and design, almost no parts were interchangeable with the original Type 82. Intermeccanica of Canada has been producing a Kubelwagen replica since 1995. Technology and performance When the German military took delivery of the first vehicles, it immediately put them to the test on- and off-road in snow and ice to test their capability at handling European winters. Several four-wheel-drive vehicles were used as reference points. The two-wheel-drive Kübelwagen surprised even those who had been a part of its development, as it easily out-performed the other vehicles in nearly every test. Most notably, thanks to its smooth, flat underbody, the Kübel would propel itself much like a motorised sled when the wheels sank into sand, snow, or mud, allowing it to follow tracked vehicles with remarkable tenacity. In November 1943, the U.S. military conducted a series of tests as well on one or several Type 82s it had captured in North Africa campaign. This evaluation, done at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, resulted in the publication of War Department Technical Manual TM E9-803, 6 June 1944 (on D-Day). The manual's publication date (D-Day) is assumed to be coincidental, but its TM number was identical to that of the American jeep, with the prefix 'E' for 'enemy'. It was intended for distribution after the 6 June invasion of Normandy to US military personnel who might encounter ones that had been abandoned, possibly for lack of fuel or a minor technical problem, and with the help of this manual, might be put into service as additional vehicles. The TM calls the type 82 'a four-wheeled, rubbertyred, rear axle drive personnel carrier and reconnaissance car, comparable in purpose and size to the American 1/4 ton truck'. So thorough was the analysis that it included information beyond what could be done as field servicing, plus ways of dealing with very low temperatures. U.S. War Department Technical Manual TM-E 30-451, Handbook on German Military Forces, (p. 416), states: "The Volkswagen, the German equivalent of the American "Jeep", is inferior in every way except in the comfort of its seating accommodations." Nevertheless, VW Kübelwagens were so frequently captured, and deemed sufficiently useful, that the same U.S. War Department wrote and published an official Technical Manual TM E9-803 for it in June 1944, for the benefit of allied officers and troops. At the same time, another Kübelwagen, also captured in North Africa, had been dissected in Britain