Crass beetles
11/01/2024
For those for whom the Esso Tiger was not enough, Gulf offered an improved version from 1971: the 917 in the tank. Even the lamest cucumber was transformed into a Le Mans winner simply by filling it with the orange-blue "track juice". How else can you explain the fact that this VW 1200 suddenly grew gullwing doors, large exhaust pipes and extra-wide rear tires? However, the transformation seems to have been only external. The normal, transverse Beetle silencer peeps out from under the rear panel.
The VW shown below, on the other hand, is technically much closer to the racing car, as its owner implanted the "Fuhrmann engine" Type 547 from a Porsche Carrera in 1969. Today, the king-shaft work of art alone would be worth ten to twenty times the value of the shell. In the past, you probably just burned it up in amateur races on the nearest sand track...
