Beetle (pronounced beet-l)
(1) Any of numerous insects of the order Coleoptera, having
biting mouthparts and characterized by hard, horny forewings modified to form
shell-like protective elytra forewings that cover and protect the membranous
flight wings.
(2) Used loosely, any of various insects resembling true beetles.
(3) A game of chance in which players attempt to complete
a drawing of a beetle, different dice rolls allowing them to add the various
body parts.
(4) A heavy hammering or ramming instrument, usually of
wood, used to drive wedges, force down paving stones, compress loose earth etc.
(5) A machine in which fabrics are subjected to a
hammering process while passing over rollers, as in cotton mills; used to
finish cloth and other fabrics, they’re known also as a “beetling machine”
(6) To use a beetle on; to drive, ram, beat or crush with
a beetle; to finish cloth or other fabrics with a beetling machine.
(7) In slang, quickly to move; to scurry (mostly UK),
used also in the form “beetle off”.
(8) Something projecting, jutting out or overhanging
(used to describe geological formation and, in human physiology, often in the
form beetle browed).
(9) By extension, literally or figuratively, to hang or
tower over someone in a threatening or menacing manner.
(10) In slang, the original Volkswagen and the later
retro-model, based on the resemblance (in silhouette) of the car to the insect;
used with and without an initial capital; the alternative slang “bug” was also analogous
with descriptions of the insects.
Pre 900: From the late Middle English bittil, bitil, betylle & bityl, from the Old English bitula, bitela, bītel & bīetel (beetle (and apparently
originally meaning “little biter; biting insect”)), from bēatan (to beat) (and related to bitela, bitel & betl,
from bītan (to bite) & bitol (teeth)), from the Proto-West
Germanic bitilō & bītil, from the Proto-Germanic bitilô & bītilaz (that which tends to bite, biter, beetle), the construct
being bite + -le. Bite was from the Middle English biten, from the Old English bītan (bite), from the Proto-West
Germanic bītan, from the
Proto-Germanic bītaną (bite), from
the primitive Indo-European bheyd-
(split) and the -le suffix was from the Middle English -elen, -len & -lien, from the Old English -lian
(the frequentative verbal suffix), from the Proto-Germanic -lōną (the frequentative verbal suffix)
and was cognate with the West Frisian -elje,
the Dutch -elen, the German -eln, the Danish -le, the Swedish -la and
the Icelandic -la. It was used as a frequentative suffix of
verbs, indicating repetition or continuousness.
The forms in Old English were cognate with the Old High German bicco
(beetle), the Danish bille (beetle), the
Icelandic bitil & bitul (a bite, bit) and the Faroese bitil (small piece, bittock).
In architecture, what was historically was the "beetle brow" window is now usually called "the eyebrow". A classic example of a beetle-brow was that of Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi deputy führer 1933-1941).
Beetle in the sense of the tool used to work wood,
stonework, fabric etc also dates from before 900 and was from the Middle
English betel & bitille (mallet,
hammer), from the Old English bītel,
bētel & bȳtel which was cognate with the Middle
Low German bētel (chisel), from bēatan & bētan (beat) and related to the Old Norse beytill (penis). The adjectival
sense applied originally to human physiology (as beetle-browed) and later extended
to geological formations (as a back-formation of beetle-browed) and
architecture where it survives as the “eyebrow” window constructions mounted in
sloping roofs. The mid-fourteenth
century Middle English bitelbrouwed (grim-browed,
sullen (literally “beetle-browed”)) is thought to have been an allusion to the
many beetles with bushy antennae, the construct being the early thirteenth
century bitel (in the sense of "sharp-edged,
sharp" which was probably a compound from the Old English bitol (biting, sharp) + brow, which in
Middle English meant "eyebrow" rather than "forehead." Although the history of use in distant oral
traditions is of course murky, it may be from there that the Shakespearean
back-formation (from Hamlet (1602)) in the sense of "project,
overhang" was coined, perhaps from bitelbrouwed. As applied to geological formations, the
meaning “dangerously to overhang cliffs etc” dates from circa 1600. The alternative
spellings bittle, betel & bittil are all long obsolete. Beetle is a noun & verb & adjective,
beetled is a verb, beetling is a verb & adjective and beetler is a noun;
the noun plural is beetles.
The Beetle (Volkswagen Type 1)
First built before World War II (1939-1945), the Volkswagen
(the construct being volks (people) +
wagen (car)) car didn’t pick up the
nickname “beetle” until 1946, the allied occupation forces translating it from
the German Käfer and it caught on,
lasting until the last one left a factory in Mexico in 2003 although in
different places it gained other monikers, the Americans during the 1950s
liking “bug” and the French coccinelle
(ladybug) and as sales gathered strength around the planet, there were
literally dozens of local variations, the more visually memorable including:
including: bintus (Tortoise) in
Nigeria, pulga (flea) in Colombia, ඉබ්බා (tortoise) in Sri Lanka, sapito (little toad) in Perú, peta
(turtle) in Bolivia, folcika (bug) in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, kostenurka (turtle)
in Bulgaria, baratinha (little
cockroach) in Cape Verde, poncho in
Chile and Venezuela. buba (bug) in
Croatia, boblen (the bubble), asfaltboblen (the asphalt bubble), gravid rulleskøjte (pregnant
rollerskate) & Hitlerslæden
(Hitler-sled) in Denmark. cepillo
(brush) in the Dominican Republic, fakrouna
(tortoise) in Libya, kupla (bubble)
& Aatun kosto (Adi's revenge) in
Finland, cucaracha (cockroach) in Guatemala,
El Salvador and Honduras, Kodok
(frog) in Indonesia, ghoorbaghei (قورباغه ای) (frog) in Iran, agroga عكروكة (little frog) & rag-gah ركـّة (little turtle) in Iraq, maggiolino (maybug) in Italy, kodok (frog) in Malaysia, pulguita (little flea) in Mexico and much
of Latin America, boble (bubble) in
Norway, kotseng kuba (hunchback car)
& boks (tin can) in the Philippines,
garbus (hunchback) in Poland, mwendo wa kobe (tortoise speed) in
Swahili and banju maqlub (literally “upside down bathtub”) in Malta.
A ground beetle (left), a first generation Beetle (1939-2003) (centre) and an "New Beetle" (1997-2011). Despite the appearance, the "New Beetle" was of front engine & front-wheel-drive configuration, essentially a re-bodied Volkswagen Golf. The new car was sold purely as a retro, the price paid for the style, certain packaging inefficiencies.
A handy (and
potentially life-saving) accessory for wartime KdF-Wagens was a passenger-side mount for a MP 40/41 Maschinenpistole (submachine gun),
usually dubbed the Schmeisser by Allied
troops on the basis German weapons designer Hugo Schmeisser (1884–1953) was
responsible for the earlier and visually similar MP 18 (the world’s first mass-produced
submachine gun). Although he was not
involved in the development of the MP 40, that weapon did use a magazine
produced in accordance with one of his patents.
The Beetle (technically, originally the KdF-Wagen and later the Volkswagen
Type 1) was one of the products nominally associated with the Nazi regime’s Gemeinschaft Kraft durch Freude (KdF,
“Strength Through Joy”), the state-controlled organization which was under the
auspices of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront
(German Labor Front) which replaced the independent labor unions. Operating medical services, cruise liners and
holiday resorts for the working class, the KdF envisaged the Volkswagen as a
European Model T Ford in that it would be available in sufficient
numbers and at a price affordable by the working man, something made easier
still by the Sparkarte (savings
booklet) plan under which a deposit would be paid with the balance to be met in
instalments. Once fully paid, a
Volkswagen would be delivered. All this
was announced in 1939 but the war meant that not one Volkswagen was ever
delivered to any of those who diligently continued to make their payments as
late as 1943. Whether, even without a
war, the scheme could have continued with the price set at a politically sensitive
990 Reichsmarks is uncertain. That was
certainly below the cost of production and although the Ford Model T had
demonstrated how radically production costs could be lowered once the
efficiencies of mass-production reached critical mass, there were features
unique to the US economy which may never have manifested in the Nazi system,
even under sustained peace although, had the Nazis won the war, from the Atlantic to the Urals they'd have had a vast pool of slave labor, a obvious way to reduce unit labor costs. As it was, it
wasn’t until 1964 that some of the participants
in the Sparkarte were granted
a settlement under which they received a discount (between 9-14%) which could
be credited against a new Beetle.
Inflation and the conversion in 1948 from Reichsmark to Deutschmark make
it difficult accurately to assess the justice of that but the consensus was
Volkswagen got a good deal. The settlement was also limited, nobody resident in the GDR (The German Democratic Republic, the old East Germany (1949-1990)) or elsewhere behind the iron curtain received even a Reichspfennig (cent).
Lindsay Lohan with Beetle in Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Walt Disney Pictures' remake of The Love Bug (1968) (centre). One of the Beetles used in the track racing sequences in Herbie: Fully Loaded is now on display in the Peterson Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California (left & right).
There were many Volkswagens produced during the war but
all were delivered either to the military or the Nazi Party organization where
they were part of the widespread corruption endemic to the Third Reich, the
extent of which wasn’t understood until well after the end of the regime. The wartime models were starkly utilitarian and
this continued between 1945-1947 when production resumed to supply the needs of
the Allied occupying forces, the bulk of the output being taken up by the
British Army, the factory being in the British zone. As was the practice immediately after the
war, the plan had been to ship the tooling to the UK and begin production there
but the UK manufacturers, after inspecting the vehicle, pronounced it wholly
unsuitable for civilian purposes and too primitive to appeal to customers. Accordingly, the factory remained in Germany
and civilian deliveries began in 1947, initially only in the home market but within
a few years, export sales were growing and by the mid-1950s, the Beetle was
even a success in the US market. The
platform proved adaptable too, the original two-door saloon and cabriolet augmented
by a van on a modified chassis which was eventually built in a bewildering array
of body styles (and made famous as the Kombi and Microbus (Type 2) models which became
cult machines of the 1960s counter-culture) and the stylish, low-slung
Karmann-Ghia (the classic Type 14 and the later Type 34 & Type 145 (Brazil), sold as a 2+2 coupé and convertible.
Herr
Professor Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951) explaining the Beetle to Adolf Hitler
(1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head
of state 1934-1945) during the ceremony marking the laying of the foundation
stone at the site of the Volkswagen factory, Fallersleben, Wolfsburg in
Germany's Lower Saxony region, 26 May 1938 (which Christians mark as the
Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, commemorating the bodily Ascension
of Christ to Heaven) (left). The visit would have been a pleasant diversion for Hitler who was at the time immersed in the planning for the Nazi's takeover of Czechoslovakia and later the
same day, during a secret meeting, the professor would display a scale-model
of an upcoming high-performance version (right).
The Beetle also begat what are regarded as the classic Porsches (the 356 (1948-1965) and the later 911 (1964-1998) and 912 (1965-1969 & 1976)). Although documents filed in court over the
years would prove Ferdinand Porsche’s (1875-1951) involvement in the design of
the Beetle revealed not quite the originality of thought that long was the stuff of
legend (as a subsequent financial settlement acknowledged), he was attached to the concept and for reasons of economic necessity
alone, the salient features of the Beetle (the separate platform, the
air-cooled flat engine, rear wheel drive and the basic shape) were transferred
to the early post-war Porsches and while for many reasons features like liquid
cooling later had to be adopted, the basic concept of the 1938 KdF-Wagen is still identifiable in today’s 911s.
The Beetle had many virtues as might be surmised given
it was in more-or-less continuous production for sixty-five years during which
over 20 million were made. However,
one common complaint was the lack of power, something which became more
apparent as the years went by and average highway speeds rose. The factory gradually increased both
displacement & power and an after-market industry arose to supply those who
wanted more, the results ranging from mild to wild. One of the most dramatic
approaches was that taken in 1969 by Emerson Fittipaldi (b 1946) who would
later twice win both the Formula One World Championship and the Indianapolis
500.
The Fittipaldi 3200
Team Fittipaldi in late 1969 entered the Rio 1000 km race at
the Jacarepagua circuit, intending to run a prototype with an Alfa Romeo engine but after
suffering delays in the fabrication of some parts, it was clear there would be insufficient
time to prepare the car. No other
competitive machine was immediately available so the decision was taken to
improvise and build a twin-engined Volkswagen Beetle, both car and engines in
ample supply, local production having begun in 1953. On paper, the leading opposition (Alfa Romeo
T33s, a Ford GT40 and a Lola T70 was formidable but the Beetle, with two tuned
1600 cm3 (98 cubic inch) engines, would generate some 400 horsepower
in a car weighing a mere 407kg (897 lb) car.
Expectations weren't high and other teams were dismissive of the threat yet
in qualifying, the Beetle set the second fastest time and in the
race proved competitive, running for some time second to the leading Alfa Romeo
T33 until a broken gearbox forced retirement.
Fittipaldi 3200, Interlagos, 1969. The car competed on Pirelli CN87 Cinturatos tyres which was an interesting choice but gearbox failures meant it never raced long enough for their durability to be determined.
The idea of twin-engined cars was nothing new, Enzo Ferrari
(1898-1988) in 1935 having entered the Alfa Romeo Bimotor in the Grand Prix
held on the faster circuits. At the time
a quick solution to counter the revolutionary new Mercedes-Benz and Auto-Union race
cars, the Bimotor had one supercharged straight-eight mounted at each end, both
providing power to the rear wheels. It
was certainly fast, timed at 335 km/h (208 mph) in trials and on the circuits
it could match anything in straight-line speed but its Achilles heel was that
which has beset most twin-engined racing cars, high fuel consumption & tyre
wear and a tendency to break drive-train components. There were some successful adoptions when less powerful engines were used and the goal was traction rather than outright speed (such as the Citroën 2CV Sahara (694 of which were built between 1958-1971)) but usually there were easier ways to achieve the same thing. Accordingly, while the multi-engine idea
proved effective (indeed sometimes essential) when nothing but straight line speed was demanded (such as
land-speed record (LSR) attempts or drag-racing), in events when corners needed to be
negotiated, it proved a cul-de-sac. There was certainly potential as the handful of "Twinis" (twin-engined versions of the BMC (British Motor Corporation) Mini (1959-2000) built in the 1960s demonstrated. The original Twini had been built by constructor John Cooper (1923–2000 and associated with the Mini Cooper) after he'd observed a twin-engined Mini-Moke (a utilitarian vehicle based on the Mini's platform) being tested for the military. Cooper's Twini worked and was rapid but after being wrecked in an accident (not directly related to the novel configuration), the project was abandoned.
Still, in 1969, Team Fittipaldi had nothing faster
available and while on paper, the bastard Beetle seemed unsuited to the task as
the Jacarepagua circuit then was much twistier than it would become, it would
certainly have a more than competitive power to weight ratio, the low mass likely to
make tyre wear less of a problem. According
to Brazilian legend, in the spirit of the Q&D (quick & dirty) spirit of
the machines hurried assembly, after some quick calculations on a slide-rule,
the design process moved rapidly from the backs of envelopes to paper napkins
at the Churrascaria Interlagos Brazilian Barbecue House where steaks and red wine were ordered. Returning to the workshop, most of the chassis was fabricated against
chalk-marks on garage floor while the intricate linkages required to ensure the
fuel-flow to the four Weber DC045 carburetors were constructed using cigarette
packets as templates to maintain the correct distance between components. In the race, the linkages performed
faultlessly.
Fittipaldi 3200: The re-configuration of the chassis essentially transformed the rear-engined Beetle into a mid-engined car, the engines between the driver and the rear-axle line, behind which sat the transaxle.
The chassis used a standard VW platform, cut just behind
the driver’s seat where a tubular sub-frame was attached. The front suspension and steering was retained
although larger Porsche drum brakes were used in deference to the higher speeds
which would be attained. Remarkably, Beetle type swing axles were used at the rear which sounds frightening but
these had the advantage of providing much negative camber and on the smooth and
predictable surface of a race-track, especially in the hands of a race-driver,
their behavior would not be as disconcerting as their reputation might
suggest. Two standard 1600cm3
Beetle engines (thus the 3200 designation) were fitted for the shake down tests
and once the proof-of-concept had been verified, they were sent for tuning, high-performance
Porsche parts used and the displacement of each increased to 2200cm3
(134 cubic inch). The engines proved
powerful but too much for the bottom end, actually breaking a crankshaft (a
reasonable achievement) so the stroke was shortened, yielding a final
displacement only slightly greater than the original specification while maintaining the ability to sustain higher engine speeds.
Fittipaldi 3200 (1969) schematic (left) and Porsche 908/01 LH Coupé (1968–1969) (right): The 3200's concept of a mid-engined, air-cooled, flat-eight coupe was essentially the same as the Porsche 908 but the Fittipaldi 3200's added features included drum brakes, swing axles and a driver's seat which doubled as a fuel tank. There might have been some drivers of the early (and lethal) Porsche 917s who would have thought the 3200 "too dangerous".
The rear engine was attached in a conventional
arrangement through a Porsche five-speed transaxle although first gear was
blanked-off (shades of the British “sports saloons” of the 1950s which discarded the "stump-puller" first gear to create a "close ratio" three-speed box) because of a noted
proclivity for stripping the cogs while the front
engine was connected to the rear by a rubber joint with the crank phased at 90o
to the rear so the power sequenced correctly. Twin oil coolers were mounted in the front
bumper while the air-cooling was also enhanced, the windscreen angled more
acutely to create at the top an aperture through which air could be ducted via flexible channels in the roof. Most
interesting however was the fuel tank.
To satisfy the thirst of the two engines, the 3200 carried 100 litres (26.4
(US) / 22 (Imperial) gallons) of a volatile ethanol cocktail in an aluminum
tank which was custom built to fit car: It formed the driver’s seat!
Incongruity: The Beetle and the prototypes, Interlagos, 1969
In the Rio de Janeiro 1000 kilometre race on the Guanabara
circuit, the 3200, qualified 2nd and ran strongly in the race, running
as high as second, the sight of a Beetle holding off illustrious machinery
such as a Porsche special, a Lola-Chevrolet R70, and a Ford GT40, one of
motorsport’s less expected sights.
Unfortunately, in the twin-engined tradition, it proved fast but
fragile, retiring with gearbox failure before half an hour had elapsed. It raced once more but proved no more
reliable.
How to have fun with a Beetle.
Caffeine
addiction is one of humanity’s most widespread vices and it extends to those
driving cars. In famous tort case, Stella Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants,
P.T.S., Inc. and McDonald's International, Inc (1994 Extra LEXIS 23
(Bernalillo County, N.M. Dist. Ct. 1994), 1995 WL 360309 (Bernalillo County,
N.M. Dist. Ct. 1994), a passenger in a car (a 1989 model with no cup holders)
received severe burns from spilled coffee, just purchased from a McDonald’s
drive-through. Although the matter
received much publicity on the basis it was absurd to be able to sue for being
burned by spilling what was known by all to be “hot” and the case came to be cited
as an example of “frivolous” litigation, there were technical reasons why some
liability should have been ascribed to McDonalds. The jury awarded some US$2.6 million in
damages although this was, on appeal, reduced to US640,000 and the matter was
settled out of court before a further appeal.
Hertella Auto Kaffeemachine, 1959.
In the twenty-first century,
some now judge cars on the basis of the count, capacity & convenience of its
cup-holders but in the less regulated environment of the FRG (Federal Republic
of Germany, the old West Germany, 1949-1990) of 1959, one company anticipated
the future trend by offering a dashboard-mounted coffee maker for the
Volkswagen Beetle. The Hertella
Auto Kaffeemachine was not a success, presumably because even those not
familiar with Sir Isaac Newton's (1642–1727) First Law of Motion (known also as
the Law of Inertia: “An object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in
motion will continue in motion with the same speed and in the same direction
unless acted upon by an unbalanced external force”) could visualise
the odd WCS (worst case scenario).
A happy caffeine
addict, pouring himself a cup of coffee in his VW Beetle.
That it was in 1959 available in 6v & 12v versions
is an indication Hertella may have envisaged a wider market because VW didn’t offer
a 12v system as an option until 1963 and the company seems to have given some thought
to Newtonian physics, the supplied porcelain cups fitted at the base with a
disc of magnetic metal which provided some resistance to movement although the
liquid obviously moved as the forces were applied. The apparatus was mounted with a detachable
bracket, permitting the pot to be removed for cleaning. The quality of the coffee was probably not
outstanding because there’s no percolation; the coffee added in a double-layer
screen and “brewed” on much the same basis as one would tea-leaves and for
those who value quality, a thermos-flask would have been a better choice but
there would have been caffeine addicts willing to try the device. The trouble was there clearly weren’t many of
them and even in the FRG of the Wirtschaftswunder (the post war “economic
miracle”) the fairly high price would have deterred many although now, one in
perfect condition (especially if accompanied by the precious documents or
packaging) would command a price well over US$1000.
