Hey Gang!
Here's an article from the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper, about the VW Thing.
Read on!
VW's Thing: Dune buggy with doors
Bill Vance
Special to Times Colonist
Friday, November 05, 2004
During the Second World War, one of the best assets the Allied forces had was the American four-wheel-drive Jeep, a go-anywhere, do-anything, quarter-ton utility vehicle.
It was manufactured by Willys-Overland, and by Ford under licence, and by end of the war, some 600,000 had been built.
The Jeep established such a vaunted reputation that right after the war, Willys-Overland began marketing a civilian version, the CJ.
The Jeep made a successful transition to peacetime, becoming the father of the sport-utility vehicle that is so popular today.
The German army also had its \"Jeep,\" a light, versatile machine based on Volks-wagen components and built in the giant, recently constructed Volkswagen plant located in what became Wolfsburg, Germany.
The little utility vehicle came in two versions, the two-wheel-drive Kubel-wagen (bucket car), and the amphibious four-wheel-drive Schwimmwagen, which was fitted with a retractable propeller driven off the end of the crankshaft.
The Kubelwagen's air-cooled engine made it particularly effective in Gen. Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps campaign in the North African desert. Air cooling was also an advantage on the cold Russian front.
When the war ended, the German Volkswagen factory, unlike its American counterpart, stopped building their little reconnaissance vehicles and turned instead to building Volkswagen cars.
The Volkswagen plant was under the control of the British right after the war, and with their help and encouragement, the German workforce was slowly able to begin producing Volkswagens.
The Volkswagen Beetle eventually became the world's dominant small car.
Although the German army later approached Volkswagen about producing a military vehicle, the plant was so busy filling the demand for its ubiquitous Beetle and Transporter vans and trucks that its general manager, Heinrich \"Heinz\" Nordhoff, a pragmatic engineer, had little interest in building military vehicle.
When Volkswagen was again approached by the army in the late 1960s, however, it agreed to develop a light utility vehicle for military use.
The result was the Type 181, an updated version of the Kubelwagen, based on Volkswagen Beetle and Transporter components.
It carried the usual military paraphernalia such as axes, shovels and rifle mounts, and was quite successful, being used for many years by the German army and the armed forces of several other countries.
With the military success of the Type 181 established, Volkswagen decided to produce a civilian version aimed at public utilities, construction companies, sportsmen, farmers and the like. It was marketed as the Type 181 in Europe, as the Thing in Canada and the United States, and as the Safari in Mexico. Production began in 1969 and was carried out in Germany until it was moved to Mexico in 1973, the year it went on sale in North America.
The Thing, like the Kubelwagen, was a four-passenger, four-door open phaeton, and side curtains were provided for weather protection. Its air-cooled, flat-four Beetle engine was in the rear, and engine cooling air entered through louvres behind the rear fenders.
Like the Beetle, it had a platform frame, four-speed overdrive transmission and four-wheel independent suspension with torsion bars.
Styling, if one could call it that, was strictly utilitarian: a squarish, box-like shape with a sloping hood, a fold-down windshield and removable doors. The floor mats could be removed so that the Thing could be hosed out.
The spare tire and fuel tank pretty well filled the space under the flat hood, so luggage had to be carried inside.
The Thing rode on a 94.5-inch wheelbase, the same as the standard Beetle, and at 148.8 inches long overall, it was about a foot shorter than the standard Beetle.
To accommodate possible limited off-road use (it had only two-wheel drive and no locking differential), the Thing's ground clearance was 11 inches, 5.1 inches greater than the Beetle's. It weighed just over 1,900 pounds.
Performance could be termed modest but adequate. Road & Track (October 1973) tested a Thing and reported that its 1.6-litre, 46-horsepower engine could accelerate it to 96 km/h (60 m.p.h.) in 23.2 seconds, and push it to a top speed of 118 km/h.
The Volkswagen Thing was not really a serious off-roader, despite the fact that Volkswagen marketed it as a competitor to the Land Rover, Jeep and Toyota Land Cruiser. It was a fun-to-drive little vehicle with limited boonie-bashing capability. Think of it as a kind of beach buggy or dune buggy with doors.
Volkswagen stopped building the Thing in 1980, and while production figures are hazy, probably at least 100,000 were built during its 12-year run.
Reflections on Automotive History by Bill Vance, Volumes I, II & III, is available from bookstores, online at
www.billvanceautohistory.ca or by calling 519-856-1065.
