The Beetle is dead, removed from VW’s repertoire as both a rear-engined car and a dressed-up Golf. However, it lives on as a classic car, and we hope that one day people will start building expensive and extreme body kits like the RWB Targa makeover we see here.
This is the creation of 3D artist Rob3rtdesign from Brazil, where the Beetle was called the Fusca and stayed in production for much longer than anywhere else in the world. South American factories were, at one point, the biggest VW had in the whole world. And they also produced many other cars on rear-engined platforms.
Custom-built Beetles are still pretty common all over the world, though their popularity seems to be going down. As Edd China put it, this is a fantastic car to pick up mechanic skills because it’s very simple. Unless we’re mistaken, the whole body is held down to the pan using just four bolts, though it might not be the case with later models.
Of course, this particular Beetle has influences from two types of Porsche which make it one of the most interesting Vdub renderings we’ve seen in a while. The most striking change is an advanced Targa top pulled straight from the modern Porsche 911. This is a ridiculously expensive piece of tech, which adds about $20,000 to the price of the car and also significantly increases its weight.
Some say the Targa top is the best of both worlds, as you get open-air driving and super-sexy lines. Others hate how heavy it makes the 911. Also, even if you get it from a wreck, this mechanism would be more expensive than any Beetle you put it on. Can you imagine spending about $100,000 to make something like this and people still hating you for it?
The other major influence for this digital build is an RWB-bodied air-cooled 911. There are many versions of this outrageous style of tuning, and we see the smaller ducktail rear spoiler being matched with fender flares and more aero.
