Pretzel beetle
" Pretzel beetle " is the joking name for the first KdF car , the later VW Beetle of type VW 1. The nickname came about during the long construction period of the "Beetle" as an allusion to the small, two-part rear window with a central bar that was removed from a pretzel remind. The division of the window was necessary because when the Volkswagen was built, curved glass, which would have been adapted to the curved rear, would have been too expensive for a cheap small car. The windshields of almost all pre-war cars were also flat; some cars had two windscreens divided by a walkway.
In March 1953 the "pretzel window" was replaced by a one-piece oval rear window. The pane of safety glass was slightly curved and 23% larger than the two small panes. The accessories industry also offered the full-length rear window for retrofitting in the older models.
Nowadays such conversions are taken back for nostalgic reasons; there are conversion kits that allow the previously cut out center bar to be welded back in.
literature
- Christian Grundmann, Axel Struwe, Clauspeter Becker: The first pretzel beetle . Delius Klasing Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7688-3362-2 .
