Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Type 34 Razor Edge. Saudi Arabia

After many years pootling along the daily commute though, VW customers were clammering for more acceleration and better-equipped cabins. The answer arrived in 1961, when VW unveiled the Type 34 – Razor Edge, at the Frankfurt Motor Show. As well as a more pointed, aggressively designed nose, wider front grilles and a more stocked optional extras list (amongst which was fog lights, a cigarette lighter and an electric sunroof), under the bonnet lay the new VW 1500, a 1.5-litre air-cooled four-cylinder that pushed power up to 40hp (so keen were VW to showcase the new engine that the Type 34 – like the example above – was originally called the Volkswagen 1500 Karmann Ghia Coupe). Hardly earth shattering, but come the end of its production cycle in 1971, power for both the Karmann and the new Type 34 had nearly doubled thanks to a new 57hp 1.6-litre unit. Outright grunt may well have been the domain of the Karmann’s principal rivals – the MGB and the Triumph Spitfire – but the looks of the coupe continued to steal the show (a convertible had been unveiled in 1957).

Entering the early 1970s though, difficulties in production meant the Karmann Ghia had soon met its match, and the launch of the new VW Scirocco didn’t help the old dog either. The precedence had been set though: no longer would the world see Volkswagen as ‘just’ a producer of mainstream family cars. Decades later, the Golf GTI, the Scirocco R and the Bugatti Veyron among others still show just what a ‘sporty Volkswagen’ can do.

– Shots courtesy of Hasam Al Ghamdi

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