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evo vise detalja o power bug-u, bubs sa motorom iz porsche carrea i pogonom na sva 4 napravljena na osnovu 914-ke
Mid-Engine Power Bug
By Wolfgang Hornung (1974)
July 1988
It’s the VW Carrera – a 157 kW, 213 km/h super-Beetle looking for all the world like a series production Wolfsburger. Born in the shadow of the fuel crisis and severe speed limits, production plans hang in the balance.
It takes but a quick glance to realise that the extremely low-slung Beetle with impressive broad mudguards and voluptuous roller tyres offers something more in the engine department than VW stock-issue equipment.
The machine carries the unpretentious label, ‘Autohaus Nordstadt’. No clues there. But when the engine is started you become aware that this is a very unique specimen indeed. The twin exhausts emit the free, crisp, typical sound of a Porsche six-cylinder engine.
A look in the engine bay under the back lid reveals nothing at all. The spot where one normally expects to find the Wolfsburg flat four is, in fact, boot space! The Porsche unit is further forward, set ahead of the rear axle (in the back seat, would you believe?) and hidden beneath a huge black box just astern of the front bucket seats.
The Power Beetle’s aggressive Porsche Carrera engine is the most powerful horizontally opposed six yet produced at Stuttgart. Air-cooled and of 2.7-litres, it gives the silver-grey Autohaus Nordstadt a muscular 157 kW.
The VW Carrera project grew out of a styling study of the Beetle body two years ago, when it was found that Beetles showed remarkable stability, even without a chassis. This gave the director of the Hanover tuning business of Autohaus Nordstadt the idea of building a mid-engined Beetle with self-supporting body. So work started to build the Beetle to put all Beetles and Beetle derivatives in the shade.
The chassis of the VW-Porsche 914 was taken as a basis, running from just under the dashboard to below the back window. The 1303 Super Beetle body was placed on this, with ventilation grilles from the VW 411 station wagon welded in to below the rear quarter windows.
To take the radial tyres on 9-inch racing rims (320FR70VR14), the standard Beetle mudguards were cut lengthwise, and broadened by 50 mm. The rear guards have also been further enlarged by hand-beating to clear the broad axles of the VW-Porsche.
By the time the car was complete, costs were considerable. The Nordstadt people had gone through three VW bodies and two VW-Porsche 914 chassis before coming up with a prototype that satisfied them. But the time and cost had paid off, with the final result looking much like a routine Wolfsburg series production. And the bodywork is spotless with no temporary or compromise detail.
The installation of the power plant called for further modification, and the mid-engine configuration makes the Beetle a true two-seater. Although the engine is boxed in, it is still quite accessible through two shutters.
The Carrera engine is mated to the five-speed gearbox of the 2.2-litre 911S, but the makers say this is an interim measure and ultimately the Power Beetle will have a Carrera gearbox.
The car is indeed a hybrid. The oil-cooling and dry-sump system is from the 2.4-litre 911, with a fabricated oil tank holding an amazing 15 litres; suspension is VW-Porsche 914; and rear axle, with 80 percent lock and block differential, is composed of the diagonal bars of the VW-Porsche 914/6, Porsche 911 S-drive shafts and the disc brakes of a race 914.
The steering, including front axles, was originally destined for the VW-Porsche 914. The passenger compartment, too, abounds with Porsche features. Behind the leather-covered 911 steering wheel is the complete Porsche dashboard of five round instruments.
One finds the real Porsche elements when the key is turned, and the complete power of the engine is mobilised. Despite the relatively high weight over the rear axle, the broad radials find the surge of horses somewhat overtaxing and the Nordstadt Beetle, all fired up, leaves two thick black rubber traces down the road in a blue cloud. It starts off with such gusto that even sports cars in the upper price class need to concentrate all their power not to be left behind.
From start the 100km/h mark comes up in 7.3 seconds, and even in third the redline 7300rpm is reached so quickly you have to be pretty brisk through the gears. Even around 160km/h serious competition for the VW Carrera can only be found among the top Italian sports cars. Acceleration from 0-160km/h takes 18.3 seconds, which equals, more or less, that of the Maserati Indy with a 4-litre eight-cylinder engine.
And a normal Super Beetle? No chance, because by the time the stock 1303 has reached the 100km/h mark, the Nordstadt machine is already above 160km/h.
The Power Beetle from Hanover does the standing kilometre in a remarkable 27.9 seconds, with the needle at 180 km/h. With the relatively bad aerodynamic shape of the Beetle body compared with its Porsche sire, the VW-Carrera’s top speed, even with 157 kW, is 30 km/h below that of the Stuttgart car. Still, for a car with a Beetle body, 213 km/h is not at all bad!
Driving the VW Carrera is a real pleasure. It is fun to approach a large Mercedes at 160 km/h on the Autobahn (they don’t normally move an inch if the driver sees a VW approaching in his mirrors! ), watch the Mercedes accelerate to 180 km/h to try to make a gap, then hurry past him with apparently no effort at all.
The engine mounted just behind the driver is far from annoyingly noisy. In fact it puts out the same agreeable ‘sound of power’ as the normal series Porsche. The engine is extremely flexible and in fifth gear will run from 40 km/h to 100 km/h in 11.5 seconds, and from 40 km/h to 160 km/h in 22.2 seconds.
The central installation of the six-cylinder engine helps reduce the heavy tail that typifies the VW Beetle, and weight is distributed with 500 kg on the front axle and 600 kg at the back.
A big plus for the car is its directional stability, which has been achieved without any aerodynamic tricks. At the very beginning of the project a front spoiler was planned to keep the Beetle from lifting, but extensive and careful tests showed that even at speeds of over 200 km/h the weight on the front axle would be barely reduced. So the designers decided to do without.
In fast bends, the Koni shock absorber-equipped VW Carrera has all the good qualities of a mid-engined car. When the road-holding limit of the fat radials is reached the Power Beetle oversteers slightly but with easy correction.
As expected, the four-wheel, ventilated disc brakes were perfect.
