Word: volkswagen
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...Volkswagen may be the most practical invention since the zipper. It goes almost everywhere, and it does almost anything. It never touches a drop of water, and sips gasoline daintily, as if through a straw. It is a durable first car, a dependable second car, a disposable station car, a playpen for the kids, and a kennel for the family dog. Now the Volkswagen has a new, bolder occupation: it is off to the race track-squealing brakes, crashing gears, smoking tires...
...sports-car buffs with pinched pockets and Mittyesque visions of checkered flags, Volkswagen racing is serious business. Grand Prix cars are strictly for pros, Ferraris are for millionaires, and Corvettes are for finance companies. The Formula Junior was supposed to be every man's racer-a pint-sized Grand Prix car that offered most of the thrills for a fraction of the cost. But prices quickly shot up to $7,000 or more...
Stripe Down the Hood. At least, the new Formula Vee (for Volkswagen) class seems inflation-proof. Anybody who has a spare Beetle lying around the garage can turn it into a reasonable facsimile of a Grand Prix car-cigar-shaped body, roll bar and all-by buying a kit for $945. An extra $1,000 buys a brand-new Volkswagen engine, plus a special gearbox, rear axle and suspension-and $2,495 buys the whole 825-lb. bomb from the factory. The family sedan can even be raced as is: just painting a stripe down the hood or a number...
...Kadett model, which is 6 in. shorter than the standard VW but roomier inside, and sells in Germany for $1,269 v. $1,245 for the VW. Ford's best seller is its new Taunus 12M, which is 7 in. longer than the Volkswagen and costlier ($1,370). Its success has lifted Ford's German sales by 23%, to 157,000 cars in 1963's first three quarters...
...among all small cars by Germany's controversial consumer magazine DM, which placed the VW second and called it "old-fashioned," estimating that it offered less comfort, visibility and speed than the Kadett. (The Ford Taunus 12M was rated lower because the testers faulted its road-holding.) Confident Volkswagen says that it could have sold more cars if it had only had enough manpower and plants-a shortage that the company is remedying by building one new plant and expanding two others. With a limited supply of cars, Volkswagen is concentrating mostly on sales abroad. Volkswagen figures that...