1954 VW Beetle 'Oval Window'

The need for a 'people's car' as required by Adolf Hitler, was formulated by Joseph Ganz, who's brief was to create a cheap, simple car that could be mass-produced and that would be suitable for the country's expanding road network. He contracted Ferdinand Porsche in 1934 to design and build it, after telling him in 1933 "This is the car for my roads" when discussing the extremely similar Tatra V570. Porsche and his team took until 1938 to finalise the design, and said of the Tatra influence "sometimes I looked over his shoulder and sometimes he looked over mine". In 1965, a payment of one million Marks was made to Tatra-Ringhoffer for numerous patent infringements by the Beetle design. The result was one of the first rear-engined cars since the Edwardian Era and, with 21,529,464 produced, the Beetle is the longest running and most manufactured car on a single platform ever made.This particular Beetle is painted in its original shade of blue with a complementing tan interior. A wonderful surviving example of the early 'oval window' variant, it has been well preserved and we are told the body is still reasonably original, however it was treated to a coat of paint back in the late eighties, and other than that it has only had general maintenance to keep it on the road and looking as good as it does today. It was originally registered in Sweden and has been living there up until recently. Being an early car it has some quirky features such as the desirable heart shaped rear lights, 'batwing' steering wheel, and the lovely 'B' pillar trafficators. With 25 bhp available it will never set the world on fire however it will put a smile on your face when you get to the end of your journey.