Page 104 - Wayne Carini's Guide to Affordable Classics

From a performance perspective, the Karmann Ghia was never a sports car, but rather a “sporty” car. Two years after its launch, the 1.2-liter engine’s output was increased from 36 to 40 horsepower. Road & Track described this increase as “the difference between barely adequate performance and that which is very satisfactory.”
In 1966, the engine displacement was increased to 1.3 liters, increasing output further to 50 horsepower and the following year another displacement increase to 1.5 liters pushed output up to 53 horsepower. For its last years, from 1971 to 1974, displacement was increased again to 1.6 liters, with an output now at 60 horsepower.
VW’s “automatic stickshift” semi-automatic transmission was offered as an option starting in 1968, and, as on the Beetle, cars ordered with it got the new double-jointed rear suspension. Not truly an automatic in the American car sense (the driver still had to shift gears), it utilized a torque converter and vacuum-operated clutch to replace the conventional transmission.
Type 34
the Type 14 shared its chassis with a Beetle (though with wider floorpans), the Type 34 body was mounted on the unmodified Type 3 chassis and drivetrain (shared with the 1500/1600 Notchback, the Variant/Squareback and the Fastback) – all distinguished by the standard 1500 pancake engine that allowed a front and rear trunk. All bodywork, interior, glass, bumpers, and most of the lenses are unique to the Type 34, but are otherwise mechanically the same as other Type 3s.
Around 42,000 were built from 1962 to 1969, plus 17 prototype convertibles. Although the Type 34 was available in most countries, it was never offered officially in the US – VW’s largest and most important export market – another reason for its low sales numbers.
Karmann Ghia TC
Brazil had always been a popular market for VW products and Volkswagen do Brasil requested Ghia to develop a reworked version of the Type 14 at the end of the 1960s as an alternative to the Type 34. Its designer was Giorgetto Giugiaro, during his brief tenure at Ghia after leaving Bertone and before setting up his own firm. The result was the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia TC (Touring Coupé), internally known as the Type 145, which began production in 1972 and was produced until 1975.
In September 1961, Volkswagen introduced the VW 1500
Karmann Ghia, or Type 34, based on its new Type 3 platform. The
styling offered more interior space and, thanks to a new engine
design, more cargo room than the original Karmann Ghia. Like
its Type 14 brother, the Type 34 was styled by the Italian design
studio Ghia, with Sergio Sartorelli as the lead designer. Whereas Though not graced perhaps with the same elegant proportions
102Wayne CariniAffordable Classics