The Group (VW Air Cooled India) is Information and Knowledge Sharing cum Collaborating Platform for VW Air Cooled Enthusiasts.

The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an air-cooled boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinders, cast aluminium alloy cylinder heads and pistons, magnesium crankcase, and forged steel crankshaft and connecting rods. Variations of the engine were produced by Volkswagen plants worldwide from 1936 until 2006 for use in Volkswagen’s own vehicles, notably the:

• Type 1 (Beetle)
• Type 2 (Bus, Transporter)
• Type 3
• Type 4 (Volkswagen 2000 engine, 1968-1983)

Additionally, the engines were widely used in Industrial, Light Aircraft and Kit Car Applications.

The Volkswagen Beetle – officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in Germany the Käfer (German, “beetle”) and in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug – is a two-door, four passenger, rear-engine economy car manufactured and marketed by German automaker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003.

The People’s Car

In April 1934, Adolf Hitler gave the order to Ferdinand Porsche to develop a Volkswagen (literally, “People’s Car” in German). In May 1934, at a meeting at Berlin’s Kaiserhof Hotel, Chancellor Hitler insisted on a basic vehicle that could transport two adults and three children at 100 km/h (62 mph) while not using more than 7 litres of fuel per 100 km (32 mpg US/39 mpg UK).[12] The engine had to be powerful for sustained cruising on Germany’s new Autobahnen. Everything had to be designed to ensure parts could be quickly and inexpensively exchanged. The engine had to be air-cooled because, as Hitler explained, not every country doctor had his own garage (ethylene glycol antifreeze was only just beginning to be used in high-performance liquid-cooled aircraft engines.