16 things you might not know about the Volkwagen Beetle

The news, confirmed this week, is that production will cease in July  2019. The Beetle will bow out with two special edition models, available in Beetle heritage colours (beige and stonewash blue), and amid an avalanche of amusing Beetle-based facts, anecdotes and lists on the internet.

Talking of which here’s ours…

Dan Gurney had a hand in making the Beetle go fast around a circuit in 1963. Dan, owner of a Porsche 550 Spyder at the time,  decided he wanted to race  in the American Grand Prix of Volkswagens. He borrowed a ’56 Beetle and paid a visit to the chap who’d sold him his Porsche – who was also selling VW performance parts, something VW wasn’t doing then. Dan transformed the car and, a year after he won the French Grand Prix, he stormed to victory in the VW race too.

Emerson Fittipaldi has Beetle history, no surprise perhaps since Brazil has long had a love affair with the car. Emerson was into Formula Vee, so was familiar with Bug bits for racing, but needed a car for a local 1,000 mile endurance road race, up against Ford GT40s et al. Emerson’s answer: take one 36 horsepower stock 1,600cc Beetle, double up on the engine to make a 3.2-litre flat-eight, bore it out to 4.4-litres, add a five-speed ‘box from a Porsche and stuff the 400bhp lot into a  tube-frame chassis. It didn’t win but it did spend a lot of time sideways.

Commissioned by Hitler, designed by Erwin Kommenda, and engineered by Ferdinand Porsche, the first Beetle looked for air-cooled, rear-engined inspiration to Hans Ledwinka’s Tatra, a fact VW has latterly acknowledged.

The British motor industry’s postwar analysis of the Beetle was that it was “ugly and noisy” and building it would be a “completely uneconomic enterprise.”

Niki Lauda, Emerson Fittipaldi and Keke Rosberg all cut their racing teeth in Formula Vee, the open-wheelers based on pre-1963 Beetles – complete with 70bhp and swing axles.

In 1938 it was known as the Volkswagen Type 1,  but Beetle, or Bug, became its nickname in English. Other countries have different names for it, some not very polite. It is known as the Tortoise Car in Nigeria, the Flea in Ecuador, the Navel in Mexico, the Turtle in Bolivia, the Ladybug in France, the Frog in Indonesia, the Bell in Iceland…and the Hitlersled in Denmark.

The Beetle always features somewhere in Car of the Century lists; in 1999 it was fourth, behind the Model T, the Mini and the Citroen DS.

“Think Small” was the catchline behind the innovative advertising campaign that would  help make the Beetle the the biggest selling foreign-made car in the US throughout the 1960s.

In its time, the Beetle has been assembled in Germany, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines,  South Africa, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. But never its biggest market, the US. 

VW may not have gone off retro delights for ever. Next up is likely to be a modern incarnation (electric power and all) of the Type 2 Transporter, or Microbus. Which we think would be a lot cooler…

Beetle-based dune buggies have a place in history all to themselves; just think Beach Boys, surfing and a metalflake finish on the GRP body glinting in the Californian sun. No surprise VW wanted to buy into all of that and it tempted us in 2011 with the fun Buggy Up concept… which morphed into the less fun Beetle Cabriolet Dune in 2015. Said to have been inspired by the Baja California dune buggies, it’s jacked up, gets big wheels and badges that say “Dune”. No, we haven’t see on one on the road (or the beach) either. We’ll take the old Baja racer, thanks very much.

VW is keen that people think of the New Beetle, now 20 years old, as a “classic”. This summer it had a special Beetle Sunshine Tour rally in Wolfsburg to make the point. “A contemporary classic on the way to becoming a genuine classic. Like the original Beetle.” Hmm, we wonder. 

The coolest Beetle in our book is not a Beetle at all but the Beetle-based Karmann Ghia. Karmann also invented (and built) the Beetle Cabrio four-seat convertibles in 1948. Which are pretty cool too.

Here’s the inevitable Guinness World Records entry for the Beetle: it’s a “how many people can you cram inside a Beetle” record, done in 2010 using a 1964 model.The answer? Twenty people.

Bernie Ecclestone is a fan. He picked up one of the 300 final edition models brought out in 1978 to mark the end of European production. It was last sold for £13,200 at a Bonhams auction in London three years ago.

Baja Beetles are desert-stormers par excellence, but either in original form or as the New Beetle the VW has never been a natural at motorsport, despite the efforts of many. The last official effort was with the Beetle Global Rallycross Car (GRC) last year when a new third-gen Beetle was transformed into an all-wheel-drive 560hp monster (0-60mph in under 3 seconds) for the Volkswagen Andretti team competing in the global Red Bull Rallycross series.

Maddest Beetle ever? We reckon that’s Ron Patrick’s jet powered Beetle. It’s like a normal New Beetle, with regular petrol motor and front-wheel drive, but with a big jet engine sticking out the back. The home-built jet car boasts 1350hp and 50ft flames out the back – and it is (or was) street legal. Google it and see it in full afterburner mode…

There we go, GRR’s top Beetle facts…and not one mention of Herbie…