With more power than a BMW M3 sports coupe, restored VW Beetles fly down German autobahns

There are sheets of rusty metal all over the place along with deflated tyres, torn upholstery, battered panels and seized-up engines. A walk through Georg Memminger’s used VW warehouse in southern Germany is sobering. That is until you reach his showroom. It contains gleaming examples of the car that made Volkswagen famous, with a level of finish never achieved when the model was still in production in Germany and later at foreign plants. Open-top and closed versions of the Beetle which pass through his workshop get a second lease of life after being lovingly rebuilt on four floors of an industrial building north of Munich on the outskirts of the town of Reichertshofen. Turning a rust bucket into an eye-catcher takes nine months of work for the firm’s 10 employees and a cabriolet version can cost from €171,000 (US$193,000) to buy. Hardly anyone in the world restores Beetles as thoroughly as Georg Memminger, who has been doing this for a quarter of a century. The cars end up looking much the same on the outside, but when the team is finished little of the original remains. The chassis number is retained, otherwise the Beetle would be treated by the German authorities as a new car with all the regulations and red tape that involves. Memminger’s Beetles are designed to last longer than the rust-prone originals so the firm makes around three quarters of all sheet metal parts for the restoration from scratch. Nobody can accuse them of spoiling valuable cars that have survived down the years untouched, since the donor vehicles are either too far gone for conventional reconditioning or accident victims. The Beetle, which was made from 1938 to 2003, was a basic affair with little in the way of luxury. Memminger kits them out with supple hand-stitched leather seats, upgraded Bilstein suspension, which ensures the wheels stay on the ground during the most spirited cornering, and powerful disc brakes. The ABS system also inspires confidence, while power steering makes them much easier to manoeuvre than the original. Customers can also request modern xenon headlights, heated seats and a discreetly integrated navigation system. The standard Beetle could hardly pull the skin off a rice pudding and even late versions turned out only a puny 40kW (55 horsepower) so there is plenty of scope for an upgrade. Even Memminger’s entry-level engine produces a useful 81kW, and customers who order the most potent package get the Type 4 boxer engine, which VW used in other models. Memminger has almost doubled the displacement of the fuel-injected unit to 2.7 litres (165 cubic inches) and extracts from it 154kW and a maximum torque of 265 Nm (195ft-lbs) – more than a BMW M3 sports coupe. The result is a car that looks like it was made decades ago but swims along effortlessly in modern traffic and, when road conditions permit, can put many a modern sports car to shame. That is what you get when 200hp propels less than 1,000kg (2,200lbs) of weight. The Beetle spurts from 0 to 100km/h (0 to 62mph) in under six seconds, and at full throttle, more than 200km/h is possible. At this speed, the exhaust growls, the wind whistles through the cabin and even hot hatch drivers on Germany’s autobahn highway will look puzzled when this antique-looking car looms in the rear-view mirror. Most customers are attracted by the clever mix of old and new. The younger ones remember family holidays in the cramped back seats of dad’s old Beetle, while older drivers like the familiar narrow, upright pedal arrangement and clunky gear stick. The car is a resto-mod, but unlike many others it does not go the whole way. There are no electric motors, either as motive power or for the windows and soft top in the cabriolet version. Just like the Porsche conversions from Singer or the Mercedes classics from Mechatronik, Memminger’s Beetles divide opinions among traditionalist marque fans who feel that old cars are being violated by modern technology. Yet anybody who has taken one of these Beetles out for a spin will not care much about that after taking the first few bends of a country road with bravado. It seems the humble Beetle has become a driver’s car at last, with impressive acceleration and reliable handling. The purchase price will make you gasp but this car must be put in perspective. Well-preserved Beetles, especially cabriolets, in original trim are no longer a bargain and each Memminger version is unique and likely to gain value over time.

With more power than a BMW M3 sports coupe, restored VW Beetles fly down German autobahns

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Old VW Beetles are rebuilt almost from scratch, and made much more powerful, in a German workshop, where they sell for some US$190,000

Old VW Beetles are rebuilt almost from scratch, and made much more powerful, in a German workshop, where they sell for some US$190,000