Crashing alongside a gravel highway atop Mount Seymour in British Columbia, an oddball of Canadian navy historical past does its stage finest to pulverize the spinal columns of its passengers. It is a Bombardier Iltis, an unpleasant duckling in-built Quebec within the mid-Eighties. It is Canada’s model of the Humvee: Martin Brief as in comparison with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Due to its brief wheelbase and 0 concessions to passenger consolation, each pothole and washout is accompanied by bangs and rattles. Acceleration is on the poky finish of the dimensions, however when the Iltis is lastly at velocity, a blustery wind swirls by way of the naked metallic cabin.
“Uh-oh,” says proprietor Helen Poon, glancing on the gas gauge. It reads empty. Slowing barely, she provides it an almighty whack, and the needle springs as much as half-full, as may occur in a World Conflict II–period Hawker Hurricane on patrol over the English Channel. The Iltis bounds onward over the gravel, uncomfortable but unstoppable.
On the pavement, the Iltis is definitely pretty effectively behaved, although the stopping efficiency, or lack thereof, of the drum brakes is mildly alarming. Then once more, you are by no means carrying a lot velocity. To park, you twist a knob on the top of the parking brake to tug up any slack within the line, then pull on the lever. Absolutely, uh, deployed, the lever is greater than a bit priapic.
Iltis is the German phrase for a polecat, Mustela putorius, a forest-dwelling European mammal that is like a weasel, minus the charisma. There are a number of subspecies, and this one is of the Volkswagen/Audi household.
Within the early Seventies, the West German military put out a name for a alternative for its mainline car, the Kind 181 Mehrzweckwagen. Mehrzweck means multipurpose, however readers will probably finest know this automobile in its civilian type because the Volkswagen Factor. It does not take a lot squinting to see the resemblance between the slab-sided VW and this decommissioned Canadian soldier.
West Germany needed quite a lot of functionality for its new navy mule, however it needed to stay compact sufficient for European roads. The transient additionally indicated it wanted to be moveable by helicopter, able to carrying an 1100-pound payload, and capable of ford two toes of water.
On the time, Volkswagen had lately fashioned Audi by consolidating the Auto Union group of corporations beneath a single banner. Amongst these corporations was DKW, which constructed the Kind 182 Munga, the heroically sturdy and extremely ugly follow-up to the Kind 181 (Porsche even made an try and construct its personal Kind 181 alternative, the Jagdwagen). VW tasked Audi’s engineers with updating the Munga platform, together with a brand new four-wheel-drive system and a Volkswagen-sourced 1.7-liter four-cylinder engine.
It is value noting right here that this funky little off-road backyard shed can declare direct accountability for the likes of the Audi R8 and probably even the Bugatti Veyron.
On the time Audi developed the Iltis, it was an organization that mainly manufactured front-wheel-drive vehicles. When Audi engineer Jörg Bensinger drove an Iltis as a assist car whereas performing winter testing in Sweden, he could not assist however discover the modestly powered military car simply outperformed the passenger vehicles on snowy roads. The thought for Quattro all-wheel drive subsequently was born.
The Iltis handed its German navy trials with ease, and Audi constructed and delivered greater than 2000 of them by 1980. In the identical yr, seeking to catch the attention of France’s military, Volkswagen despatched 4 entries to the Paris–Dakar rally. Right here, the Iltis was triumphant, inserting first, second, and fourth, with the fourth entrant farther again within the area however nonetheless crossing the end line efficiently.
Although its appears to be like are a bit ungainly, the potential of the Iltis is something however. The suspension is totally impartial in any respect 4 wheels; for ease of area service, every nook has many shared components. On the highway, the Iltis is rear-wheel drive, and it does not have a real low-range gearbox. As a substitute, one of many 5 ahead gears is labeled “G” for gelände, or terrain, and engages a 7.603 crawler gear. The entrance and rear differentials may also be locked as wanted.
Although that 1.7-liter four-cylinder solely produces about 75 horsepower, the Iltis is as off-road prepared as Samuel de Champlain. Actually, it edged out the Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen throughout its German navy trials.
France’s military wasn’t swayed by the Paris–Dakar wins, however Canada got here calling. The kernel of the deal was typical of the political wrangling of interprovincial Canadian politics. Primarily, Ottawa managed to wrangle Iltis manufacturing over to a Bombardier plant in Valcourt, Quebec.
With all due apologies to the Beastie Boys, Bombardier was now licensed to Iltis. The pairing made sense: Bombardier had grown out of the success of its founder’s go-anywhere snowmobiles, and there was an order in hand from the Canadian navy for 1900 Iltises.
The primary of those was in-built 1983, on the staggering value of roughly $60,000 (adjusted for inflation). So as to add insult to damage, Bombardier subsequent signed a contract to produce the Belgian military with 2500 Iltises for about $38,000 every. The deal additionally included compelling Bombardier to buy $150 million value of Belgian items and providers. Requested to elucidate why Canada needed to pay extra for its Canada-made navy automobiles, a Bombardier official responded, “I suppose you could possibly say the Belgians are superb negotiators.”
As for any plans to promote a civilian model of the Iltis, the market merely wasn’t there. Bombardier additionally didn’t safe different abroad contracts and ended Iltis manufacturing within the mid-Eighties. In whole, fewer than 10,000 automobiles had been constructed by each VW and Bombardier.
Right this moment, the Canadian Military is provided with Mercedes G-wagens. The Iltis served till the early 2000s, together with in Afghanistan. Right here, it earned an unfair fame for being flimsy. U.S. navy commanders took one take a look at the canvas doorways of this 25-year-old VW and warned the Canadians to not enterprise off base. In actuality, a Humvee or a G-wagen would even have supplied little safety in opposition to land mines.
In its retirement, nevertheless, the Iltis is having fun with one thing of a renaissance. The suspension is crashy, however not likely a lot worse than a up to date Jeep, and this little machine is hilariously enjoyable to drive. The Canadian house owners’ group could be very lively, and being that it is a navy surplus car, you possibly can sometimes discover an Iltis on a budget. It is like a budget-friendly miniature Unimog, a G-wagen for these with out quite a lot of G’s.
And additional, as a military-spec machine with not one of the Name of Obligation cosplay of a Humvee or Jeep, the Bombardier Iltis is each rugged and pleasant. That are very Canadian attributes. Whaddya say, bud? Wanna exit fer a rip?
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