VW's leisuremobile

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

The item in the Good Oil started it. "Beetle races? What Beetle races?" said the phone calls and e-mails.

A new class of motorsport started in Germany last year. It is just for Volkswagen's New Beetle and is called - what else? - the Beetle Cup.

We don't know if television here will screen Beetle Cup footage in motorsport highlights but we do know the division is proving popular in Germany.

Another New Beetle which has already aroused worldwide interest is the prototype dune buggy, a made-to-measure model aimed at the beach market.

Many panelbeaters and garages supplied the same market in New Zealand 30 and 40 years ago, chopping up pre-independent suspension Beetles and dropping fibreglass bodies on them.

Volkswagen loosely calls its latest concept a "leisuremobile", if only because it is at its best when it's having fun.

But the carmaker's marketing people, preparing for the day when the millennium buggy (likely to be left-hand-drive only) goes into production, are toying with the term "New Beetle Dune."

The buggy is built on the Golf platform (as are all New Beetles) and uses the V5 engine from the Golf-based sedan, the Bora, coupled with VW's 4Motion four-wheel-drive system and a six-speed gearbox.

It has an air-suspension system which adjusts through 120mm, and six-spoke 18-inch alloy wheels with 235/60R18 tyres.

VW unveiled the buggy at the Los Angeles Auto Show the other day, near where the beach buggy culture began in the 1960s.

Remember actor Steve McQueen's VW buggy in the movie The Thomas Crown Affair? It was powered by a flat-four Porsche engine.

The latest model is not only quicker than McQueen's, it has a detachable plastic roof - "to create a warm yellow glow under the soft top, a sense of sailing in the sun," says the blurb.

VW has used an aluminium theme throughout the car. The rear bumper is aluminium, so is the boot floor and the backs of the rear seats. The aluminium radiator grille also acts as a sump shield. - Alastair Sloane

The item in the Good Oil started it. "Beetle races? What Beetle races?" said the phone calls and e-mails.

A new class of motorsport started in Germany last year. It is just for Volkswagen's New Beetle and is called - what else? - the Beetle Cup.

Here is a photograph from a recent race. We don't know if television here will screen Beetle Cup footage in motorsport highlights but we do know the division is proving popular in Germany.

Another New Beetle which has already aroused worldwide interest is the prototype dune buggy, a made-to-measure model aimed at the beach market.

Many panelbeaters and garages supplied the same market in New Zealand 30 and 40 years ago, chopping up pre-independent suspension Beetles and dropping fibreglass bodies on them.

Volkswagen loosely calls its latest concept a "leisuremobile", if only because it is at its best when it's having fun.

But the carmaker's marketing people, preparing for the day when the millennium buggy (likely to be left-hand-drive only) goes into production, are toying with the term "New Beetle Dune."

The buggy is built on the Golf platform (as are all New Beetles) and uses the V5 engine from the Golf-based sedan, the Bora, coupled with VW's 4Motion four-wheel-drive system and a six-speed gearbox.

It has an air-suspension system which adjusts through 120mm, and six-spoke 18-inch alloy wheels with 235/60R18 tyres.

VW unveiled the buggy at the Los Angeles Auto Show the other day, near where the beach buggy culture began in the 1960s.

Remember actor Steve McQueen's VW buggy in the movie The Thomas Crown Affair? It was powered by a flat-four Porsche engine.

The latest model is not only quicker than McQueen's, it has a detachable plastic roof - "to create a warm yellow glow under the soft top, a sense of sailing in the sun," says the blurb.

VW has used an aluminium theme throughout the car. The rear bumper is aluminium, so is the boot floor and the backs of the rear seats. The aluminium radiator grille also acts as a sump shield.