Now THIS is a neat car! You are looking at a German hot rod for sure. The VW Type 3 notchback has a Porsche six cylinder engine in it, hot rodded suspension and brakes, perfectly done bodywork and an interior that looks straight out of the pages of a high end car magazine. We don’t even think you have to be a VW enthusiast to enjoy this package because it has the right combo of looks, refinement, and horsepower to be very, very fun.

The VW type 3 showed up on the scene in 1961 and was offered in Europe in a couple of styles. There was a fastback, there was a notchback and there was a square back. The USA ended up getting the fastback and the square back after a couple of years but we never got the notchback imported as best we can tell. As you’d expect, the engine was an air-cooled four cylinder piece that made next to no power but got the car down the road reliably. Sitting on a 94.5-inch wheelbase and weighing a little over 2,300lbs, these cars are light and nimble which made them fun to drive, even with the factory measured 45hp engine. The cars were made in Germany, Brazil, and weirdly Australia through the corse of their lives and the Brazilians made the majority of them by a long shot. The model carried on until 1980 and that’s one of the reasons why Brazilian production was so high.

These cars had a torsion bar suspension and while this one has been updated a bunch underneath we do not think that it has lost its soul at all. The 3.2L naturally aspirated Porsche six banger likely sounds awesome and makes somewhere around 250hp depending on what’s been done to it and how heavily it has been hot rodded. While that is not a ton of power, putting it in about 2,000lbs is the trick.

We’re loving this car. How about you?

eBay link: VW Type 3 notchback for sale – total hot rod and awesomely done 

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