VW produced commercial and military versions too-including panel vans and pickup trucks based on the bus. The tidy dimension and flat platform floor meant it had uses beyond simply hauling large families around. Indeed, the early microbus has an overall length exactly the same as today's VW Golf. The design got the most out of the vehicles' footprint, Reed says. "When you encountered a microbus with a full painted face, two-tone trim and a big VW badge-that was something completely different coming at you on the street." "If you think of the 1950s, big American cars with bold grill statements were everywhere," says Stewart Reed, chair of the Transportation Design Department at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. That allowed the driver to sit directly on top of the front wheels to create both an incredible view ahead and a vast space behind for passengers or cargo, and created that classic flat front. VW stuck the bus's air-cooled four-cylinder in the back, as with the Beetle. There is no engine and hood sticking out past the windshield. Part of the microbus genius lies in its cab-over configuration. "That was something completely different coming at you on the street." It was embraced by surfers, hippies, campers and anyone that appreciated simplicity, efficiency, and adventure. This was the original minivan, a dedicated people-mover, but the bus was much more than a pedestrian family hauler, of course. The microbus was so new and so original when it burst upon the scene that more than a decade would pass before any real competitor showed up. In 1950, it officially greeted the world as the Type 2 Transporter (the VW Beetle was Type 1). It looked like an overgrown loaf of bread, but VW executives were impressed by what they saw and created the microbus, building it on Beetle mechanicals including the rear-mounted air-cooled flat four-cylinder engine. He sketched a van version on a piece of paper. Pon saw and fell in love with the utilitarian work trucklets the company used around the factory, which were based on the same rear-engined chassis configuration as the Beetle. In 1949, Ben Pon was a Volkswagen importer was bringing the first VW Beetles to the United States, but something besides the Bug captured his imagination. It started out life as a drawing so humble it could have come from the notebook of kid in elementary school.
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