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One Man And His Insanely Fast Sleeper Car – A Souped Up VW Bug

One Man And His Insanely Fast Sleeper Car – A Souped Up VW Bug


The much-maligned Volkswagon Beetle deserves much of the derision it gets from serious gearheads. From its silly body design to its almost worthless engine to its reputation as a hippie car, the Beetle is a car for people that care more about style than performance. Sure, the original was designed by Ferdinand Porsche, but let’s be honest, whether it’s the original 950cc air-cooled engine that produced a whopping 25 hp or the newer version with the improved motor but still cheesy design, the Beetle has always been about its owner projecting a certain image. An image most gearheads don’t ever want to project.


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The along comes this guy, a Rio de Janeiro native living in Atlanta named Pedro Ebert. He is looking to change the whole image of the dainty Bug with the simple engine that a certain maniacal 20th-century dictator once described as “the people’s car.”

Pedro has built himself the ultimate sleeper car. A new Beetle that he transformed “into a track day ego crusher.” Pedro loves to race the car, commenting that he loves “getting those guys with a lot of money and no skill, and passing them with the Beetle, hurting their ego, it’s the best thing ever.”

While he doesn’t go into detail on the engine or even give a glimpse of it, it’s clear that he’s rebuilt a similar engine, possibly an Audi TT engine, which is built on the same platform at the new Beetle. He also appears to be filling it with Ethanol in the video, which would have required more customization. Taking a guess here, but with those two changes, if he wants to, he can probably blow anybody off the line in what looks like a completely stock VW Beetle on the outside. That sure would be embarrassing.

And yeah, the thing is insanely fast, check out the video below and let us know what you think in the comments!