Own a Piece of Mulholland Drive History: Paul Newman's Insane 300+ hp VW Bug

Reaganite Republican ^ | May 6, 2011 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

Even casual observers of legendary actor/director/racing enthusiast and professional driver/philanthropist Paul Newman can tell you that amongst his widely varied personal interests,
the boy liked his cars... and particularly the fast ones.

The late-great movie star also possessed an independent streak that contributed to his aura and celebrity appeal, thus in the wake of initial Hollywood success of the early 1960s -starting with 1963's The Hustler- the free-thinking Newman went and got himself not a new Cadillac convertible, Rolls, or Ferrari... but a cherry-red 1963 VW Beetle Convertible.  He was soon recruited by VW's agency in the US to pose in ads with his car-
a no-brainer for Volkswagen.

Paul Newman's fame and wealth swelled by late Sixties with epic performances in Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Then while training to drive a race car for the shooting of 1969's Winning, Newman acquired a serious interest in real-world racing that was to develop into a second career for him (and his salad dressing ain't bad, either!). 

I myself attended a Trans-Am race in the mid 80s where Newman ended-up at the top of the podium, and he once even finished 2nd-in-class at the prestigious 24 hrs of LeMans- the man was really a pretty skilled race car driver- not a poser at all. Alas, once Newman started hitting the track regularly, he never again shot films during the summer racing season.

But it didn't take long for crazy ole Paul to get a wonderfully crazy idea in that same Summer of '69: "I wonder what a V-8 like that would do in my Vee Dub?" Of course there's only one way to find out, and the task fell to California-based Indy car builder
Jerry Eisert (apparently cost no object). 

What Eisert's shop created came to be known up on Mulholland as the "Newman Bug"- a very professionally-executed
300 hp VW Beetle convertible featuring not just Ford 351-W V-8 power but an exotic race-style suspension, 5-speed HD gearbox from a Ford GT40, heavily reinforced floorpan/unibody, much chrome, a front-end customization to accommodate a radiator/cooling system, aluminum brakes, etc... an incredibly balanced and capable package considering this machine was created from an air-cooled, 40 hp economy car first designed in the 1930s... and the whole back seat is now stuffed with engine.

In the wake of it's complete restoration, the historic 1963 VW 'Newman Bug' has now been put on the market: they're asking $250,000... and it just might bring it, a special car in every way:

More photos/details at Reaganite Republican


Enjoy your weekend, FReepers

___________________________________________

IMDb   OldBug.com   LATimes   Wikipedia   h/t Speedunque

[mamelukesabre]

I wouldn’t give 1K for a bug with a water cooled V8 motor.

You can get 300hp out of a air cooled porsche 911 motor and it will fit in a bug way better than that ridiculous monstrosity in the article.

[EricT.]

What is this “smog check station” you speak of?

Is that something that is found outside of the Free United States?

[Erasmus]

What vintage Datsuns? Z-cars? I had one (HLS30, 2.4L, American version) from, IIRC, May 1970.

[af_vet_rr]

There were many classes and Paul Newman showed up and entered a porche. Goodyear showed up with a truck load of new stickum tires by far the best made to that point. Newman bought the entire truck to not allow anyone but him to use them insuring him a win.

That's about what you'd expect out of a NASCAR team owner, which he was at one point ;-)

[from occupied ga]

All who met him came away feeling dirty..

Don't liberals always leave you wanting to wash your hands after shaking eith them?

[Reaganite Republican]

3 gallons per mile lol

[Haiku Guy]

Check this out. 1300 Horsepower rocket powered transaxle mounted to a Volkswagen Bug. Posted a quarter-mile in 9.36 seconds at 168 mph. And that was with the Thermonique Turbo Axle dialed back to only 500 hp!

Iowahawk: The Real Acme

[Reaganite Republican]

Big deal, I saw a 7 billion HP plutonium-powered bug once

See I can do oneupmanship lolol

[katana]

It's difficult to be born and raised in Cleveland, OH and turn out pretentious (even if you are a Liberal and a genuine movie star).

But somehow and except for the genuine part, George Clooney manages it where Paul (who bragged about graduating "summa cum lager") Newman failed. According to everybody and in spite of his politics Paul was a good dude.

[Joe Boucher]

A very poor 510 team out of Schmidt Datsun out of Chicago

[ArtDodger]

I bet you it sounds like a muffler-less dump truck when running....

[Ronald_Magnus]

Great story. He's the only lib I've ever had respect for. He was every man's man in "Cool Hand Luke".

[Erasmus]

Was that in the SCCA Showroom Stock series? The 510’s were pretty competitive in that class, IIRC.

[Neidermeyer]

I wouldn’t give 1K for a bug with a water cooled V8 motor.

You can get 300hp out of a air cooled porsche 911 motor and it will fit in a bug way better than that ridiculous monstrosity in the article.
*************************************************
AGREED ! , A 351W is too heavy ,,, I used to race with someone that had a Porsche 356C converted to wankel 13B power and just the added weight of the cooling system ruined it ... it was pretty close to 250hp and would have weighed less than Newmanns bug... A V8 bug would have been a novelty ,, but it really wasn’t a huge stretch of the imagination,, he just copied what people were doing with the 65+ Chevy Corvairs , converting them to V8 power with a SBC in the back seat area.. Give me a modern Porsche anyday...

[Patriot Babe]

Nope Paul Newman hands down. Paul may have acted cool but my main dude who exude real coolness regarding cars and racing was STEVE MCQUEEN -)

[Reaganite Republican]

Agreed, I just like the car

[Joe Boucher]

510 was a great car for two reasons,
It was cheap, so lots of folks could afford them.
They were a basic simple vehicle easy to set up.
And yes.

[Bitsy]

I have no idea. My bet is that it is not all that good :)

Hollywood kills me. They can all talk the talk but walking the walk is another thing. In general,they are all egotistical, self indulgent, pampered, delusional, pompus @sses who believe in the world according to them. IMHO, or course:)