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Photo of this very rare Volkswagen-powered pick-up.
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The Tempo Matador

One of the rarest vehicles that appears in the period photographs section, is this interesting military-spec Tempo Matador.

Return to Motoring Photographs Page 2.

Tempo Matador pickup

I think this photo was taken in Germany, but I'm not 100% sure which Air Force was using this unusual pickup. TAF suggests Tactical Air Force, but I'm sure someone will tell me exactly who used this van, registered 26 AR 07. Is this an RAF vehicle?

Background information on the Matador.

The forward control Tempo Matador was made for only a few years after WW2, November 1949 through til May 1952, after which just 1,362 had been built. Power came courtesy of an aircooled VW (Beetle) engine, but this time mounted forward in the chassis and powering the front wheels. The Volkswagen factory gave the project its blessing and supplied the engine, yet was not involved directly in the sale of the vehicles. The Tempo factory was situated in Hamburg, Germany, and launched their range of light commercials ahead of VW getting its own vans rolling off production lines. It would seem that VW was slightly taken aback by the popularity of the Matador, so pulled the plug on the new engine supply, maybe to try and stave off competition for its own new vans? A large chunk of production ended up being exported to Australia.

The Tempo shown here has an extended cab, coupled with a dropside wooden pickup body - best of both worlds, and of a style common to modern pickup trucks that offer both a load-carrying ability, and room for 4 occupants inside. Note the positive camber angle of the rear wheel, surely a sign of independent rear suspension?

Update.
Wade in Canada dropped me a note, with some more details on the Matador:

"You mentioned in a short article about the Tempo Matador having a independant rear suspension. It does indeed have that. Coil spings in the rear and a single leaf spring in the front that spanned the distance between the steering knuckles. It had no upper control arms. The upper ball joint bolted directly to the leaf spring pack. The engines used were indeed VW's air cooled motors. When VW stopped being the engine of choice Tempo turned to Austin Healey/Martin and used their 1.6L power plant. The Tempo Matador name carried on well into the early 60's. The body style changed to look more like a VW minibus and they were offered as trucks, transport panel vans, multi-windowed passenger versions which included city buses and caravan styles. The names Wiking and Matador were 2 of the big sellers that Tempo offered in Germany. But they also had several larger utility versions that acted as tow trucks, street sweepers, garbage haulers and fuel tankers for airports. If you look up a website called "Tempo Diest" you will find all this info and more."

Thanks for the info Wade, here is the German Tempo Matador link that he refers to, for anyone wanting to find out more about these 'oldtimers'.

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