Tag Archives: VW Beetle

Sale

This Tesla-Powered Beetle Outguns Supercars — and You Can Buy It

If you’re waiting for the familiar thrum of an air-cooled flat-four, forget it. The Knepper 1303 RS-E doesn’t bark, sputter, or cough to life. It erupts. The rear wheels haze over instantly, tire smoke billows behind the stubby fenders, and bits of rubber are left tattooed on the asphalt. Whatever nostalgic image you have of a gentle, smiling VW Beetle, throw it out the window. This thing is a railgun in retro sheetmetal.

And yes—purists, clutch your pearls now—the beating heart of this Franken-Bug isn’t a boxer engine at all, but a modern three-phase asynchronous electric motor. Sacrilege? Maybe. But the team behind it calls the RS-E a perfect marriage of classic charm and cutting-edge EV engineering. After a few minutes behind it, it’s hard to disagree.

FROM JUNKYARD TO ELECTRIC MONSTER

Meet Rüdiger Knepper, the man behind Knepper Bugs & More and the mastermind of this project, along with his son René. The duo found the donor car—a battered 1975 VW 1303—rotting away in a California junkyard. Structurally sound but cosmetically trashed, it was the ideal canvas for a complete reimagining.

The restoration was obsessive. Every bolt removed, every system rethought. The body was returned to factory-fresh crispness and repainted in a rich Marathon Blue. Carbon-fiber rear fenders add subtle width, while a carbon roof spoiler delivers high-speed stability and a hint of motorsport intent. It looks like a Beetle, sure—but not quite like any Beetle Wolfsburg ever imagined.

PORSCHE BONES, TESLA MUSCLE

Underneath the retro shell, nearly nothing remains stock. The suspension is largely Porsche 944, enhanced with KW, Bilstein, and Kerscher hardware. Brakes come from a 944 Turbo S, with Porsche 964 rotors up front. Grip is courtesy of Toyo Proxes TR-1s—195/45R17 up front and 235/45R17 out back—wrapped around Porsche Cup 2 wheels.

Then there’s the battery situation. Seventeen Porsche Taycan modules, split across the chassis, feed a Tesla Model S Performance rear-motor spinning modified voltage. No transmission—just direct drive through Porsche 930 axles delivering absurd levels of torque straight to the pavement.

The result? A fully charged Beetle that hits 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds. Let that sink in. A classic Bug running toe-to-toe with supercars. Top speed: 190 km/h. Range: up to 250 km from a 48-kWh pack if you’re gentle—though gentle driving probably isn’t why you build a 600-hp electric Beetle.

CALM MODE? SORT OF.

With traction control absent, Rüdiger Knepper wisely offers “street mode,” capped at around 200 hp—still a massive bump over anything the original Bug ever dreamed of. TÜV regulators approve that figure for public roads. Switch to full output, though, and the RS-E unleashes all 604 hp and 702 Nm of barely manageable fury. “Race only,” warns Knepper, and he isn’t joking. Even dialed back, acceleration is immediate, linear, and punch-you-in-the-chest violent.

Charging comes via CCS or standard AC with an adapter. The hardware install is pure Knepper craftsmanship; the brain behind the system—the electronic control unit—comes from Alexander Lührmann and his ESDI EV Technologies team in Herford.

INSIDE: ORIGINAL BEETLE, WITH MODERN ATTITUDE

The cabin keeps most of its vintage quirks, minus the parts an EV doesn’t need—no clutch, no gear lever. Instead, you settle into wonderfully supportive Recaro seats borrowed from a BMW 2002. Heating comes from an electric unit tucked beneath the rear bench. It feels familiar, cozy, and deceptively innocent. Until you tap the accelerator.

TRADITION BE DAMNED—THIS IS GENIUS

Some will insist an electrified Beetle is a crime against automotive heritage. But spend a moment in the 1303 RS-E’s presence and you realize this isn’t replacing history—it’s rewriting it with blistering, tire-vaporizing enthusiasm. Knepper’s creation respects the original Beetle’s playful soul while injecting enough power to terrify modern sports cars.

It’s absurd. It’s brilliant. And it proves that sometimes, the best way to honor the past is to electrify it until the tires scream.

Source: Knepper Bugs & More

News

The $335,000 Beetle: How a One-Off California Coachbuilt VW Became the Most Expensive Bug Ever Sold

Volkswagen built more than 21 million Beetles, scattering them across continents, generations, and cultures. It’s a car so common that nearly everyone has a memory attached to one. But every rule has an exception—and in this case, the exception is a Beetle so rare, so bizarre, and so luxurious that it just became the most expensive Volkswagen ever sold.

At a recent auction, this singular California-built coachwork special hammered for an astonishing $335,000. Yes, for a Beetle. That’s not only a record for the model—it may well be a record for any Volkswagen, period.

A Bug Rebuilt From the Ground Up

The car’s origin story begins in 1969, when John van Neumann, Volkswagen’s U.S. importer and a major figure in West Coast car culture, decided that the humble Beetle deserved a second life—one dripping in luxury. He commissioned the famed Los Angeles coachbuilders Troutman-Barnes, whose résumé included custom work for Carroll Shelby and Hollywood elites, to transform an ordinary Bug into something extraordinary.

The result was a stretched, hand-built luxury sedan with a price tag of roughly $35,000 in 1969 money. To put that in perspective, a Lamborghini Miura, one of the world’s most exotic supercars at the time, cost less.

Van Neumann wasn’t building a Beetle anymore—he was building a statement.

Inside: A Rolling Lounge on Four Wheels

If the exterior was unusual, the interior was outright decadent. Instead of vinyl and simple knobs, the cabin became a rolling lounge. Mahogany trim, a built-in minibar, and a then-cutting-edge five-speaker sound system turned the Beetle into a miniature luxury saloon.

It wasn’t meant to be practical. It was meant to impress. And impress it did.

More Weight, More Power

All that extra length and luxury meant extra weight, so Troutman-Barnes swapped in a beefier powerplant. Under the engine cover sat a 1.6-liter flat-four with dual Weber carburetors, giving the luxury Bug enough grunt to move with dignity—even if no one mistook it for a sports car.

A Hollywood Debut

The car made its first public appearance at the Los Angeles Auto Show, where it caused a legitimate sensation. Audiences loved it. Hollywood loved it even more. According to long-circulated stories, none other than John Wayne rode to the Oscars in this very car—because of course he did.

A Beetle Beyond Its Own Myth

When it crossed the auction block, expectations were modest. After all, this wasn’t a Ferrari prototype or a Bugatti barn find. But collectors know a true one-off when they see it, and bids skyrocketed far beyond predictions.

By the time the gavel fell at $335,000, the room had witnessed something rare: a humble Beetle elevated to automotive folklore.

A Curiosity, A Time Capsule, A Record Holder

Today, van Neumann’s stretched salon Beetle stands as one of the most unusual projects in Volkswagen history—a curiosity that bridges the gap between cultural icon and coachbuilt exotica.

And now, officially, it’s the most expensive VW Beetle ever sold, proving that even the world’s simplest cars can have extraordinary stories.

Source: RM Sotheby’s

News

57 speeding tickets in 54 days made with VW Beetle

Driving a powerful and fast car in most cases can put us in a situation where we exceed the speed limit. But driving a regular car and collecting almost 60 fines in less than two months is a real skill. Such a situation occurred in Great Britain where a driver received 57 speeding tickets in 54 days.

Welsh driver John Kelly driving a VW Beetle became the record holder by collecting the most traffic tickets in the shortest time. He did the “achievement” from February 19 to April 14 at four locations, racking up £46,880 in fines. In all locations the speed limit was 50 km/h and Kelly drove between 70 km/h and 110 km/h.

The last speeding was recorded by a police patrol who stopped the driver and after determining that he did not have insurance and that he had not paid previous fines, confiscated his VW Beetle. After confiscating the vehicle, Kelly was sent to court where, in addition to the fine, the judge gave him 48 penalty points and revoked his driver’s license for 36 months.

A truly unusual “achievement” considering the short period of time and the number of penalties. This means that he collected at least one penalty every day.

Source: Wales Online