There are a lot of really good documentaries’ on the VW beetle. I have a couple favorites, one that spends a great deal of time in the factory back in the mid 60’s. A few months ago I stumbled on to a History Channel documentary “The Cars that built the world”.
This was a 2020 documentary that has 4 episodes. In particular, episode 3 and 4 deal with the Volkswagen Beetle, Ferdinand Porsche, and Ferry Porsche. It was eye opening to learn of some of the struggles that the Porsche duo faced when creating the beetle. In particular the challenge to have an air cooled engine that would not overheat.
Ferdinand Porsche was working as a top engineer at Mercedes Benz. However, his main desire was to create a car for average families, something that Mercedes Benz was not interested in. As a result he left there in favor of starting his own car company. His focus was inexpensive cars for everyday people.
Then in 1933, when Hitler challenged the auto industry to come up with a “Peoples Car”, it fit perfectly with what Porsche wanted to accomplish. A meeting between the two followed, and based on a drawing on a napkin, Porsche began the design phase of what would become the beetle. The price point had to be equivalent to the cheapest model T. That is where much of the drama begins.
Ferdinand Porsche was a visionary, whereas Ferry was more of a pragmatist. Ferry was convinced that it could not be done Ferdinand saw it as a great opportunity.
A year after their initial meeting, Hitler approves the Porsche design. However, the struggles continue on bringing it to life, making it drivable, and keeping the cost down..
I don’t want to give too much more of the storyline away, because it is very entertaining. Along the way you will find some interesting information on Toyota, and Honda. This documentary is probably one of the best I’ve seen. If you have access to the History Channel, I highly recommend it.
