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Technical

Technical Development of the VW air-cooled Engine

& the Karmann Ghia

Everybody knows the famous story of the alliance between Adolph Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche to realize both of their dreams to put every working man into a car. Lesser known are the men who actually designed the engine and the car itself.

Immediately after learning of the Wright Brothers' famous first flight at kitty Hawk in 1908, Porsche began to give free reign to his imagination for an engine design to power this new form of transport. Undoubtedly more of a personal-interest project than anything else, Porsche's concept developed over the next four years, and by 1912 he had assembled a viable 4-cylinder, horizontally opposed, air-cooled engine with pushrod operated overhead valves that produced around 90 bhp. This design was eventually licensed to a British company for aircraft use, but Porsche never dropped the idea as a potential motive unit for light automobiles.

The design remained relatively dormant until the mid 1930s when Porsche was given a mandate by the new government of the Reich to develop a mass produced automobile for the German citizenry. Porsche returned from a meeting with Hitler and wrote down his "Ideas on the construction of a German People's Car" which included the following points:

1) the best possible suspension and handling;

2) a maximum speed of about 100km/h;

3) a climbing ability of about 30%;

4) closed four-seater body for transportation of passengers;

5) the lowest possible purchase price and running costs.

Porsche had always surrounded himself with engineering geniuses, and foremost among these was his Chief Engine Designer, Franz Reimspeiss, who had perfected Porsche's earlier horizontally-opposed concept aero-engine into the robust automobile engine that, in various guises, has powered all air-cooled Volkswagen models from the earliest prototypes in 1935 to the Beetles still enjoying production in Mexico today. Production was headed up by Karl Rabe, who supervised Erwin Komenda in the design of the classic Beetle shape.

The Volkswagen prototypes went through three years of testing at the hands of Porsche, his family, his staff and the German military. On 26 May 1938 Porsche was present when the foundation stone was laid for the Volkswagenwerke at Wolfsburg. Production was to have begun on 15 October 1939.

Karmann Karosserie began operations in 1874 producing custom-made coaches, and crafted their first automobile body in 1902 for the Bielefeld company of Dürkopp. In 1946 Wilhelm Karmann allegedly acquired a Beetle in a coupon scheme and, in an effort to drum up business, converted it to a cabriolet and delivered it to Volkswagen. After testing, Karmann was given a contract for 4-seater variations, while the two-seater business went to Hebmüller. In a similar move in the early 1950s, Karmann had approached VW with several design studies for a sports version of the Beetle Cabriolet. Apparently none of his drawings and models impressed Volkswagen head Heinrich Nordhoff. Perhaps in desperation, Karmann had a Beetle delivered from a dealership in France to the Corrozzeria Ghia studios in Turin, Italy. Ghia was already famous for some of the most evocative designs of the era, led by chief stylist Luigi Segre, and no doubt the success of Porsche's new VW-based 356 had a bearing on their ambitions. Ghia had a operating prototype ready in just five months, the theory being that much of the preliminary design work had already been completed for a Chrysler study, crafted by one Mario Boano and especially his apprentice, Sergio Coggiola. It was Boano's son Gian Paolo who had driven the Beetle from France to Italy. In a back room at the 1953 Auto Salon in Paris, Karmann and French VW distributor Charles Ladouche presented the prototype to VW's Nordhoff. Nordhoff was delighted, but wanted the car kept from public view until Volkswagen engineers had a chance to assess the design, which happened at the Karmann facilities on 16 November. A three-way partnership was reached that same day. The Karmann Ghia made its public debut on 14 July 1955, and production of the 1956 model began in August. The line ended in favor of the Scirocco in 1974, with a production total of 362,585 Coupes, and 80,881 Cabriolets.

Production Figures

Service Manuals

Don't kid yourself. You need one, and you need the best one you can afford. I sell car literature for a living, and I can't tell you how many times I've sold people two manuals: the cheap one first and the good one second. Young guys will come in for a "Hayes or Clinton" that they heard about because it was cheap and easy to find, and when I recommend the Bentley factory reprint manual they tell me they didn't want to spend that much, and they were only doing tune-ups and a stereo install anyways. Sure enough, they're back the next Saturday with grease up to their elbows and dirty cash clutched in their frustrated fists, laying down the money for the proper information, and asking how much I'll give them in exchange credit on the Haynes manual they bought last week. They wanted to hook up a new stereo, but the cheap manuals only showed "typical" wiring diagrams, and they can't find the wiring diagram they need for their car. Or they can't find mention of their particular carburetor, etc., etc. I can't stress this enough, but I'll put it in bold type anyways:

Volkswagens are simple cars, but you cannot do all the things you want to do when you are using an aftermarket manual. Period.

Just look at the size. Aftermarket manuals cover at least twice the year range and four times as many models, and they're half as thick. Or look at it this way: compare the cost of a Robert Bentley factory reprint manual to the cost of one hour's labor at any garage you can think of. The manual will pay for itself in one tune-up. And finally, if that's all not enough, ask people whose opinions you respect. Go on to VW technical forums (I like thesamba.com) and look for or ask about service manuals. The guys who know will always say Bentley.

Get your Robert Bentley manuals from automotive book experts like eAutomobilia.com, or direct from Robert Bentley themselves, and kiss your mechanic good bye.

Tools

Originally from England, this is an old list that's been floating around for generations, but it's still very relevant, so I offer it here.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive car parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes containing convertible tops or tonneau covers.

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning steel pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age, but it also works great for drilling rollbar mounting holes in the floor of a sports car just above the brake line that goes to the rear axle.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXY-ACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting those stale garage cigarettes you keep hidden in the back of the Whitworth socket drawer (what wife would think to look in there?) because you can never remember to buy lighter fluid for the Zippo lighter you got from the PX at Fort Campbell.

ZIPPO LIGHTER: See oxy-acetylene torch.

WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for hiding six-month-old Salems from the sort of person who would throw them away for no good reason.

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against the Rolling Stones poster over the bench grinder.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar callouses in about the time it takes you to say "Django Reinhardt."

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering a Mustang to the ground after you have installed a set of Ford Motorsports lowered road springs, trapping the jack handle firmly under the front air dam.

EIGHT-FOOT-LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2x4: Used for levering a car upward off a hydraulic jack.

TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.

PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbor Chris to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.

SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog doo off your boot.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit.

TIMING LIGHT: A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease buildup on crankshaft pulleys.

TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of ground straps and hydraulic clutch lines you may have forgotten to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.

BATTERY ELECTROLYTE TESTER: A handy tool for transferring sulfuric acid from a car battery to the inside of your toolbox after determining that your battery is dead as a doornail, just as you thought.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

TROUBLE LIGHT: The mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as the name implies, to round off Phillips head screws.

AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty suspension bolts last tightened 40 years ago by someone in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and rounds them off.