Hard to believe that between 1938 and 1961 there were essentially only three VW models the Type 1 ‘Beetle’ that became the most popular car of it’s time, the Type 2 VW Bus / Van / Pickup and this fabulous Type 3 Volkswagen 1500 / 1600 joined in 1962 by an estate / station wagon known as the Variant / Square back.

My Uncle had a petrol blue one of these Variants that he used as a milk float in Germany, until he got a VW Bus. I remember him coming home from his milk round at lunch time with the roof rack full crates with empty bottles rattling merrily away as he eased down the severely rutted track back to the small holding farm where he lived.

The Type 3 vehicles were essentially bigger version of the Type 1 with exactly the same engineering principles, torsion bar suspension front and rear air cooled engine in the back. between 1961 and 1973 2,542,382 Type 3’s were built mostly in Wolfsburg with some produced in Emden and Sao Bernado do Campo, Brazil.

At the end of 1967 the Type 3 was fitted with electronic fuel injection as standard equipment to become the first German production vehicle so equipped . This ’72 / ’73 model if it is still on its original licence plates was first registered in Greater London.

Hope you have enjoyed this orange edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, tomorrow I’ll be upping the tempo to conclude my foray into vehicles with engines in the back, hope you’ll join me, don’t forget to come back now.

26/07/11 Post Script, My thanks to Ben the owner of Kubrik seen in these photo’s who has kindly e-mailed me to say that he rescued Kubrik from ‘rotting away in the big smoke (London)’ and that Kubrik is his daily driver with over 200,000 miles on the clock.

You can find out more about Kubrik from this 375 post thread on the Old Volks Club website.