Did Hitler and Porsche Steal the VW Beetle Design from a Jew?
I don’t mean to belabor the point, but I find the article deceptive. It seems to build a strong case for the similiar features of the two cars, but to anyone that is familiar with automotive design, it’s pretty meaningless.
“Mechanically, it has a platform chassis with a center tube, a rear transaxle with a horizontal engine, a swing axle suspension in the back, and independent suspension in the front. The body is a simple aerodynamic shape that looks very similar to that of the VW Beetle.”
How many mid or rear engine cars do you know of that don’t have a “platform chassis”? Ok, it has a belly pan and there is tunnel to hide the throttle cable, brake line and shift mechanism. Who has ever done it differently?
Rear transaxle with a horizontal engine. All front wheel drive, mid or rear engine cars have transaxles. The only kind that don’t are front engine, RWD which have seperate transmissions and axles. I don’t know of any rear engine cars that don’t have flat engines. Of course, the exotic mid engine cars have big V8s or 12s, but they aren’t really “people’s cars” are they?
Swing axle rear suspension? The only other alternative is to put in short driveshafts with CV or u-joints. VW started doing this in the early ’70, but they weren’t popular,they weren’t nearly as strong off road. Where else would the swing axle be on a rear engine car, in front?
Independent suspension isn’t a design of suspension, it just means that the front wheels are sprung seperate from each other. Several completely different designs would all be considered “independent”, it’s more of a marketing term.
If you are going to discuss a cars mechanical layout it seems like the fact that it was mid engine would come up first and foremost, that is a big difference.
Why didn’t you go full tilt and talk about all the incredible similiarities? They both had 4 wheels, equiped with black rubber tires that hold air. Both cars were build primarily of steel. Each had a passenger compartment, that the occupant’s could enter and exit through doors mounted hinges. Clearly this design was stolen from a jew by the Nazis.
The reason the author didn’t mention these is that even a layman would realise how ridiculous it was.
The VW type 1 was chock full of little innovations that made the rear engine design work well, however most of the design innovations were all the details that made the car easy to manufacture. To say that the “design” was stolen is simply not fair to one of history’s great automotive designers.
A further historical note, we know that Hilter was at the 1933 Berlin Motor show because it was there that He announced the people’s car program. It doesn’t seem likely that Hitler saw anything that he thought fit the bill at that point, As a fascist dictator, he could have had it immediately.
