It looks like a reincarnation of the Love Bug, with a big wing grafted on its back. But,nein. The moldings for the fiberglass body panels were drawn from an early-’70s Bug, but aside from that and the flat windshield (the only real Beetle part), this car has nothing in common with ol’ Herbie.
The Fun Cup car is a genuine racing machine: tube-steel frame, mid-engine, rear-drive, and over the past decade-plus, it’s been the centerpiece of the Fun Cup–spec endurance-racing series in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Canary Islands, and more recently, England. Each national grouping stages a five-race series. There’s also a 25-hour enduro at Spa in mid-July and a November season-ender at the Nürburgring. The winners in the finale are entitled to call themselves world champions.
The Fun Cup is the brainchild of Franz Dubois, a Belgian touring-car veteran who dreamed this up as a relatively inexpensive way to go racing and also as a social event. The social aspect varies, depending on the culture. At a 2008 French eight-hour race, for example, the teams battled for four hours, broke for a two-hour lunch—which included wine—then resumed racing.
Unlike the original Beetle, the Fun Cup car’s engine rides ahead of the rear axle. It’s a 2.0-liter, SOHC eight-valve VW four, rated at 150 horsepower and mated to a five-speed manual transmission. At 94.5 inches, the car’s wheelbase is almost the same as that of the ’72 Beetle, but the Fun Cup car is a little shorter, a little wider, not quite as tall, and distinctly more warlike. With 12 gallons of E85 in the Fuel Safe fuel cell up front, its race weight, minus driver, is a claimed 1700 pounds.
Keep Reading: Volkswagen Beetle Fun Cup Racer - Feature
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