Topic: Solved - NEH 3228: VW Beetle Cabriolet "The Radclyffe Roadster"

[Carnut]

What's the story behind this car, for 1 point?

ANYONE FOUND GIVING ANSWERS OBTAINED BY USING GOOGLE SEARCH BY IMAGE MAY BE BANNED FOR AN INDETERMINATE PERIOD!

[Carnut]

Experts?

[olavr]

Hebmüller?

[olavr]

Searched a little more, is it this one?

[Carnut]

Right second time, yes.
So I'll lock it for you to answer the puzzle question now!

[olavr]

Ok, I thought the pictured VW looked like a Hebmüller cabriolet, but it was not quite..
After WW2, Volkswagen plant was rebuilt by the british, and the man in charge was officer Ivan Hirst. They started to build normal saloon VWs, but they also wanted a cabriolet car. One was a 4-seater car, and the other car, designed by mr Hirst, a 2-seater, was the actual Puzzle car. It was named the Radclyffe roadster. The cars were prototypes, but some 600 cars were later built by Hebmüller, and those had similarities with the Radclyffe car. The 4 seater cabriolet later became the  Beetle cabriolet built by Karmann.

[Carnut]

That's it, yes.  Col. Radclyffe was Major Hirst's superior officer, and it was so named as he used this as his personal car at the time.

There are (or were, I'm not sure when!) lots of documents about the setting up of VW production being auctioned at Bonham's and the story of this car is amongst them.

For interest here's an extract of the blurb given out by Bonham's:

QUOTE
They even lashed up a one-off cabriolet version which they dubbed the ‘Radclyffe Roadster’ in honour of the colonel.
And by March 1946 the British army had produced its 1,000th Volkswagen.
In May, 1949, the ‘Volkswagenwerk’ was formed and five months later the factory was officially handed back to the Germans.
A road close to the Volkswagen factory is now named after Major Hirst in appreciation of the work he did to save the Volkswagen factory.
The blueprints are being offered for sale by a private collector from the UK.
A Bonhams spokesman said: ‘Colonel Charles Radclyffe, along with Major Ivan Hirst and Colonel Michael McEvoy were deployed by the British Military to commandeer and oversee operations at the Volkswagenwerk KdF factory in Wolsfsburg after the end of World War II.
According to information supplied by the vendor they discovered these copies of blueprints for the car, the originals believed to have been destroyed by Allied bombing of the factory, and Hirst, Radclyffe and McEvoy each owned one set of the blueprint copies, Radclyffe's set being offered here along with another unnamed set. ‘
He added: ‘Major Hirst is credited by motor historians and enthusiasts as being instrumental in reviving the post-War production of the car that become known as the 'Beetle', which may never have happened if it wasn't for the discovery of these blueprints.’
Toby Wilson, head of the automobilia department at auctioneers Bonhams, said: ‘British influence on the industry in Germany immediately after the way cannot be underestimated.
 ‘These blueprints are a reminder of the huge British influence in making the German motor industry the might that it is today.’
UNQUOTE

And just as an aside, before the factory was handed back to the Germans it was offered to the UK Rootes Group (Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam, Singer etc) who looked at the project in depth but declined to take it on, commenting that "We cannot see a future for this car"...!

Says it all really.  Where is the British motor industry now, and where is the German one?!