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Over its eight-decade run, the car with the rounded roof silhouette, engine in the back, and surprisingly capacious seating capacity became an icon of design and pop culture. AWS Deloitte Genpact. Events Innovation Festival. Follow us:. As for the Beetle, it lost its old-school turn-signal semaphores in favor of more modern signal lamps. Once again, Volkswagen messed with the Beetle's rear window, enlarging the opening for A year earlier, the company had equipped the little car with tubeless tires for the first time.
The s and s saw the expansion of Volkswagen's clever, often self-deprecating advertising. In , the Beetle's transmission became fully synchronized, and an automatic choke and a pump-type windshield-washer system were fitted. Output rises to 40 horsepower. The Bug's engine grew in size again for , to cc, prompting the addition of a slightly optimistic "" badge to the trunk.
Output increased to 50 horsepower. Volkswagen again juiced the Beetle's engine, increasing displacement to cc, netting another 3 horsepower and a badge update to " Throughout the s, Bruce Meyers had worked to perfect his idea of the Beetle-based dune buggy. California beach culture spawned a few "kit cars" that utilized the Beetle's floorpan, engine, and transmission, making it a snap to pick up a junked Bug and transform it into a wild beachcomber.
A few years of development resulted in Meyers' kit, the Manx, leading the pack. We placed one of his Manxes on the cover of our April issue.
For such a low-tech car, the Beetle, at least for a time, offered a decidedly high-tech transmission. In , VW introduced the Automatic Stick Shift semi-automatic transmission option, essentially a regular Beetle four-speed manual with first gear removed, a torque converter added, and a vacuum-operated clutch that disengaged anytime the shifter is touched.
Simply move the lever to the desired gate, let go, and get back on the gas, and the system figured out the rest.
The technology was shared with Porsche Sportomatic , but the brazen "Automatic" decklid badging was all VW's. In our testing, the Automatic Stick Shift we dubbed it "A. Its quarter-mile time of The automatic model also added a new double-jointed rear-axle design, modeled after the setup in the VW Microbus. Compared with the Bug's original swing axles, the new suspension greatly enhanced the Beetle's handling.
Disney's first "Herbie" movie, The Love Bug , debuted in The plot featured prominently a self-aware Beetle that was tied up in hijinks while also proving itself a successful race car. Also, the rear window gained an electric defroster. Engine displacement again increased, rising to cc and bringing horsepower to Every U.
Just as the rear suspension was updated for , the front suspension receives its first redo for Super Beetle buyers net a larger front trunk, thanks to a strut-type suspension.
Also in , ports for computer-analysis tools are fitted halfway through the model year. In a six-car comparison test in , the Super Beetle places fifth. About the new front suspension, we declare "only an expert could detect [it] from the driver's seat.
This renders the Super Beetle the fastest Bug we'd ever tested, dropping its quarter-mile time to The run to 60 mph takes nearly as long, at Throughout the s and s, the Beetle set sales milestones; in , it establishes a big one. Both comments and pings are currently closed. Home New Volkswagen. Brookfield, WI Hall Volkswagen. Get Directions. Hours Todays Hours. Schedule Service. New Inventory Used Inventory. Sales: Service: Parts: The Beetle was designed in by a Hungarian Student Over a decade before the VW Beetle went into production, an year-old Hungarian student named Bela Barenyi submitted a chassis design for a Volkswagen.
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