Volkswagen 1303 S (1973) vs Volkswagen Golf L (1973)
In 1974, Volkswagen enters the modern era with the Golf. That’s the beginning of the end for the Beetle, which embarks on a lengthy farewell tour. In every way the successor is more modern and a car of that time, but how does the transition feel almost 50 years later when you put a late VW Beetle next to an early Golf?
When the moss-green Big Beetle in the photos leaves in 1973 for its journey to its first owner in Sweden, the end has already begun. Behind the scenes, the Gulf is already warming up for its premiere, the new era will dawn the following year. As harbingers of the modern age, the K70 and the Passat were developed by innovative subsidiaries (NSU and Audi respectively), but in 1974 the parent company Volkswagen pruned the old offshoots from the lucrative compact class. Away with the air-cooled engine and the concept whose origins date back to the Nazi era, on to the (already common elsewhere) construction method with the engine in the front and a practical, finally self-supporting body! But there is no hard dividing line. The customers can’t just let go of their cherished Beetle, so it runs parallel to its successor from the German production band, haunting like a zombie, until 1978, and is then imported from Mexico until 1985.
The Volkswagen Golf with its four-cylinder inline engine in the front, the Beetle (in this version called 1303) with the four-cylinder boxer engine in the back.
Beetle sympathetically old-fashioned, Golf as a cookie jar
If you see it standing next to the early Gulf, we don’t really get hot or cold from the latter. The Beetle, here as the 1303 S with no less than 50 hp and a modern chassis, makes a sympathetically old-fashioned impression with its separate fenders and running boards. The thick, convex tin and the doors that close like a vault door have the flair of a solidity that has matured for decades. In comparison, the Golf comes across as a cookie jar: thin-walled and fragile, and unusually tall on its thin tires.
Tight, close to the windshield, the already very old-fashioned Beetle inside in the seventies.
Shorter Wave much more spacious
In the interior, however, the spell of the old hand is broken. In the Beetle, the occupants are close to the doors and, due to 13.5 centimeters less width, also close to each other. The Golf, on the other hand, takes full advantage of the advantages of the construction with the engine transversely in the front. Although it is 40 (!) centimeters shorter than the Beetle in length, the front seats can be adjusted over a greater length and the rear passengers have more space. The cockpit of the 1303 is simple and unexciting, although in this special version it is enhanced by an imitation wood molding across the entire width of the car. The Golf is also limited to the bare essentials, but scores with more space and better ergonomics. In particular, the slide controls for the (better working!) heating, which are well placed within reach, are a welcome improvement compared to the pull handles with which Beetle drivers always had to operate the valves of the engine heat exchanger.
Not that it’s a party in the first Volkswagen Golf, but quite modern for 1974.
Both 50 hp, Golf on 0-100 sprint 4.4 seconds faster
The water-cooled four-cylinder of the Golf has half a liter less (1.1 four-cylinder) displacement for its 50 hp, but it needs 2,000 rpm more than the equally strong, air-cooled 1.6 boxer in the Beetle. Despite more torque, its power source cannot provide smoother acceleration: from 0 to 100, the 109 kg lighter Golf takes 4.4 seconds (19.7s to 24.1s). Not only the higher weight, but also the longer transmission hinders him. In terms of top speed and fuel consumption, the Golf benefits from its better aerodynamics: compared to a drag coefficient of 0.34, the Beetle’s 0.46 seems downright prehistoric. The basic Golf reaches 140 km / h, and therefore runs 10 kilometers faster. On average, the 1.1 12.0 kilometers on a liter of petrol, the air-cooled boxer in the Beetle consumes an average of one liter per 10.9 kilometers.
A late Beetle has much better handling than early ones.
Beetle drives surprisingly modern for a 1970s car
Surprisingly modern, on the other hand, the oldie shows itself in its driving behavior, which is the merit of the trailing arm rear axle in the 1303. Compared to the earlier pendle axles, it suppresses the tendency to oversteer, which was characteristic of the Beetle, and so strongly that the rear can only be provoked to break out with a rough load change. Although the Golf is foolproof on this point, it has typical disadvantages as a front-wheel drive car, namely less grip on wet roads and when accelerating sharply out of bends. In the Beetle, the steering requires a lot of power; that of the Golf functions lighter and more direct, which contributes overall to the feeling of lightness.
Below the line, the Beetle’s flaws cancel out against its far-reaching degree of maturity. Even test drivers of the time could not simply label it as old iron with good decency. “Anyone who knows how to value his advantages and is also used to him can still buy a Beetle with confidence”, was the conclusion at the time.
The Volkswagen Beetle is far from extinct in the streets. For neat copies you pay quite hefty amounts, such as for this one.
The prices of a Volkswagen Golf I are also high. The GTI, of course, all the way, then you soon end up with amounts well above 20,000 euros, but here we found a good 1.1 that costs no less than 15,000 euros.
.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl