Description
The Volkswagen Beetle, officially Type 1, is one of the most iconic cars of the 20th century. Designed in the 1930s by Ferdinand Porsche as the “people’s car”, it adopts a simple and clever architecture: air‑cooled flat-four rear engine, rear‑driven transmission, and robust construction that makes maintenance easy. After World War II, production restarts in Wolfsburg and the Beetle quickly becomes a global phenomenon. Its mechanical simplicity, reliability and low running costs explain its exceptional success, with over 21 million units produced in total.
In the early 1970s the so‑called “Super Beetle” generation appears, with the 1302 and then 1303. Introduced in 1972, the 1303 is distinguished by a highly curved windscreen, a modernised dashboard and larger tail lights. It mainly adopts a MacPherson strut front suspension, replacing the classic torsion‑bar front axle. This evolution noticeably improves handling, steering precision and ride comfort, while retaining the traditional rear‑engine layout. Although European production ends in the mid‑1970s, the Beetle carries on its career in other countries, notably Mexico, where it will continue to evolve technically.
The example shown is a 1982 Beetle 1303. Originally, it was fitted with a 1400 cm³ injection engine, typical of the latest Beetle developments produced outside Europe. It is now equipped with a 1600 cm³ engine, the best known of VW’s boxer engines. This air‑cooled four‑cylinder flat engine develops around 50 bhp at 4, 000 rpm, with torque of about 106 Nm, fuelled by a carburettor and paired with a four‑speed manual gearbox. This engine is renowned for its robustness, ease of maintenance and wide parts availability, making it one of the most appreciated powerplants among Beetle enthusiasts.
This car underwent a full restoration in 2000, during which the mechanicals, bodywork and interior were redone. More than twenty years after this refurbishment, it shows normal signs of use for a car that has been on the road since its restoration, but overall the car remains sound and coherent. It is fitted with electronic ignition and a new carburettor. The gearbox has been recently rebuilt (synchromesh forks, gears, bearings).
It testifies to a substantial restoration project where everything was redone, and today it represents a charming Beetle at a very attractive price.
