20.02.2023A piece of German automotive history and one of the most famous vehicles in the world

The vehicle, which has been replicated by the label Minichamps in scale 1:43, is one of the vehicles that marked the automobile history sustainable to this day. VW is for no car better known worldwide than for the Beetle, which set the course for the creation of the company name when it appeared as “Volkswagen”. Until the Beetle was surpassed by the Golf in 2002, it was the world's best-selling automobile with 21.5 million sold units. The cult classic 1303 from Wolfsburg was launched in 1973 as a special model GSR (black and yellow racer). The special model was recognizable by its eye-catching paint finish in Saturn yellow and the boot lid and bonnet painted in subtle matt black. Minichamps produced this model exclusively for ck-modelcars and modelissimo and limited it to 500 pieces to commemorate the "last of its kind".

The Beetle got its name from the New York Times in 1938, which dared to compare it to the crawling animal of the same name in an article because of the many small cars that looked alike. Over 21 million VW Beetles were produced worldwide. The production, which last took place in Mexico, was only completely stopped in 2003. When the prototype of our model rolled off the assembly line in the early 1970s, things were not easy for the Beetle. On the one hand, it had never been more technologically advanced than it was at that time, when the chassis from the Porsche 911 was introduced alongside the 50 hp engine, which brought the Beetle to a top speed of 145 kph. But on the other hand, the Golf model was already in the starting blocks and was already expected by some of the buyers. VW didn't care and the black and yellow special model was presented anyway. The 1303 S was not cheap at the time. With a few ticks on the list of special equipment, you could quickly reach the mark of 7000 marks. The fact that the "S" in the model designation stands for Sport is shown not only by the atypically thick steering wheel but also by the fact that the tires on the Beetle are 175 Pirellis. 

Initially, VW installed a 4-cylinder boxer with 22 hp in the Beetle. In 1954 this was increased to 30 hp. In 1964 there was a further increase to 40 hp. 1970 marked the technical peak of the Beetle after further increases in engine performance. In addition to MacPherson struts, the 50 hp engine was also introduced. Today, the Beetle is considered the most popular classic car in the world. Our black and yellow racer made 3500 copies in this livery, of which 100 still exist nowadays. How popular the special model is in this finish is also shown by the brazen fakes that you can find again and again. The official tuning release from VW was 100 hp. In this version, the Beetle then reached a top speed of 165 kph.

prodotti

Volkswagen VW Scarafaggio 1303 S Anno di costruzione 1973 giallo-nero corridore 1:43 Minichamps

31,46 €