Memminger gives VW Beetle bigger engine and new face

Stay with us on this one, because we’re aware that the Volkswagen Beetle isn’t the usual MOTOR fare.

This one, however, is essentially a re-designed, re-engineered modern take on the most popular car in the world.

Consider, for example that Beetles usually had engines ranging from 1.1-litres to around 1.6-litres, putting out painfully low amounts of power. Then, 45kW would have been optimistic at the larger end of the engine range.

This one’s sporting 2.7-litres of flat-four air-cooled goodness, worth a healthy 154kW and 247Nm thanks to German Beetle workshop and restorer Memminger.

Memminger usually builds classic cabrios in the traditional sense, but this modernised version speaks to us in the world of faster cars. Or at least cars that can hit 100km/h in under 15 seconds.

It’s built on a steel tube frame, and is built to drive like a modern car – despite its obviously retro styling.

Its designer even says in the below video (which is in German, by the way, a language this journalist has a limited grasp on) that the idea was to work with an iconic design, but interpret it in a modern fashion.

It’s got no roof at all, and the two seats are followed by proper roadster roll-bars, which flow down to a rear that looks certainly Beetle from behind, though with the addition of a quasi-wing.

Its lights, wheels, and interior are the most modernised visual aspects of the car, though the dash its still analogue and very, very simple.

The biggest question we have is ‘can we drive one?’, though we fear the answer is a firm no, given it’s unlikely many will actually be built.

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