VW ‘beetling’ along at 70
ANNIVERSARY: MILESTONE OF PRODUCTION IN SA
Array of models at in-house museum known as the AutoPavilion.
Back in the ’90s, when a former girlfriend’s teenage son was writing exams, he developed a ritual of counting Volkswagen Beetles on the way to school.
Heaven help us if he counted fewer than a dozen because that meant he was doomed to fail, so we would leave home earlier than usual and drive around looking for the queer-shaped vehicles so he could log the requisite number.
This called back my own childhood when our family set out on the annual roadtrip from the Eastern Cape to the old Transvaal and, to make time speed up, engaged in counting games.
My canny mother quickly opted for counting Beetles and was the undisputed Freeman-family champion for a couple of years until I came up with the idea of counting windmills across the Karoo and Free State.
From 1977 on, the game could have been played with the VW Golf and its variants: my point being is that Volkswagen has always seemed ubiquitous on South Africa’s roads.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Volkswagen SA (VWSA) this week marked its 70th anniversary of production in this country, with the company adding its Kariega (Uitenhage) factory had manufactured more than four million vehicles in the past seven decades.
“Aside from the vehicles imported for the local market, the plant in Kariega has manufactured many iconic vehicles, including the Volkswagen Beetle, the Type 2 Kombi, various Audi models, the Golf [including Citi Golf], the Polo range and the Polo Vivo,” said the company in a statement. “The plant also began manufacturing the latest facelift of the Volkswagen Polo this month.
“VWSA has been the sole manufacturer of all new right-handdrive Polo hatchbacks since 2010, and is the exclusive manufacturer of the flagship Polo GTi.
“VWSA also achieved a record production year in 2019, when the plant manufactured 161 954 vehicles in a single year. Another milestone achievement came in 2020, when the Volkswagen brand in South Africa achieved a local market share of 21.6% – the highest in the history of VWSA – and the highest market share for Volkswagen worldwide last year,” the statement added.
The first vehicle to roll off the assembly line on 31 August, 1951 was, naturally, a Beetle.
While that specific vehicle is not on display at Volkswagen’s in-house museum known as the AutoPavilion, there is an even older import; a 1949 model known as “Jan” and acknowledged as the oldest Beetle in South Africa.
With “his” 1 131cc rear-mounted engine, Jan had a maximum cruising speed of 100km/h. As far as acceleration was concerned, Jan went from 0-80km/h in 28.9 seconds.
The AutoPavilion, says VWSA head of group communications
Andile Dlamini, plays an important role in preserving Volkswagen and affiliated brands’ legacy in Mzansi. These brands include Audi and its precursor, Auto Union, as well as now-defunct DKW.
I’ve returned to the facility several times since my first visit nine years ago and it’s always fascinating to see the love and effort put into the sophisticated display and how the range of automotive artifacts has increased.
Motorsport enthusiasts are drawn to the original all-wheeldrive Audi Sport Quattro, piloted so successfully by rally king “Supervan” Sarel van der Merwe in the ’80s, and petrolheads to the display of various engines, but most visitor fawning is lavished on the collection of historic Beetles.
By far the most famous is “Herbie” – the sextet have all been named – a 1963 model who made his Hollywood debut at the age of five and became known as Disney’s Love Bug that had a spirit of his own. Okay, they were only movies, but Herbie is recognised as Volkswagen’s first “self-driving” car.
There’s Jan, of course, but also
Nomhle (an electric blue blingedup 1967 “California” that was one of the first locally produced Beetles to be fitted with front disk brakes), 1972’s Delilah who is a complete “original” with fewer than 1 000km on her clock, and Matti.
On 18 January, 1979, Matti became the 288 353rd and last Beetle built at Uitenhage.
According to the website www.autopavilion.co.za, “for the next 27 years he remained in show-stopper condition until the fateful day he was on his way back from an event in Cape Town. The vehicle carrier transporting Matti and other rare Volkswagens and Audis overturned. Matti had a mere 200km on his clock but he was in critical condition.”
For the next 12 years, he underwent “serious surgery and had many transplants” but he was completely restored in 2017.
Other noteworthy vehicles on display include the final locally manufactured Citi Golf, the first Golf GTi (1982) and Campervan (1954), as well as the only Volkswagen XL1 diesel-electric hybrid concept car in Africa.