In the beginning, there was the “People’s Car”. The Kübelwagen soon followed, as the Second World War started, and brought with it a genuine combat machine.
The Kübelwagen was designed (by Ferdinand Porsche, at the request of Third Reich army officials) to be an inexpensive, Beetle-based light-weight military transport vehicle, that could be operated reliably both on- and off-road, in even the most extreme conditions.
So, forget about beach buggies and rotary engine-powered Things; this is the ultimate derivative of the cheap and cheerful… KdF-Wagen. It looks like you can find anything for sale on eBay nowadays, even a “dummy tank” used by the Germans in WW2.
Up for grabs for $20,000, you can get your hands on this Kubelwagen Porsche Type 82/3 which was purchased from the National Military History Center. Its current owner can’t vouch for its authenticity – albeit the museum’s owner said it was a genuine Type 82/3 – but the vehicle is undoubtedly a real 1940 Kubelwagen Type 82.
The Kubelwagen Type 82/3, also known as the Panzerattrape, was constructed (as its name implies) to function as a tank decoy in order to deceive the enemy. The mock-up armored vehicle was flanked by simple metallic structures that mimicked a tank’s track, but the machine gun fitted turret was real.
According to the seller, this particular unit comes with an engine and transmission, but neither of them are original or work, for that matter. Fortunately, (for the WW2 enthusiasts) over 21 million Beetles were built, so getting an air cooled engine and a transmission isn’t that hard.
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