Before Tesla, There Was Anadol, Legendary Turkish Dune Buggy
Turkey’s indigenous (but with an American Ford engine) Anadol Böcek (Bug), was designed by Jan Nahum of the Ford-Otosan corporation in 1975. The car was produced between 1975 and 1977, in a very limited production run of 200-or-so vehicles.
The vehicle, similar in appearance to a fiberglass dune buggy but different in design concept and characteristics, was developed upon request for a similar vehicle by the Turkish Armed Forces. Otosan also predicted that the rising popularity of Turkey’s tourism and beach resorts would guarantee a certain level of demand for a civilian-use version of such a vehicle.
The Böcek’s roof could be opened, it didn’t have any doors, and its windshield had the same inclination as the hood. The futuristic front panel and gauges of the Böcek were ahead of their time, and were used many years later by future passenger vehicles in Europe.
The Böcek had a 1298 cc 63 bhp (47 kW; 64 PS) Ford engine, which provided very good performance given the vehicle’s small dimensions. In line with the pop-art designs of that period, the Böcek had asymmetrical front and rear ends. The front grille was asymmetrical, while in the rear there were 3 brake lights at left and 2 at right. The rear-view mirror, which was formed of five differently angled mirrors which provided a telescopic view, was mounted on top of the windshield. The front tyres were 225*55*13 in dimension, while the seats were fiberglass covered with vinyl.
Several different versions of the Böcek (Bug) were designed for institutional and civilian use. There was a version with gull-wing doors, a version for the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) which was optimized for using film and video cameras, an offroad version, a tractor/trailer version, and a military version.
The Böcek was a design concept that was ahead of its time, but just like the STC-16, it was not a great seller due to the economic situation in Turkey and the rest of the world in that period, caused mostly by the 1973 oil crisis. Only 203 examples of the Böcek were produced between 1975 and 1977.
