Admittedly – the Gurgle models look a bit as if they were parked next to the Barbie house in the doll’s garage and Ken was only too happy to turn a few meters in the garden area with them. But the models named after their company founder, Joo Augusto Conrado do Amaral Gurgel, were very popular in Brazil as a plastic mixture of a Citroen Mehari and a VW Iltis. One of the most successful models was the Gurgel Xavante, specially ordered by the army. The Brazilian military used the Xavante X-12 TR as a reconnaissance and patrol vehicle.
Few know that models like the Gurgel Xavante carried German genes from the VW Beetle. Because while Gurgel had the plastic body of the models manufactured in-house, the drive technology came from a cooperation with VW do Brasil. This was comparatively cheap to get and should also be particularly easy to repair in rural areas. In addition to the front axle and the transmission, the rear-wheel drive of the light off-road model comes from the VW Beetle. The 34 kW / 46 hp 1.4 liter four-cylinder boxer made the Brazilian a top speed of 125 km/h.
However, the characteristic of the Gurgel cars is not the German drive technology, but the plastic body. The company founder had already worked here for General Motors in the late 1950s. In addition to the building material fiberglass, which was particularly popular for small series in the 1960s, the company used the self-patented Plasteel – an unusual mixture of steel and plastic. The small off-road vehicle, first produced in 1969, weighed just 850 kilograms. Because there was no four-wheel drive, which many army vehicles already offered at the time, the Gurgel Xavante X-12 TR was on the road with studded tires. A ground clearance of more than 25 centimeters and the simple version of a limited slip differential did the rest. The handbrake cables can be used to block individual wheels on the rear axle so that they do not spin. There is a higher air filter at the rear for driving through water.
Anyone who thinks that the Gurgel models look like kit cars from a doll’s box is not completely wrong. Company founder Augusto Gurgel manufactured children’s cars and karts in the early years of his career. From 1966, Gurgel wanted to make the dream of the Brazilian car and possible mass mobilization come true. Four models were presented under the Gurgel brand name in 1966; among them the Xavante X-12 TR. Production initially took place in close cooperation with Volkswagen do Brasil. As early as 1981, Joo Augusto Conrado do Amaral Gurgel presented the electric Itaipu E 400, which, however, flopped as a tiny two-seater and was only manufactured as a small commercial vehicle. In 1995, after the company went bankrupt, Gurgel ended automobile production after just 43,000 vehicles. Since 2004, only three-wheeled commercial vehicles such as forklifts have been sold under the Gurgel brand name. The planned car production has not yet been put into practice.
