{"id":493578,"date":"2014-01-01T00:15:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T08:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=13519"},"modified":"2024-10-03T20:23:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T20:23:52","slug":"1966-volkswagen-kombi-transporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/1966-volkswagen-kombi-transporter\/","title":{"rendered":"1966 Volkswagen Kombi Transporter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The genesis for Volkswagen\u2019s near-ubiquitous Transporter, or Microbus, was a combination of post-war necessity and the clever instincts of a Dutch importer.<\/p>\n

After World War II, VW\u2019s Wolfsburg factory was in disarray and taken over by the Allied forces. While offered to a number of British and American car companies as war reparations, ironically none saw any merit in Volkswagen\u2019s quirky looking Beetle, so they all passed on the opportunity. This left the British commanders who were overseeing the factory with a quandary of what to do with the facility. In the end, they decided to continue producing Volkswagen\u2019s Kubelwagen personnel transporter (a forefather of Volkswagen\u2019s versatile \u201cThing\u201d from the 1970s) as a way of supporting the allied forces and keeping the locals gainfully employed.<\/p>\n

In April of 1947, Dutch businessman Ben Pon Sr., journeyed to Wolfsburg, to try and convince the Allied commanders that they should continue to produce the Beetle and allow him to resume importation into Holland, as he had done before the war. While in Wolfsburg, Pon saw several examples of a crude flatbed truck, for use in the factory, that had been assembled from various bits and pieces from the Beetle parts bin, including its air-cooled, flat-4 engine. Pon reckoned that there would be a healthy demand in war-ravaged Europe for a low cost, utility van or transporter that could be outfitted in various configurations. While the Allied commanders (most notably Major Ivan Hirst, who ran the day-to-day affairs of the factory) were impressed and saw merit, they were unwilling and unprepared to take on a new design, outside what the factory was already tooled up to produce. However, on January 1, 1948, control of Volkswagen was turned back over to the German government and placed in the hands of new general manager Heinz Nordhoff. Nordhoff also saw the merit of an affordable commercial vehicle, and by the autumn of 1948 directed VW\u2019s Chief Designer, Alfred H\u00e4sner, to develop Pon\u2019s sketch.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By March of 1949, the first prototype was completed, but severe weakness in the near stock Beetle floorpan resulted in an emergency redesign whereby the body structure was welded onto a rudimentary frame made of two longitudinal rails, with crossmembers and outriggers to provide increased rigidity. By November 6, the first generation (T1) Type 2 Transporter as it came to be known was launched to the media and officially went into production on May 10, 1950. In its earliest form the Transporter came as a panel van (no side windows), a Kombi (three side windows and short panel section, either side) or a Microbus (generally, five side windows and no side panel section).<\/p>\n

In the years that would follow, there would come many improvements, including larger engines and styling details, as well as many variations such as a pickup, a camper and the deluxe 21-window Microbus (an 11-window bus, with five additional window portals running along the roofline). By 1954, 100,000 Transporters of the first generation (T1) \u201cSplit Window\u201d type were built. Production of these continued until 1967 when the (T2) \u201cBay Window\u201d version was released. To date, total production of all Volkswagen Transporters now exceeds 10 million.<\/p>\n

On the Road<\/b><\/p>\n

Pulling open the door to this \u201cSplit Window\u201d bus reveals a genuinely unique and minimalist interior. Unlike any other car, the front seats of the VW Transporter sit over the top of the front axle line, resulting in perhaps the most extreme \u201cdriver-forward\u201d driving positioning of any vehicle. As a result of pushing the driver to the very front of the vehicle, there is nothing to get in between the driver and the front of the bus\u2014as evidenced by the fact that the headlight buckets are prominent at the feet of both driver and passenger. This also translates into a very small and clean dashboard, an almost vertical steering wheel column coming up from the floorboard and an upright driving position with a commanding view of the road ahead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Once perched in the flat-padded bucket seat, atop the wheel well, giving the key a turn elicits a whirring and purring from what sounds like a mile away in the very back of the bus. Dabs of the accelerator support the idea that the engine is in fact bubbling away back there, but the driver is left with the vague sensation that the entire powertrain of the vehicle is located somewhere in another zip code! With a minimum of gauges and switches to contend with, after releasing the flying handbrake and dipping the floor-mounted clutch, I stir the long Bakelite gearshift erupting from the floor and add a little gas as the bus gently pulls away.<\/p>\n

As might be expected\u2014based on the Transporter\u2019s humble origins and low-cost design brief\u2014performance is nothing to write home to mother about. With a fairly anemic 50-hp engine pushing a vehicle that weighs about 2200 pounds, acceleration can be classified as \u201crelaxed.\u201d Likewise, with a shift linkage that is almost 8-feet long, there is a certain vague feeling to shifts that require an innate sense of where the next gear lives. Yet, despite these challenges\u2014and Volkswagen\u2019s notoriously vague steering feel\u2014the bus is surprisingly fun to drive. Undoubtedly, it is that unusual \u201criding on top of the car\u201d driving position that contributes to the fun of driving any of the T1 or T2 buses. With so much interior room and versatility, coupled with the busses\u2019 quirky but fun handling, it\u2019s no wonder that these little boxes on wheels took the Baby Boomers by storm and resulted in some 1.5 million \u201cSplit Window\u201d and 3.2 million \u201cBay Window\u201d examples being sold.<\/p>\n

Driven Classics at a Glance:<\/p>\n

SPECIFICATIONS<\/b><\/p>\n

1966 Volkswagen Kombi Transporter<\/p>\n

Chassis: Ladder frame, with steel unitary construction<\/p>\n

Wheelbase: 94.5 inches<\/p>\n

Length: 163 inches<\/p>\n

Width: 65 inches<\/p>\n

Front Track: 53.9 inches<\/p>\n

Rear Track: 53.5 inches<\/p>\n

Height: 75 inches<\/p>\n

Suspension: (F) Transverse torsion bars, parallel trailing arms, telescopic shocks. (R) Transverse torsion bars, parallel trailing arms, telescopic shocks.<\/p>\n

Weight: 2150 pounds<\/p>\n

Engine: 1493-cc, horizontally opposed, Flat-4<\/p>\n

Bore x Stroke: 83-mm x 69-mm<\/p>\n

Compression: 7.5:1<\/p>\n

Induction: Single Solex downdraft carburetor<\/p>\n

Power: 50-bhp @4200 rpm<\/p>\n

Torque: 78-lb-ft @ 2600 rpm<\/p>\n

Transmission: 4-speed, with reverse<\/p>\n

Brakes: Hydraulically operated drums all around<\/p>\n

PERFORMANCE<\/b><\/p>\n

Top Speed: 81 mph<\/p>\n

0-60 mph: 37-sec<\/p>\n

Average fuel consumption: 27-mpg<\/p>\n

VALUATION<\/b><\/p>\n

Excellent: $43,000<\/p>\n

Good: $23,000<\/p>\n

Average: $14,000<\/p>\n

Poor: $9,000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The genesis for Volkswagen\u2019s near-ubiquitous Transporter, or Microbus, was a combination of post-war necessity and the clever instincts of a Dutch importer. After World War II, VW\u2019s Wolfsburg factory was in disarray and taken over by the Allied forces. While offered to a number of British and American car companies as war reparations, ironically none saw any merit in Volkswagen\u2019s quirky looking Beetle, so they all passed on the opportunity. This left the British commanders who were overseeing the factory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":525500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2186,9348,17105,180],"tags":[2727,16843,13061,17106,181,17976,21797],"class_list":["post-493578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1960s","category-guides","category-model-guides-production-cars","category-volkswagen","tag-1960s","tag-1960s-cars","tag-car-profiles","tag-model-guides-production-cars","tag-volkswagen","tag-volkswagen-model-guides-all","tag-volkswagen-model-guides-production-cars"],"yoast_head":"\n1966 Volkswagen Kombi Transporter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"1966 Volkswagen Kombi Transporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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