I've found some more pictures of Type 4 related projects on a Japanese VW blog:
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/arc ... lash_back/
there are some very pretty VW pictures on this site
Some of the following pictures were posted on a link Lars gave us earlier, but it looks like that link is dead now.
Please click on the hyperlinks to see most of the good pictures!
This is one of the EA53 prototypes http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7006.html
This was developed from the Porsche 728 project and appears to share the same body style as the fastback 728. (pictured below)
An EA53 has a monocoque shell but swing axles at the rear. Click here to see I wonder if the engine fitted to this car eventually developed into the Type 4 engine??
The last of the EA53 prototypes received a Ghia designed body.
According to Judith and Fokko, around October 1962 the EA53 project was cancelled and replaced with the EA142 project. This project was defined as a possible successor to the VW Type 3 and it is this project that led directly to the VW411. The first of these EA142 projects used a similar body as the Ghia styled EA53 cars but used double jointed rear axles with torsion bars, eventually seen in the Porsche 911 and later ACVWs.
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7013.html
Rear view, I wonder if it has a rear boot like the Type 3?http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7014.html
Interior shot, notice the flat floor and the pendulum style pedals! http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7015.html
The following picture I believe first appeared in the German magazine 'Der Speigel' in 1967. VW put about 40 or so concept cars and prototypes out on display to show that they weren't resting on the laurels of the Beetle. At the bottom left hand corner of the page you can see 2 Ghia bodied prototypes, either late EA53s or early EA142s!
The next picture is from the same collection, the car in the middle has number plates, maybe another Type 4 prototype? Personally I like the one on the right!
Around 1965 the big flat-6 engined Chevy Corvair sized EA128 project was cancelled, along with its Variant sister car EA141. The Japanese site has some great pictures of this Porsche 911 related car.
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7021.html
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7025.html
Interior pic (revs to 6500!!) http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7024.html
VW spec Porsche 911 engine? I wish I had seen this car at the Automuseum!! http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7216.html
Now this it is pure conjecture on my part, but I imagine when VW cancelled the EA128/EA141 project they decided to turn the EA142 into a bigger car, possibly making the design capable of taking a flat-6 engine!! It's in 1966 that we start to see the Pininfarina influenced EA142 and EA158 models.
Here's another pic of the museums EA158, despite the Beetlesque looking exhaust, it does have an early Type 4 engine, albeit 1493cc! http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7019.html
A really great picture of the interior, http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7020.html
All the evidence seems to suggest that the EA158 project was intended to replace the Type 3 and fit into the range bellow the EA142 (VW411).
Here is another pic of the Type 4 notchback EA142, you can see the dashboard is almost identical in design to the EA158 model, but white instead of wood effect. http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7026.html
EA53 was initially meant to be a Beetle replacement, a project running concurrently with it was EA97 this project utilised the traditional body on a separate backbone chassis. The EA97 nearly made it into German production, I have seen pictures of a EA97 Variant, Fastback and a cabriolet! I believe the first run was made, but then the project was axed and the tooling shipped off to Brazil where it became the basis for their Type 3 cars (I think all the Brazilian Type 3s had Type 1 style front axles, but I could be wrong)
Here are some pictures of EA97, technically it is old tech compared to the EA53 and EA142.
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7007.html
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7009.html
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7010.html
Once the EA142 project had grown to VW411 sized proportions VW started some new projects in collaboration with Porsche to replace the Beetle. I think the first one was EA235, I am not sure, but I think this project has the Porsche code Type 1866 and details about it are given in Etzold's book 'Chronicles of the People's Car'
Here are 2 pictures of an EA235
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7033.html
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7035.html
This particular example has a front mounted inline watercooled 4 and is rear wheel drive. However I do think it has its gearbox mounted in the back which makes it a little more interesting
Porsche looked at other drive configurations during this project including:Front-engine/transversly mounted/front drive
Front engine/mounted ahead of the front axle
Rear engine/mounted transversely over the rear axle
Rear engine mounted longitudinally forward of the rear axle/beneath the rear seat.
Porsche took this final design concept forward when they replaced the Type 1866 project with the interesting Type 1966 project, which received the VW code EA266.
http://www.hobidas.com/blog/vw/vw04/_W5G7040.html
This mid-engined car was to reach the market as the VW191 and was to form the basis for a whole new generation of VW cars, vans buses and Porsche sports cars. Again it is rumoured that the first run of pre-production models were produced, but the project was scrapped just as full mass production was to begin!! Etzold states that the total cost of this project cost VW 400 million DM. Ouch!!
Hope I haven't just bored you all to death!
Ray
