PAST IMPERFECTMAJOR IVAN Hirst had an unlikely role in the history of the Volkwagen Beetle, for this young major in the British army's Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, was responsible for restarting its production in the ruins of the giant VW Wolfsburg factory in 1945.
Hirst had arrived at Wolfsburg in August 1945 with orders to take over the Volkswagen factory. It had been devastated by allied air-raids throughout 1944. Incredibly, Hirst found the key machine-tools and giant body presses used to produce the Beetle intact, and so he was ordered to investigate if it would be possible to re-start production.
Overcoming such obstacles as a lack of solex carburettors (he arranged an alternative to be made by the Voigtlander camera manufacturer) Hirst managed to restart the production line. The early Beetles were very crude, but over the next 18 months or so Hirst and his team managed to solve many of the supply problems, and quality improved.
One problem was the name. Because of its Nazi connotations, Hirst wanted to change the name of the company from Volkswagen to WMW - standing for Wolfsburg Motoren Werke - but this was rejected as "Motor" translates into English as "engine". In the end, after much debate it was decided to stick with the Volkswagen name.
Incredibly, by October 1946, some 10,000 Beetles had rolled off the Wolfsburg assembly lines - all this despite a work-force who were very demoralised by hunger and poor working conditions. These early Beetles were a far cry from the later cars which did so much to establish Volkswagen's reputation for quality of build and reliability.
In a nutshell, the early cars were exceptionally noisy and very unreliable. Their 25 hp engines struggled to cover 30,000km without a major overhaul and there were serious accidents due to a problem with the steering box.
In late 1947, Hirst made perhaps his most significant decision when he recommended the appointment of Heinz Nordhoff as chief executive of Volkswagen. Nordhoff, who took up his appointment on January 1st 1948, was an ex-Opel executive. He was not a fan of the Beetle and set about improving it.
The key improvements he introduced were a much higher phosphor content in the engine cylinders, which greatly increased engine life. Good quality wool cloth seat covers were fitted, with high-gloss paintwork and the bodywork embellished with bright trim.
The result, in 1949, was the launch of the de luxe or Export Beetle which set Volkswagen on the road to unprecedented success. Nordhoff fully justified Hirst's faith in him and pursued a one-model policy for many years, correctly believing that the best way to compete was by yearly improvement of the Beetle rather than introducing new models every few years.