As someone who isn’t a fan of the original Volkswagen Beetle, you can only imagine my reaction when VW unveiled the New Beetle back in 1997. Every teenage girl knew one vehicle that year, and for the exact same reason: it was “cute!”, except the proper pronunciation looked more like “KY-oooot!” It was so popular in society that it actually got a place in my school’s yearbook that year as one of the defining parts of our lives. Shoot me, please. I was drooling over the SLP-modified Camaro SS that was on sale, wrenching on my Caprice and wanted nothing to do with any Volkswagen-sourced product, ever. Not much has changed since then, but while I can appreciate the classics for what they are, I still loathe New Beetles. They were single-handedly the reason why a lot of manufacturers jumped onto the retro-design bandwagon, and they aged, in my humble opinion, the worst out of all of the retro-mobiles. People still want 2005 Mustang GTs. A 1997 New Beetle is a hand-me-down used car refugee for a freshly-minted 16 year old daughter somewhere.
But the world of automotive enthusiasts have their fair share of freaks, and one of them has managed to jam a Chevrolet big-block into a New Beetle for the express purpose of drag racing. Based out of Ontario and captured at the Byron Wheelstanding Championships by our friends at Urban Hillbilly Videos, we have the most badass Barbie Bug on the planet flexing it’s muscles at the strip. It sounds good, it runs well enough (though it isn’t high enough for Byron’s wheelie competition and isn’t quick enough in the video to impress), and we do admire the creativity of the packaging. I still wouldn’t drive it, but this one gets a pass…barely.
