Can you believe it that the Type 181 is based on the Beetle floorpan, and used most of the stuff that’s found inside Beetles? Though its 94.5” wheelbase is identical to that of the Beetle, with barely any overhangs, it was actually shorter than the Bug. During the Second World War, VW built a similar UV for the German Army, called the Type 82 or Kubelwagen. This was essentially a staff car and was functional the way only Army vehicles can be. Years later, in the 1960s, when VW came around to produce a vehicle for the Army, they developed this, the Type 181. It was a more ‘refined’, modern version of the Kubelwagen, and since it used Beetle underpinnings, costs could be kept low. So low that I suspect their development budget was equivalent to the cost of a wiener schnitzel.
Designated the Mehrzweck-wagen (multi-purpose vehicle), it did duties not only with the military and para-military, but also with the forestry department, the postal service, border guards, civil defence, fire brigade... virtually everywhere. However, since the Bundeswehr wanted something a bit more formidable and capable with all-wheel drive, VW ended up selling the 181 in the civilian market. It’s estimated that over 140,000 181s were built between 1969 and 1980, and one of them found its way to India.
The 181 that I have in front of me once belonged to a Belgian-run mission in Kolkata where it also did duty as an ambulance, and was eventually acquired by Dr Ram Pradeep, a big VW fan based in Chennai, who has a Beetle and a Karmann Ghia coupé too. While driving classic or vintage cars, I usually take a while to look around and understand the machine, or observe how the owner or the driver puts the machine through its paces. In this case, there was no such lag; I simply sat in it and drove it. That’s because the 181 was extremely familiar to me; it was just a Beetle with a strange, utilitarian body around it. Oh, it may not look so, but sitting inside is a manoeuvre that needs to be practised many times over. That’s because the door panels are high and the floor is way down somewhere – so you either trip on the door sill while getting in or trip on the door sill while getting out.
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