This is a Volkswagen Beetle that’s been given a chassis swap to turn it into a four-wheel drive. It’s now powered by a front-mounted turbodiesel engine, it has live axles front and back, a dual range transfer case, and it’s road legal.
The original VW Beetle has proven itself to be surprisingly capable off road over the years, particularly when modified for Baja racing or turned into a Meyers Manx. This Beetle takes it one step further, adding class-leading 4×4 underpinnings to take its off-road ability to the next level.
Fast Facts – A Volkswagen Beetle 4×4
- This 1980 Volkswagen Beetle has been converted into a 4×4, powered by a front-mounted 2.5 liter Land Rover 200 Tdi turbodiesel engine. It sits on a 1996 Land Rover Defender 90 chassis, featuring coil springs, live axles, and a dual-range transfer case, making it highly capable off-road.
- Building a true 4×4 Beetle is a complex process, typically requiring a chassis swap. There were a small number of Beetle derived 4x4s produced during WWII, including the Kommandeurswagen and the amphibious Schwimmwagen.
- This vehicle includes several modifications, including front vents for radiator airflow, a snorkel, a roof rack, a winch-capable front bumper, and a front bash plate. Inside, it features bucket seats in the front and a rear bench seat.
- This custom 4×4 Beetle is road-registrable in the UK, though it now requires an MOT inspection to be legally driven. It’s currently offered for sale in Leicestershire for £4,000 (around $5,400 USD), making it a unique and affordable off-roader with plenty of character.
Building A 4×4 Volkswagen Beetle
Building a true four-wheel drive Beetle is not for the faint of heart, it has been done a number of times in the past going all the way back to WWII, when the Germans built the Beetle-based 4×4 Volkswagen Kommandeurswagen followed by the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen, which was built on Beetle underpinnings (after they’d been modified for the Kübelwagen).
The seller notes that this vehicle draws a huge amount of attention wherever it goes, so it’s not a good choice for someone who doesn’t like talking to strangers.
The floorpan of the Beetle makes converting it to 4×4 rather difficult, and so many builders have opted to simply find a pre-existing four-wheel drive with a suitable wheelbase, and then transfer the body over. The other option is to shorten a chassis, though this is generally a more significant undertaking than it may at first seem.
Some have opted to keep as many Volkswagen parts in the build as possible, and as such they’ve used parts from the T3 Vanagon Syncro, a four-wheel drive version of the beloved Kombi van that was produced by VW for a number of years. Original T3 Syncros are now highly collectible, so this route has become less and less common in recent years.
The VW Beetle 4×4 Shown Here
The Beetle you see in this article went down the latter route, it’s now based on a 1996 Land Rover Defender 90 chassis, which means it has coil springs on all four corners, live axles front and back, a dual range transfer case and steel ladder frame chassis.
Power is provided by a Land Rover 200 Tdi engine, this is a 2.5 liter inline-four with cast iron block, and aluminum cylinder head, an overhead camshaft, and two valves per cylinder. It’s a turbodiesel, with a Garrett T2 doing the work, and it uses a Bosch engine management system.
This version of the 200 Tdi is capable of 109 bhp and 188 lb ft of torque, and in this vehicle it’s mated to an automatic transmission and that dual range transfer case sending power to either the rear axle only, or to both the front and rear.
A 1980 Volkswagen Beetle body was used, with a series of modifications including some vents on the front to get airflow into the radiator. It’s also been fitted with a snorkel, a roof rack, front and rear bumpers including a winch-capable front bumper, and a front bash plate.
Inside you’ll find twin bucket seats up front and a bench seat in the rear. It’s fair to say that the vehicle could use some TLC and it’s certainly showing some patina and rust in places, but at this price point it is offering a remarkably unique 4×4 for the money.
Under the hood you’ll find a Land Rover 200 Tdi engine instead of the trunk space, spare tire, and fuel tank that would have been here in the Beetle when it left the factory. The rear engine compartment is now a trunk, with the fuel tank fitted further in.
This unusual Beetle 4×4 does have V5C documentation, meaning it’s road registrable, though it doesn’t come with an MOT and it would need one to be registered in the UK. The MOT is an annual mechanical inspection required by all vehicles over three years old, it includes checks of all the vehicle’s major systems to ensure it’s safe to be on the road.
This unusual Land Rover-based creation is being offered for sale out of Leicestershire in the United Kingdom with an asking price of £4,000, which works out to a little under $5,400 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Car & Classic
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
