On June 22, 1934 “Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionen und Beratung für Motoren- und Fahrzeugbau” received the final order from the “Reichsverband der Automobilindustrie (RDA)” (the Association of the German Reich of the Automotive Industry) to construct and build the Volkswagen. It was meant to build an inexpensive car for the population at large. Ferdinand Porsche initially developed the Volkswagen concept in 1933, presenting the car to the Reich Ministry of Transport on 17 January 1934 in his “Study for the Production of a Germany People’s Car”.
The first Volkswagen prototype, the V1 (V = Versuchswagen or Test Car), was ready on 3 July 1935. The second test car, a convertible code-named the V2, was ready by December 22, 1935.
A series of 30 prototypes (VW30) was built in 1937 by Daimler-Benz AG and tested in a large-scale trial covering a total of 2.4 million test kilometres.
Porsche also had a wooden wind tunnel model made of the VW 30. This original wind tunnel model still exists in the archives of Porsche. As a rule, Porsche does not allow those precious models to leave the archives. Volkswagen did not have a wind tunnel model, but badly wanted one… In 1980, Porsche initiated some wind tunnel tests at the Technical University of Stuttgart, so the original VW 30 wind tunnel model was transported there. The manager of the wind tunnel facility in cooperation with Volkswagen arranged secretly that the model was transported overnight to Volkswagen, where the model was exactly measured and scanned before being transported back to the wind tunnel facility at the university. On basis of these measurements, Volkswagen produced 6 copies of the original VW 30 wind tunnel model. 5 of these models were painted and are regularly on display. The 6th model was never painted and was given to the manager of the wind tunnel for his help, who later sold it (the cream model shown on the pictures).
The models in 1980 were made of some kind of resin with wooden wheels on metal axles. Its length is 76 cm and 30 cm wide and 29,5 cm high. A nice touch is that all wheels were flattened at one side to prevent the model to roll away in the windtunnel!
Please note: On two of the pictures shown is the 1:1 prototype of the V30. It is not the wind tunnel model we just discussed. It has serial number 26 and was exclusively used for testing purposes. License plate number IIIA 37026.
