This is a 2026 Fusconeta Volkspod, it’s a Brazilian minibike built around a Volkswagen Beetle front fender, with a tubular steel frame and a 212cc Predator engine.
These minibikes have become hugely popular, they’re now available in a wide range of colors and with custom graphics. There fact that they have no manual clutch or gears also makes them remarkably easy for first-time motorcyclists to hop on and ride.
This is a 2026 Fusconeta Volkspod, it’s a Brazilian minibike built around a Volkswagen Beetle front fender, with a tubular steel frame and a 212cc Predator engine.
History Speedrun: The Fusconeta Volkspod Minibike
The Fusconeta Volkspod is a small custom minibike built around a fiberglass replica of a Volkswagen Beetle’s front fender. They’re made in Curitiba in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, by Small Motors Brasil Ltda.
The Fusconeta name is a play on “Fusca,” the Brazilian Portuguese nickname for the Beetle, combined with the Portuguese word “motoneta” (meaning scooter). The simple concept behind the Beetle-inspired minibike has turned out to be hugely popular, and they’ve now sold more than 800 of them to customers in Brazil and the United States.
The concept of the Fusconeta didn’t begin in Brazil, it was created by Brent Walter, a maker and fabricator in Huntington, Indiana. Walter, a former tool-and-die maker then employed in medical-device manufacturing, had four spare Beetle fenders left over from restoring his own Type 1.
He needed practice butt-welding thin sheet metal in preparation for fitting a ragtop, and decided to meld two front fenders and two rear fenders into a single rounded shell. Set on a minibike chassis with a 79cc engine, the result looked something like a wheeled insect with a cyclopic headlight. Walter posted it to Instagram as the Volkspod, a name borrowed from Randy Grubb’s polished-aluminum Decopods, Piaggio-based art-deco scooters later featured on Jay Leno’s Garage.
The first Volkspod was strictly a car-show toy – the follow-up, painted pastel blue and commissioned by American Pickers’ Robbie Wolfe, used a 212cc engine, taller 13 inch tires, and offered more ground clearance. After both bikes went viral online, Walter was inundated with build requests but could only produce them part-time, on evenings and weekends. This opened up a gap for a commercial manufacturer capable of building hundreds rather than just tens.
Small Motors Brasil stepped in to meet demand – rather than cut up donor Beetles, the company sourced fiberglass replica fenders, widely available in Brazil as VW aftermarket bodywork, and fitted them over a tubular steel scooter chassis.
These minibikes have become hugely popular, they’re now available in a wide range of colors and with custom graphics. There fact that they have no manual clutch or gears also makes them remarkably easy for first-time motorcyclists to hop on and ride.
Production became scalable and significantly cheaper, while keeping the original silhouette intact. According to the manufacturer’s specifications, each Fusconeta is built around a MIG-welded tubular steel frame and powered by a 200+cc four-stroke single producing 7 bhp, with electric start and an automatic transmission.
Stopping is handled by a rear hydraulic disc brake operated from the handlebars, there is no front brake. Suspension is provided entirely by the sidewall flex of wide tubeless kart tires. Headlight and taillight are LED units integrated into the fender, and rated payload is 150 kgs. Many are powered by 212cc Predator and 223cc Viking engines, which offer decent reliability and good spare parts availability.
A US dealer in Orlando, Florida, lists new Fusconetas at $2,999. Liveries on offer include Martini Racing, John Player Special, a Harley-Davidson tribute, a hot-rod theme, and even a Minions model.
The 2026 Fusconeta Volkspod Shown Here
The minibike you see here is a 2026 Fusconeta Volkspod finished with an unusual cartoon-style graphics package that we haven’t seen used before, making the bike look almost it drove off the pages of a mid-century comic book.
This Volkspod is powered by a 212cc Predator single-cylinder engine with pull start and an automatic, centrifugal clutch. It has a 1.25 inch rear axle, a disc brake, and a powder-coated reinforced steel frame.
The minibike you see here is a 2026 Fusconeta Volkspod finished with an unusual cartoon-style graphics package that we haven’t seen used before, making the bike look almost it drove off the pages of a mid-century comic book.
It has a lightweight fiberglass VW Beetle front fender as its bodywork, and it has a chrome handlebar, vintage-style saddle, go kart tires, and a listed top speed of somewhere in the region of 40 mph.
This Fusconeta Volkspod is due to roll across the auction block with Mecum in late July and you can visit the listing here to read more about it or register to bid.
Images courtesy of Mecum
Articles that Ben Branch 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.
