Retro Custom Limited Edition New Beetle.

Retro-themed cars are big business at the moment, with a number of car manufacturers bringing out modern retro-themed versions of cars they once made in yesteryear. Volkswagen kicked off the trend back in 1994 with their revamp of the VW Beetle called 'Concept One. This eventually went into production and hit the market in 1997 and was immediately a storming success and is still cherished by many VW enthusiasts today. 

After 14 years of production, the Beetle underwent a redesign and was a sleeker, lower profile version of the Beetle was launched for the 2012 model year and many see this model as being closer to its classic roots than its predecessor. 

Working closely with Lancaster Volkswagen, we were commissioned to design and create a 'Retro' themed new design Beetle in just two weeks for display and sale at their dealerships and a brand new base model was delivered to our workshops for us to work our magic. 

We considered a number of design options and settled on an accessorised classic style design, with a number of custom one-off accessories being created in-house. To make sure the design would work, we photoshopped the design on a photo of the base model of the car and this allowed us to tweak and improve areas of the design. 

We obtained a set of classic style wheels and the car was treated to a two-tone side panel design. We sourced a curved Vintage Speed Karmann Ghia roof rack which was modified and custom clamps were fabricated to allow it to be fitted to the curved and gutter-less Beetle roof. 

Custom front and rear stone guards were fabricated in-house from aluminium and some classic Vw Beetle bonnet trim was modified and re-shaped to fit the bonnet. We sourced chrome wing mirror covers and also fitted genuine VW beetle wing beading in L456 Ruby Red which matched the car's paintwork perfectly. 

The final touch we added was a custom Retro Custom badge created by laser etching the logo into an aluminium disc which was also made in-house. 

The car was debuted at the Lancaster Volkswagen Letchworth Classic Event and went on display in the showroom.

A few weeks later, the car was displayed at VW Action at Santa Pod Raceway where it turned many heads in the New Beetle display in the main show arena. The plan was for the car to be displayed at a number of Lancaster Volkswagen dealerships but the car got sold shortly after returning from Santa Pod as a prospective owner fell in love with it and just had to own it! 

You can see the process behind the creation of the car in the photo gallery below.