0:00:02 > 0:00:05In the early days of the car, it was believed that the spread of this new
0:00:05 > 0:00:09motoring fad would be limited by our ability to train chauffeurs
0:00:09 > 0:00:11and supply leather for the upholstery.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Only the rich would have cars.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22The rest of us just walked on.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26But we, the shuffling masses, had seen the cars.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30And we saw that they were good.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35This is the story of how motoring came to the masses...
0:00:35 > 0:00:37how dictatorships
0:00:37 > 0:00:41and democracies alike pursued the dream of cars for all...
0:00:43 > 0:00:47..of red herrings, seen here in green, and automotive cul-de-sacs,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49of shattered dreams
0:00:49 > 0:00:52and the fall of the mighty.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56This is how we fell in love with our wheels.
0:00:57 > 0:00:58Also, this happens.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08'This week, totalitarian transport -
0:01:08 > 0:01:10'the people's cars of the state
0:01:10 > 0:01:12'and how some were more equal than others.'
0:01:12 > 0:01:13Ow!
0:01:13 > 0:01:16'But first, it's time to slay a sacred cow.'
0:01:16 > 0:01:21The term "people's car" is a very emotive one amongst car historians,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24and most of them would tell you that it all started
0:01:24 > 0:01:26with this, the Ford Model T.
0:01:31 > 0:01:32But then again,
0:01:32 > 0:01:37wasn't it Henry Ford who said, "History is more or less bunk"?
0:01:37 > 0:01:38And I agree with him.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Adolf Hitler was not an engineer.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50He was more of a wildlife enthusiast.
0:01:50 > 0:01:51"You only have to look at nature,"
0:01:51 > 0:01:56he is alleged to have said, "to see what streamlining is."
0:01:56 > 0:02:01Herr Hitler sagte, mein Auto sollte wie ein Kafer aussehen.
0:02:02 > 0:02:08Mr Hitler said, my car should look like a beetle.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15For me, the Beetle is where the true story of the people's car begins,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18and because it was a social initiative, not a business one.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25Today, the Beetle is the world's most recognisable car.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27Over 21 million were made,
0:02:27 > 0:02:31and it's the only car to have its own Hollywood movie franchise.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35But the Love Bug has a dark side.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40The Beetle's beginnings were mired in scandal, deceit, theft
0:02:40 > 0:02:45and, let's not beat about the bush here, crimes against humanity.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50And like no other car in history,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53the Beetle played a unique political role in increasing
0:02:53 > 0:02:56a dictator's control over the lives of his people.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00To begin with, the Beetle wasn't even called a Volkswagen.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03It was called the Kraft durch Freude Wagen -
0:03:03 > 0:03:05the strength through joy car.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07Kraft durch Freude
0:03:07 > 0:03:10was Hitler's ministry of family leisure activities.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14It was created to promote the joys of living under a Nazi regime.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19The KdF operated on a massive scale.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21It built Titanic-sized cruise liners...
0:03:22 > 0:03:24..vast holiday complexes,
0:03:24 > 0:03:27and laid on free trips for the honest German family.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30There were even nationwide keep-fit clubs.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32A little bit of morning exercise
0:03:32 > 0:03:34with just a subtle hint of bunting.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37# I don't want a holiday in the sun... #
0:03:37 > 0:03:41Hitler thought there should be a car as well.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44That would bring the state right into the heart of everyday
0:03:44 > 0:03:45family life.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49The man entrusted with its design,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52legendary engineer Dr Ferdinand Porsche.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55He's the one with the tache.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57The KdF car would be built in a vast new factory -
0:03:57 > 0:04:00the Volkswagenwerk in Saxony,
0:04:00 > 0:04:01and should, above all,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04be affordable for the average German worker.
0:04:07 > 0:04:08And this is what he came up with -
0:04:08 > 0:04:11the original Kraft durch Freude Wagen.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14And when I say original, I mean very original.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17This is the oldest running Beetle in the world.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19It's prototype number six,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23and it was built by Dr Porsche in his Stuttgart workshop
0:04:23 > 0:04:24so strictly speaking,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27since the Volkswagen factory hadn't been finished yet,
0:04:27 > 0:04:29this is a Porsche.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51When you look at an original prototype like this,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54you can see exactly what Hitler was on about.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58It should look like a beetle and it does,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00it does look like a beetle.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06Operate the semaphore indicators.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16Now, obviously, it isn't fast, it is actually quite noisy,
0:05:16 > 0:05:18the steering is a bit wayward,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22if somebody comes past in an Audi at 150, I definitely feel it.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27But, at the time, the KdF-Wagen was quite something,
0:05:27 > 0:05:29especially if you'd never been in a car.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33The hard-up German public
0:05:33 > 0:05:37were utterly seduced by the promise of owning their very own car.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40After all, the Beetle was good enough for the party bosses,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42who, predictably, got the first ones.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45This actual KdF-Wagen I'm driving
0:05:45 > 0:05:50went on to be the personal car of Dr Robert Ley
0:05:50 > 0:05:54who was head of the Kraft durch Freude movement.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57And, in essence, he was the minister for fun.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01Robert Ley was one of Hitler's earliest supporters
0:06:01 > 0:06:04and his KdF was instrumental in keeping the German worker
0:06:04 > 0:06:07sweet with the Nazi regime.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10But, when he was not running his vast empire of cruise liners
0:06:10 > 0:06:15and holiday camps, he was involved in camps of a very different kind.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19His slave labour activities resulted in the deaths of thousands.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21He was going to be tried for war crimes
0:06:21 > 0:06:25along with the rest of them, but he managed to hang himself in his cell
0:06:25 > 0:06:28before Albert Pierrepoint could do the job for him.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32This is genuinely disturbing.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34I've driven a lot of strange cars
0:06:34 > 0:06:37but I've never been in one that's a genuine instrument of evil.
0:06:39 > 0:06:40Apart from the G-Wiz.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44I'd just like to make it clear I'm very interested in his car,
0:06:44 > 0:06:48but I don't share any political views with Dr Robert Ley.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52And the reason I can't help but like the car
0:06:52 > 0:06:54is because it's beautifully well thought out.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59The engine, as we know from that joke about the nun
0:06:59 > 0:07:02who thought hers had been stolen - is in the back.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06That means that all the noise and all the fumes it produces
0:07:06 > 0:07:07are left behind.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11And, because there was no engine in the front,
0:07:11 > 0:07:13the nose could be rounded off.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17The whole car approached the ideal streamlined
0:07:17 > 0:07:19half of a teardrop shape,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23and streamlining was all the rage in the 1930s.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27But the KdF-Wagen wasn't designed to be occupied by a solitary
0:07:27 > 0:07:28German officer.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35THEY SING
0:07:35 > 0:07:36Much better.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40This is what Hitler built his Beetle for -
0:07:40 > 0:07:43the long-haul Nazi family holiday.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47THEY ALL SING
0:07:47 > 0:07:49It wasn't just the car itself,
0:07:49 > 0:07:54but the entire lifestyle around it that Hitler and the KdF envisaged.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57The Aryan family would have as many children as possible
0:07:57 > 0:08:00so the car would be suited to a family of five.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04They would drive in comfort at 100kmh along the Autobahn
0:08:04 > 0:08:05for four hours between stops
0:08:05 > 0:08:09until they reached one of the pre-determined KdF resorts.
0:08:12 > 0:08:13What could be better?
0:08:13 > 0:08:16The holiday atmosphere began as soon as you climbed aboard.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28This is Prora,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32a 20,000-bed holiday camp on the Baltic island of Rugen.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41The Nazis got the idea from Butlins...
0:08:42 > 0:08:44..including the communal showers.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54By putting away a few pfennigs a week,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57you could stay in your well-appointed KdF seaside apartment
0:08:57 > 0:09:00equipped with your very own KdF radio.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03HITLER SPEECH PLAYS ON RADIO
0:09:03 > 0:09:04And by putting away a little more,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07you too could arrive there in Darth Vader's helmet.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Stylish, affordable, totalitarian.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19The car cost 990 Reichsmarks.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23The typical working German family earned around 32 marks a week.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25So, the rule was -
0:09:25 > 0:09:31Funf Mark die woche musst du sparen, willst Du im eigenen Wagen fahren.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33"Five marks a week must you put aside,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37"if in your own car you wish to ride."
0:09:37 > 0:09:41So, savers bought these five marks stamps
0:09:41 > 0:09:46and stuck them in this Sparkarte, a savings card.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49When the card was full, you could have your car.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53But if you defaulted on just one of these weekly payments,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56the whole thing was forfeit.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58But, really, five marks a week was easy.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01Even children could contribute to the family car
0:10:01 > 0:10:06with one of these KdF-Wagen savings tins.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08Look at this thing.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10It is rather beautiful, isn't it?
0:10:12 > 0:10:15The savings plan and the lavish marketing driving it
0:10:15 > 0:10:17proved irresistible.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27By 1938, when the giant Volkswagen factory finally came on line,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31millions of Germans were dutifully filling the KdF coffers
0:10:31 > 0:10:34and the Nazis had a hit on their hands.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38The whole scheme was rather brilliant.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40A car, a radio, a holiday.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42What innocent German citizen,
0:10:42 > 0:10:46remembering all the hyper-inflation of the 1920s,
0:10:46 > 0:10:47wouldn't have bought into it?
0:10:47 > 0:10:49I'd have bought into it.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52There was only one tiny problem.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58The whole Beetle savings scheme was a giant con trick.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Hitler was secretly saving up for something else entirely.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09The war changed everything.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12The Prora holiday camp never opened.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14If there'd been a KdF customer complaints line,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17it would have had a longer queue than Virgin Broadband's.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21No-one received a Beetle -
0:11:21 > 0:11:26none of the families who'd funded that massive Volkswagenwerk factory
0:11:26 > 0:11:29with all their scrimping and saving.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32If the Germans had actually eaten kippers,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35you could say they'd been stitched up like one.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41The great factory became an engine room of the war effort.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45The Beetle's versatile, innovative chassis
0:11:45 > 0:11:48was adapted to create two German war vehicles -
0:11:48 > 0:11:51the rugged all-terrain Kubelwagen
0:11:51 > 0:11:53and the amphibious Schwimmwagen.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56But it didn't stop at vehicles.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58Russian and Jewish slave labour
0:11:58 > 0:12:03were also forced to make Hitler's secret weapon - the V-1 flying bomb.
0:12:05 > 0:12:06So, unwittingly,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10those honest hard-working German Volk of the mid 1930s,
0:12:10 > 0:12:14with their brightly coloured cash tins and their saving stamps,
0:12:14 > 0:12:16helped to demolish a row of houses
0:12:16 > 0:12:19about a mile from where I now live in London.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22But, let's be positive, at least it wasn't the chip shop.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27The Allies soon identified the factory
0:12:27 > 0:12:31as the home to Hitler's flying bomb and blew the place to bits.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37And when the advancing Allied ground forces took the factory
0:12:37 > 0:12:39in April 1945,
0:12:39 > 0:12:44the Nazi dream of the people's car seemed well and truly buried.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48So, when Major Ivan Hirst of the British Army
0:12:48 > 0:12:52arrived at the ruins of Volkswagenwerk in 1945,
0:12:52 > 0:12:56charged with putting a car into production for the occupying forces,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58the place was a bit of a mess.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01But amongst the rubble, or so the story goes,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05he found the battered remains of an odd beetle-shaped car.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07He and his German colleagues repaired it
0:13:07 > 0:13:11and sent it off to the Army for evaluation.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14The message that came back was an order for 20,000.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17The qualities that Hitler had demanded of his people's car -
0:13:17 > 0:13:21ruggedness, simplicity, ease of maintenance -
0:13:21 > 0:13:23were just what the Army wanted.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29But just when the British had done the difficult bit
0:13:29 > 0:13:31and got the Beetle back on track,
0:13:31 > 0:13:35they and their American Allies made the costliest blunder
0:13:35 > 0:13:37in the history of car making.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40The Beetle, the designs and the factory itself
0:13:40 > 0:13:44were offered to Western car companies as a free war reparation.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46But no-one wanted to know.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49The chairman of Ford said it wasn't worth a damn.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53Britain's Lord Rootes also turned it down.
0:13:54 > 0:13:5820 years later, the Rootes Group, his great automotive concern,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01would produce its own small rear-engined car
0:14:01 > 0:14:03in the form of the Hillman Imp,
0:14:03 > 0:14:07but that was liquid cooled and plagued by overheating.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10In the end, only around half a million were made,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13around 3% of the total Beetle output.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Meanwhile, all of this,
0:14:16 > 0:14:22the hub of Europe's greatest and most profitable car-making business,
0:14:22 > 0:14:27all of this, it's all here because of the Beetle.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Epic British fail.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35Eventually, unable to offer the factory as a free gift
0:14:35 > 0:14:37if you bought 20 litres of petrol,
0:14:37 > 0:14:41the Allies gave it back to the government of Saxony.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44Soon, the Beetle was appearing where it was always meant to -
0:14:44 > 0:14:47on the driveways of German families.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Abroad, too, although now, like many of its contemporaries,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53it had a new name -
0:14:53 > 0:14:55The Volkswagen,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57the people's car.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59But here's the real irony -
0:14:59 > 0:15:03it's rumoured that when Major Hirst arrived at Volkswagenwerk,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07he found the remains of only a few Kraft durch Freude Wagen.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12And if that's true, I'm forced to conclude that had the Allied
0:15:12 > 0:15:15bombing campaign had been just a little bit more thorough,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17the second half of the 20th century
0:15:17 > 0:15:19would have been spared the shameless re-emergence
0:15:19 > 0:15:22of Hitler's flatulent people's car.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26And more to the point, we might have been spared one of the most
0:15:26 > 0:15:29annoying counter-cultural movements in history.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32But sadly not.
0:15:32 > 0:15:37# Listen to what the flower people say... #
0:15:37 > 0:15:40And that's why I've never really liked the Beetle.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43It's not the car, it's the baggage.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45It is, tragically,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49impossible to separate the gormless face of the VW Beetle
0:15:49 > 0:15:52from a lot of soppy hippy nonsense.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Quite how the Beetle came to be the symbol of the flower people
0:15:59 > 0:16:01is a mystery,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03but it was in blissed-out California that this
0:16:03 > 0:16:08fascist fugitive created a brand-new, loved-up identity.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10# Flower people, walk on by... #
0:16:10 > 0:16:12Did none of these people ever stop
0:16:12 > 0:16:15to think where this car had come from?
0:16:15 > 0:16:18Nope. The ex-Nazi party runabout was cool.
0:16:20 > 0:16:21And that's all that mattered.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27But the Beetle couldn't hide its KdF past entirely.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30The hippies may have been responsible for many
0:16:30 > 0:16:34questionable things like flower power, Woodstock,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38The Incredible String Band, sit-ins, wigwams, the acceptance of yoghurt
0:16:38 > 0:16:42and all the rest of it, but they were also the innocent victims
0:16:42 > 0:16:45of a dubious 1930s German practice
0:16:45 > 0:16:49that followed the Beetle around like a bad smell.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54Nudism was something our old mates from Kraft durch Freude
0:16:54 > 0:16:58were very keen on indeed, although we don't know exactly why.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01But it's clear that the Beetle helped this provocative
0:17:01 > 0:17:04pastime spread to West Coast America.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07This is '50s America,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09a simpler time, when the height of family entertainment was
0:17:09 > 0:17:12the car door mechanism of a Chevrolet.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19But at around the time the Beetle scuttled onto Yankee shores...
0:17:19 > 0:17:21the country became a free-love infested,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24swinging hotbed of carefree psychedelic exhibitionism.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30And, no, I don't know why she's chasing a heron.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33But everywhere one of these vicious outbreaks of nudity occurred,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36you were sure to spot a lurking Volkswagen.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43It even looks a bit like a buttock.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52Part of my problem with the Beetle
0:17:52 > 0:17:54apart from all the Nazi baggage, obviously,
0:17:54 > 0:17:56is that, rather like the hippies themselves,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59it's a bit falsely humble.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01It's perceived as being cute
0:18:01 > 0:18:05so it comes across as a sort of smug, ironic apology
0:18:05 > 0:18:06on the part of its owner.
0:18:06 > 0:18:11But, actually, it isn't cute and it definitely isn't ironic.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13This shape, the engine, the chassis -
0:18:13 > 0:18:14they were the manifestations
0:18:14 > 0:18:20of some very radical engineering thinking of the 1930s.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24But it's that adaptable chassis
0:18:24 > 0:18:28that's allowed me to find in all this a small sunlit upland.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32Or, rather, sand dune.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50I used to say you weren't a proper car enthusiast
0:18:50 > 0:18:52if you hadn't owned a Mini,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55but now I think that's actually a beach buggy.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58This is brilliant, cos it turns any slightly dreary English seaside
0:18:58 > 0:19:01into a bit of California.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04And round we go. Yes, please.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10Oh, sorry! I think that might have been Edinburgh.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13The original beach buggy was built in 1963
0:19:13 > 0:19:15by a bloke called Bruce Meyers
0:19:15 > 0:19:18and it was actually a shortened Beetle chassis,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21engine, suspension and then just a bolt-on fibreglass body.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26This Beetle-based buggy is the GP2 -
0:19:26 > 0:19:29the British version of Meyer's Californian marvel.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31It weighs a mere 600kg.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36That means its 1600cc twin port Beetle engine can kick
0:19:36 > 0:19:38a lot of sand in a wimp's face.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Famous beach buggy advocates include Elvis Presley,
0:19:42 > 0:19:44proving it's OK to drive one
0:19:44 > 0:19:48even if you're a slightly bloated, middle-aged family entertainer.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50HE LAUGHS
0:19:50 > 0:19:52It's absolutely fabulous.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55There isn't an easier car in the world to slide around.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01It's weird, isn't it, to think that what we're talking about here
0:20:01 > 0:20:04is Hitler's vision of a car for his people
0:20:04 > 0:20:07that would run on a dead straight motorway from Berlin to Moscow
0:20:07 > 0:20:12and it's ended up amusing surf Nazis in California.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14# California uber alles... #
0:20:15 > 0:20:16Thank you, Adolf Hitler!
0:20:18 > 0:20:22So, a happy ending worthy of Herbie himself.
0:20:22 > 0:20:23But not quite.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Remember the betrayed German workers,
0:20:28 > 0:20:30the ones who saved up for all those little green stamps
0:20:30 > 0:20:34so they could have a KdF-Wagen?
0:20:34 > 0:20:38Well, in the 1960s, after a great deal of legal wrangling,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42Volkswagen eventually agreed to pay them compensation.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Or at least, they did if they were West Germans.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49If you'd ended up in East Germany, you were scheisse out of luck.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55In 1945, 16 million defeated Germans
0:20:55 > 0:20:57staggered from their flattened homes to find themselves
0:20:57 > 0:21:00once again under a dictatorship,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03and the communists weren't about to compensate anyone
0:21:03 > 0:21:05for the great Nazi rip-off.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08But no matter.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11You simply had to save up for another ten years or so
0:21:11 > 0:21:12and you could have one of these.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Now, you don't need me to tell you that this is a Trabant.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20A Trabi. And, hang on, some of you are saying,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22aren't Trabants supposed to be light blue?
0:21:22 > 0:21:23Yes, a lot of them were,
0:21:23 > 0:21:28but it was also available in white and in this baby diarrhoea brown.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30And because this is a deluxe model,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34it came in two tone baby diarrhoea brown.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Now, in recent years, the Trabant has enjoyed
0:21:37 > 0:21:40something of a renaissance as a fashion accessory.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44It's been driven "ironically", it's been used as a comedy taxi,
0:21:44 > 0:21:45it's been used as a state limousine
0:21:45 > 0:21:47by a Bulgarian foreign minister,
0:21:47 > 0:21:52and it's formed the basis of a number of contemporary artworks.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54But, please, let's not get emotional about it,
0:21:54 > 0:21:56because I'm here to tell you
0:21:56 > 0:21:59that no amount of cheapskate commie customising
0:21:59 > 0:22:04could disguise the basic fact that the Trabant was a travesty.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10Let's be balanced about this.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13There were several good things about the Trabant.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17For a start, it was very light, at 615kg,
0:22:17 > 0:22:19and that's always a good thing in a car.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21Makes it lively.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Trabants were also exceptionally long-lived,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27with an average life expectancy of 28 years.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30That's better than a Volvo.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32The secret of the Trabant's immortality
0:22:32 > 0:22:37was a material that the communists were very, very proud of indeed.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40If the old Tomorrow's World had been an East German production,
0:22:40 > 0:22:42then, somebody like Kieran Prendiville would have said,
0:22:42 > 0:22:47it looks like glass fibre, it feels like glass fibre,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51but it's made from Duroplast.
0:22:53 > 0:22:54Duroplast.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57It was a crude mix of waste cotton scraps and phenol resin
0:22:57 > 0:23:00that was shaped in moulds to give a rust-proof car
0:23:00 > 0:23:03that, in theory, could last for ever.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06And that was the problem.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11Duroplast was also toxic if burned and didn't biodegrade.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15So, when your Germanic Wundercar finally gave up the ghost,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19you were stuck with its non-disposable corpse.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22Some managed to saw their Trabis up and find new uses for them,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25but the majority would simply end up as overgrown eyesores
0:23:25 > 0:23:30blotting the landscape like the automotive undead.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33Meanwhile, if you were one of the three million East Germans
0:23:33 > 0:23:36who had been fooled by the Trabi's advertising campaigns,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39with its hi-tech, scientific looking men in white jump suits,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43everyday life with the car was a load of old pants.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47It produced just 26 horsepower and took 21 seconds to reach 60mph,
0:23:47 > 0:23:52which, incidentally, was its official top speed.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54Whatever that meant.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59It also smells funny.
0:24:01 > 0:24:02Terrible, in fact.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05It smells like an old hospital or something.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09The culprit is the ancient 600cc two-stroke engine
0:24:09 > 0:24:11that runs on premixed petrol and oil.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15That is roughly what you'd put in a cheap '70s moped.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18If you've ever owned a '70s two-stroke moped, you will know
0:24:18 > 0:24:22that they produce more smoke than a whole history of papal successions.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26The tailpipe emissions of this car
0:24:26 > 0:24:31were around 30 times as bad as those from a '90s Mercedes saloon.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37If ever an industrial paradigm was needed to illustrate
0:24:37 > 0:24:39the folly of central planning,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42then surely the Trabant is it.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44A terrible car made out of old pants
0:24:44 > 0:24:48and foisted upon people who had no real choice.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51For the second time in two decades,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54the hapless German working family had been fobbed off
0:24:54 > 0:24:56with a duff people's car.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59The addition of brown boot carpet in 1976
0:24:59 > 0:25:02was about as interesting as it got.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04But it wasn't all bad.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06If you were a well-connected East German
0:25:06 > 0:25:08with a devil-may-care side-parting,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11you could afford one of these.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14This is a Wartburg and you're right,
0:25:14 > 0:25:16it doesn't look at all shabby.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18But that wasn't going to last.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21This shape was launched in 1956,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25but within a decade, it had been restyled to look like this.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28Now known as the model 353.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31The same basic car underneath,
0:25:31 > 0:25:36but with new and improved, ie, uglier, Eastern Bloc bodywork.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44In its defence, the Wartburg was fitted with a one-litre engine
0:25:44 > 0:25:49with three cylinders, developing something like 48 horsepower.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51Top speed - 80mph.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56And it was made from a proper car-making material - steel.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59How about that?
0:25:59 > 0:26:01I know it doesn't sound particularly impressive,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04but you have to remember, East Germany was a country where
0:26:04 > 0:26:08a really fabulous Christmas present was a beige cardigan...
0:26:08 > 0:26:13MAN SPEAKS GERMAN
0:26:13 > 0:26:16..or a deformed cuddly toy.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21It's pretty terrible, really.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24The engine is still a two-stroke stinker,
0:26:24 > 0:26:26which is why this car was known as Farty Hans.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32Imagine that - the nicest car you could hope to own is called Farty Hans.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35It's like the new Jaguar being known as Guffy Nigel.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39But the Communist Party bosses didn't give a toot about that.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41With no competition to worry about,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43they simply kept churning out the same model
0:26:43 > 0:26:47for over 25 soul-destroying years.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50There was no stopping these Eastern Bloc boys...
0:26:52 > 0:26:55..except, ironically, with a wall.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Life behind the wall was supposed to be a Utopian
0:27:00 > 0:27:03and classless worker's paradise.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05But a class division did exist
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and was perfectly exposed by our two commie cars.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12The cheapo Trabant, the car of the oppressed
0:27:12 > 0:27:15versus the faster, sleeker Wartburg,
0:27:15 > 0:27:19the favoured car of the oppressors - the Volks Police.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26The Volks Police Wartburgs had been slightly breathed upon.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29They produced about seven horsepower more.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32The Trabi, meanwhile, had the advantage of small size.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36Keeping a low profile was key
0:27:36 > 0:27:38if you wanted to avoid attention from
0:27:38 > 0:27:42the secret division of the Volks Police, better known as the Stasi.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47The Stasi liked to collect files on its citizens.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50They reckon there were so many files that if you stacked them
0:27:50 > 0:27:53all on a shelf, it would be 180km long.
0:27:56 > 0:28:01The Stasi oversaw the most invasive campaign of psychological intimidation
0:28:01 > 0:28:04ever conducted by a state on its own citizens.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08They would break into people's houses simply to leave signs
0:28:08 > 0:28:09that they had been there,
0:28:09 > 0:28:13move the furniture around, interfere with personal effects.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18They used dogs to track people
0:28:18 > 0:28:20who they thought would be trying to escape
0:28:20 > 0:28:22and to make sure the dogs had your scent,
0:28:22 > 0:28:26they'd go into your laundry basket and steal your pants.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33They'd then keep these at HQ in a pickle jar and if you got away,
0:28:33 > 0:28:38give the pants to the dog and then they knew your smell.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43Even driving a car made from other people's pants wouldn't help much,
0:28:43 > 0:28:45as the Stasi were absolutely everywhere.
0:28:47 > 0:28:53By the late '80s, there was one Stasi officer for every 63 citizens,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56and that's not even counting all the informants.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00Some people reckoned it was as high as one in five.
0:29:07 > 0:29:08But the East German Government
0:29:08 > 0:29:11and the Stasi or the paid informers,
0:29:11 > 0:29:14they'd all reckoned without one thing -
0:29:14 > 0:29:17East Germany's humble people's car
0:29:17 > 0:29:20would be the means of symbolic escape.
0:29:22 > 0:29:27November 1989, the East Germans have finally had enough.
0:29:27 > 0:29:28It began with confusion...
0:29:28 > 0:29:30Mass protests erupt in Berlin
0:29:30 > 0:29:34and thousands, accompanied by convoys of smoke-belching Trabis,
0:29:34 > 0:29:38flock to the wall demanding to pass to the West.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40Open up, they chanted, open up.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42The border guards, demoralized
0:29:42 > 0:29:45and overcome by the old hospital fumes of 100 Trabis,
0:29:45 > 0:29:49let them through, convinced that their first taste of Western culture
0:29:49 > 0:29:52would see them streaming right back.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56# I've been looking for freedom... #
0:29:56 > 0:29:58But it was no good.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00Even the Hoff couldn't put them off.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04# I've been looking for freedom
0:30:04 > 0:30:07# Still the search goes on... #
0:30:07 > 0:30:08The Cold War was over.
0:30:10 > 0:30:12Sanity had reasserted itself.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15The cardboard comrades' car had led the charge,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18and Farty Hans had farted his last.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30A people's car indeed.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37So, the Trabi - for the first 30 years of its life,
0:30:37 > 0:30:42it simply plodded around East Germany in a fug of its own making,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45helping to cement the people's misery.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48But, really, it was just waiting to make its one significant journey,
0:30:48 > 0:30:53this brief but glorious lunge for freedom across the bridge here,
0:30:53 > 0:30:57after which its usefulness was completely exhausted.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01So, as a symbol of liberty,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04which is what a car should be, it remains very poignant.
0:31:04 > 0:31:09But as a car per se, it is quite literally rubbish.
0:31:10 > 0:31:15So far, the people's car has been a litany of repression and disaster.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18But to show that it was possible to create a small,
0:31:18 > 0:31:19affordable four-seater,
0:31:19 > 0:31:22we need only come to sunny, capitalist Italy
0:31:22 > 0:31:24and try this.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29This is a Fiat Cinquecento,
0:31:29 > 0:31:33or Fiat 500 in a less romantic Germanic language.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38It was called the 500 because it had a 500cc engine.
0:31:38 > 0:31:44Although, strictly speaking, the early cars had a 479cc engine,
0:31:44 > 0:31:46but Fiat Quattrocentosettantanove
0:31:46 > 0:31:49was going to be a bit of a flamboyant name,
0:31:49 > 0:31:50even for the Italians.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53And at the time,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57the little Fiat 500 was the height of zippy carefree Italian cool.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00The adverts of the time proudly showing how you too
0:32:00 > 0:32:04could drive like a maniac, traumatise by-standing cattle,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06and store unwanted gas bills,
0:32:06 > 0:32:09but, crucially, still have enough room in the back for your favourite
0:32:09 > 0:32:13luxury picnic hamper or an adulterous weekend getaway
0:32:13 > 0:32:15playing doctors and nurses.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20In recent years, we've lost sight of what "small car" really means.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24The Fiat 500 is absolutely chuffing piccolo.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30It's just 275mm, or less than your school ruler,
0:32:30 > 0:32:35longer than a Smart car, but this has four seats.
0:32:35 > 0:32:41It weighs just 470kg - around two-thirds of the original Mini.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56It really is very, very simple.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59The engine is an air-cooled two-cylinder job,
0:32:59 > 0:33:02mounted here in the back, same as the Beetle's was,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04and for similar reasons.
0:33:04 > 0:33:09The earliest cars developed a widow-making 13 horsepower.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14But don't worry, because this one is a bit later and has 17.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17Maintenance was intended to be very simple.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19In the more rural areas of Italy,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22corner shops would stock essential Cinquecento spares -
0:33:22 > 0:33:24spark plugs, belts, and what have you.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26Rather in the way that these days
0:33:26 > 0:33:28you can buy a sat nav from Sainsbury's.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31And we think of it as being incredibly cute,
0:33:31 > 0:33:35but Dante Giacosa did not design it to be this shape
0:33:35 > 0:33:38so that we would go oochy-coochy-coo,
0:33:38 > 0:33:42he did it this way to use as little sheet metal as possible,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45because in 1950s Italy, steel was expensive.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48And that brings us to this fabric sunroof,
0:33:48 > 0:33:52which was not an extravagance, and it wasn't an option -
0:33:52 > 0:33:53you had to have it.
0:33:53 > 0:33:59And it was there because fabric is lighter and cheaper than steel.
0:34:01 > 0:34:02Avanti.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08The 500 was launched in 1957
0:34:08 > 0:34:11with the aim of the being the Italian people's car.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13A four-wheeled version of a Vespa scooter.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16And while the KdF-Wagen and the Trabi were cheap,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18they were, it has to be said,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21about as cheerful as your average Sean Penn film.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24The 500...was fun.
0:34:25 > 0:34:27In the way that the Trabant
0:34:27 > 0:34:31reminded you of you and your ideology's failings,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34the Fiat Cinquecento seemed to confirm that a simple life
0:34:34 > 0:34:37could be one of unalloyed joy.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40But it's in the narrow, cobbled streets of the city
0:34:40 > 0:34:44that this proto-Smart car really comes in to its own.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48And you can see why. I mean, this is an ancient city,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51this is part of the Italian renaissance.
0:34:51 > 0:34:52Some of the roads are tiny.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56But look, here we go, room for two.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02The Fiat 500 is a potent symbol of Italian utilitarian chic,
0:35:02 > 0:35:04the Latin driving temperament,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07and creative solutions to everyday parking problems.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11Stuck for a space? No matter.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14Thanks to the 500, you can squeeze expertly into any gap
0:35:14 > 0:35:15without a care in the world.
0:35:24 > 0:35:31Between 1957 and 1975, Fiat built around 3.6 million Cinquecenti.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33Not bad.
0:35:33 > 0:35:39But it isn't Italy's most successful people's car, not by a long way.
0:35:39 > 0:35:40That's coming up now.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.
0:35:45 > 0:35:46CHORAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:35:51 > 0:35:57Fiat's next bash at a people's car was launched, literally, in 1966.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03Fiat spared no expense on the 124's arrival.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07It even had those white jump-suited guys from the Trabi ad who
0:36:07 > 0:36:09were clearly looking for work.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12Despite that, no-one could have predicted that this
0:36:12 > 0:36:14unassuming little car would go on to be
0:36:14 > 0:36:17the vehicle of choice for one of the greatest tyrannies on Earth.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22Cars like this were around when I was a boy,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26and when I was a boy, Italian cars were famous for two things -
0:36:26 > 0:36:28firstly, for dissolving like a soluble aspirin
0:36:28 > 0:36:29as soon as it rained,
0:36:29 > 0:36:33secondly, for being great fun to drive.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37Now, the difficulty we had in finding this mint example suggests,
0:36:37 > 0:36:40rather tragically, that the first of those is perfectly true.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42Now let's see about the other one.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Now, this looks a bit like a car I designed when I was six,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54and I'm sure lots of six-year-olds still design like this -
0:36:54 > 0:36:57three basic boxes with some wheels added.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01Indeed, one of Fiat's official histories describes this as
0:37:01 > 0:37:02"a rather conventional car".
0:37:06 > 0:37:08But hang on a minute - beneath this
0:37:08 > 0:37:11depiction-of-a-car-on-a-signpost exterior,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15the 124 is a bit more sofisticato than you might think.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19For a start, it came with a range of typically Italian fizzy
0:37:19 > 0:37:21four-pot engines.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25This 1968 car has a 1.2-litre developing 60 horsepower.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29Now that's not a lot, I know,
0:37:29 > 0:37:30but what it does have
0:37:30 > 0:37:33it gives willingly, enthusiastically.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37Underneath, there were coil springs,
0:37:37 > 0:37:40anti-roll bars and disc brakes.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44Now that gave you very good bar room bragging rights in the 1960s,
0:37:44 > 0:37:45especially in a family car.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52What basic Italian cars always gave - still give, in fact -
0:37:52 > 0:37:57is the sensation of performance without the expense
0:37:57 > 0:38:00and inconvenience of actually achieving it.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03So you get an exciting engine, you get a nice gear change,
0:38:03 > 0:38:07nicely weighted pedals, nicely weighted steering...
0:38:08 > 0:38:11..a car you can sort of fling around a bit.
0:38:14 > 0:38:19The 124 may be as bouncy and fun as Tigger's honeymoon night,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23but there is one area in which it's sadly lacking - air-con.
0:38:23 > 0:38:29It's got nice big glass, it makes a nice noise, it's happy, it's hot.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33I'm sweaty. I'm literally the hottest person in the world.
0:38:36 > 0:38:37MUFFLED RADIO MESSAGE
0:38:44 > 0:38:45Bah!
0:38:46 > 0:38:50But what's all this got to do with the greatest tyranny on Earth?
0:38:50 > 0:38:54To explain, I'm having to take the 124 back home.
0:38:55 > 0:39:01I'm now driving up the ramps of Fiat's historic Lingotto car factory
0:39:01 > 0:39:03deep in the heart of Turin.
0:39:03 > 0:39:10It opened in 1923 - an Art Deco masterpiece for manufacturing.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15Sadly, now a shopping centre like so many other of these things,
0:39:15 > 0:39:19but one little bit of it, one very significant bit, survives
0:39:19 > 0:39:22pretty much as it was - the rooftop test track.
0:39:32 > 0:39:33What a view!
0:39:34 > 0:39:37Much better than our Dunsfold test track.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42On to the banking and whoo-hoo!
0:39:43 > 0:39:44HE LAUGHS
0:39:49 > 0:39:50Ho-ho!
0:40:03 > 0:40:08From up here, Fiat executives could survey their empire,
0:40:08 > 0:40:10which was, let's be frank, Italy,
0:40:10 > 0:40:15because Fiat was such an enormous force in Italian commerce
0:40:15 > 0:40:17and politics and culture.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20And that empire was about to grow enormously.
0:40:20 > 0:40:22Well, let me rephrase that, actually.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25The Fiat 124's empire
0:40:25 > 0:40:27was about to grow enormously.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30Over here, we have another one, apparently identical
0:40:30 > 0:40:31apart from the colour.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35But, actually, there are something like 900 subtle changes under
0:40:35 > 0:40:41the skin, and one very significant change on it, which is this...
0:40:42 > 0:40:44..the badge.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46It does not say "Fiat".
0:40:46 > 0:40:50It shows the outline of a historic, fast-sailing boat
0:40:50 > 0:40:54from the River Volga, and the Russian name for one of those is...
0:40:54 > 0:40:56Lada.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58RUSSIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS
0:41:02 > 0:41:06In the 1960s, the Cold War was at its most precarious,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09but what bothered the Soviet Union most of all was this -
0:41:09 > 0:41:14in the USA, there was one car for every 2.7 people,
0:41:14 > 0:41:18in the Soviet Union, one for every 238.
0:41:18 > 0:41:24In 1965, Americans produced 9.3 million passenger vehicles,
0:41:24 > 0:41:28Russians produced under 250,000.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30Something had to be done.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37Now, it might seem odd that the Soviet Union looked to
0:41:37 > 0:41:41outside help in order to bring cars to its people.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44The Soviets were already experts at producing tractors, trucks
0:41:44 > 0:41:49and especially tanks in truly astonishing numbers,
0:41:49 > 0:41:51but they didn't know much about making
0:41:51 > 0:41:53a typical small passenger car.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56So if you were lucky enough to have one,
0:41:56 > 0:41:59you were unlucky enough for it to be something like a Zaporozhet.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06So, approaches were made by the Soviets to the West, even,
0:42:06 > 0:42:08ironically, to our old friends at VW.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10Nothing came of that,
0:42:10 > 0:42:12which was a lucky escape for Ivan.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15There were flirtations with Britain as well and with France,
0:42:15 > 0:42:19but, finally, in 1966, the Soviet minister of automobile
0:42:19 > 0:42:23production signed a deal with the managing director of Fiat,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26that charged Fiat with building a brand-new factory,
0:42:26 > 0:42:30capable of producing 2,000 passenger cars a day,
0:42:30 > 0:42:35and the car would be a Sovietised version of the Fiat 124.
0:42:35 > 0:42:41And this is the result - the AvtoVAZ factory at Tolyatti,
0:42:41 > 0:42:46known to everybody else in the world as the home of Lada,
0:42:46 > 0:42:49and it still is.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57But why pick Fiat?
0:42:57 > 0:43:01Well, the Italian car company already had a relationship with
0:43:01 > 0:43:05the USSR, having supplied trucks to them in kit form 40 years earlier.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10Also, the Fiat 124, it has been suggested, was the ideal
0:43:10 > 0:43:13car for a Communist regime, as it was predominantly functional and
0:43:13 > 0:43:16exhibited little in the way of pesky bourgeois decadence.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21But was there something more shady at the heart of the deal?
0:43:21 > 0:43:24Let's not forget, there was a Cold War on.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27Outside of the actual Communist nations,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30the biggest Communists of the 1960s were the Italians.
0:43:30 > 0:43:35The notorious Red Brigade was born in the metal pressing shops of Fiat.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38It quickly spread to other parts of the Italian car industry -
0:43:38 > 0:43:39the Pirelli tyre factory,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42the Magneti Marelli auto-electrics work.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46And by the '70s, over in Italy, Communist Red Brigade members
0:43:46 > 0:43:50with jobs at Fiat were not only getting funds and support
0:43:50 > 0:43:54from the KGB, they were also murdering their own executives.
0:43:54 > 0:43:5830 Fiat workers were jailed for terrorist offences.
0:43:58 > 0:44:03There was arson in the factories, strikes, mass walkouts.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07And the Agnelli family, the effective owners of Fiat,
0:44:07 > 0:44:10became the most guarded family in the world.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15Allegedly, Gianni Agnelli carried a cyanide pill
0:44:15 > 0:44:18in case he was kidnapped.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22Now as somebody once said, "When Fiat trembles, Italy trembles."
0:44:22 > 0:44:26So, was the deal done to keep the Soviets sweet
0:44:26 > 0:44:29in case Communism eventually triumphed,
0:44:29 > 0:44:34or even simply to placate Fiat's Communist workers even if it didn't?
0:44:36 > 0:44:37It's just a thought.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47Anyway, in April 1970, the first car
0:44:47 > 0:44:50rolled off the glorious new production line,
0:44:50 > 0:44:53just in time for the centenary of Lenin's birth.
0:44:53 > 0:44:54Nice.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58And this is what those first cars looked like.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02Yes, exactly like a Fiat 124,
0:45:02 > 0:45:06but thanks to the famously sterling condition of Russian roads,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10under the skin, the Lada was given a Marxist make-over to deal with
0:45:10 > 0:45:14these sort of mildly adverse conditions.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19It had an all new engine, a blistering 1cc bigger than before.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21The steel bodywork was thickened all over.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26Over time, a big radiator was added, the floor was strengthened,
0:45:26 > 0:45:30square headlights went on, new bumpers, different wheels -
0:45:30 > 0:45:32this no-nonsense Communist approach
0:45:32 > 0:45:34extended to their Finnish advertising campaign.
0:45:36 > 0:45:37ADVERT IN FINNISH
0:45:58 > 0:46:02Now here we are in 2013 and I'm driving something of a rarity.
0:46:02 > 0:46:09It's an original stock, low mileage, under 3,000 Lada Riva.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12But that shouldn't be a rarity, should it?
0:46:12 > 0:46:15I mean, few things in life are less rare than a Lada Riva.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20It is in very good condition, by which
0:46:20 > 0:46:25I mean it's in quite poor condition, because that's how they were made.
0:46:32 > 0:46:34This is a 1999 car,
0:46:34 > 0:46:36but, even so, you can tell it's an ancient design,
0:46:36 > 0:46:40made with very tired tooling in a very old factory,
0:46:40 > 0:46:42mainly because of the massive gaps everywhere,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46such as these ones on the radiator, round the lights,
0:46:46 > 0:46:47down the edge of the bonnet.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52It has plain pressed steel wheels in 1999!
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Look at this gap here on the door - a cat could escape through that.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59And let's remember that this car is a very low mileage example,
0:46:59 > 0:47:01it's never been touched or repaired or anything like that,
0:47:01 > 0:47:05so you can only assume that this orange peel effect on the paint
0:47:05 > 0:47:08and this nasty run down here -
0:47:08 > 0:47:09well, that's how it came
0:47:09 > 0:47:10out of the factory.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14I don't think Honda were having any emergency board meetings,
0:47:14 > 0:47:15let's put it that way.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21That said, a lot of developing countries around the world
0:47:21 > 0:47:23were very keen on it and so Russia began
0:47:23 > 0:47:27licensing and exporting Ladas to a whole slew of Third World countries,
0:47:27 > 0:47:30including India, Egypt, and Thatcher's Britain.
0:47:30 > 0:47:35Strangely enough, in Britain, this car, the Riva, enjoyed a brief
0:47:35 > 0:47:40renaissance as the car of the oppressed and immobile people,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43because in the Thatcher era, the industrial North
0:47:43 > 0:47:46and parts of the Midlands were wracked by redundancies
0:47:46 > 0:47:47and people were very hard up.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49This was the cheapest car you could buy.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51This was the easiest way
0:47:51 > 0:47:52to stay mobile.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56And briefly, this was the tenth bestselling car in Britain.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59Some people risk buying a used car
0:47:59 > 0:48:01when they could quite easily afford a brand-new Lada.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05The UK Lada ads were a cornucopia of extravagance
0:48:05 > 0:48:06compared with what had come before.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09You either had the luxury of Cannon and Ball...
0:48:09 > 0:48:12I thought you said "risque", Tommy, I thought you said "risque."
0:48:12 > 0:48:14..or this action-packed spectacular,
0:48:14 > 0:48:18which presented the Lada as some kind of gravity-defying super car,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22perfect for a typical Sunday afternoon's African safari...
0:48:22 > 0:48:24Each Lada is built to survive...
0:48:24 > 0:48:28..while you listen to your mix tape of the Airwolf theme song.
0:48:28 > 0:48:29AIRWOLF THEME SONG PLAYS
0:48:29 > 0:48:31..the roughest of roads.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36So, in order to test that claim, I've come here -
0:48:36 > 0:48:38the old ZiL automobile factory...
0:48:40 > 0:48:45..275 hectares of industrial complex right in the centre of Moscow...
0:48:46 > 0:48:47..now all but abandoned.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53Interestingly, they used to make
0:48:53 > 0:48:56those old pre-Lada Fiat kit trucks here.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58It's now home to the odd rabid stray dog
0:48:58 > 0:49:03and the most distressed surfaces this side of Jeremy Clarkson's face.
0:49:03 > 0:49:04Sorry about the weaving around -
0:49:04 > 0:49:06there are some quite big holes in this bit of road.
0:49:08 > 0:49:09Ow!
0:49:13 > 0:49:14Good God!
0:49:20 > 0:49:21Hole!
0:49:23 > 0:49:24TYRES SCREECH
0:49:26 > 0:49:30I can see some very concerned faces in my rear-view mirror.
0:49:32 > 0:49:33OVER RADIO: 'Sorry, James.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37'I'll be with you in a moment.'
0:49:37 > 0:49:40'We'd barely started and the ancient Communist potholes have
0:49:40 > 0:49:44'given our decadent Western crew car a flat tyre.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48'This is a top of the line, modern day Range Rover.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51'I think that's one-nil to the '70s levitating safari wagon.'
0:49:51 > 0:49:52LADA BEEPS HORN
0:49:55 > 0:49:58So, while the beefed up Soviet Lada could handle anything that could be
0:49:58 > 0:50:02thrown at it, the same couldn't be said for the Soviet regime.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07By the 1980s, everything was falling apart.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13The great social experiment had yielded a result which was,
0:50:13 > 0:50:15"No, it doesn't really work. Sorry."
0:50:16 > 0:50:19So, a lot of people did what any reasonable person would do
0:50:19 > 0:50:20under the circumstances...
0:50:22 > 0:50:23..they got drunk.
0:50:23 > 0:50:24RUSSIAN FOLK SONG PLAYS
0:50:31 > 0:50:36Even the President decided to put the "pub" back into Soviet Republic.
0:50:36 > 0:50:37HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
0:50:45 > 0:50:49Back at the Togliatti factory, things weren't any better.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52They actually changed the speed of the production line
0:50:52 > 0:50:53throughout the day.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55It could go a bit faster in the afternoon...
0:50:55 > 0:50:57TYRES RUMBLE
0:50:57 > 0:51:00..because everyone's hangover had worn off a bit.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03There was widespread theft - components were being
0:51:03 > 0:51:07catapulted over the perimeter fence of the factory by groups of workers
0:51:07 > 0:51:11building cars and supplying spares on the black market.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15Pirelli Tyres brought in for the export models -
0:51:15 > 0:51:16they were stolen from the factory
0:51:16 > 0:51:19because obviously the Russians would want them.
0:51:19 > 0:51:20Their tyres were terrible.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23And they were taken out of the factory on an elaborate
0:51:23 > 0:51:25rubber boat that left via the sewers
0:51:25 > 0:51:28and then sailed off down the River Volga,
0:51:28 > 0:51:30rather like the fast pirate boat
0:51:30 > 0:51:33the car was named after in the first place -
0:51:33 > 0:51:35an irony the Russians would have surely appreciated,
0:51:35 > 0:51:37were they not completely Sputnik-ed.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41Lada was falling apart. Your Lada Riva was falling apart.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45If you were lucky enough to have a Lada Riva, it was being
0:51:45 > 0:51:49gradually reduced by rust, by the potholes...
0:51:49 > 0:51:50LADA THUDS
0:51:50 > 0:51:54..like that, and by your neighbours nicking vital parts
0:51:54 > 0:51:55during the night.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00Spares were very, very scarce and very, very expensive.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05Fortunately, enterprising Soviets would set up
0:52:05 > 0:52:09guerrilla roadside repair stations with ingenious DIY solutions.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14Leaky radiator, comrade? The answer is...
0:52:15 > 0:52:17..Russian mustard powder.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20You pour a bit of that in, forms a very, very effective seal.
0:52:20 > 0:52:23Another common problem was that the bottom of the fuel tank
0:52:23 > 0:52:25would be holed on the rough roads. Well, the answer to that was
0:52:25 > 0:52:29a bar of Soviet soap.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31You rub that against the hole, it forms a small plug,
0:52:31 > 0:52:33which becomes rock hard - very effective.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35What else have we got?
0:52:35 > 0:52:36Oh, yes, here's a very good story we heard.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38There was a man, an old man we've been talking to,
0:52:38 > 0:52:40driving in a very remote area
0:52:40 > 0:52:43and the return spring on his clutch pedal failed.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46Not to worry, though, because he had at his disposal
0:52:46 > 0:52:50what the Soviets refer to simply as "rubber product number two" -
0:52:50 > 0:52:52here's a copy of the packaging.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54You can probably guess what it is
0:52:54 > 0:52:58from the picture of the smoking factory at the top.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00It's a condom.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03"Rubber product number one" was a gas mask.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05And to pay for this DIY MOT,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08all you needed were some luxury Western goods to trade.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11Have a fish, mate.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14It was the comradeship of the road.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21And so, like a cockroach after a nuclear blast, the Lada just
0:53:21 > 0:53:24kept going as society crumbled around it.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28As the Soviets kept on churning them out, Lada gained
0:53:28 > 0:53:31a reputation, not as a maker of people's cars, or even
0:53:31 > 0:53:34a robust survivor, but as a long obsolete fossil -
0:53:34 > 0:53:36a global punch line.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44There are more specific Lada jokes, I think,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47than there are about any other car.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50What do you call a Lada at the top of a hill?
0:53:50 > 0:53:51A miracle.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54A Lada with the window open is a bottle bank.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56A man buys a Lada and takes it back to the dealership.
0:53:56 > 0:54:01"This car is useless," he says. "It'll only get to 75 up that hill."
0:54:01 > 0:54:03"Well, that's not bad," says the dealer.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06"It's useless," says the man, "I live at number 93."
0:54:06 > 0:54:07A man goes to a scrap yard.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09"Have you got a hub cap for a Lada?" he asks.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12"Yes," says the scrap merchant, "that sounds like a fair swap."
0:54:12 > 0:54:14Ho-ho-ho.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22Laugh, possibly,
0:54:22 > 0:54:26but like the Beetle before it, the Lada was a survivor.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28I have here an extract from an article that
0:54:28 > 0:54:32appeared in Financial Times in 1967
0:54:32 > 0:54:34talking all about the Fiat/Soviet deal.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38And it says, "Soviet planners have made it clear they do not intend
0:54:38 > 0:54:41"to emulate Detroit's practice of planned obsolescence,
0:54:41 > 0:54:45"and so the Soviet versions of the Fiat 124 may well
0:54:45 > 0:54:49"continue in production until the late 1970s."
0:54:50 > 0:54:53Well, I bet he wishes he'd been better informed,
0:54:53 > 0:54:58because the last one rolled out of this factory in 2012.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03This, then, will be the legacy of the Lada -
0:55:03 > 0:55:06not that it was one of the oldest cars still being produced,
0:55:06 > 0:55:08nor that it was one of the few survivors
0:55:08 > 0:55:10of the collapsed Communist regime.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13No, the Lada will for ever be remembered as the worldwide
0:55:13 > 0:55:17punch line of Christmas-cracker-level comedy crap.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21It does distress me that a story that begins with the gorgeous,
0:55:21 > 0:55:24almost feminine, Fiat 124, is going
0:55:24 > 0:55:26to end with the world's most derided car -
0:55:26 > 0:55:27a car with a face
0:55:27 > 0:55:31that only a Russian's shot-putter's mother could love.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33It's going to go out with a pathetic whimper.
0:55:35 > 0:55:40The poor old Lada - yet another victim of state tyranny.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45There's always an issue with a dictator's car. The Beetle -
0:55:45 > 0:55:47it was brilliant,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50but the people who paid for it never actually took delivery.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53The Trabi and the Wartburg - they were awful,
0:55:53 > 0:55:55but the people were forced to have them.
0:55:55 > 0:55:56The Lada -
0:55:56 > 0:56:01it started off quite well, but totalitarianism slowly ruined it.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05It does seem that if you actually want to mess up your motoring,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07you need a dictator.
0:56:07 > 0:56:12But let's not forget the Lada's long journey began in a joyful
0:56:12 > 0:56:14flourish of Italian style.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16It fell from the sun-drenched sky.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23We thought it should bow out the same way.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25RUSSIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS
0:57:30 > 0:57:34It's what the designer, Oscar Montabone, would have wanted.
0:57:35 > 0:57:42The Lada - hated by purists, mocked by the people, and disowned by Fiat.
0:57:42 > 0:57:43But there's a twist -
0:57:43 > 0:57:46I wonder if the people signing that original deal
0:57:46 > 0:57:49realised it would go on for so long
0:57:49 > 0:57:53and I wonder if Fiat's executives ever imagined this.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57Now, no-one knows for sure quite how many 124-derived cars have
0:57:57 > 0:58:02been built, but if we combine Fiat's original output with
0:58:02 > 0:58:07the Togliatti cars and all the ones built in India, Spain, Bulgaria,
0:58:07 > 0:58:13Turkey, Egypt and Korea, it comes to something like 20 million,
0:58:13 > 0:58:18which means that the largely forgotten Fiat 124 is,
0:58:18 > 0:58:22in fact, the second bestselling car in history.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25MUSIC PLAYS: "Brindisi" from La Traviata