75th Birthday of the Beetle

248 posts · joined May 2003 · 29 Apr 2013, 8:37 pm

#953473

Is any Celebrations taking place for the 75th Birthday of the Beetle?

The foundation Stone was laid on the 28th of May 1938.

I though this would be a good PR opertunity for our beloved old cars.

A good friend will come and bail you out of jail.....
But a true friend will be sitting next to you saying "Damm that was fun!!!"

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 30 Apr 2013, 9:19 am

#953521

As I responded on the Club events forum, it's not the 75th birthday of the Beetle. It's the 75th birthday of the laying of the Wolfsburg factory foundation stone. The factory wasn't even finished construction until 1939. The foundation stone was removed and buried in an undocumented location in the 1950s and no longer exists.

Beetle production began in 1945 thanks to the British Army - the consecutive chassis numbering used up to 1965 starts from 1945. Proir to that the small number of KdFs were mostly hand-built by the Porsche works in Stuttgart. It isn't even the 75th birthday of the Volkswagen AG company - that started in 1949 when the British handed the works back to the government of Lower Saxony.

There are celebrations for the 60th birthday of Volkswagen in Australia later this year - we are having a movie afternoon at the Hurstville Civic Theatre in July, and the VW Club of Victoria are celebrating with their Day of the Volkswagen in October.

AA003 Custom Title Time!

1,189 posts · joined Oct 2011 · 30 Apr 2013, 11:33 am

#953536

Phil74Camper wrote:the VW Club of Victoria are celebrating with their Day of the Volkswagen in October.

I wonder if they are going to tell anyone about it?

Is there any information on it?

I read it on samba, so it must be correct.

Sometimes Volkswagen dealers sell spare parts. Amazing isn't it!😂

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 30 Apr 2013, 12:28 pm

#953544

Club Veedub gets the VWCVIC magazine, in which president Lloyd Davies mentioned they are moving the DOVW from Nov to Oct, especially for the 60th anniversary of VW in Australia. There's a bit of info on their website, but I guess more will come as we get closer (Sat 19 Oct). But at this stage it sounds great - a cruise down Tullamarine Fwy to the former VW factory at Clayton. Looks like they are going to play 'Shape of Quality' on the day. A great idea - we are going to do that at Hurstville Civic in July, plus the Antarctica 1 films, plus 1955 Redex (stay tuned)

http://www.vwclub.com.au/

As for the Wolfsburg factory, the cornerstone was laid on 26 May 1938 (not 28th), and marked the start of the construction of the plant (NOT the car). It was still uncompleted when the war began in September 1939, and planned production of KdFs was postponed in favour of military vehicles and war materiel. This website shows wartime aerial shots of the factory, taken by the US army air force after a bombing raid:

http://www.airrecce.co.uk/WW2/imagery/Wolfsburg/USAAF_Wolfsburg.html

AA003 Custom Title Time!

1,189 posts · joined Oct 2011 · 30 Apr 2013, 12:35 pm

#953546

That's November to October.

I wish that they could make some decisions a bit early so that interstate people could attend.👎

At least Valla and the Nationals let you know.

Not everyone can get time off work at the last minute.

I read it on samba, so it must be correct.

Sometimes Volkswagen dealers sell spare parts. Amazing isn't it!😂