1971-1975 Volkswagen Super Beetle

Any Beetle of yore is more closely related to a lawn tractor than it is to the modern auto with which it shares a name and silhouette

by B. Mitchell Carlson

It hardly seems believable that by 1971 the Volkswagen Beetle—the success story of the 1960s—was losing favor with the public. In earlier years the Beetle’s quaint simplicity had been a plus, but those same qualities were beginning to seem as hopelessly outdated as the car’s underpinnings and mechanicals. To complicate matters, after years of mostly ignoring VW’s pest, domestic manufacturers started to fight back with new cars that were good enough to steal market share from the “people’s car.” Rather than totally redo the Beetle, VW introduced the Super Beetle, the first car to officially carry the “Beetle” moniker. Sold alongside the standard Beetle, the new Super Beetle coupe was a slightly larger package all around, including a three-inch longer wheelbase. To compensate for the Super’s additional 155 pounds, engine output was increased to a blistering 60 horsepower, from the 1970 Beetle’s 57. But manufacturing economies dictated that this engine also be...