VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE AND COMBI VAN CLUBS INTERNATIONAL LISTING AND LINKS PAGE

Bay Area Volkswagen Club
Beetle Convertible Club Switzerland - Information about the KCCS, the Beetle Convertible and the VW Scene in Switzerland
Best VW Club - organization for watercooled VW enthusiasts, site includes an online club sign up, member roster, and calendar.
Central Arkansas Volks-Folks - aims to bring together VW owners and enthusiasts who share that unique bond and love for Volkswagens.
Club Scirocco
Club VeeDub Sydney - caters to all Volkswagens air or watercooled.
Dubstreme - brings together Dutch VW enthusiasts. Includes pictures of European meetings, catalogues from VW Motorsport, and a workshop. Site in Dutch.
Eastern Canada Volkswagen Page - club information, annual sales report, local business directory and regional events.
GuamVolks Car Club - dedicated to preserving and promoting VW's in off-road racing, drag racing, and classic vw restoration.
HighSpeedDubbin - VW car club of Fall River, MA, for GTIs, Jettas, and Golfs.
Houston Volkswagen Club
Last Edition Beetle Register - provides information on the last 300 Volkswagen Beetles produced for the United Kingdom, and a meeting place for their owners.
Niagara Volks Folks - VW shows and events throughout the Niagara region.
North Texas Volkswagen Club - strives to restore, preserve, drive and race VWs, welcoming all VW-powered vehicles.
NorthEastern Volkswagen Association
Northwest Arkansas VW Association (NWAVWA)
Northwest VW Club - all types of air cooled and water cooled VWs in the club.
Original German Folks VW Klub, The - known for their vintage VWs with an old school lowrider look.Includes picture galleries of bugs, buses, ghias, and more.
Peoples Car Club - dedicated to the Volkswagen owner and enthusiast.
Renner Performance Group - nuttiest VW watercooled enthusiasts in Southern California. We race, do you?
Roundabout Volkswagen Club of Milton Keynes - includes photos, membership and contact information, newsletters, links, and more.
Sheffield Volkswagen Owners Club
Southern PA VW Club - for enthusiasts of all types of Volkswagens.
Swiss Beetle Owner's Club - a place for beetle owners to share their common passion. In English, French and German.
Texas VW Drag Racing Association - races at all NHRA sanctioned tracks in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.
Volksport - uniting people together with one shared interest, water-cooled VWs.
Volkswagen Enthusiast Network Of Milwaukee (VENOM) - offers member pages, reviews, events, care instructions, and more.
Volkswagen Owners Club of Great Britain, The - offers news, membership details, cars for sale, members' cars, and events calendar.
VW Klub Vest - Beetle club featuring pictures, calendar, links, and contact information.
VW Kuebel Klub Deutschland e.V.
Wasserwerks - southern New England's watercooled VW/Audi club. Includes details of shows, racing, project cars, and more.
WaterWerks VW's of the Emerald Coast - car club in Florida dedicated to water-cooled VW's.

The man who inspired Beetle mania

Except for maybe Henry Ford and the Model T, no person has ever been more closely associated with the success of a single car model than Heinz Nordhoff is with the Volkswagen Beetle. But Nordhoff could so easily have taken a direction away from Volkswagen.

HEINZ NORDHOFF

Volkswagen 1899-1968

As a student, he was focused on shipbuilding. His first job was in aeronautics. His early career was spent at two other auto companies. Only the Great Depression of the 1930s kept him from emigrating to America to join a third automaker.

Nordhoff was almost 50 before he joined Volkswagen. But that's where he flourished, and his leadership helped turn a company ravaged by war into Europe's largest automaker. Born in 1899 in Hildesheim, Germany, this banker's son studied mechanical engineering in Berlin and preferred ships to cars.

Nordhoff joined BMW as an aero-engine apprentice and nearly moved to America to work for the US carmaker Nash. The Great Depression put an end to those plans.

Instead, Nordhoff joined General Motors' German unit Opel and concentrated on production processes. GM rewarded him with a trip to Detroit, where he studied American sales and production methods. He climbed the ladder at Opel and was appointed managing director of the Berlin-Brandenburg truck plant.

Initially, Nordhoff did not like Opel's cheap competition, the KdF designed by Professor Ferdinand Porsche. But he soon realized the potential of the car, which eventually became known as the Beetle.

After World War II, Nordhoff was determined to regain a senior management position in the automotive industry. Working at Opel, he was soon noticed by Major Ivan Hirst of the British occupational force, who was put in charge of the ruined Volkswagen plants after the war. On January 1, 1948, Nordhoff was appointed Volkswagen's managing director and was given a free hand to organize the reconstruction of the factory and to restart production.

Nordhoff was involved in many initiatives, from building the city of Wolfsburg to financing the first runs of Beetles after Germany's monetary reform in the summer of 1948. He called dealers to Wolfsburg and told them to bring every deutsche mark they could with them. By the end of 1948 he had 15,000 domestic orders and 7,000 export orders.

Nordhoff increased production from 19,244 units in 1948 to half a million by 1958. He was helped by the German economic boom, the Wirtschaftswunder. But Nordhoff could only achieve what he did through vision and skills, including the American production ideas he learned at GM. Volkswagen flourished with the Beetle. Nordhoff later added variants of the Beetle platform, such as the VW minibus and Karmann Ghia coupe and convertible.

Though he realized that Professor Porsche's concept - with rear-mounted, air-cooled engine - was becoming outdated, Nordhoff did not allow new developments. He died suddenly on April 12, 1968, following an earlier heart attack in January that year. By that time annual production had reached 1.7 million units.

His successor, Kurt Lotz, inherited a model range based on the aging air-cooled engine concept and VW temporarily lapsed into trouble. But the more than 21 million Beetles that have been produced are all a tribute to Heinz Nordhoff.

The T2 camper van was also air cooled and based on the same engine as the Beetle. Both vehicles went on to become classics with heritage clubs all over the world.

A water cooled Beetle was produced that looked something like the original but never became popular.

In 2017, a new water cooled camper van was introduced.

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