Photomode Magazine Cover Competition: Week 16

[franz]

wow ... that's not good
hope you get better soon

 

[Vicious VP]

👍 Okay all, here is the text for the VW second page:

The word "volkswagen" literally means "people's car." and was the idea if non other then Adolf Hitler.

In 1933, Hitler met with Ferdinand Porsche, who had set up an automotive design company in 1930, to discuss Hitler's idea of the volkswagen. Hitler proposed an automobile that could carry 5 people, cruise up to 62mph, and return 33mpg. This was an opportunity for Porsche to push a previous idea of a small car forward, as was it to help Hitler get a real people's car for the citizens of Germany.

Initially, Porsche designated this design the Type 60, but it was soon changed to the V1 (experimental 1). Hitler also proposed to have a convertible version produced: it was designated V2. Porsche did not make the deadline to finish the first two prototypes because there was not enough time to design the cars and built them, however Porsche had them completed and driving by 1935. Shortly thereafter, a third car, the VW3, was designed and put in to production along with the previous V1 & V2.

The VW3s had metal floors, swing axle rear transmissions, Porsche's front independent suspensions, and backbone floorpans. Eventually a flat four cylinder air-cooled four stroke engine was chosen and was surprisingly cheaper and more reliable than some of the four cylinder two stroke engines that were tested. This 22.5 hp four cylinder "boxer" engine was roughly the same as the engines that would later be incorporated into Volkswagen Beetles that are still in production today.

All three cars were put through rigorous testing throughout 1936 where needed data was collected. After it was analyzed, the next version, the VW30, was created and addressed the shortcomings in the previous three models. This model was handed over for testing to members of the SS by Hitler himself who required them to drive the VW30s to confirm that all the problems of the V3s were indeed fixed.

In 1938, construction began on the KdF Wagen factory, and on the town next to it. In 1939, several VW38s (pre-production) and VW39s (demonstration cars) were produced showing that the factory was operational and to also show what the final version would look like. This edition of the car was the basis of the Beetle after the war was over.

When the V38s were officially introduced, Hitler abruptly changed the name of the car to the KdF Wagen. The "Kraft durch Freude", which meant "Strength through Joy", name change upset Porsche greatly, as he was not a member of the Nazi party nor did hen support Hitler's use of propaganda when advertising the car.

Now, In keeping with the idea of a "peoples car", the German government sold special stamps that could eventually be used to purchase a KdF Wagen as soon as 200 were collected. However, the KdF Wagen was not to be, and never progressed beyond the prototype stage. In later years, many who collected these stamps, took Volkswagen to court seeking compensation but met with limited results.

After the war was over, the British Army took over the war damaged factory because they were in need of light transportation. The factory was brought back to working status with the leadership provided by Major Ivan Hirst of the British Army. By the end of 1945 it had produced more than 2000 cars and within a year, the factory had produced over 10,000, with the assistance from the British government.

Sometime after 1945, the company was named Volkswagen by the British who had rebuilt it, and who also decided to renamed the town at the factory "Wolfsburg", which was the name of a local castle. Shortly after that, the British sought to give control of the company to more able hands: namely the Ford Motor company. Ford turned the offer down because it thought it would be a waste of money. So the British government tried the French government, who also refused. It seemed that Volkswagen was the company nobody wanted. In 1949, the British government was finally able to relinquish control of the company to the German government and Heinrich Nordhoff was appointed as the senior executive of Volkswagen; a move which proved to be a very good one.

After 1949, production at Volkswagen steadily increased. Nordhoff's experience and knowledge proved invaluable for the company and in late in 1949, an idea for a utility/transport vehicle was developed; by 1950, the VW transporter was born.

Volkswagens were being exported to neighboring European countries such as Denmark, Sweeden, Luxemburg, Belgium, and Switzerland. As early as 1950, Volkswagen began producing Beetles in South Africa. Volkswagen commissioned Karmann to build every single Beetle convertible: hence the special badges that adorn VW convertibles. In 1952, a Volkswagen dealership was opened in England, a few were imported into the United States back in 1949, but they didn't immediately gain popularity and very few were sold in their first year in the US.

In 1951, Volkswagen began to export a deluxe version of the beetle. The American export cars had even more chrome than regular export cars, and were generally the most elaborate with options and features. The deluxe Beetles got hydraulic brakes in 1952, and lost their semaphores (flag-like turn signals) in 1955.

Volkswagen transporters were not as popular as Beetles in the first 5 years of production. The Buses produced before 1955 had characteristically large engine access doors. Today, they are known as "barndoor" buses and are quite rare.

Volkswagen production kept increasing through the late 1950s, but in 1958, the larger rear window that most people see in Beetles today was adopted over the oval and split window designs. Later in the 1960s, Volkswagen produced over one million Beetles each year and by 1969, Volkswagen was in it's the most productive year to date.

After the Beetle's boom years in the late 1960s, its sales began to decline and Volkswagen stopped production of the Beetle sedan in 1977, along with production of the Cabriolet in 1979.

However, the Beetle was still thriving in Mexico and South America. Volkswagen of Brazil continued building Beetles and VW Vans until 1993. Volkswagen of Mexico still hasn't stopped building Beetles! In fact, the Beetle is by far the most popular car in Mexico.

It is oriented around the Bettle because it is the best older VW that GT4 has to offer.

 

[DustDriver]

did you know there was a 4wd beetle in the war?
and is it coincedence that the first designs have the same name as the flying rockets in WW2

i have an idea for the covor. willl make one soon

 

[s12ken]

My aunt used to drive a Veedub "Thing"

 

[suzq044]

the magazine cover-part.. please click the thumbnail.. there's details ya cant see @ all in the thumb.

detail shot:
​

 

[franz]

really nice Suzq ... great job!
one thing you've forgotten ... the keyword "history" should be in the cover

anyone know how to align text on both left and right in Photoshop?
like you type a paragraph in Microsoft Word
I know I can capture, but with the paragraph this long, it can take me an hour to get it done

 

[suzq044]

yeah, in the text-paragraph properties there's a lil icon for it..

 

[Vicious VP]

anyone know how to align text on both left and right in Photoshop?
like you type a paragraph in Microsoft Word
I know I can capture, but with the paragraph this long, it can take me an hour to get it done

That is called JUSTIFY and you can do it in PS. It is one of the options when you have the TEXT tool selected 👍

 

[suzq044]

i typed that almost 12 hrs ago VP

 

[franz]

I couldn't figure out at first
those button was disabled
I found out I have make a selection to do so

 

[DustDriver]

Please do not close this comp untill i've posted my final entry, thank you

 

[DustDriver]

My Final Entries

Cover:


Other pages:




Comments are welcome( but i prefer good ones )

Update:

• Added shadow under old beetle
• Uploaded in better quality

 

[franz]

Very nice work Dustdriver
for the cover .... you have missed the shadow under the old beetle

BTW I am still working on it ... should get it done tonite
guess suzq and some other people are working as well
I will try to wait until sunday

Since Vicious created this theme I hope he will put his entry as well
anyhow ... since he won twice in a row and with this theme lasting 2 weeks
I will pick the theme for the next compo .... any suggestion for the theme?
or I may choose "Toyota" if no suggestion given

 

[DustDriver]

thanks for the info about the shadow. i knew i was forgetting something.

for the next comp. maybe something about concept cars. You can then make you're own conceptcars in photoshop, based on cars in gt4.

 

[Mr. Toad]

Hello everyone,

Can't get one in for this compo. My sincere apologies.

Had a case of 'brain-rot-summerus' or as it is known in the non-medical field 'summer brain burnout'.
Work and life also got in the way. Whacked me out as far as my hobby interests go.
These are my excuses and I'm sticken' with 'em.

I like the Toyota thing Franz, would you like us to do anything with them other than focus on Toyota?
I like Dustdrivers concept theme also, don't know how you could combine the two though.

 

[franz]

athough we have done concept cars theme
we can do another one or change it a bit to something different

Toyota theme can be anything as long as all cars are toyota (or maybe lexus as well)

 

[Mr. Toad]

athough we have done concept cars theme
we can do another one or change it a bit to something different

Do you think it's possible to take more than one model of Toyota and make concept cars out of them?

Wheels from one, windshield from another, fairing (wing) off a third and so on?

 

[franz]

haha ... sounds cool to me

Toyota concepts
Use Toyota concept car(s) or create your own concept by using Toyota cars' parts

like this? or maybe you can use PS to create some parts

 

[DustDriver]

fine with me, this is what i ment.

 

[Mr. Toad]

haha ... sounds cool to me

Toyota concepts
Use Toyota concept car(s) or create your own concept by using Toyota cars' parts

like this? or maybe you can use PS to create some parts

I'm good on it...
would you like to keep it true concepts ( e.g. Nike car) or are you allowing humour and alternate realities in here (Moonhatsu, domefighters etc.).

anybody else have any comments or Suggestions?

 

[franz]

hmm .. what I am worried about is difficulty
I don't wanna scare potential regulars away
I wish we can set the rules in lower level
but meanwhile people can also make some jawdropping entries
however the theme has to be interesting

 

[stumpydino]

making a car out of other car's parts would be interesting i dont think you should limit it to just toyota for that tho

 

[Mr. Toad]

Drop Toyota and use all GT4 cars then?

 

[franz]

so are we considering concept cars that mix and match from any cars in the game?
let's say ... Custom Concept Car
sounds good?

 

[Mr. Toad]

so are we considering concept cars that mix and match from any cars in the game?
let's say ... Custom Concept Car
sounds good?

Seems to broad....

Confine to Japanese models?

 

[franz]

ok then
Japanese models only