The
Volkswagen Type 183, more commonly known as the
Iltis (German for the
European PolecatThe European polecat , also known as the black or forest polecat , is a species of Mustelid native to western Eurasia and North Africa, which is classed by the IUCN as Least Concern due to its wide range and large numbers. It is of a generally dark brown colour, with a pale underbelly and a dark...
), is a military vehicle built by
VolkswagenVolkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
for use by the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
military and under licence by Bombardier for the
Canadian ForcesThe Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
and
Belgian ArmyThe Land Component is organised using the concept of capacities, whereby units are gathered together according to their function and material. Within this framework, there are five capacities: the command capacity, the combat capacity, the support capacity, the services capacity and the training...
. Although the two vehicles were briefly offered simultaneously, the Type 183 effectively replaced the
Type 181The Volkswagen Type 181 "Kurierwagen", popularly known in the United Kingdom as the Trekker , in the United States as the Thing, and in Mexico as the Safari, was a small military vehicle produced by Volkswagen from 1969 to 1983, although civilian sales stopped in 1980...
.
History
The German military had been part of a cooperative effort beginning in the late 1960s to create what was dubbed the
Europa JeepThe Europa Jeep was an abandoned, multinational military vehicle project.During the 1960s, several European governments began cooperating on development of a vehicle known as the Europa Jeep, a lightweight, amphibious four wheel drive vehicle that could be mass produced for use by various national...
, an amphibious
four wheel driveThe Four Wheel Drive Auto Company, more often known as Four Wheel Drive or just FWD, was founded in 1909 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, as the Badger Four-Wheel Drive Auto Company by Otto Zachow and William Besserdich.-History:...
vehicle that could replace the small all-terrain transport vehicles being used by several of the participating governments. With development taking longer than expected, the German military requested that something inexpensive be built in small quantities to fill their need for additional small transport vehicles while the Europa Jeep project was still undergoing design research.
Volkswagen responded to the request, designing an updated version of their
KübelwagenThe Volkswagen Kübelwagen was a military vehicle designed by Ferdinand Porsche and built by Volkswagen during World War II for use by the German military...
and designating it the Type 181. But by 1976 the Europa Jeep project had fallen apart completely, the victim of skyrocketing costs and a difficult development. Needing a suitable four wheel drive vehicle to take over the spots that had been designated for the Europa Jeep, the German government issued requests to several manufacturers to design and build prototype vehicles to be considered for military use.
Prior to the advent of the Type 181, the German military had purchased several thousand vehicles of the
MungaThe DKW Munga was a DKW-branded off-road vehicle built by Auto Union in Ingolstadt, Germany. "MUNGA" is an acronym of the German phrase "Mehrzweck UNiversal Geländewagen mit Allradantrieb", which translated means "multi-purpose universal cross-country car with all-wheel drive".Production began in...
, a light jeep manufactured by
DKWDKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...
, but production of the Munga ended in 1968. VW consolidated the former
Auto UnionAuto Union was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony, during the Great Depression. The company has evolved into present day Audi, as a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group....
marques into a single company, re-using the
AudiAudi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
name to designate vehicles manufactured by the company rather than continuing to manufacture vehicles under the names of the various brands that had made up the original Auto Union.
Wanting to begin immediately making use of the technologies they had acquired in the Auto Union purchase, VW chose to participate in the competition to provide the next new German military vehicle by creating an evolution of the Munga jeep, which had been out of production for several years by this time. The resultant prototype combined old technologies with new, and executives decided to badge the product as a VW rather than as an Audi in the hopes that this would help promote positive linking to the existing VW military designs and give them a "leg up" over the competition.
The vehicle featured a variation of the Munga's platform with newly modified suspension components, a four wheel drive system based around components from the
Audi 100The restyled C2 Audi 100 was launched in 1976, with an in-line five-cylinder engine...
and a 1.7 litre four cylinder Audi engine producing 75 horsepower. The design of this four wheel drive system provided the basis for Audi's
Quattroquattro is the name used by Audi AG to indicate that four-wheel drive technologies or systems are used on specific models of the Audi automobiles....
system, which debuted four years later in 1980 on the original
Audi QuattroThe Audi Quattro is a road and rally car, produced by the German automobile manufacturer Audi, now part of the Volkswagen Group. It was first shown at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show on 3 March.The word quattro is derived from the Italian word for "four"...
. Earlier that year,
Freddy KottulinskyWinfried Philippe Adalbert Karl Graf Kottulinsky Freiherr von Kottulin, better known as Freddy Kottulinsky , was a German-Swedish racing and rallying driver who won the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1980. He was born in München....
and Gerd Löffelmann had won the Paris-
Dakar RallyThe Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road automobile race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation...
in an Audi-prepared Iltis.
The
Iltis, as VW was now calling it, passed the German government's tests with ease, and was chosen over the equally competent but more expensive
Mercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
G-WagenThe original 460-series Geländewagen went on sale for civilian buyers in 1979, after having debuted in February of that year. It was offered with two wheelbases, a short wheelbase of 2,400 mm and a long one of 2,850 mm. One could choose between three body styles: A two-door short...
. Production began in the summer of 1978 and the first 200 units were delivered in November; by late 1979 approximately 2,000 units had been delivered with 310 units sent to the
LuftwaffeLuftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
and 20 sent to the German Navy. Although most of the units produced were four-doored with open tops, ambulance, anti-tank, artillery survey, command and field communications units with varying bodystyles were produced in small numbers. A civilian model was also offered in Germany, but found even fewer takers than the 181 had, largely due to price.
The Iltis-based Citroën
In the late 1970s the French government decided it was time to replace their aging fleet of Hotchkiss Jeeps and like Germany they called out for offers. No French company had a fitting vehicle on hand and designing one from the ground up would have been too expensive so they worked with the manufacturers that did have something to offer. Peugeot teamed up with Mercedes, put a 504 engine in the G-Wagen and called it the P4, Saviem put a Renault 20 engine in Fiat’s Campagnola and dubbed it the TRM500 and Citroen built the C44, a Volkswagen 183 powered by a CX engine. In the end the P4 was awarded the contract and the other two projects were scrapped but a team entered a C44 in the 1981 Paris-Dakar. It did not finish the race.
Former operators
:
Canadian ForcesThe Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
(replaced by the G-Wagen): Estonian Army (replaced by the G-Wagen):
German ArmyThe German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...
(replaced by the
G-WagenThe original 460-series Geländewagen went on sale for civilian buyers in 1979, after having debuted in February of that year. It was offered with two wheelbases, a short wheelbase of 2,400 mm and a long one of 2,850 mm. One could choose between three body styles: A two-door short...
)
External links