As a teen I drove Dad's 1973 Beetle, with 3 speed "semiautomatic" stick shift. (No clutch, it would disengage when you moved the stick) Good times!
Some guy came to a hot rod and classics car meeting a couple weeks ago here in Queens, NY, with a customized bug. He did a fair amount of custom body work on it (flared out fenders, etc), but the car still very much retained the classic VW Bug look. He did or had done a flashy 2-tone paint job. And he installed a large-as-would-fit chromed out, souped up engine...in the front! It was pretty wild. Unfortunately, no camera at the time to take pics.