VW T1 KASTENWAGEN
Jim Whalen builds an automotive icon and improves the engine on Revell’s classic 1/24 VW transporter
Volkswagen’s Type 2/T1 has become a cult vehicle; photos of them appear on all manner of merchandising and it has long had an association with hippy lifestyles as well as the camping and surfing community.
One of the more accepted stories about how the idea of the T1 Transporter materialised involves a drawing penned by Dutch VW importer Ben Pon during a visit to Wolfsburg in April 1947. Maj Ivan Hirst, who was the Senior Resident Officer in British-occupied Wolfsburg, liked the idea so much he took the sketch to his superior officer but was unsuccessful in getting approval. Probably the biggest impact that Hirst had on the development of what would become the VW Transporter was his subsequent recommendation that Heinz Nordhoff be appointed as Director General of the Wolfsburg operation.
On November 12, 1949 Nordhoff revealed the Transporter, which received the VW designation of Type 2 (following the Type 1 Beetle), to the press. Although this unveiling just mentioned it as a delivery van, Nordhoff’s plan had already included several guises. Nicknamed the ‘splittie’, due to its two-pan…
