Australian documentary of the shipment of the first volkswagen beetle to be used by a scientific team on Antarctica! In 1962, ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) wanted an inexpensive form of motorised transport to complement the expensive Snotrack vehicles they were using at the Australian Mawson base. The 1963 the expedition leader, Ray McMahon, asked VW Australasia if they would supply a vehicle. At that time, VW Wolfsburg was encouraging publicity for VWs in Arctic conditions, and so VW Australasia thought the ANARE request would be an excellent opportunity to gain some publicity for the Australian built cars (Volkswagens were being manufactured in a factory in Melbourne, Victoria) in harsh conditions. They supplied a 1962 Ruby Red beetle, with lots of spares, together with a movie camera and film (for the publicity of course). This vehicle had the licence plate "Antarctica 1" and left Melbourne for the Antarctic on the supply ship Nella Dan - arriving at Mawson on 2 February 1963. It proved a very useful vehicle. Being aircooled - it never froze, and could be started without assistance at temperatures as low as -38c, and driven in temperatures down to -52c. To compensate for poor battery performance at low temperatures, it was fitted with two 6 six volt batteries in series, with just the main starter cable using the second battery, so it started on 12 volts but ran on 6 volts (those who have had their 6 volt beetles converted to 12 volts know ...

• published: 29 Sep 2011
• views: 44727
• author: beetlejuic150