Porsche VW 39

An automotive world without the Volkswagen Type 1 (better known as Beetle) is difficult to imagine from today’s perspective. This is mainly due to the fact that very few of our readers are likely to have witnessed this ‘pre-VW-era’ live. Of course, it can’t be denied that Ferdinand Porsche was only able to realize his plans for a compact vehicle for everyone primarily through the direct support of the NSDAP under the leadership of none other than Adolf Hitler. But these plans had already begun long before the war, partly in collaboration with Béla Barényi. Hitler later was so taken with this idea that he repeatedly contradicted the established German automakers and forced them to cooperate with Ferdinand Porsche.

When the first plans were put on paper exactly isn’t known anymore. In fact as early as 1931, Ferdinand Porsche developed the ‘Type 12’ as a compact vehicle for Zündapp, which was a year later realized in the form of three driveable prototypes without his intervention. One of these cars was given to the design and construction office of Porsche as payment for the design work. It was destroyed towards the end of the war in an air raid on Stuttgart. Similar considerations began at NSU in 1932, which for some time now only built motorcycles instead of cars, but wanted to return to their roots. While Zündapp demanded for the use of a five-cylinder radial engine, NSU made no specifications to Porsche. The result was a compact prototype (Type 32) with an air-cooled boxer engine in the rear, central tube frame, specially patented front axle, rear swing axle and torsion bar suspension. If that sounds familiar to you: A very similar concept can be found in the later Volkswagen. One year after the NSU project started, Hitler called the automotive industry to develop a car for the people (Volkswagen) with enough room for two adults, three children and their luggage. Ferdinand Porsche gladly accepted this.

The first two prototypes V1 (sedan) and V2 (convertible) were made by Porsche in the cramped premises of a double garage in Stuttgart. They were introduced at the Daimler-Benz showroom in Berlin in February 1936 to leading members of the automotive industry and to politicians. They were followed by three more prototypes (VW 3 series), which were also built in the same place near Porsches private house. All five cars used the findings of the former NSU project, but already showed clear similarities with the later production vehicle (although they didn’t had rear windows yet). After the test and development drives with the VW 3 were successfully completed, the following 30 prototypes (all sedans except one convertible) were built at Daimler-Benz in Sindelfingen at the request of Adolf Hitler. With the so-called VW 30 long-term test drives were carried out over more than 2.4 million kilometers to convince the critical voices of the car industry of the quality of this project.

From the beginning of 1938, the production of the pre-production vehicles  was relocated to Reutter in Stuttgart Zuffenhausen, where today Porsche’s headquarter can be found. First they built a few copies of the VW 38, which optically already corresponded to the production car – including the characteristic pretzel window at the rear. In 1939 another 14 pre-series VW 39 were built, which in contrast to the VW 38 received the engine of the Type 60 K10 (Porsche Type 64) ‘Berlin-Rom-Wagen’. This was a race car for a planned race between the two mentioned cities, but which didn’t take place due to the beginning of the war. For this purpose, the performance had been increased to 32 hp by classic tuning. In addition, these were the first copies of the ‘Beetle’ created using pressing tools, which were modified afterwards for the series production. With these prototypes, Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche regularly drove back and forth between their design office in Stuttgart, the VW plant under construction near Fallersleben (today Wolfsburg) and the capital Berlin, reaching speeds of up to 145 kph (90 mph) thanks to the additional power. However, some prototypes also went to political figures and organizations. For example, the vehicle with chassis number 1-00003, which was delivered to the headquarters of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German labor front) in Berlin. The exact purpose is unclear. Presumably, it was put into a showroom to generate more interest in the saving marks system for the KdF.-Wagen. After the war, the badly damaged car was pulled out of the rubble and sold to a car collector in Hamburg, who restored it. In 2014, the founders of the Automuseum Prototyp in Hamburg, Thomas König and Oliver Schmidt, bought what is probably the last existing VW 39 and returned it in a three-year restoration back to its original state. Today it is part of the interesting exhibition of the museum.

Images: Porsche