VW Half-Track Fox How a unique T1 van became a 12-wheeled snowmobile

The right stuff for the white stuff

If you were an engineer looking to build an off-road vehicle in 1950s’ Austria, you too might have hit on the idea of convering a Volkswagen T1 into a sort of ATV. That’s what Kurt Kretzner did – and the vehicle he created as a result has just emerged, fully restored, after 37 years in the doldrums

Words: Tom Alderney Pictures: Volkswagen

It’s often said that if you live in a mountainous region such as the Alps, you don’t really need a fully fledged 4x4. Of course, winter brings its challenges – but unless you specifically want to go off-road, an all-wheel drive version of an everyday car will do the job as well as anything else.

That’s where vehicles like the Fiat Panda 4x4 and Volkswagen Golf Country came from. Armed with a set of snow chains, there’s nothing short of fully blocked roads that will prevent vehicles like these from getting where they need to be. That’s what makes them a common sight in parts of Europe where, for much of the year, ‘off-roading’ is not so much about recreation as just getting from A to B.

But what if you also need to get to C? In fact, what if you also need to get to D, E and everything the whole way to Z? That’s the problem an Austrian engineer by the name of Kurt Kretzner set out to solve way back in the late 1950s.

Land Rover and Jeep were already very well established by this time, and Japan’s motor industry had moved confidently into the postwar era with

’At first, I had a look around. But I couldn’t find the vehicle I was dreaming of. So I decided to build it myself’

the arrival of vehicles like the Nissan Patrol and Toyota Land Cruiser But what Kretzner needed was something more like an ATV – a vehicle that could scale mountainsides which were covered in yards-deep snow.

His solution lay in another iconic postwar vehicle – the Volkswagen T1. A keen skier, Kretzner had spotted that there seemed to be no vans operating in the mountains that were easy for anyone to drive but which could climb up to the highest Alpine meadow. ‘An ideal helper for everyone,’ he wrote. ‘Mountain hut keepers, hunters, foresters, doctors, maintenance engineers for skilifts, TV and radio masts, pipelines and the like. ’At first, I had a look around. But I couldn’t find the vehicle I was dreaming of. So I decided to build it myself.’

Kretzner spent more than four years designing what would become known as the Half-track Fox. Starting with a standard T1 Bulli, he converted it from two to four axles – the front two steering

Top: Propulsion came from a half-track unit of Kretzner’s own design, with rubber blocks attached to an rrangement of aluminium teeth Above: During a four-year restoration at Volkswagen Classic Vehicles, the vehicle was dismantled entirely and its bodywork stripped, dipped and full repaired

the vehicle on dualled tyres, while the chain-driven rears turned a unique set of rubber tracks.

‘The new, ideal, easy-to-drive Half-track Fox that lets you safely and comfortably master all diffi cult terrain,’ says Kretzner’s promotional literature. ‘Snow, sand, stony ground, mountain meadows, small streams and woods can all be driven through in this vehicle.’ Rather than using a skidsteer system of the sort that remain common on ATVs even now, he saw the half-tracked set-up as a positive virtue rather than a compromise.

The record books are unclear as to what happened to Kretzner’s project. However the vehicle in these pictures is believed to be one of two Half-track Foxes that were built in the period up to 1968 – after which production came to an end.

What means is that this is one of the rarest off-road vehicles ever built. The only known survivor, it was built in May 1962 and shipped to Vienna – where, after a brief spell of operation in standard form, it entered Kretzner’s workshop to be transformed.

Despite the power-sapping conditions in which the vehicle was designed to be used, Kretzner stuck with its original 1192cc fl at-four engine. A higher-compression version of the air-cooled Typ 122 unit fi rst introduced in 1953, this produced 34bhp and around 60lbf.ft.

These fi gures translate into a top speed of about 21mph. As Volkswagen itself observes, the Half-track Fox ‘was thus only slightly slower than the member of the animal kingdom from which it got its name.’

Mounted on 13” wheels, the tracks were made from aluminium with 2cm thick rubber blocks bolted through the outer skin to provide traction and prevent damage to hard road surfaces. This arrangement was Kretzner’s own design. Each wheel was fi tted with a brake, while an automatic limited-slip differential was fi tted to help distribute the engine’s torque evenly however deep the snow might get.

Up front, the axles were fi tted with dual 14” tyres featuring an aggressive tread pattern, an arrangement which provided fl otation as well as bite. The set-up allowed a turning circle of less than 10 metres, giving the vehicle exceptional manoeuvrability to go with its immense traction.

Thus this was a vehicle whose fi tness for purpose is clear for all to see. Yet for whatever reason, Kretzner failed to turn it into a sales success. Thus it was almost completely forgotten about – until this one fell into the hands of Volkswagen Classic Vehicles (VWCV).

Its route to restoration was a circuitous one. Following its fi nal public outing in Vienna, which was in 1985, some half a decade later it was bought by Porsche Automuseum Helmut Pfeifhofer in the Austrian town of Gmünd, which proudly boasts of being the only private Porsche museum in Europe. It rested there for several years before passing into the hands of the German-based Bullikartei e.V. – a society of T1 enthusiasts who, in 2005. began a project of their own to restore the vehicle.

Despite the amount of expertise and knowledge in the club, this was tripped up by the logistic diffi culties of its members being spread throughout Germany. So in 2018, they admitted defeat – and the Half-track Fox became part of the VWCV collection.

Here, the aim was clear from the start: for the vehicle to run once more. And if Volkswagen’s own in-house classic vehicle operation couldn’t do it, you’d have to fear no-one ever would.

With the running gear removed, the T1’s 60-year-old bodywork was stripped of paint, repaired, given a cathodic dip coating and repainted in the largely original shade of matt orange. Kretzner’s intention when it was new was to make it as visible as possible in the countryside – and seeing it against a snowy background, you can’t disagree that he succeeded.

Restoring the mechanical side of a vehicle is relatively simple for experts of this calibre, but with classics there’s often the added necessity to keep it as original as possible. While this was very much the case with the unique running gear, inside the cabin the team was allowed to let its imagination run riot. ‘There were no onerous specifi cations,’ Volkswagen explains. ‘Wood components in beech and pine were individually adapted to the space inside the Half-track Fox, and practical tool holders installed.’ A gently modern interpretation of the vehicle’s functional past, then – and carried off in materials with a suitably authentic Alpine feel.

Like so many things over the last couple of years, VWCV’s project to restore the Half-track Fox had to negotiate lockdown along the way. But at last, earlier this year the vehicle was ready to tackle its fi rst snow-clad mountainside in more than a quarter of a century. And once again, it proved its ability, setting off uphill with a degree of ability that prompted onlookers to observe

and practical tool holders installed.’ A gently mod- that the driver was more likely than the vehicle to that the driver was more likely than the vehicle to chicken out. VW Classic Vehicles has as its motto the words ‘Erinnern. Erleben. Erhalten.’ The phrase, which means ‘Remember. Experience. Preserve,’ is the guiding principle for all it does. It’s probably true that after all this time, few people outside the enthusiast T1 community would have remembered the Half-track Fox. But with its preservation now assured, a good many will now be able to experience it – and having done so, this extraordinary off-roader will surely never be forgotten.