As some of you may recall, I have a bit of a Beetle obsession. My current ride is a 1994 black Mexican "Sedán" (as they call the Beetle down here, aka "vocho").
I came across this interesting tidbit of Beetle history today:
One hundred years ago yesterday — December 14th, 1911 — Roald Admundsen and his team of Norwegian explorers became the first humans to reach the South Pole, pulled by sled dogs. But it wasn't until 1963 that the first production car landed on Antarctic shores, a mostly-stock VW Beetle known as "the Red Terror." This is its story.
From the article linked above is a reference to this short video about that Beetle:
Here's a 1963 cinema short featuring the Volkswagen Beetle which was sent to Antarctica in 1963 for use by the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition.
Thanks CM. The quality of the film, the sound of the projector and the narration took me back in time to when a film (not an AV experience) was special day in school. The only thing that might come close was the film strip. "BEEP"
We would get to see these items about this time of the year. One class at a time. Fun Times.
It's probably very dry in Antarctica, but even before I learned to drive our Beetle, I received tutorials in the art of braking while still pumping the gas peddle to keep engine from conking out.
I grew up in a Beetle, only car I knew until we got a Rabbit when I was 16. For such a basic simple car, it was ahead on so many things. Our new '68 had high back seats and shoulder belts, interior release gas door, and the high beams were easily set/released by pulling the signal indicator as opposed to pounding around the floor with your foot to find the knob as American cars favoured. And the handbrake was right there beside you, all in one, as opposed to the peddle/release handle of American cars.
Something that always seemed to amaze people- the washer fluid didn't run off a pump, there was just a tube from the reservoir that threaded onto the spare tire valve, using the tire pressure to squirt out the fluid.
I have scars on my heels from the heat vents that blasted straight from the engine through to the floor of the back seat.
Yes, scraping the windshield from the inside was the front passengers responsibility- lucky the driver who has a passenger. Of course, one of the standard design features of the Volkswagen was the no-draft windows that could be pointed inwards toward the windshield, providing both defrost and fresh oxygen. We could never figure out why others cars didn't have them.
The interior ice scraping was greatly complicated in '73 when we got a Superbeetle, with the deluxe curved glass windshield.
I bought a '64 brand new, my first new car. Got me one with a gas heater and man I could melt the windows clear at forty below in five minutes. That sucker cost me $1,144 dollars and my payments were $25 a month. I made 70 cents and hour at the time and worked a 44 hour week.
I recall going from Toronto to Ottawa in an old vw van when the heater went, it was 30 below. Not a big deal if there was a hot engine in front of you, but all there was was a thin sheet of metal with the 30 below air coming at us at 60 an hour.
I can still recall trying to push a beetle of that era to a start at around -35°F. The fluid in the trans-axle was so stiff that as we pushed, the rear wheels stayed locked and just slid across the ice. Yaa we may have been a bit tipsy but still had the presence of mind to make sure the e-brake was off.
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