1963 Turbo WBX

It’s a 1963 Beetle, powered by a 300+ bhp turbo, EFi waterboxer engine.

From front to back, virtually every single part has been modified in some way – I joke that only the front and rear screens have been left standard!

The front beam is 4″ narrowed with adjusters and dropped spindles with custom hubs to accommodate the Porsche 996 vented discs and 4 pot calipers. Rear suspension is a combination of Porsche Boxster and 944 with AVO coilovers.
The gearbox is a 5 speed Renault UN1 transaxle, the same as fitted to Lotus Esprit Turbos and some DeLoreans. The gear shifter setup is a modified Toyota MR2 cable system. The engine is a 1900cc waterboxer from a T3 van, fitted with a Holset HX35 turbo, liquid to air charge cooler, megasquirt ECU, Greddy boost controller and a whole load of other go-faster parts.

It’s made over 350bhp on the dyno and back in the day, it ran a 10-second quarter-mile at over 130mph. I bought it in 2016 and the bulk of the work was already done and I’ve been gradually working through it and bringing it up to a standard I’m happy with.

It’s been a real labour of love but it did win Best Cal Look at Bugjam32, and a couple of other awards at local shows too.

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