Back in the late 1970s a raft of bizarre-looking Porsche bodied Beetles descended on VW Action when it was still at the Staffordshire Showground. A fleet of them had driven over from Austria and the hugely modified cars stunned the conservative VW scene at the time with their radically smoothed bodywork, huge rear spoilers and Porsche engines.
Incredibly, four decades on, we’ve spotted something similar looking up for grabs on eBay. It’s a 1973 1303S Beetle with a full Porsche styled bodykit with wildly flared arches, deep front and rear spoilers and even a charismatic whale-tail at the back – and it looks absolutely spectacular!
The Bug’s custom trimmed full white leather interior with white matching dash, centre console and what looks like a top quality Raid steering wheel, also covered in white leather, looks just as awesome. As an accurate representation of the Euro Beetle look from the period, it’s a time warp gem – and we’d have to say pretty much unique.
The car’s being sold by a vendor in Suffolk, who justifiably describes it as a ‘one off’. His wife wants a convertible and because his aim – quite rightly – is to “keep her happy” the car is being sold.
The listing confirms that the ultra rare Beetle has a upgraded 1600cc engine, as well as a host of new components including gearbox and clutch, brakes, battery and tyres – and it even has the luxury of electric windows and a full-length sunroof.
Obviously an awful lot of money’s been spent on it in the past – but the precise history of the car remains a bit of a mystery. It’s a right-hand drive and the roof hasn’t been chopped, which seems to rule it out as being one of the cars that came over here in the ‘70s, but obviously the bodykit itself could have originated from the same continental tuner.
We’re certainly intrigued – and given that 36 other people were watching it when we last looked, we’re obviously not alone. We’d love to know who did the work and where the car’s been hiding since the days when fitting plastic louvers on the rear windscreen was seen as socially acceptable.
There’s just under a week to go on the auction, but who knows with a ‘Buy it Now’ price of £5,000 we wouldn’t be surprised if it was snapped up before then.
Whoever gets it would do well to fit a big bore engine – perhaps a 2.1 – which would be totally in keeping with the period performance theme. But apart from that we think the rest of it should pretty much stay as it is for prosperity’s sake… Either way, if you’re the lucky person who eventually ends up with it on your driveway, we’d love to hear from you…
Ian
The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage