In the last century, the city of Deinze, Belgium, was the Centre of a prosperous toy and baby carriage industry. In 1887, Mr. Leon Van Heuverswyn and Eugène Hagan decided to start a manufacturing workshop for strollers in Deinze. This allowed them to compete very quickly with the renowned English strollers, not only in terms of quality, but also in the pricing as well. In 1898 the Company was taken over by Victor Kahn and in 1911 it came into the hands of Paul Hackett and Emiel Torck. After some name changes in 1927 the limited liability Company " Les Usines Torck " was formed.
Since that day, not only strollers but also toys became THE product of the firm TORCK. Their pedal cars were a big success. Throughout the Company's history, TORCK was synonym for "quality"! It was a must! Over the years, TORCK was often inspired by the real cars from the streets to produce their pedal cars. Initially, until the 1930s, the pedal cars were made in wood and carton. Wood is currently, and will always be, "the great love" of the family TORCK. This is applied to both: to the pedal cars and for the (children's) furniture. Over the years, this wood and carton was replaced by solid metal plate, for the manufacture of graceful pedal cars.
The TORCK products expanded immediately and a branch in Netherlands was even an absolute necessity. The "Nederlandsche Torck" was a warehouse where completed items were only stored for the foreign market as a distribution center.
During the Second World War, large parts of the TORCK factories were bombed! The branch office in Netherlands was completely destroyed. The war was also a source of inspiration for TORCK. The jeep pedal car was born as a khaki army jeep. Because of its big success, other models came on the market such as a police jeep, a sahara jeep and even a mini-jeep!
In the early 1960s, TORCK created an obvious reflection of the street scene in the production of their pedal cars. There were a Fiat, Peugeot, Daf and of course the well-known and legendary VW Beetle! The VW is the last one of the "real" TORCK pedal cars.
Meanwhile, the "plastic rage" makes its appearance in Toyland. TORCK, who clung to the old love of "wood" and "heavy metal sheet" of their products, was confronted with this change. In 1971, TORCK went bankrupt because of the rising manufacturing costs and competition.
The TORCK VW Cabrio Version 2 is a pedal car made from pressed steel. The two front pedals are the drive for the chain driven rear wheels. The sitting area of the body is about 200mm X 300mm and the length of the car is 1120mm or about 1/3.6 scale. There is a small battery and wires for the illumination of the headlights.
There are chromed wheels with a punched out hub cap design and black tires.
