What's in a Name - THING, SAFARI etc.

[justcallmebob]

All Type-181er's (?)

The following reply was written under another posting as the original thread drifted to one side. I thought that the general information was of interest to all of the different Type-181 species owners, so I edited and have reposted under this subject. This is from info I have gathered, as most of you know, over aboout 15 years of THING research and, as it may still contain errors, corrections are always appreciated.

------------------------------------------
There are were many versions of the VolksWagen vehicle genericaly known as the Type-181 "Mehrzweckwagen" or General Purpose Car. Most have specific Model names, depending on original application and location or country of sale.Much like the Ford sedan, with minor changes in trim, was called a Meteor in Canada (in the 50's at least).

Originally designed for the military market in 1966-68 to replace the aged DKW built MUNGA, a civilian version was also to be offered.

The civilian version was introduced at the Frankfurt Auto Show in 1968 and did not have a model name other than Type-181, and the name given by everone, except VolksWagen, of "KubelWagen".

As a part of the 1968 Frankfurt show there was even a contest to "Name the Car" as VW did not want its product associated with the earlier WW-II "BucketCar". This resulted in many entries but no winner was ever announced. A postcard served as the entry ballot, of which I have several originals.

Several names that were used in Europe for civilian vesions of the Type-181 included the above mentioned as well as Kurrierwagen and Mehrzwackfahrzeug. I will hold off on the "Trekker" at this time. Most of the european literature I have seen, some as late as the 1976 model year, simply call the car the "Type-181".

First as complete knock-down kits (ckd's), and later as complete vehicles, the Type-181 production spread to the VW factory at Puebla Mexico and later, as ckd's only, to Indonesia. There was an overlap of production in Gerany and Mexico and Type-181's were also built until 1976 or so at Emden Germany.

In 1972, VWofA expressed an interest in the car for the growing sports utility vehicle market in the U.S. which then consisted, primarily, of Jeeps, Dune Buggys and Baja Bugs.

However, the existing Type-181 didn't meet U.S. safety standards and several changes had to be made. The tail lights and front turn lights are examples of the changes made for this reason. In addition, because the current Beetle had IRS, it was felt that the VWofA Type- 181 should also have this feature rather than risk the rath of Ralph Nader who had skewered the Corvair to death for swing axles, and would soon be the cause of death of the Type-181 in America anyway...

In February of 1973 the first production units were rushed to the Los Angeles Auto Show for Introduction as the "new" VolksWagen Safari. Unfortunately General Motors still owned the model name "Safari" from the 1955 Pontiac Station Wagon series that was the Chevrolet Nomad lookalike.

As a result, a new model name had to be created on the spot, and legend has it that one VWofA exec asked another "What the Hell ae we going to call this ugly looking thing?" and, perhaps then, "The THING", the name for the VWofA Type-181, was born.

Within hours decals were produced locally with "The Thing" in a colorful script, and were slapped on the back of the cars under the tail light pods. Only a very few of the earliest cars received these decals, but pictures of original decals do exist. Later a "The THING" side stripe was offered as an accesory by VWofA

From that point forward all VWofA Type-181's were called "The THING" and Other Mexical civilian production units were called "The SAFARI". In as much as VWofA only imported these cars for two years, 1973 & 1974, and it was VWofA that coined and reserved the model name "The THING" in 1973, one would think that would mark the end of use of the "THING" name.

There were about 5000 1975 U.S. specification THING's built at Puebla, but, due to a vehicle designation change, they could not be imported to the U.S. and they were just sold as Safari's, outside of the U.S., with the U.S. specifications included.

(in responce to the original thread...)In over 15 years of playing with these cars I have never seen a piece of Canadian specific VW literature that showed a THING. I know they were sold up in Canada, and they appeared to be identical in outside appearance, but I don't know about engine fitments. I have been told that they were sold as late as 1976, but it would be my opinion that these would be Safari's.

If you have access to any sales numbers or Canadian literature for these cars in Canada, and for what years they were sold? I have attempted this in the past to no avail. Help with this would be appreciated.

In 1976 there was an attempt by VWofUK to sell the cars in England as "The Thing" but that was objected to by locals and another contest was held, that one being won by Nigel Purden of the Midlands, with the name TREKKER. All TREKKERS were RHD but only a few hundred (?) were ever sold. The TREKKER received the designation "Type-182" to indicate RHD. As a note, some 20 RHD Type-181's were built for the Moroccan Army by VW in 1970, but were not Trekkers.

The practical agreement therefore is that THING's were for VWofA only. If there is some documentation that either some of these cars went to Canada, or that VW of Canada used the same model name, it should be shared.

Safari's were built quite a bit longer. The last production Safari is in private hands in Mexico. It is documented by VolksWagen as being built in May, 1980. There are also 1980 Safari's in factory museums in Wolfsburg as well as in Pubela.

Most Type 181 owners, that can claim heritage of other than The THING name, usually would. There is more cachet to owning a Safari, or a military Type-181 or a TREKKER, than one of the 29,000+ THINGS.

In closing. We can't just change the correct names of these cars. No THING was built with a swing axle, Those cars were either Type-181's or Safari's, and were built before mid-production 1973. U.S. THING's and Safari's of the same year had different engines. In 1975 the Safari got a dry pack air cleaner and a glove box door that the THING never had. Military Type 181's had so many differences I can't even begin to list them. TREKKER's speak for themselves.

Any aditional information you can add will be appreciated.

Bob Miller
The THING/Type-181 Registry, 1990-1995
2,400 members world wide.



[This message has been edited by justcallmebob (edited 12-01-2002).]

[Bob Ingman]

Bob thanks for all the information. I personally appreciate the depth of your knowlege and your willingness to share with us. I`m beginning to think of you as a professor of Thingology. Thanks again and good luck. Bob Ingman

[Bruce2]

That is some excellent information Bob. With lots of pictures, you've got a great magazine article there. Maybe a series of articles. Ever contact hotVWs?
I am very certain the Thing was sold here under that name. I say so because I remember seeing the decal on the lower sides you describe, way back when they were seen weekly on the roads here. I haven't seen literature because I don't look for it, but there is one guy on the KG board that works at a place that specializes in auto literature. I'll ask him.
I have a theroy as to why 74 was the last year for the Thing in the US. One look at the specifications of the Bug will tell you. The emission standards for 75 model year made a big jump requiring the Bug to use FI. All the big American cars had to use a catalytic converter to cope with the standards. The factory in Germany was building Beetles, Super Beetles and Convertibles with FI for the US and Canada in fairly good numbers. The factory in Puebla didn't do FI on any car, so I think the execs decided it wasn't worth the effort to tool up the Puebla T181 line for FI for the small numbers sold in the US and Canada.

[Bruce2]

""No THING was built with a swing axle, Those cars were either Type-181's or Safari's, and were built before mid-production 1973.""

I've spent a considerable amount of time travelling around Mexico in the last 10 years and have seen hundreds of Safaris. One thing that's always confused me is the suspensions. The remaining surviving Safaris are kept going by using Beetle parts. The front beams are replaced with Beetle ones because T 181 ball joints are not available there. Many are still IRS, but even more are swing axle like all the Beetles in Mexico (there are no IRS Beetles there) I can see them converting an IRS Safari to swing because of the parts problems. But I have looked under many Safaris and they do not have the IRS pivot point. This means that car was made with swing axle from the factory. At the same time those swing axle Safaris all have the 73 and later tail lights.

[peterjager]

I live on the border of El Paso and Juarez Mexico, does anyone know of a junk yard that has Thing parts?

I have the catalog that tells you which vehicle parts are used from.

Any help is greatly appreciated, Peter

[justcallmebob]

Death of the THING - 1973-1974

The death of the THING was actually caused by an act of the U.S. Congress. Vehicle safety guru of the 60's, Ralph Nader, read a lot of incorrect information in VW publications of all sorts that said that the THING was built on the Beetle chassis. To him this meant that the THING was a VW passenger car, one of his favorite targets.

This isn't true, in fact, the Type-181 pan is more closly related to the platform from the Karman built Type 147 Fridolin mail truck that was built between 1964 to 1974, than the Karman Ghia platform that it is usually attributed to it being decesended from. Note the shape of the ribs in the front seat area and the thickness of the pan material and compare to the KG part. Admittedly, finding a Fridolin to compare to might be difficult. I think there are only one or two in the U.S.

At the time (1974), the THING was still classified as a "Multi-purpose" vehicle and didn't have to meet the same emission or safety requirements as a passenger car. Hence, for 1975, and up to about 1978, the existing carb would have met standards.

Ol' Ralph declared the car "unsafe" and also claimed that it was incorrectly classified. The government held hearings, Ralph presented VW with his "Golden Splinter" award for what he percieved as an unsafe vehicle, and the federal boys changed the cars classification to "Passenger Car".

VW wasn't selling many cars and wanted to get rid of the bad publicity from Nader, so they threw in the towel on THING's and stoped importing them. Those that were built as 1975 THING's were just sold in Mexico as Safari's.

As far as the IRS Safaris, I have heard that a number of these were built to use up stock parts at the factory. I don't know how reliable hat information is, but remember, to use the swing axle trans on the SAFARI, you had to add in the reduction gears as well, an expensive proposition from a manufacturing viewpoint.

Article for a VW mag? Heck no, I am working on a 12 volume Type-181 encyclopedia, to be released for the cars 50th anniversary.

[This message has been edited by justcallmebob (edited 12-02-2002).]

[Bruce2]

I should clarify about the late model swing axle Safaris in Mexico. They have Beetle swing axle without reduction boxes. The same car will have a Beetle front beam. This lowers the car front and rear.

[justcallmebob]

Swing Axle Safari's in Mexico

In additon to my earlier post, and in noting that you have been to Mazatlan:

Mazatlan is the home to the Pulmonea, the name for the local Taxi cab unique to Mazatlan. These have decended from Safari's of the early 70's, to a wide variety of near, and not so near, accurate replicas. All of the replicas seem to be built on late (90's and better Beetle pans and would have swing axles. I also saw a few metal Safaris that had been re-mounted on modified Beetle pans, after the original pan and drive line dissolved. This would also account for the larger number of Safari's seen with swing axles.

At one time I owned a 1976 Safari and, no question about it, it had IRS.

Bob

[Bruce2]

Those Pulmonias are the ugliest form of VW to ever have been made. For those who haven't seen them, they look like an overgrown golf cart with VW running gear. They don't use floor pans, but custom tube frames They will cut off the rear torsion housing and trans forks and weld them to their custom frame. Then they add coil over helper springs to deal with all the large tourists.
All the Safari taxis I've looked at are on their original full width floor pans. I have asked the owners what years some of these swing axle Safaris are and the common years are 75-78. While it is possible some are mounted to converted Beetle pans, there are so many swing axle Safaris that have never been IRS that I am convinced VW built them that way into the late 70s.

[lastsafari]

I am completely sure about no swing axles after 1974 in Safaris; actualy very few 74's had them. I have checked hundreds of Safaris and every 1975-1980 had IRS. Now it is a common practice to use Beetle axles when your Safari transmision starts kicking second gear or reverse; or when your torsion bars brake. A good way to tell is checking for 4 or 5 lug wheels.

[justcallmebob]

Pedro

None of the 1973 and 1974 THING's had swing axles. Were some of the Safari's built after February 1973, when I understand the changeover took place, still built with swing axles?

I hadn't heard about any swing axle cars being factory built without reduction boxes either, have you? And as far as doing that and then using Beetle front beams and spindles, would have defeated the entire purpose of the car for use in rough terrain, not to mention tire clearance problems with the tires higher in the wheel wells.

There has never been a shortage of urban mythology concerning the cars built in Mexico.

You are certainy in the best position to help debunk some of these myths.

Many Thanks

Bob Miller
Riverside, CA

[This message has been edited by justcallmebob (edited 01-12-2003).]

[justcallmebob]

Pulmoneas the Ugliest VW? No Chance...

I was re-reading the earlier posts and saw a note calling the Mazatlan, Mexico built Pulmoneas, sort of loose descendents of the Safari,the ugliest VW ever built.

I just don't think that is true. Look up a web site for the Austrailian built VW "Country Buggy". This car owns that title hands down.

How ugly you ask? It was so ugly that Volkswagen AG told VW Australiasia to not build the car, but they built it anyway. Half were right hand drive for Australia and the other half of the production run was left hand drive for export to Malasia.

This is the only car I have ever seen that looks worse in the metal than in pictures. It is all flat panels and square edges with folded over and spotwelded external seams.

I though one would be neat company for my THING. Then I had the chance to see a real one, one that is actually one of the best original surviving Country Buggies in the world, and is now living in Southern California.

Now, many THING owners consider the quaint (read ugly) appearance of the THING, SAFARI, Type-181 etc. to be an attribute, especially those not lucky enough to have those most elegant intake muffs.

If so, save up your coins and start looking for a Country Buggy. Style wise the Country Buggy makes a THING, etc. look like a Mercedes 560SL.

[verbeekb]

Thank you for sharing, I really enjoyed reading through this thread.

Brian

[justcallmebob]

Wow, I didn't mean to keep you up all night. It must be about 3 am out there..

Glad to hear you enjoyed the thread.

[lastsafari]

Bob
No swing axles were made without the reduction boxes in Mexico. The only difference for front beams was the drums.
Pulmonias (not Pulmoneas) were called like that because it is almost always hot in the pacific cost of Mexico, but when theres a hurriacan it gets windy and chilly specially for a car with no windows.Pneumonia= Pulmonia.