Do You Want a Big VW Bug?

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

Summary: One California man decided a normal 1959 VW bug wasn’t big enough for him and took on a three year project to increase the size of the car by 40 percent.

What happens when you mix a Dodge Ram pickup truck and a Volkswagen Bug? You get an extra-large bug worthy of the best fans. There exists in the Los Angeles, California area a VW bug unlike any other. You will know it’s the one by its personalized license plate “HUGE BUG.”

  

What

Where

Search Jobs

Richard Tupper of Gardena, CA took on the project to build himself a VW bug 40 percent larger than the normal 1959 version. He used the chassis of a 2010 Dodge Ram full-size pickup truck as the starting point, including the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 engine in the front.

Read Volkswagen Will Pay $15 Billion for Emissions Cheating.

Tupper owns a metal fabrication shop, making the project easier but it still took him several years to complete. The custom VW bug required 3,514 unique parts to be made. This included making even the screws from scratch since the size he needed did not exist. Tupper said, “In hindsight, it wasn’t that hard” but” “I had to make templates for everything.”

See Nearly 200 Class Action Suits Filed Against Volkswagen.

His custom VW bug weighs a total of 6,200 pounds with the hold along weighing around 200 pounds. The 1959 VW bug weighs 1,600 pounds. He spent a total of three years building the car.

Another cool feature of the custom bug – a drop down digital dashboard. The actual dashboard instruments are not functioning so when he starts the car, the working dashboard drops down from behind it.

Many would assume that Tupper is a VW fanatic but he says he knows little about the cars. He just wanted a big one.

Would you want a VW bug if it as bigger? Tell us in the comments below.

To learn more about old classic cars, read Old Car Trivia.

Photo: usatoday.com