Crazy Old Beetle Idea (talk me down or enable me please)

My first car, which I've still got, is a 1972 VW Super Beetle. It's been parked since 1995, when it became too rusty to drive. I've had a stock, used, replacement frame for it for about seven years now, but I never seem to get around to putting the car together. I think it's because, although the old Bug is sentimental to me, as a car it actually sucked a lot (noisy, slow, crappy brakes, crappy handling, no heat, too small to get laid in, etc). yet I can't let go of the damn thing (first car I ever owned, drove, worked on, etc). For a long time I wanted to build it into a mid-engine hot rod like Paul Newmann's Bug, but while speaking with a chassis builder about building me a chassis to the "Rorty" chassis plans, I was advised not to bother because, as a Boxster owner, I "already have a "fragile, mid-engine German car". He advised me to LS-swap the Boxster and scrap the Bug. Must be a good chassis builder; he clearly didn't need the work.

So now I'm thinking of building a front-engine, V8 track car out of it (this idea was ysparked by Andy (?) Nelson's V8 Bug in the GRM Challenge). There used to be a company that built pre-fab chassis for front-engine V8 Beetles. They used to be at prostreetbug.com. Does anybody know what happened to them or if anyone else offers something similar? What about a discarded NASCAR chassis? Whatever I do, I'm pretty sure the only way I'll ever find the motivation to build the car is if I build something wild and track-dedicated without spending a small fortune to do it. That said, I'm open to suggestion.

http://www.v8beetleresource.com/chassis1.html

http://hubpages.com/autos/build-a-v8-beetle-bug

http://www.oldbug.com/newmanvw.htm

I like your original idea. I've been stuck for a long time on the idea of a mid-engine, tube-chassis VW Fastback.

Seems to me a discarded NASCAR chassis is going to have too large a silhouette in many places to do this with. I mean, depending on what you're willing to do to the cage and/or body, anything goes, right?

Anyhow, mostly thank you for reminding me I need to get my butt out to the garage!

Ransom wrote: I like your original idea. I've been stuck for a long time on the idea of a mid-engine, tube-chassis VW Fastback.

Or a Super V8 Bug...

starting with an old Formula car or Sports Racer chassis

Why not just use the more popular subaru swap. Cheap and can make good power. If your hearts set on a tube chassis race car go for it!

In reply to foxtrapper:

Thanks! Paul Newman's Bug is my favorite VW of all time. If cost were no object (it is - a big one) I'd skin a 914 and weld the Beetle body to the 914 unibody structure, then power it with an air cooled 993 bored out to 3.8L with ITBs and Carrera RS cams. But here on Earth, a front-engine V8 build seems more plausible

I just had an even crazier idea while I was looking at http://hubpages.com/autos/build-a-v8-beetle-bug. I should use a 944 donor car for all the suspension and the rear-mount transaxle. Shouldn't cost any more than the seemingly preferred S10 donor since 944s that don't run are under a grand.Add front-mount LS FTW!

Easy option is keep it rear engine, mostly stock pan, turbo Subaru motor, not sure on the trans, various upgrades to the suspension and brakes (I know some of this is Porsche 924/844 junkyard stuff). That should be plenty wild, if not add more boost. Though if you're going to use the body beyond dropping it over a tube frame, you need to look for rust in the last few inches of the body where it meets the pan.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

The heater channels are toast. They were (poorly) patched in 1983, when it was my dad's car. That's largely why I'm trying to come up with some crazy build plan to inspire me. To restore it to stock would not be cost effective because it's a cheap and common bottom-of-the-barrel 1970s Super Beetle.

hope you can weld:

Builder said: Driving a car this modified can be dissapointing, but believe you me, I enjoyed every minute behind the wheel! The sleeper effect was immence, the weight distribution perfect, and 4kg/hp always guarantee a thrilling ride. Slight blemishes such as, high-compression engine could´t be turned by the VW startermotor when hot, and the fact, that the not totally sealed in himileage-engine, was emitting so many fumes as well as being a giant heater, were totally forgotten when accelerating through the gears alongside a then new BMW M3.

In reply to M030:

In that case I support the drop the body over a frame option. A thing that comes to mind is to use Miata subframes for the front and rear suspension to save on fab work, I bet the width is close. You need to modify the front extensively for a V8 (or buy one pre built) and cram a bigger diff in the rear, but V8 in a Miata is well documented and the suspension works great.

http://rorty.net/mid-engine-v8-beetle

I'm in the middle of doing this right now:

Wow - lots of us having high hp vw dreams following a stellar showing in the challenge. I always wanted to do a rowdy engine setup into a hardtop Ghia for similar reasons.

ill give my vote for some rotary bettle love

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

Kenny, yours is my favorite idea yet! Thank you

Do it ! ! !

I had SBC powered Beetle for a long time, sold it to a buddy. It was an INSANELY fun ride. Just impossible to describe to anyone who doesn't drive one already. Like nothing out there !

In reply to TeamEvil:

I'm absolutely going to do it! Thanks

If your going to stick a V8 in it at least do it right.

Yikes ! Just saw this on Ebay.

Looks like someone bought my old V8 Beetle rat rod truck at some point and totally turned it into a purple turd ! ? ! ? ! ?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252158680206?ul_noapp=true

Weird catching your old rides being sold on Ebay !

WTF?

Check out the lies in the ad copy, I can tell you plain that it's a Cutlass chassis that sure wasn't shortened in any custom speed shop and that rear end is held in with stock coils and spine crushing ladder bars, not a four link in sight !

Since I'm all about crazy ideas, old beetles and enabling I present for your consideration

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/200x-classifieds/cheap-donor-fwd-lsx/107400/page1/

FWD LSX donor, there's your mid engine package to toss in that bug and make it fly. Done. Get some square tube and start building a frame for it. :)

I may be building another VW based project this winter....its becoming a habit. But since I still have the 2 liter type 4 motor I'll be sticking with that for now.

As an enabler myself from WAY back:

If you don't want to re-invent the wheel, you can easily tuck a GM V6 into the back of any air-cooled VW. I MAY have an adapter and flywheel down cellar at this very moment, or it may well be lost. It's a real mystery down there . . .

A few pics of my Ghia with a 4.1 Caddy in the back—

Just in case you wanted more details on my families beetle, here is the build site:

cam777.synthasite.com

TeamEvil wrote: I MAY have an adapter and flywheel down cellar at this very moment, or it may well be lost. It's a real mystery down there . . .

Um, if you stumble across that and the OP isnt interested I'd like to add it to my "future bad ideas" pile