A thorough restoration was done to the four-axle beast.
Sixty-years ago, a Volkswagen Type 2 T1 bus was transferred from the Hanover plant to an Austrian buyer. The bus didn’t travel much as a van around the country before Kurt Kretzner, a Viennese mechanic, modified it into an all-terrain beast. Kretzner spent four decades designing and building the Half-Track Fox.
Four axles are featured on the modified Volkswagen. The front two have 14-inche tires and the rear pair has a chain drive mechanism which turns the 13-inch spinners into track. This setup allows for a bus to turn at a distance of approximately 32 feet (10 m).
Kretzner described the bus as “An ideal aid for everyone: mountain-hut keepers and hunters, foresters and doctors, maintenance engineers for skiing lifts, TV and radio masts and pipelines, and the like.” He also wrote this in the sales literature. Kretzner noted that he couldn’t find the vehicle he was looking for. It was so difficult to find the vehicle I wanted, Kretzner said.
Each tire was fitted with a brake and an automatic limited slip differential. This helped to manage the power which was not much. The type 2 T1 was powered by a 1.2-liter engine that produced just 33 horsepower (25 megawatts). The vehicle could travel just 56 miles per hour, or 35 kilometers per hour.
Although only one Half Track Fox remains, Kretzner is believed to have built another one. Only this one has been discovered. It disappeared several years after Kretzner built the Porsche Museum in Gmund. The Bullikartei e.V. took it into their care, a group of Bulli-lovers of the first generation. In 2005, the group attempted to restore the bus but it failed.
In late 2018, the Half-Track Fox was taken into the ownership of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. The bus was taken into the care of the team, who began a full restoration. They even painted the exterior in a similar matte orange color. The interior of the VWCV cabin is a free-for-all. It uses pine and beech woods throughout. In February, the Half-Track Fox made its official debut and sailed through the snow effortlessly.