldorfer, a car
manufacturer in Moravia a province of Austria. After the break up of
the Austo-Hungarian empire, Moravia became part of the new state of
Czechoslovak republic. Ledwinka left Nesseldorfer to join Steyr
Austrian company in 1917. The Nesseldorfer company changed its name
The jointless rear axle used by Tatra comprised of a final drive
attached to the rear of the tubular backbone chassis that had the
shaft enclosed within it. The final drive unit had two crown wheels
pinions each driving a shaft to a rear wheel. The crown wheels could
rotate around its pinion allowing it’s shaft to swing. This may seem
over complicated but is still in use on Tatra truck today. It was
necessary to do something like this to provide a reliable flexible
drive arrangement as flexible drive joints at that time were not up
The flexible coupling commonly in use at the time was the fabric
coupling it had a limited degree of deflection and working life and
not suitable for use with swing axles. The availability of better
flexible couplings of the Hardy Spicer type made it possible to
a reliable swing axle transmission. The combination of the rear
engine with swing axle transmission proved to be the simplest way to
remove the engine and the transmission from the passenger space and
lower the overall height of the car.
From 1928 onwards, the idea of a people's car with a rear mounted
air-cooled engine, all independent springing and a backbone frame
promoted in Germany by an engineer and journalist Josef Ganz in the
auto magazine Motor-Kritik.
In 1929 Colonel Frank Searle the managing director of the Rover Co
of England decided that the company needed a small car to widen its
range. He set Maurice Wilks and Robert Boyle, both to become key
figures at Rover, to design and produce a prototype of a small rear
engined car at his home Braunston Hall near Rugby in a similar way
Herbert Austin had done with the Austin Seven earlier in the decade.
The outcome of their work the Rover 7 HP or Scarab was unlike any
previous Rover design with a Rover Patented engine, transmission and
rear suspension layout. The rear mounted O.H.V fan-cooled 60 degree
twin engine was of 839 cc. The ladder frame chassis was of advanced
design with coil spring sliding pillar front suspension and coil
swing axles at the rear with a pivoting support member giving zero
stiffness. The four-seat tourer body was a simple affair of wood
framing clad with steel sheet of compact dimensions, the car being
designed down to a price of £85. Unfortunately the engine
proved to be rough, noisy and prone to overheating. With the
of Colonel Frank Searle from Rover in 1931 the Scarab didn't go into
production as it was considered too radical and at the same time too
Spartan by the Rover management.
Ardie a German motorcycle manufacturer produced an experimental car
with a forked backbone frame the to a Josef Ganz design, the Ardie
Adler a German manufacturer produced another Ganz prototype. Josef
was a consultant engineer at Daimler-Benz and BMW where he was
involved in the development of the first models with independent
suspension: the highly successful Mercedes-Benz 170 and BMW AM1
The first prototype of the Tatra Type V570 designed by Erich
the son of Tatra's chief engineer Hans Ledwinka was produced.
this prototype had a body of conventional form, the inspiration for
rear engined Tatra came from the idea of taking full advantage of
streamlined forms proposed by the aerodynamicist Paul Jarey. By
locating the engine in the long tail, a low hood or bonnet line
be achieved. It had a platform chassis and the air-cooled flat twin
engine of 845cc; gearbox and final drive was located at its rear.
Dr Ferdinand Porsche set the engineers in his design bureau on
number 12 at the end of September, the design of an economy car. He
didn't have a commission for the car, but this was something he
to do for some time. By December 1931 the design for a small car was
sufficiently advanced for Porsche to look for a possible
The main features of the design were, independent suspension on all
four wheels using trailing arms at the front and swing axles at the
rear, with Porsche patent torsion-bar springs. A three cylinder
air-cooled radial engine that was complete with the gearbox and
drive located at the rear of the chassis.
Dr Neumayer head of Zundapp, a German motorcycle company was looking
for a small car design to produce and the Porsche project No 12
of interest. The result was the Zundapp "Volksauto", project. The
change from the original project was the engine. A one litre
five cylinder water-cooled radial engine was fitted. Three
were produced in 1932 and extensively tested but the project didn't
continue due to financial and business factors.
Skoda produced the 932 prototype, it had a backbone chassis with an
air-cooled flat four engine at the rear. Skoda didn't develop the
design but produced the 420, a front-engined car that had some of
features that were innovative at the time, namely a backbone chassis
with swing axle rear suspension.
BMW produced their first original design the 3/20 with a
backbone chassis and a 788cc over head valve, pressure lubricated
engine that was otherwise similar to the Austin engine and
swing axle rear suspension. A few thousand of these were
The first prototype of the Tatra Type 77 was running, it was a large
car with a streamlined body. The three litre air-cooled OHV V8
at the rear of a platform chassis drove the rear wheels via Tatra
swing axles, A double wishbone type of front suspension was
fitted and transverse leaf springs were used at front and rear.
Skoda 932 prototype
Tatra produced a second Type V570 prototype with an aerodynamic body
the project was not continued as the Tatra board decided that the
streamlined rear engined concept was to be reserved for limited
production high cost cars concentrating on the type77 that was put
production in 1933. The Type 77 and the Type 77A with a 3380cc
were in production until 1938 and 249 examples were made. The
Type 57 would continue to fill the roll of their economy car, which
did until 1948.
The first of Josef Ganz designs to go in production, the Superior
made by Standard Fahrzeugfabrik. It had a rear mounted two stroke
engine. Some internet references claim that Ganz managed to persuade
director Wilhelm Kissel and technical director Hans Nibel of
Daimler-Benz to develop new rear-engined models under his
Others claim an input from Ferdinand Porsche but I am not able to
confirm ether of them.
Mercedes-Benz produced three rear engined cars in the middle of the
nineteen thirties, the 130H, 150H and the 170H, “H” stood for
Heckmotor. The former had a 1308cc side valve engine located behind
rear axle and produced 26hp. The 130H designed by Hans Nibel had a
backbone chassis with independent front suspension by transverse
springs and swing axles at the rear. The 150h had a 1500cc engine
producing 55hp that was located in front of the rear axle. Ten
of these models were produced. between 1933 and 1938.
Tatra Type V570 prototype
The next manufacturer that Porsche was able to interest in his
was another German motorcycle company. The next version of
design the NSU Volksauto was a complete redesign, the engine was
changed this time to an air-cooled flat four of 1500cc giving the
maximum speed of 72 mph. Three prototypes were produced
1933 but again business factors unconnected with the cars design
the project to be dropped.
The Hansa was one of the range of car produced by the Borgward
The 1100 was typical of German thinking in 1934, with all round
independent suspension, using transverse half elliptic leaf springs
the front and swing axles at the rear with torsion bars. Also a
backbone frame and a water-cooled inline four cylinder engine with
overhead valve-gear. This advanced specification was completed by
hydraulic brakes. It did not have a high performance, but was said
The idea of creating a small car of advanced design for the people
Germany seem to be doomed, until Porsche submitted a proposal on the
development of such a car to the Transport department of the German
government, this was in January. Ferdinand Porsche finally found
someone interested in his ideas that could find the money and had
power to see them into production. This was Adolf Hitler the new
Chancellor. After Porsche had written a memorandum
outlining his proposals, he was given a contract to proceed;This led
a lot of hard work by the Porsche bureau, before the car then called
the "KdF Wagen", and known to us as the Volkswagen was a reality.
car was similar to the "NSU Volksauto", but slightly smaller.
The Tatra Type 87 was similar in concept to the Type 77 but was a
completely new design, with an all-steel body whereas the Type 77’s
body was made of steel over a wood frame. A redesigned front
and a new single overhead camshaft V8 air-cooled engine of 2968cc.
was lighter and smaller in overall size than the Type 77 and was in
production from1936 until 1950 with a few small breaks due to the
of war and then peace, in which time 3023 examples were produced.
The first Volkswagen’s, the three Series 3 prototypes were completed
1936, after many engine variations had been explored, the design was
the car was eventually produced with a 995cc flat four engine.
"KdF Wagen" prototype
Thirty prototype Volkswagen cars were completed, the series 30, and
used for extensive road testing.
The Tatra Type 97 was designed and developed about the same time as
Type 87. The by then classic Tatra form was followed, this time with
1749cc single overhead camshaft flat four air-cooled engine that
produced 40ps, in the rear of a streamlined five seat body. The
suspension with two transverse leaf springs and the rear with Tatra
pattern swing axles were similar to the Type 87. With a weight of
1150kg and a wheelbase of 2600mm, it was not a small or inexpensive
but complimented the Tatra range and was in production in 1937.
Tatra Type 97
Another sixty prototype Volkswagens, the series 60, were completed
more testing. The Volkswagen was developed and ready for production.
Production of the Volkswagen started at the purpose built factory at
Wolfsburg. But only two hundred and ten examples were made before
factory went over to war production.
Five hundred and ten examples were produced of the Tatra Type
by 1939 when the production ceased. A myth has grown up over the
that production of the Type 97 was discontinued by orders of the
government, because it paralleled the Volkswagen. If you look at the
basic similarities in the design this could seem possible, but if
compare the specifications in more detail the idea is unlikely. The
Volkswagen only had a one litre capacity engine producing 25bhp, and
weighed 730kg it was an economy car, and designed to be produced at
rock bottom price. If you compare this to the Type 97’s details you
see they were totally different cars. Another factor than emphasised
the difference between the two cars was the possible market. The
annual production of the Tatra factory in a year spread through
different models was similar to the planned daily production of the
Volkswagen. An indicator of their possible potential can be gained
studying the post war successors of both cars. As car production
all over Europe with some exceptions and turned over to production
war materials, this may have been a bigger factor in its demise.
I believe the unique thing about the Beetle was having the support
head of state with unlimited powers, a state of the art design that
thoroughly developed before being produced, in a purpose built
equipped with all the latest plant and tooling sufficient to produce
million cars a year for a ready market. Six years of war that
interrupted production could have been the end of it, but another
of unique circumstances after the war allowed to project to succeed