For all of the likely societal problems the internet may have visited on the head of humanity, there is at least one thing that the internet had gifted unto humankind that is absolutely an unquestionable good: it is now far more likely for people just going about their days to see strange vintage pictures of unusual Volkswagen variants. You can be sitting in your underpants, elbow deep in a gin-filled bag of Funyuns, when out of the blue you encounter some picture of an old Volkswagen Type 2 with genuinely baffling modifications. This is the true worth of the internet.
And, of course, this actually did happen to me (well, not exactly; the gin-filled bag contained Munchos, not Funyuns) just today, when I happened to see an Instagram post containing a bunch of old, seemingly randomly selected images of classic VWs. While all were interesting to some degree, one really captured my attention more than the others, because of its specificity and peculiarity.
It’s the – holy crap – 15th picture here, so I hope you like clicking or swiping:
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Now, I suspect this image comes from the 1950s – the bus itself seems to be a ’56, if I had to guess – and based on the sedately straightforward nature of the photography and subject, along with some of the equipment on the bus (an optional reverse lamp, added – and non-factory– reflectors) I suspect this was some sort of official image from some sort of agency, possibly municipal or governmental. The notable thing about the image, which I’ll show you again here, is the extra equipment installed on this bus, and that nifty little compartment door that was added:
Let’s look at the non-standard strangeness going on here. I think the biggest mystery is ① That big assembly of equipment hidden behind that nicely-done curved door ②. Then, we have an interesting double-pulley, similar to what VW had for air-conditioning-equipped air-cooled cars or the extra alternator used on mil-spec Type 181s, but predating both of those by at least a decade and a half or so.
That extra pulley is used to drive a belt that is spinning some other bit of equipment mounted on the side of the engine compartment, something that could be an extra generator or maybe some sort of compressor?
What was this for? The equipment installed at ① looks electrical in nature, and heavy-duty electrical at that. There’s three heavy-gauge wires (is this a three-phase AC something?) bolted between what look like cooling fins on maybe some sort of transformer? And what’s that box below it? What does all this stuff do?
I’m wondering if it’s some kind of auxiliary AC power system for something like one of these VW bus-based speed camera setups that were used in Europe between the late 1950s and into the 1970s. Like this one:
VW Bus converted into a stealth speed trap. Germany, 1970’s.
byu/5_Frog_Margin inTheWayWeWere
The amount of bodywork modification on those things is really remarkable! They cut the whole front apart!
Maybe it’s that, but on all the speed camera buses I’ve seen, I’ve never spotted a little corner access door like this one has. Since I’m stumped but still curious, I’m going to what I always do and punt it put to all of you, because you, the Autopian Hive Mind, are powerfully smart and I bet one of you will figure this out in, say, 15 minutes.
I hope so, at least, because I want to know what the hell is going on here. Is this a time machine? A full-bus-interior microwave? A nuclear reactor? What is it?
Clearly that’s a Cat Detector Van.
https://youtu.be/pnq96W9jtuw?t=193
That’s obviously the 1st Fuel Shark!
They were big at first, just like computers used to take up a whole room. I’m still very impressed with mine. I save so much $ on gas!
I have no idea, but that is Chet Baker on the nod in the back of that convertible in pic no. 9.
Sure looks like him.
Maybe it’s like a radio/television broadcast van of some sort? The 3-phase AC generator could be used to run the transmitter and additional equipment at a stable but variable voltage that the analoge electronics like.
Methinks the tail light configuration holds a clue. Is that a unique layout?
German engineers are highly meticulous, so when out in the field and there comes a need to make a quick drawing to explain something technical to a manager, it was imperative to have a mechanical pencil sharpener handy…
Doesn’t matter. It all ran on COBOL. Nobody knows how to program it anymore.
Or maybe they should have ported it to a GameBoy.
It got bricked by Y2K anyway.
As a couple of others have mentioned it is just a massive alternator with remote mounted rectifier for some serious high amp DC power. What needed that much DC power is the real question.
A still. Hard for the fuzz to catch you bootlegging operation when it’s mobile.
This Transporter could be the German version of the ‘crystal ship’ RV in the Breaking Bad prequel we need.
Except it’s in a country with socialised healthcare so Walts Cancer treatment is totally covered and his family are looked after so the show doesn’t make sense.
In the German version Walt found a HUGE, long forgotten stash of Nazi Pervitin squirreled away in the hidden sub basement of his summer rental cottage. He may not have medical bills but a guy still has wants no?
It’s a small forging machine to make the gold leaf flakes in the Goldschläger.
An early prototype of the flux capacator.
A Type 2 is even less likely to get to 88 mph than a DeLorean
If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 kilometers per hour… you’re gonna see some serious shit.
Turns out that ‘serious shit’ is a piston launching itself out of the engine and into low earth orbit.
Yes, it’s part of an alternate future where the Libyan terrorists were successful in their mission and got the flux capacitor tech to strap to their van
I await my plans.
Why aren’t those kids smashing the narc van?
You should have asked Mercedes. It’s an APU. See, much like an airplane, the engines in those those things were far too big and powerful to start them with a normal starter, so you need bleed air to get them spinning so they’ll fire up.
I hate going up against the Autopian expert on VWs. But given the setup the wiring and the customization is say for an auxiliary generator set up for using the vehicle for camping or as a mobile power source for equipment like is found at a fair providing medical tests
Dude. That’s a supercharger.
Based on my research, that’s a 1958 aftermarket add of a Kabelsalat to power an onboard Dudelsack. Likely upgrades for a Grenzepolizei vehicle. Those guys just loved an onboard powered Dudelsack.
Sorry my Dudelsack operates on my own biological imperative. And it doesn’t require a German Cable Satellite hook up. And why you think the German Police are involved is just beyond me. Lol
It’s not so much that the Kabelsalat is necessary to power the Dudelsack, it just makes the Dudelsack ownership experience that much better. Once you operate a Dudelsack hooked up to a quality Kabelsalat, you’ll never want to go back.
I mean, if I had a nickel…
Possibly a Großbeleuchtungsgerät or Gerätewagen Licht
Question is why Chet Baker just shows up in the middle of the picture sequence
Good gawd, yes
Because he was an epic shredder?
Torch, buddy, I’m a little embarrassed for you that you didn’t recognize this immediately as a PO/BO-SPU!
A little background – in the late 50’s, VW was already anticipating the hippie movement and the unique exigencies this population would have for their automobiles. Seeing that one of the defining factors of this group would be an aversion to capitalism in general and to the oil and gas industry specifically, VW sought to maximize fuel economy in creative ways. The belt you see is actually carrying power from the PO/BO-SPU to the main engine. What isn’t pictured are the lines and valves running from the interior. See, the full name of this clever piece of machinery is the Patchouli Oil / Body Odor Supplementary Power Unit! It would extract the highly volatile gasses from within the cabin, compress and ignite them similar to a CNG engine. Perhaps the greatest feature of this unit was that it auto-corrected engine power to load: the more rank hippies you packed in the van, the more power the unit could produce. Brilliant!!
I think Torch may have answered his own question just under a year ago:
https://www.theautopian.com/this-old-german-post-office-booklet-is-full-of-great-vw-stuff-cold-start/
Maybe one of these: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funkmesswagen_(Fernmeldewesen)
Funk mess wagen sounds like the stinky hippie device mentioned in another post.
The more you zoom in the more confusing it is. I first thought it looked hydraulic then like a small engine as generator then it looks like a voltage regulator or transformer. The speed camera theory is as good as any. My first thought when zooming in on it was it was used by some kind of utility like power or phone. I think it’s probably the electrical connector end of a generator so maybe a radio or television van. The vans the television stationed used to transmit from location had standalone generator built in to the side. This seems like an early PTO or belt driven version of that.
Early mobile crypto mining rig.
Elementary my dear Torchson, as we all learned from the Twin Pines Mall documentary footage a VW Type2 can clearly match a DeLorean for acceleration and top speed therefor we can deduce that it can easily hit 88MPH. That should be all the hint you need to deduce the nature of this contraption.
It’s a three-phase AC generator. The heavy electrical is going to a rectifier to convert to DC. Maybe there is some kind of radio transmitter in the van?
Think you’re on the right track. The van might have been converted to a mobile radio transmitter for either commercial radio or civil defense. The engine would be left idling to power the second generator.
You’d think they’d just use a Dynamo back in the day, unless they were really concerned with efficiency.
Hello. German engineers. Born concerned with efficiency
It’s obviously the Turbo-Encabulator! You can clearly see the panandermic semi-boloid stator slots and Prefabulated Amulite baseplate
I definitely see the marzlevanes attached to the lunar waneshaft.
No wonder Dr. Kevorkian picked a VW.