Like many of you, I fought my way through David Tracy’s most recent recounting of his elaborate self-flagellation via decomposed Valiant Ute in the wilds of Australia with the usual combination of fascination and, well, horror. I scrolled through the pictures of David doing fat rails of rust off a kangaroo’s surprisingly muscular and well-furred ass, watched him fight off spiders the size of café tables, and noted with concern as David hacked through acres of jagged, rusty metal, surrounded by helpful Aussies who I dearly hope chose to be there, showered in sparks as they grind away at that zombified Valiant. One of those pictures, though, stayed my gaze like a plastic bag of sausage gravy flung at the side of an Econoline: a well-patina’d light blue Volkswagen Beetle, grotesquely widened to about 150% of its normal width. What the hell is going on here? I have to explore this a bit more.
In case you missed it, this was the picture shown in David’s story, taken at a Dubbo Cars and Coffee meetup:
Go ahead and take a moment to wipe whatever beverage was in your mouth off your screen, where it landed after being projected out of your shocked, puckered mouth as a massive cloud of mist from your spit-take. Everything about this image just causes more questions to be asked: Why? What? How? Can it hurt me? Can it love me? What’s under there?
Relax, relax, we’re going to try to figure out as much as we can. Now, I could have asked David to ask his new Aussie friends to find out who the owner was and get a full set of details about the build, and hell, maybe an interview, but that would mean waiting, and I want to write about this bonkers Beetle now. [Editor’s Note: Editorial standards fly out the window when it comes to Torch and Volkswagens and/or taillights. -DT]
I’ll ask David to do that anyway, I guess, but in the meantime I see no reason why we can’t scrutinize and speculate, right? So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the front of this thing, grabbed from a video that we’ll have for you soon:
Wow. Okay, let’s break down what we can tell from these photos. First, that donor Beetle body (I assume the original VW pan wasn’t widened, and that this body was modified to fit over some other chassis, but with a build as gloriously weird as this, who knows? Maybe there’s a foot-wide center tunnel inside there) looks to be likely between a ’64 and ’66. I’m leaning to ’66, for reasons I’ll get to in a moment.
The engine in there took a bit of work to identify, but I’m pretty sure it’s a Holden V8, probably a 253/4.2-liter one. There are some significant questions to be answered about this engine, and a lot of other interesting details to discuss:
Okay, let’s work through these:
A. This coolant hose sparks one of the big mysteries of the wide-ass Beetle: Where’s the radiator? That hose seems to be turned 180° from the usual Holden V8 setups, and seems to snake rearwards, so the radiator must be either in the passenger compartment or maybe in the rear, in the former engine compartment, where it could grab air the way Beetles always did, via the vents under the rear window. I kinda doubt that’d be enough airflow to cool a huge V8, though. Maybe some sort of underbody scoop, and the rear vents are for air exhaust? And, speaking of exhaust, can this engine really be using the two tiny VW pea-shooter exhaust pipes seen in the rear picture?
A’. As I mentioned the rear window before, it occurred to me: How the hell did the builder make that widened rear window? It’s curved! The front windshield is almost a flat glass piece, so that seems easier, but that rear window has to be non-trivial.
B. The headlights are strange because it’s clear that these fenders once held the old classic double-glass sloping VW headlights used from 1938 to 1966, but the builder here has made some sort of adapter panel to fit the simpler, later ’67 (U.S. market at least) and up simple round sealed beam/chrome ring setup. Why? Maybe cost?
C. This flat area on the roof gives a good idea of just how much this thing has been widened, and it looks to be well over a foot! I’d guess like 16 to 18 inches. That’s a lot.
D. This badge on the very widened decklid is interesting, because it reads “VW 1350.” I don’t think VW ever officially had a VW 1350 badge. A ’66 Beetle had a VW 1300 badge, and some later Beetles had a VW 1500 badge, which are the ones I think this one was cobbled together from. Again, though, we have the question of why. The V8 in there is way bigger than 1350cc, and I doubt it makes 1,350 horsepower, though it may well feel like it does. So what does this mean?
E. Look at the dash: I can clearly see the stock old VW dash setup with speaker grille panels flanking a central gauge. So, whomever did this took the effort to keep a stock-looking VW instrument panel. I also see at least three additional round gauges in the center, too, but I’m impressed how much old-school VW was kept in the interior.
F. Three wipers!
G. These taillights are from a ’68-’70 Beetle. They’re also a type we never got in America, the small tombstone style with amber indicators and no reverse lamp. So, almost all of the lighting is newer than the rest of the body. Another why?
Then there’s the more visceral questions: what is this thing like to drive? What does it sound like? How does the owner fight off the swarms of sexually aroused people who must swarm this thing every time it parks somewhere?
We’ll find out more about this fantastic monster. Until then, let’s just revel in the madness and the mystery.
This is to VW Beetles what mother-in-laws are to young brides.
The back side resembles an American mother of three after way too many trips through the McDonalds drive-through.
So as everyone has said,the rear window is probably plexiglass, but what about the front?
I think (but am unsure) windscreens need to pass ADR standards.It’s probably one from another car or truck?
And after all this work, why have they not had it painted?
It would be hilarious to think this bug makes over 1300 horsepower with just enough weight to register on a scale.
Coming up… Torch down under….
Need to also look into the Fitipaldi 3200 …..
Torch – 1350
In ’66 there was an aftermarket “Speedwell 1350 GT” that took the 1200 and bored it out to 1350cc. That might be where the badge came from?
Yes, this is a conglomeration of a 50 year old Holden ute and a 50 year old (or probably more) VW Beetle. In Dubbo.
Can I suggest you all take it as a sign that David got somewhere towards his goal of not being dead in control of a cobbled together Valiant shitbox thanks to a not insignificant number of talented individuals from Bumfucknowhere, NSW, Australia…..
David, you have avoided the purple nurple to end all purple nurples. Thank you
Torch, could some of these questions be answered by “its a trim level we never got here” or “they regularly used X instead of Y because Y parts were harder to get”?
For the 1350, have you ever heard of the Speedwell 1350 GT? Appears to be a 1200 bored out to 1350? Something to do honoring it?
Am I the only one thinking of the insane works of Günter Artz, like the VW Golf 928 (widened Golf MKI with the 928s V8) or the Cordett (…Opel Kadett + Corvette, there you go)? Insane.
I was not familiar with him until you posted this. I need to know more about these cars too.
Artz has done super cool cars. Not only the insane widened projects – he made some absolutely stunning estate conversions for Porsche and VW. The VW Sciwago, an estate based on the Scirocco MKI, very very cool!
I was going to post the same thing.
http://www.speedhunters.com/2011/10/car_spotlight_gt_gt_a_wolf_in_rabbit_s_clothing/
“like a plastic bag of sausage gravy flung at the side of an Econoline:” seems to occupy the liminal space spanning a random thrown-together group of strangely evocative words, and an awfully specific description that makes me wonder, what is the statute of limitations on flinging a plastic bag of sausage gravy at the side of an Econoline and should we be worried that you might disappear into the judicial industrial complex?
I’m assuming it was a white Econoline sporting its gravy stain like a couple of tons of mashed potatoes?
I note the insistent and repeated impulse to ask, “Why?” (Note, I won’t ask “Why do you ask: ‘Why’?)
When faced with something like this, the question is probably irrelevant, the answer probably unsatisfying.
You have to track the owner/builder of this ring down. There are just too many unanswered questions!
Of course I mean “thing”, not “ring”!
1350 lbs? (1) 350 [chevy v8]? I’m out of ideas.
I’m glad we’re getting the whole story, because that was a hearty WTF.
A quarter mile just about 1325 feet, and I’ve heard people round it up to 1350… But not often. *shrug*
As soon as I saw this photo Tracy’s original post I wanted to know more. By all means follow up with tracking down, hounding, and stalking the owner/creator for more information but thanks for giving us the scoop now!
Widened Beetle?
Narrowed Falcon: http://www.f1-web.com.ar/autos/ford-falcon-f-100-tc.htm
This thing needs it’s own article.
A handful of them were made in Argentina in the late ’60s to battle the all-conquering Torinos. The factory-backed builders were given the mandate of reducing frontal area while keeping the shape as close as possible to the stock car, as a way to increase product identification.
So, basically they cut about a 5cm (2 inches) longitudinal stripe from the center of the body, from nose to tail, and welded both (less than) halves back together. Carlos Reutemann was one of the first pilots to drive this contraption, which didn´t to so bad, actually.
Running the number plate on the Service NSW rego check returns that this is a ‘HOLDEN SEDAN UTILITY – WHITE – 1972’ with an engineer’s report number listed in the comments, freshly issued July this year.
Holdens of this era were odd in that while the sedans and wagons had a unibody shell with vestigial subframes, the ute and panel van sat a similar-looking body on a full-length ladder frame.
https://assets.shannons.com.au/images/VJ7JAO7T84IZCNC9/YR32GUEJ6560FDK/2000x1500x3/c0bglewkv11a25yt.jpg
Given it’s a rebodied Holden Ute with a chassis designed for a V8 it would be easier to make road-legal, and the work that’s gone in it to make it look like ‘just a widened Beetle’ is pretty amazing.
Definitely right that it would be a lot easier to register as the Holden! Also probably why it has the updates lights, if it’s registered as a ’72 then it would have to have lighting that complied with ’72 standards, so updating the lights to the more modern ones would be the easiest way to do that!
Thanks for this clarification, when I saw the original image I was trying to get my head around it, eventually deciding it had to be widened and not a chop and section or a fun house mirror lens on the camera. I await further details. (-;’
“How does the owner fight off the swarms of sexually aroused people who must swarm this thing every time it parks somewhere?”
I suspect that number is incredibly small.
In fact, exactly one. And he’s got weird hair too.
Hey man, you don’t know me, stop talking about my hair!
maybe the badge is ‘1.350’ as in: there is one 350 cubic inch engine in here
I came here for this. Holden did offer a 350. I wonder if the V8 could be that size.
plot twist – the patina is a wrap
3 Wipers you say!?!
I had so many similar questions… especially about the glass. I need the rest of the story and what inspired someone to do all this work.
Thank you Jason. Just for being you. 🙂
The rear window is either not glass or repurposed. Back window from some truck like vehicle?
Plexiglass?
It does somewhat look like plexiglass.
It looks pretty scratched up in the reflections on the right-hand side, so plexiglass or maybe polycarbonate?
That was my take too. Plexiglass window. Almost has to be, right?
I would imagine it’s a rear windshield from a full-size vehicle from the early 1950s. That 1350 badge is still perplexing to me, though.
Like everyone else i’m thinking poly methyl methacrylate . Sorry! Plexiglass.
It has that look.