The Karmann-Ghia Celebrates its 61st Anniversary

At the end of the Second World War, Europe was in dire economic straits. As a result, economy cars were the predominant form of transportation and the people’s car, the Beetle, was doing well. By the early fifties, though, things were looking up for the old world, and cars could become sporty and expensive again.

Wilhelm Karmann recognized the arrival of prosperity and decided that what Volkswagen needed was a fun, stylish car to go along with its bugs and buses. Since 1949, Karmann had been building Beetles for Volkswagen and the companies had a good relationship. Without telling the top brass at VW, though, Karmann went to Carrozzeria Ghia and asked them to design a sleek new body for the Beetle.

Ghia became famous in the ‘20s for building aluminum-bodied sports cars, including the Mille-Miglia-winning Alfa Romeo 6C 1500. Latterly, the coach-builder had been building big American cars, like the Chrysler D’Elegance, and elements of that design made their way into the VW.

Karmann was impressed the design and in 1953 took it back to the head of VW, Heinrich Nordhoff. It was a bold move, since he was once quoted as saying “Offering people an honest value appealed to me more than being driven around by a bunch of hysterical stylists trying to sell people something they really don’t want to have.” But that’s how pretty it was. It even won over Nordhoff and on July 14, 1955 at the Kasino Hotel in Westfalia, VW launched Karmann-Ghia. In August the first cars were manufactured, and sales totaled more than 10,000 for the year, exceeding expectations.

The Karmann-Ghia made its way into US showrooms the following year, selling for $2,365. In 1958 the convertible hit showrooms and sales increased steadily. Volkswagen continued building the Karmann-Ghia right up until 1974, when it was replaced by the Porsche-Volkswagen 914 and the Scirocco.

Over the course of its lifetime, more than 450,000 Karmann Ghias were sold and to this day it remains popular collector car. So join us wishing the Karmann-Ghia a happy birthday.

The post The Karmann-Ghia Celebrates its 61st Anniversary appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex http://ift.tt/29Gat2m
via IFTTT

Comments

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier. The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow. While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something . To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it. Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait. So with this in mind, we lined our G...

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers. The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience. So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf. In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog