Barona drag strip some of the fastest Volkswagens Bugs and Type 3 in town on the 1/8 mile.
vw drag racing The Volkswagen Type 3 (sold as the Volkswagen 1500 and later the Volkswagen 1600) was a compact car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen (VW), introduced at the 1961 Frankfurt Motor Show, Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA) and ultimately available in two-door notchback, fastback and station wagon variants.

The Type 3 diversified Volkswagen's product range beyond the existing models — the Type 1 (Beetle), Type 14 Karmann Ghia, Type 2 (Bus) — while retaining their engineering principles, notably the air-cooled engine and the rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout.
The Volkswagen Beetle, officially called the Volkswagen Type 1 (or informally the Volkswagen Bug), is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003. The car was dreamed up as a cheap simple car, and it was commissioned by Adolf Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porsche.[6] With over 21 million manufactured (21,529,464)[7] in an air-cooled, rear-engined, rear-wheel drive configuration, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single design platform, worldwide.

Although designed in the 1930s, the Beetle was only produced in significant numbers from 1945 on when the model was internally designated the Volkswagen Type 1, and marketed simply as the "Volkswagen". Later models were designated VW 1200, 1300, 1500, 1302 or 1303, the former three indicating engine displacement and the latter two being derived from the type number and not indicative of engine capacity. The model became widely known in its home country as the Käfer (German for "beetle") and was later marketed as such in Germany,[3] and as the Volkswagen Beetle in other countries.[1][2]

In the 1950s, the Beetle was more comfortable and powerful than most European small cars,[citation needed] having been designed for sustained high speed on the Autobahn. It remained a top seller in the U.S., owing much of its success to high build-quality and innovative advertising,[citation needed] ultimately giving rise to variants, including the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and the Volkswagen Type 2 bus.

The Beetle had marked a significant trend led by Volkswagen, Fiat, and Renault whereby the rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout had increased from 2.6 percent of continental Western Europe's car production in 1946 to 26.6 percent in 1956.[8] The 1948 Citroën 2CV and other European models marked a later trend to front-wheel drive in the European small car market, a trend that would come to dominate that market. In 1974, Volkswagen's own front-wheel drive Golf model succeeded the Beetle. In 1994, Volkswagen unveiled the Concept One, a "retro"-themed concept car with a resemblance to the original Beetle, and in 1998 introduced the "New Beetle", built on the Golf platform with styling recalling the original Type 1.

In a 1999 international poll for the world's most influential car of the 20th century, the Type 1 came fourth, after the Ford Model T, the Mini, and the Citroën DS.[

свернуть