Volkswagen New Beetle RSi Was One Juiced-Up Bug

Right here is the rarest and costliest Volkswagen ever constructed. It is a weird, wide-bodied, and whale-tailed machine, filled with carbon fiber, aluminum, all-wheel-drive, and the primary narrow-angle 3.2-liter V-6 (VR6) obtainable in a manufacturing VW. Presenting one thing you forgot about, or maybe by no means knew existed: the New Beetle RSi.

Sitting contained in the New Beetle, we open the door to step out and snap just a few images, and clouds of mosquitoes come for blood. Perhaps two minutes and no less than ten bites later, we scurry again contained in the automobile. As we begin off, there is a deep satisfaction in watching insect vampires spattering in opposition to the windshield.

“Kills bugs quick” was a well-known print advert that starred an Area Purple air-cooled Porsche 911 Turbo. Right here in Langley, BC, the RSi’s V-6 is on the boil and doing simply nearly as good a job as any Stuttgart-built flyswatter.

Subsequent to me within the passenger seat, proprietor Marcel Horn claps his huge paws collectively, racking up the skeeter physique depend by squashing just a few which have snuck into the cabin. Nicely over six ft tall, Horn is spoiled for headroom with the Beetle’s lofty curved roof, and he gushes over the main points scattered all through his RSi’s cabin. He not too long ago imported the automobile from Tokyo, and there is some inside put on, however whereas the blemishes will finally be addressed, Horn’s summer season plans are to only drive the wheels off this factor.

Doing so makes absolute sense as a result of the RSi is an absolute delight. On paper, the power-to-weight ratio cannot match VW’s trendy R-badged automobiles, however this juiced-up Beetle has a lot character.

Underneath the hood, the VR6 punches out 221 horsepower at 6200 rpm and makes a terrific noise approaching redline. The mixture of a short-throw, close-ratio six-speed handbook gearbox and 236 pound-feet of torque at 2000 rpm makes carrying velocity alongside these empty nation lanes simple. Steering is a fast and correct delight, and the engine responds eagerly to throttle enter. It is ein wunderbar käfer.

After which there’s the hilarity of diving right into a nook and feeling the massive lateral grip of 235-series tires in a widebody model of a automobile that was offered to the lots with a flower vase perched on the dashboard. When it launched in 2001, the RSi price the equal of $80,000—sufficient to purchase two Porsche Boxsters on the time. Solely 250 have been offered, manufacturing figures ordinarily suiting a racing homologation particular.

Proven as an idea at Detroit’s North American Worldwide Auto Present in 1999, the RSi injected some sporting intent into the New Beetle’s picture. The New Beetle was promoting nicely already—VW shifted greater than 84,000 New Beetles within the U.S. in 1999—and a turbocharged mannequin was on the way in which. At the moment, many Volkswagen traditionalists view the New Beetle with delicate disdain, however it was cute, sensible, and no tougher to dwell with than a recent Golf.

These attributes have been no shock as a result of, beneath, the New Beetle was a Golf. Stretching a Beetle-shaped frock over a Golf-sized model did weird issues to the New Beetle’s inside ergonomics, however for probably the most half, the general public cherished it. Additionally they cherished the RSi idea and clamored for it to be constructed.

Then once more, the general public is at all times clamoring for ideas to be constructed, however automakers are (appropriately) normally extra involved with constructing automobiles they will really promote. Within the early 2000s, nevertheless, confidence ranges in VW boardrooms have been at an all-time excessive. The choice had not too long ago been made to maneuver forward with the world-beating Bugatti Veyron undertaking. Volkswagen actually may spend just a few Euros to construct an über-Beetle.

The manufacturing RSi was basically a road-going model of the racecars used within the New Beetle Cup one-marque sequence. The fingerprints of Volkswagen’s motorsport division will be discovered all around the automobile, from the fixed-back carbon-fiber bucket seats to the aluminum window cranks. Goodbye bud vase, good day LED shift mild. VW used the chance to launch the brand new 3.2-liter model of its 24-valve V-6 engine, which later confirmed up within the U.S. market within the R32 Golf and the Audi TT.

All 250 examples of the RSi have been inbuilt Volkswagen’s manufacturing unit in Puebla, Mexico. The road was separate from the usual New Beetle manufacturing line (and from the meeting line for the air-cooled unique Beetle, which was inbuilt Mexico till 2003). As a result of the RSi was the manufacturing unit’s flagship, a excessive degree of care went into its meeting. The automobile has a bespoke high quality not like that of every other manufacturing VW.

Each one of many 250 automobiles was silver, though one extra particular blue automobile was constructed for then CEO Ferdinand Piëch. The mannequin was by no means offered within the U.S. or Canada however was supplied in Europe, Mexico, Japan, and different abroad markets between 2001 and 2003.

That RSi quantity 160/250 ought to discover its technique to the west coast of Canada is a homecoming of types. Horn is the founding father of HPA Motorsports, a Volkswagen tuner with three a long time of expertise making Beetles fly. In 1998, when VW was making ready its RSi idea, Horn was constructing his seventh VR6-swapped New Beetle. When the RSi got here out, his firm developed a twin-turbo equipment that boosted output to nicely over 400 horsepower on the wheels.

HPA constructed 5 turbocharged RSi New Beetles, in addition to numerous comparable automobiles constructed utilizing U.S.-spec chassis as a foundation. Due to business connections, Horn was in a position to go to the Puebla manufacturing unit whereas the RSi was being constructed there, and struck a deal to purchase up elements after the manufacturing run ended. Canada’s 15-year gray-market importation guidelines meant that the RSi has been authorized right here for years, however the automobile’s rarity makes it onerous to search out. When this one confirmed up in Japan, Horn purchased it instantly.

The temptation is there to twin-turbocharge the automobile, because it’s what HPA does finest. At SEMA in 2019, as a send-off to the final technology of VW Beetle, HPA introduced a Beetle Dune with a twin-turbo 3.2-liter VR6 that put out 700 horsepower and despatched 800 pound-feet of torque to all 4 wheels.

However the RSi is greater than fast sufficient because it stands, and there is a nostalgia for the form and the sound. It is a automobile from a time when the web was in its infancy, smartphones did not exist, and Volkswagen was an ascending juggernaut working towards changing into the biggest automaker on this planet.

This blister-fendered and box-winged Volkswagen is bursting with hubris; its six-cylinder engine snarls by means of twin exhaust ideas. The New Beetle RSi makes a wierd and uncommon dream automobile, however it’s a dream automobile nonetheless. No manufacturing unit Beetle ever killed bugs quicker.