Arctic Beetle
Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 2:09 pm
In 1963, the humble Volkswagen Beetle became the first production car to use the Antarctic for marketing publicity
Fitted with snow chains, the car could do everything from towing skiers, to driving glaciologists three or four kilometres on to the sea ice to test its thickness.
Accounts of these excursions describe winds up to 100 mph, which more than once ‘turned the doors inside out, overriding the door check-rods and folding the doors against the front hub caps.’” Easily lifted out of deep drifts, the Bug “gave very good service with a minimum of worry to the mechanical section, who only had to service it and feed it petrol regularly.”
Upon its return to Australia after a year of service, Antarctica 1 went on to win the 1964 BP Rally after relatively minor repairs.
It was replaced by a similar 1964 VW named "Antarctica 2” and painted International Orange which served a much longer stretch, staying in the frozen wasteland until 1969.
