Wiking 1/87 HO Scale VW Volkswagen T1 Type-2 Passenger Van German Made Assembled

Volkswagen T1 Type 2 Passenger Van - Assembled -- Pigeon Blue

1/87 HO Scale Model
Wiking-Modellbau GmbH & Co. KG - 78810

Made in Germany

HO Scale Vehicle For Use With All HO Scale Train Layouts!

Volkswagen Type 2 had a special place in automotive history. Decades before the term "minivan" and "multi-purpose vehicle" emerged, it had already offered the same attributes – it seated 9 people in 3 rows of bench seats; It offered countless of derivatives for different purposes, including cargo van, camping van, ambulance and pickup truck; Some versions had removable seats to allow expansion of luggage space; Moreover, it was built on a passenger car platform so that it was easy to drive, to maintain and economical to run.

Quite unbelievably, the Type 2 was built on the Type 1 (Beetle) platform, sharing its 2400 mm wheelbase, the same running gears and engines. At that time Volkswagen was still very much a large factory building a pre-war Porsche design instead of a proper manufacturer. It did not have huge resources and a large parts pool like Detroit or some British manufacturers. Neither had it got an independent engineering capability. To diversify its range, everything had to be built on the Beetle platform. To make room for a people carrier, the platform was modified with wider tracks and mated with a body that was both longer and wider. The front seats were mounted right above the front wheels, liberating a lot of space for the 2nd and 3rd row. Above the rear engine compartment there was a luggage area, although loading it through the hatchback door was made difficult by its height. The passengers got on board from the pair of hinged doors on the kerb side. There were 6 windows provided at each side. In addition to the split windscreen, rear screen and (on some models) the skylight windows, as many as 23 windows could be found on the car! This guaranteed a light and airy ambience.

About Wiking-Modellbau GmbH & Co. KG

Wiking was founded by Freidrich Karl Peltzer in 1939. The company is located in Ludenscheid, Germany. Wiking is a manufacturer of high-quality plastic models in HO and N Scales for collectors. Wiking also has a complete line of 1:43 and 1:32 precision die-cast models.