German giant Volkswagen is often regarded as being one of the more conservative car brands, and yet, from time to time, it is not afraid to go a bit mental. From installing a W8 engine into the staid Passat to using the in-house Bugatti brand to reset our expectations of fast road cars with the 1000hp Veyron, VAG can indeed be relied upon to spring a few surprises.
One such out-of-character moment occurred in 2001, when VW took its cutesy ‘New Beetle', ditched the vase and installed a 3.2-litre VR6 engine with four-wheel drive. The Beetle RSi brought a new meaning to the phrase ‘flower power’.
Bonkers a recipe it may have been, but it also served as a kind of technological testbed for the forthcoming Golf R32, which would feature the same mechanical components. In all, 250 were built. When did you last see one in the wild?
You’d likely remember: the RSi resembled a standard Beetle which had well and truly made use of its gym membership. Wheel arches stretched by 80mm to cover 18-inch OZ alloys wrapped in 235/40 rubber; lower, deeper bumpers front and rear; a unique diffuser housing a pair of chrome-tipped exhaust tailpipes; and an outrageous 911 Turbo-esque rear spoiler. Staid and sensible? The Beetle RSi was anything but…
Thankfully, this was not a case of all show and no go. As mentioned, under the (front-mounted) bonnet was a development of the company’s long-serving narrow-angle VR6 engine, whose 3.2-litre capacity helped to deliver 221bhp. Sixty was reached in 6.7 seconds, and the bewinged Bug could top out at almost 140mph. Both would make for wonderfully unorthodox spectacles.
While researching for this piece, I stumbled upon an article by renowned performance car magazine evo, in which the RSi is deemed one of the worst cars they've ever driven, sharing webpage space with - of all things - a Lexus SC430. That must have hurt the VW engineers…
Whether it was indeed any good or not is, for me at least, beside the point. The Beetle RSi paved the way for the glorious Mk4 Golf R32 (my fondness for which will be well known to any regular readers of this blog). Cars which follow their own path, the non-conformists, always have a place in my heart. When did you last see orange leather seats and billet aluminium trim inside a production car?
I am glad Volkswagen produced the Beetle RSi, for it proved that even the most formal, button-up types can occasionally rock up in a pair of neon trainers…
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