Date:         Fri, 2 Feb 1996 14:54:45 -0600 (CST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Joseph F. Fournier II" <jfourni@comp.uark.edu>
Subject:      Ben Pon: Bus Inventor?

Okay, it's Friday. I'm surfing a little and I come across this reference 
to a dutch dude named Ben Pon and it says:

"Probably the best thing Pon did for VW was the invention of the bus!
When he was at the factory in 1947 he saw a bug chassis with a big loading
floor and a cabin above the engine. It was used to move parts inside the
factory. The workers called it the Plattenwagen."

--You volks have got to see this thing (direct ancestor of Grendel, I 
believe)--

"...When Pon was back in Holland he talked about importing this car to
Holland, but the position of the driver was unacceptable for the
department of transportation. Pon started to think about a van based on
the bugs chassis, with the driver upfront. On April 24 1947 he made a
drawing of his idea and he showed it to the director at his next visit to
the factory. The director saw it's potential and in the fall of 1948 the
first prototypes where build."

http://www.hzeeland.nl/~ploon/hist-nl.html

Anyway, it's a very cool page with VERY cool buses!

Let me know what you think! 8) Joe

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Joseph F. Fournier II <jfourni@comp.uark.edu> 501.575.7353
<a href="http://comp.uark.edu/~jfourni/"> Joe Fournier</a>
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