Month: June 2022

Bloody hell, AGAIN!

Yep, I forgot about W-143’s anniversary. AGAIN 🤦‍♂️. W-143 started out on June 14th, 2018. That day, at 4:13am, I published the first pages of the site. So this Tuesday 14th, W-143 turned 4 years old! And just like last year, I forgot about it once again. Buggers! In my defense, this months things are abnormally hectic around here. Not only is my real life job driving me mad, there was a lot of stuff that I posted about, from Le Mans to the Beatlemania to quite a few new cool models. Yeah, yeah, that’s no excuse, I know, but the date completely slipped my mind. Still, these four years have been great! 🍻

I’ll try to do better next year… Promise!

Whatchamacallit? Käfer, Fusca, Beetle or Vocho? And is it Bus, Kombi or Pão-de-forma?

At first Volkswagen just called their two most popular models the Sedan and the Transporter. However, with the years that changed, especially when these models began to be exported and manufactured in other countries. And both of them received many different local nicknames. Interestingly, with time, and in some markets, VW adopted that nickname as the models’ official name. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t know of no other car with so many names. And I’m talking about official names, of course.

When I began to look into this, I was honestly surprised to see all the variations. Over here I listed a few of them, with a brief history of how it all started.

Porsche Design

When you speak of Ferdinand Porsche, two things come to mind. First, and undoubtedly, is the 911. It came from the 356 and the relationship is there to see. And if you’re a petrolhead, the second thing that comes to mind is obviously the Beetle. Who actually first designed the Käfer is debatable, yet Porsche’s importance to the genesis of the car is unquestionable.

So why is there a tank in the picture above? That tank was officially called Panzerjäger Tiger (P) 8.8 cm PaK 43/2 L/71. It was an assault gun/self-propelled anti-tank gun (a “tank destroyer”) that came out in 1943. Yet, it was more popularly known by it’s nickname, the Ferdinand (later on called the Elefant). It was called that because it was designed by Ferdinand Porsche. Oh yes, at the time, Porsche had ties with the Nazi government. I for one like to know history, good or bad, so I thought it would be interesting to share this little detail.

W-143 Beetlemania

In seven days, the whole world celebrates the International VW Beetle Day. On June 22nd, 1934, Ferdinand Porsche signed the contract to start the development of the “people’s car”. In 1995, spearheaded by the Brazilian Beetle Owners Group, the date was suggested as the international date to commemorate the iconic car. With support from other Volkswagen clubs, the idea caught on. Consequently, everywhere in the world enthusiasts celebrate the date as a “drive your Beetle to work day”. 

Therefore, starting this Friday, we will have the W-143 Beetlemania. From June 17 to the 24th, W-143 will be all about VW’s iconic bug. So prepare your air-cooled engines because we will have a beetle infestation around here 😁😁😁.

Yep, Toyota did it again.

Well, a 1-2 win – not unexpected, was it? Even so, we had a Glickenhaus on the podium, which was quite nice to see. Some say that Toyota, Glickenhaus and Alpine were only “place holders” until things get really serious next year, when the “big boys” will be back. In LMP2 Jota did a great race, and this year was the last race for GTE-Pro, which was kind of sad to see. At least Ferrari didn’t win. Anything 🤣. Shame to see that no Corvette finished on the podium, though (and they started REALLY well).

In the end a nice race. The great part is that there’s just one year to go for Le Mans 2023 🏆.