racing car

[parahandy]

Sabotage. Supposed to be a drawing pin (thumb tack). Helps show the scale of the toy car. I scattered a few more.

Derek

And here's me thinking it was the road tacks
For the uninitiated we pay road tax in uk.

[kwasiada]

Car's a beut.
Also share the deal about Hitler. Not funny.
Seen your work via that link.
Nice stuff man.

Peace.

[masque]

It wasn’t meant to be funny.
I far as I could tell from what I’d read elsewhere and an admittedly cursory glance at Wickipedia, Hitler had been the instigator for the design for a car that preceded the beetle. It just struck me as interesting that one of the most loathed figures in (recent) history was possibly the instigator of a design that lead a vehicle that had more character and visual appeal than most contemporary cars, in my opinion.

My little car doodle wasn’t meant to be anything more than just that, a school boy type car doodle albeit using a wacom on a PC into Xara rather than on the back of a school book, and developed into something a little more 'finished'. If I’d put a swastika on the drivers helmet that might have been construed as offensive unless you understood him to be a Hindu.
Derek

[remi]

It wasn’t meant to be funny.
I far as I could tell from what I’d read elsewhere and an admittedly cursory glance at Wickipedia, Hitler had been the instigator for the design for a car that preceded the beetle. It just struck me as interesting that one of the most loathed figures in (recent) history was possibly the instigator of a design that lead a vehicle that had more character and visual appeal than most contemporary cars, in my opinion.

Hi Derek,

I understand, that you think in such a way, but your informations about "VW Käfer" are only in some points right. The design of the "VW Käfer" comes from Porsche, especially the car designer Erwin Komenda and not from Hitler. As you can read in some historic articles, Hitler's idea was to create a "People's Car" but as you know, Hitler was a fascist and murder, but not a car developer or designer or producer (Hitler even wasn't able to drive a car by himself).

My point is, that it's offending to all the "VW employees" who worked on this car to label their work "Hitler's people car".
These people started to work and produce the "VW Käfer" after Hitler's regime. As you can read in the Wikipedia article: "The Volkswagen company owes its postwar existence largely to British army officer Major Ivan Hirst (1916–2000). After the war, Hirst was ordered to take control of the heavily bombed factory, which the Americans had captured. His first task was to remove the unexploded bomb which had fallen through the roof and lodged itself between some pieces of irreplaceable production equipment; if the bomb had exploded, the Beetle's fate would have been sealed." ... Ford was interested in the company, but they are unsure about the "VW Käfer" and the future of Germany. Ford stated in an examination report, the construction of the "VW Käfer" was bad.
"Major Ivan Hirst painted one of the factory's cars green and demonstrated it to British Army headquarters. Short of light transport, in September 1945 the British Army was persuaded to place a vital order for 20,000. The first few hundred cars went to personnel from the occupying forces, and to the German Post Office." ... So, "by 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month. The car and its town changed their Nazi-era names to Volkswagen (people's car) and Wolfsburg, respectively. The first 1,785 Beetles were made in a factory near Wolfsburg, Germany in 1945."

Do you believe, the British military government doesn't know, who of the employees Nazis was and do you believe, such workers are allowed to work under the British military government?

And now, more than 60 years after the British controlled start of the mass production of the "VW Käfer" nobody calls this work of Hitler's earnings. This car and all the work to create this car and develop better versions is the result of people which would not like to have to do anything with these Nazi criminals.

Regards,
Remi

[WolfMoonHP]

Remi,

I found the information about the Beetle fascinating. I owned a Beetle back in the early 1970's, and of course, as a true child of th 60's, I had the obligatory VW Bus.

Loved the cars, but, like Derek, I had always heard the Urban Myth that the original "People's Car" was Hitler's idea.

I am glad to know that he actually had nothing to do with it.

Thanks for setting us straight.

And Derek, your racing car is extremely wel done. I really like it a LOT.

It is way too cute to have "Hitlerian" overtones...
---
Will

[remi]

Loved the cars, but, like Derek, I had always heard the Urban Myth that the original "People's Car" was Hitler's idea.

I am glad to know that he actually had nothing to do with it.

Thanks for setting us straight.

er, sorry - that's a misunderstanding. It's right, that this is known as Hitler's idea and he has something to do with it. But this doesn't mean, that Hitler has the ideas for this design - this is the work of a car designer who was (as far as I know) never in the NSDAP. And Hitler has nothing to do with the great success of this car after the second world war. That's the point.

[sallybode]

Very often we speak in a way that is offensive to others in their culture without realizing it. And diminish without intent the positive accomplishments of many by oversite. Remi did a good job of education here without offense.

The car is excellent and that it could be anyone behind the helmut, any culture any race, even a girl.

[GeoBen]

the drawing is stunning. more real than real and still looks like it would make a great character in an animated film.

and thanks Remi for the history lesson.

geo.

[masque]

I said earlier, regarding the fact that I read elsewhere and inadequately confirmed on wikepedia that Hitler had been the instigator, not the designer of any car. As was said it’s a sort of urban myth that I had latched onto after reading an entertaining article about it sometime ago that may have been as well researched as my own comments. I saw the reference to Porsche also and understand that it wasn’t Hitlers sketch on the back of a fag packet that had made it into production and indeed I didn’t mean any offence either to the people at Volkswagen, or anywhere else for that matter so in the interest of peace can we get back to talking about computery stuff and I wont mention Volkswagen, Hitler or Beetles, beyond praising the Revolver album, ever again.
Derek

[WolfMoonHP]

For what it's worth, I read that attempt to link the VW with Hitler was actually promulgated by American auto manufacturers, trying to diminish the popularity of the import. Similar anti-Japanese efforts were made when Toyota started to make major inroads into the U.S. markets...

In the United States, negative advertising is a way of life...just watch our political ads, if you have a strong stomach...LOL

But nothing can diminish the fact that the VW Beetle was a truly great car or that Derek's drawing is a truly great piece of work!
---
Will