Cars week: The first commercially manufactured cars in Antarctica was...

Cars week: The first commercially manufactured cars in Antarctica was...

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Fact of the day, day day day day. Do do
do do do do do do do do do do
do do do do do do do do do do
do do do. It's cars week here in Fact of
the Day. No, not like Queen, you're silly idiots. Cars
as in the vehicles. It's a themed week Effect of

(00:24):
the day. And yes this is I had all my
facts sorted on Sunday, but I've changed them out because
I kept getting great facts. He's rolling with it. I
found this one okay by happy coincidence. Remember we were
talking about what those things are called that drive around Antarctica. Yes,
oh yeah, they mentioned my cousins and Antarctica. Yeah, And
we were talking about them and I was like, does
he get to drive there? And I was like, what

(00:45):
are those things called? And there's summit, the ones on
the yet the Antarctic Center and they sit on top yeah, Hoglundlands.
Hoglands is what they're called. Hugons tracked ve fun. They're
like like tractor tanks. No, they're not like tractor tanks.
They got the tank wheels. I don't know how you

(01:08):
do the top. Are they like a mini van or
in the sand cube meets a tank like ammmobile tank. Yeah,
like amobile fire engine cab without the bonnet and without
any of the fire engine on the back. Just yeah. Yeah,
we're trying to describe these things. We've used about ten
different cars as reference. It's this square on tracks. It's

(01:30):
not cube esk. The signature thing about the cube is
the weird little cubes. Yeah, couple of cubes, very boxy,
and it's on tracks. And I was like, what are
those things called? And they're called hug loons. But I
googled what are those vehicles they drive an Antarctica called?
And Google told me Volkswagen Beetles. And I said, you

(01:50):
have officially lost your mind. Yeah, AI, you can't trust
it all the time. Wagon Beetle stupid. I looked into it.
The first commercially vehicle to be driven in Antarctica was
a Voltswagen Beetle, like the bubbly one, the bubbly old
school classic, Like, how do they sound when they go
down the road. They're like, it's good. Actually they sound

(02:15):
like a Jitson's car had one. Did they have special
tracks on them or times? No? Standard one of them Voltswagens.
The first one is called Antarctica one. It was a
red Volkswagen beatle, which is the best color for a
classic Voltswagen beetle, and it got shipped down there and
it was used at Morson Station exclusively between nineteen sixty

(02:37):
three and nineteen seventy. There's an entire book called the
volts Wagons of Antarctica. There's another book called the Antarctic Volkswagens,
and it tells the story about the ruby red beetle
Antarctica one and two Orange beetles that followed afterwards, Antarctica
two and three that were used on this stuff. No chains,

(02:57):
just as I recall, rear wheel driven, but they were
real well driven cars because the engines in the boot
and the boots up the front, right, that's how that's
how it looks. They didn't have chains on it, no
changing thing. Okay, we would have chains to Kadrona, I know.
But look here it is towing a slid. It's towing
a packed sliding. And they said it was reliable, It

(03:18):
never skipped a beat, it was comfortable, and they drove
it around Antarctica at Morson Station. It was their first
official like commercially produced vehicle on in Antarctica, the first
cars of Antarctica, the Antarctica Volkswagens. It's called. It's like
a really well documented history if you're into voltswagons or
just cars and weird places. Fully reckon giving that a

(03:40):
Google Today bit of a rabbit hole. Yeah, slipped a
little bit of time for a rabbit hole. If you've
got time for a rabbit hole, get amongst that. But
today's fact of the day is the first ever commercially
produced vehicles in Antarctica were Voltswagen Beetles. Fact of the day,
day day, day day. Generally, do don't D do do U?