The owner of German auto shop Knepper Bugs & More salvaged an elderly Volkswagen Beetle to turn it into an electric menace outpacing even the Porsche 911 GT3.
He used a motor sourced from a Tesla Model S, but – and this is the big part – actually tuned it to support higher operating voltages. Now, that’s not something commonly seen on the tuning scene of today, but with some proper cooling the mill could deliver over 608 PS (600 hp / 447 kW) and 700 Nm (516 lb-ft) of torque to the wheels.
He installed Porsche 930 driveshafts to handle the momentum and used as many as 17 Taycan EV power cell pouches for battery. According to Knepper, his Beetle now hits 100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.9 seconds from standstill and doesn’t feel any worse for doing so. Even the 911 GT3 mentioned above takes half a second longer to get going.
Downsides? Range, probably. When driven carefully, the electromod is good for 250 kilometers (155 miles) or so, but floor the accelerator and it goes through the whole battery in 100 km (62 mi). Still, Knepper was undeterred by this as he embarked on a long journey he’d planned for a while.
This journey – which was around 8,000 kilometers or 5,000 miles long – is now complete. The tuner went through Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal and Luxemburg before crossing the Gibraltar Strait to Africa and having some fun driving there as well. The Beetle apparently fared great throughout the entire distance.
