- 86,271
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Not a great deal is actually known about this vehicle. For instance no-one knows how many were built, in what types, what engines they had nor even how many are left - but then this was never sold to the public...
World War 2 had ended and Major Ivan Hirst was trying to get Volkswagen back on its feet. In order to move parts around the factory, some unidentified but enterprising workers created this... baffling vehicle which was in essence a completely stripped down Beetle chassis (I imagine there were a few unfinished or mangled cars left at Wolfsburg following the war) with a flat load bay on the front and the cabin and steering at the back on top of the engine.
It's very tricky to say then exactly what powers these - and since they were in daily operation through until the 1970s, they didn't necessarily end up being repaired with original, period-correct parts, so these are effectively factory floor hotrods - if it breaks, fix it with new and better bits. The one Plattenwagen that exists in private hands (the blue one) isn't anywhere near what it's supposed to be, actually sitting on a shortened T1 splittie chassis with a 30hp engine and bus gearbox.
However, for argument's sake let's say that the underpinnings are 1946 VW Beetle 1100, complete with a 4 cylinder, 1.1 litre engine good for 24hp. Woo.
There is an element of fame to the Plattenwagen too - it served as the inspiration for the Typ2 Transporter. Dutch designer Ben Pon saw the Plattenwagen on a visit to VW in 1947 and with a couple of modifications - moving the cab to the front - the VW T1 Transporter was born. What more heritage could a car need to qualify for inclusion in Gran Turismo?
Also it weighs 300kg and you sit behind the rear wheels, but steer the fronts. Just to utterly screw with any physics model...
