In the boot

“Look at that Herman, in ze butt… I mean boot!” Ferdinand Porsche lifts the lid of his new Beetle model Volkswagen, much to the delight of Adolf Hitler and Luftwaffe Chief Herman Goring. The were showing the Fuhrer a model of a national project.

Some will be surprised to learn that “Volkswagen” means “people’s car,” and in the 1930s, Hitler contracted Porsche to build a car for the German people. Hitler and Goring wouldn’t survive the year 1945, but the Beetle is still a popular design. In 1972 it surpassed the Model T as the most mass-produced car in history. Not so cute now, is it?

Next: Reckless testing.