The Volkswagen T1 was the beginning of a never ending legend. Prior to 1950, automobiles were made to either transport people or goods, but they had never been made for people to live in. Volkswagen camper vans changed the way people thought of traveling by introducing an automobile that could not only get you where you want to go, but allow you to live in it, once you arrived.
The first generation Volkswagen camper vans were an amazing combination of vehicle and home. This original van featured a 1.1 liter, air-cooled engine that was rear mounted. It wasn’t your largest engine in the world, but for people that cared for an automobile that could allow you to lay down with friends and view the stars, it was more than enough. The Volkswagen T1 originally had side doors that opened up allowing cargo and people to be loaded with great ease, but in 1964 they came out with an even more amazing feature that lives on to this day; the sliding side door. This revolutionary feature made it possible to load and unload items or people with out the fear of your doors being ripped off by passing cars. Today, we still see the sliding door used in all sorts of vehicles, but especially the mini-van, which the Volkswagen T1 can easily be called the grandfather of.
People in America often times categorized the various Volkswagen T1 vans by the number of windows they had. There was the Kombi or the window, the DeLuxe or ì15 windowî and even a sunroof version of the DeLuxe which was called the ì21-windowî (having 21 windows total of course).
While In 1967 the production of the T1 continued in Brazil, in Germany it was discontinued to make room for the next version of the Volkswagen camper van series, the T2.