VOLKSWAGEN CARS 1948-1968

The Volkswagen car originated in Nazi Germany, a low-cost "people's car" designed for German workers. In 1945 the British took over the factory, with a Yorkshireman, Major Ivan Hirst, as senior resident officer. Destined for demolition, the factory survived through a technicality and went on to produce an astonishing 1,785 cars in 1945. This book takes the story from 1948 to 1968, when the factory was managed by Heinz Nordhoff, a former Opel supremo. Nordhoff inherited the iconic Beetle, which reached an annual turnover of over a million by 1968. Resisting the temptation to change the model and design, Nordhoff concentrated on driving down the number of hours per car manufacture from 400 to 100, and as the 1950s progressed his main goal was to keep up with a deluge of orders, at the same time developing the Beetle to the highest level of technical excellence. The VW Transporter, launched in 1950, was a Nordhoff product, and to meet strong demand a second factory was opened in Hanover. The third iconic VW vehicle, launched in 1955, was the sporty Karmann Ghia, named after the coachbuilders, while the VW 1500 was a larger family saloon targeted at the same market as the smaller Beetle when their owners' families expanded. This book covers these models in all their different variations, for instance the sophisticated Karmann Ghia coupé, described as being like a "smart lady's cocktail dress", or the author's own Jupiter Grey standard model built in 1960 and sold to a customer in Leeds. 52pp, softback, black and white photos on every page, with some in colour.