The Volkswagen Beetle, despite its friendly, almost cartoonish design, was not a frivolous car. It was a car designed to be rational, basic transportation, and even if some of its design seems whimsical, just about everything was there for a purpose.
Those stampings on the hood that sort of resemble butterfly wings? And the stampings on the engine lid at the rear that are all swoopy? Those provide structural rigidity to those big panels. See, everything is there for a reason. This is especially true for the very early Beetles, which were very spartan and free of any excess trim or anything like that, because that’s just not what the car was about.
But, after the war, when the British took control of the factory, and the first civilian Beetles started to actually be built, while most were pretty much just like before the war, soon they realized they needed to fancy them up a bit for export, and so a bunch of chrome trim was added – chrome bumpers and headlight bezels instead of painted metal, for example, and the one part that I think may be the most frivolous. See if you can spot it up on that top image. Here’s a hint:
(photo: Hagerty)
See that? That’s a horn grille. Well, not exactly. Let’s go back a bit into Beetle horn placement history to understand. Here’s where the horn was on Beetles from about 1938 to 1948 or so:
(photo: VW Archives)
See that? The horn is just hanging out there, all proud and open, mounted to the driver’s side bumper bracket. No real attempt was made to integrate it into the design, it’s just there.
For some variants, like the 4×4 Kommandeurwagens built on Kübelwagen chassis, there was no bumper, but there was a cool front roller, and on those the horn was installed right into the fender:
(photo: VW Archives)
I always thought that looked pretty cool. But when it came to making an export-friendly Beetle in the late ’40s, it was decided that the horn should be behind the fender, and so they gave it a little round grille to beep through.
But that wasn’t enough! For symmetry, a second, dummy grille was added to the passenger fender, too. This started with the round ones I showed you up there and then became oval in 1953, and stayed that way until 1967. Here’s a nice famous example of the oval dummy horn grille:
(photo: VW)
That’s very much a dummy grille; there’s no horn behind the passenger side one, and in fact has a special blanking plate that goes behind it:
(photo: eBay)
I point this out because I think it’s the only actual fake thing on an original Beetle. Sure, there’s trim bits and decorative Wolfsburg hood crests and even optional dashboard flower vases, but the only thing that actually pretends to be something it isn’t is that silly horn grille.
I don’t know why it always irked me so much; I’d have rather the Beetle just had one, embraced the asymmetry with confidence. It would have been fine!
In 1968, when the Beetle went through its most radical “modernization,” both horn grilles were removed, and the horn just beeped away behind the fender, and it was pretty much just as loud. You can sometimes see the horn peeking out below, like on this 2003 Ultima Edicion:
(photo: VW)
The funny fake horn grille just always felt a touch out of character for the Beetle. But maybe I’m reading too much into it? The Beetle was always less austere than cars like, say, the Citroën 2CV, so maybe it can pull off one bit of fakery for design sake? Or maybe it’s just the whole idea of the fake vent that I’ve never really liked?
This is important, so be sure to get your thoughts on the record in the comments!
I wonder what is the modern equivalent of this philosophy, because now you either get luxury barges or aggressive “THIS IS SPARTAAA!” posers, but a real, honest to God utilitarian car? .
What it really needs is a fake hood scoop.
How about mounting a second horn behind the fake grill? No harm, no foul, and 99.44% pure.
I never realized Beetles were unihorns. Fascinating.
I knew exactly where you were going before even reading it. Haha. I agree that it is out of character but it has never bugged me too much.
Good thing no cars have fake grilles today!
I welcome vintage VW articles, and would like to see more.
As someone who hates asymmetry in car design, I’ll allow it.
Oh man, I’m the total opposite. I love asymmetry. Give me an offset Eclipse hood bulge. Give me a license plate off to one side. I’m here for it.
Strangely I was thinking about this the other day while watching some Beetle drag racing videos on YouTube. Go figure.
So, cameltoes increase rigidity. Makes sense.
I can only speak for myself, but after reading this article did anyone else feel a little horny? 😉
Man, I was horny when I got here. Anyhoo, I owned a few pre-67 Beetles and really miss that level of simplicity and mechanical purity.
Yep, kind of like the Nash that is featured on today’s Shit Box Showdown. Dead simple to fix!
Well now all the cars have gigantic brake scoops /raccoon kennels in those spots.
And why are the front tires on the Kommandeurwagen installed backwards?
I believe it isn’t uncommon to mount self-cleaning tires backwards on non-driven wheels, usually following a logic that they’ll do more braking than accelerating, and therefore should be optimized when a backwards torque is applied on them. It’s also done sometimes with farming equipment today, though it’s not a standard practice. Some farmers swear the tires last longer this way, too.
It sounds to me like the kind of thing that a field mechanic reasoned in his mind, told everyone else and it became the consensus through trust-me-bro. Either way, it’s not a huge deal on the non-driven axle, might offer a tiny boost to braking performance, but wouldn’t hurt general use.
Tangentially related, when I was racing buggies, we used to have self-cleaning tires on the back, and we reversed them for snow events. This is because unlike mud, a snow-packed tire grips better than a clean one, since snow has higher shear resistance.
This is the kind of nerdness I come here for. Thanks, Ricardo!
That’s why this makes no sense in general use though. Self-cleaning tires aren’t going to self-clean under braking when you mount them backward. It isn’t the forward or backward force that cleans them, it’s the rolling onto snow/mud/water that forces out the previous snow/mud/water. It’s still going to be rolling the wrong way even when you’re braking. I guess it might work better in reverse. 🙂
I typically mount my rear fat bike tire backward because with many tire designs that gives you better drive traction at the expense of worse braking traction and rolling resistance. Usually that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make. Those tires are also a completely different design from any car tire though.
That’s true while the tires are rolling, but once they lock up, whatever tread block is on the ground becomes a plough, and the backwards tire ploughs strata outward while the standard mounting pushes it inward.
I’m with you, I don’t think lockup performance outweighs rolling performance, but evidently the crew of that Kommandeurswagen thought otherwise.
That said, my previous comment totally ignored that the Kommandeurswagens were 4×4 versions with a power takeoff at the transmission nose, and should probably have had all 4 tires mounted the standard way regardless.
Replied to your earlier reply before I read this.
Um, maybe in non driven wheels, depending on a plethora of conditions and edge cases , braking going downhill on a mud and gravel corner etc. That never worked on farm tractors though.
However, the Kommandeurwagen is all wheel drive.
I never noticed the ride height on those early Beetles. That’s some ground clearance! Probably necessary for the surfaces they might encounter.
Jason, this article made my morning. Always thoroughly enjoy your VW-related writings most of all. From one late-model Bug guy to another, thank you!
That is an interesting detail. I like symmetry, but functional asymmetry is generally acceptable. We don’t complain about single tailpipes (for example), right?
Wonder whose decision that was. Does seem odd.
I guess the Hella Supertones upgrade wasn’t a thing back then.
As a former STi owner, and current aircooled Bug owner, this comment feels tailor-made for me haha. Well done.
My ’69 Squareback had the horn bolted behind the front bumper on the left side. Though it did happen to have symmetrical fender cutouts for the long gone aftermarket A/C condenser.
Dang, my personal Sinbad’s Shazaam! Until I read this post, I’d always thought the 1973 Super Beetle my family had in my childhood (and the car I taught myself to drive stick in) had those horn grilles. A quick internet image search confirms that’s indeed not the case. TIL…
Would it be possible that some markets required two horns (i.e., one for city and one for country?) I know some early Subarus had such a set-up even in the US and it seems to have been not all that uncommon in the UK as well as Japan. Speaking of countries with RHD, would it be possible that in RHD countries the horn was moved over to the other side and the dummy grille vice versa?
Beepin’ Beep Beep engineers, don’t need no Beepin’ Beep Beep grills!
In high school a friend had a 1950-something Beetle with the round holes that he inherited as a pile of junk from a family member. I remember helping him with stuff like welding in new floor pans and swapping engines, but most notable was the discovery of what those holes were for and then the idiotic idea that we could put air horns on both sides behind them. Getting the horn compressor to work with the 6VDC electrical system was just one of many hurdles, but when that fateful moment came to test the horns we found out that fenders deflected far more sound back into the cabin (and down into the ground, which then bounced it back into the cabin) than went through the much smaller fender holes. My friend kept the air horns, but we ended up pointing them downward so the sound would project towards the ground in front of the car.
Wait! Can we just stop and talk about the Kommandeurwagen for a moment? A 4×4 beetle? How did I not know about this??? It looks amazing.
I just went for not even knowing of this thing’s existence to desperately wanting one in the span of 6 seconds.
I’ll do a deeper dive on those soon! They are incredible.
Please do, it gives me feelings….
PLEASE do! I know a good bit about them, but I would love a Torch take on those and Schwimmwagens!
I hope you mention the Porsche 597 Jagdwagen in that deep dive.
I wonder if horn grilles were ever really necessary, or just based on unfounded assumptions (like the belief that cars with metal roofs would create ear splitting drumming noises above 45mph)?
The Corvair was also supposed to have one, but GM figured out pretty late in development that the horn was too susceptible to water damage and moved it up behind the headlight, and it was just as audible without any opening. But, something clearly made them think the grille was needed at first
I think most cars just stuck them behind the radiator grille, so cars without grilles (corvairs, Beetles, 911s, 356s, etc) thought maybe they still needed one
And, as a result, the first ones built (July 1959) had not one, but two non-functional horn grilles. GM had already stamped some valance panels with them and decided to use them up anyway, cut out louver openings on the driver’s side, stamped impressions of the louvers (but no actual holes) on the passenger side for symmetry
I always thought having glass over the headlights was an expensive looking detail. They did away with that on the later models.