The missing wheel

In Europe and America in the 1930s, it became increasingly clear that there was a need to design cars for mass production. In Europe, the main response, although certainly not the only one, came in the shape of Ferdinand Porsche’s Volkswagen Beetle. Across the pond, it was Paul Lewis who, without any financial support from the state, tried to come up with an answer. Both men drew inspiration from a model presented at a 1933 Chicago show by John Tjaarda, father of the famous designer Tom Tjaarda, who, after the war, went on to work for Pininfarina, Bertone and Ghia in Turin.