The Volkswagen Beetle :: essays research papers

The peoples railway car &8211 generically, Volkswagen in German &8211 is almost as elderly as the automobile, and the type was familiar in Germany long before the orgasm of the Volkswagen. Usually these popular cars were minimal cars, though size and simplicity did not of necessity bring them within the r severally of the ordinary man in the street. atomic number 1 Ford did build a successful universal car, to sell at a low price, however 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 capital of Texas Seven) and the nonspecific urethritis-Fiats to come. These stimulated desire rather than a years wage for an average worker. This prompted cycle manufacturer Zundapp to commission a low-cost car design from Dr. Ferdinand Porsches sweet design studio. The project did not get far, but a Porsche-designed NSU that reached 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, one of his fondle notions was the concept of motoring for the masses, and a run into with Porsche was to be a meeting of minds. Once again Porsche was commissioned to design a popular car, and when the beginning ludicrously tight financial limits were relaxed he accepted the expert challenge.It is doable 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 forward designs, but it was to reach production and eventually succeed beyond the wildest limits of the thirties dream.In 1931, the Porsche independent front suspension was patented. It interested m any manufactures, and was to be important to the Volkswagen. It was devised around torsion bars, not new as such, but in this arrangement the two transverse bars were housed in cannular cross members, with a lower trailing link at each end, and an upper link pivoted to the frame and combined with a friction concussion absorber. This was lighter than the then-common transverse leaf spring arrangement, but it meant that the wheels rolled with the body.