1942' Volkswagen Type 82 Kubelwagen

The car was based on the predecessor of the Volkswagen Beetle and was built at the Volkswagen factory in KdF-Stadt, today's Wolfsburg. Approximately 55, 000 units were built. This Kübelwagen had the same task as the jeep with the Allies. However, because the Volkswagen Kübelwagen only had rear-wheel drive, its off-road performance was worse than that of the four-wheel drive jeep.
History
When the requirements for the Kraft durch Freude-Wagen, the later Volkswagen Beetle, were established in 1934, a military version was already being considered. One of the requirements was that the vehicle had to accommodate three soldiers plus a machine gun and associated ammunition. In 1937, one of the examples from the test series of thirty units was therefore equipped as a three-seater. Because the regular KdF-Wagen was not suitable as an off-road vehicle, Ferdinand Porsche developed a special version. This model was known as Porsche Typ 62. It had a rectangular steel body designed by Erwin Komenda who worked at Porsche from 1931. Unlike the KdF-Wagen, which had two doors, the Typ 62 had four doors. The front doors were designed as suicide doors. The engine was a modified version of the air-cooled four-cylinder boxer engine from the KdF-Wagen. The axles and the drive were also modified. The prototype was finished around 1938-1939. In the autumn of 1939, a few examples from a test series participated in the German invasion of Poland, and now the disadvantages became apparent. Type 62 could not move slowly enough to keep up with a troop of marching soldiers, and the ground clearance was too small, so the vehicle quickly became stuck in rough terrain. Porsche then modified the drive and increased the ground clearance. This improved version became known as Typ 82.
production
Production began in February 1940 at the Volkswagen factory in KdF-Stadt. The steel bodies were built at Ambi-Budd in Berlin and transported by train to KdF-Stadt. On December 20, 1940, the thousandth copy rolled off the assembly line. In total, approximately 55, 000 units were built. (For comparison, the Americans built more than 600, 000 jeeps during the war.) The Kübelwagens served all over Europe and in the desert in North Africa.
During the course of the war, the displacement of the boxer engine was increased from 985 cc to 1131 cc. Some special versions were also built; including a half-track version for the eastern front (Typ 155), and a version with a gas generator that could be fueled with wood, lignite or coal (Typ 230).
When the Soviet Union troops approached Berlin at the end of the war, production came to a halt because Ambi-Budd could no longer send bodies to KdF-Stadt.
The Kubelwagen type 82 presented here is a beautifully restored example. These cars are very rare and hard to find. For the enthusiast!
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