The Volkswagen New Beetle made its debut in 1998, following a long drought in America. Being based on the Golf, the New Beetle shared nearly nothing but its basic shape to the Beetle from the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. In 2012, the Beetle obviously hit manhood, as VW dropped the "New" prefix and renamed it just "Beetle." This new, more masculine Beetle has slightly harder lined and a lower-slung roofline. Despite getting a little scruff on its face, few expected the newest Beetle to makes its way to race tracks, but that is exactly what is happening in 2014 with the Beetle GRC.

The well-known Tanner Foust and his colleague driver Scott Speed of the Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross started the 2014 season off in two modified Polo->ke322 rally cars, but that all changes mid-season when they switch to the new GRC Volkswagen Beetle. The menacing little bug pushes some 500-plus horsepower to all four wheels via its turbocharged, direct-injected TSI engine.

Updated 09/18/2014: Volkswagen unveiled a new trailer video for the new Beetle GRC and also announced that the car will be racing at the Port of Los Angeles this weekend. Enjoy!

Click past the jump to read more about the Volkswagen Beetle GRC.

2014 Volkswagen Beetle GRC

Specifications
  • Make: Array
  • Model: 2014 Volkswagen Beetle GRC
  • Engine/Motor: inline-4
  • Horsepower: 544
  • Transmission: Six-Speed
  • [do not use] Vehicle Model: Array

Update History

Updated 06/20/2014: Volkswagen unveiled the full details on its new Beetle GRC just in time for its racing debut at the Red Bull Global Rallycross championship where it will be driven by Tanner Foust and Scott Speed.

Updated 09/10/2014: Tanner Foust unveiled a new video featuring a testing session for the future Beetle GRC. Enjoy!

Exterior

The standard Beetle is anything but a conventional-looking car, with its arching silhouette, bug-eye headlights and its retro inspiration. So you can only imagine what a rally-bred Beetle could look like, and here it it.

Visually, the Beetle GRC is distinguished by wide shoulders and hips that are attributed to the widebody fenders. These not only help fit larger rims under the car, but also give the quirky racer more imposing stance. It also gets an aggressive front bumper and a gargantuan wing that looks ripped straight from the original Fast and Furious.

Thanks to the added body work, the Beetle GRC is 0.4 inches longer than the base model at 168.4 inches and 0.5 inches wider at 71.7 inches. The weight varies, depending on the equipment the team tosses on the car for various events, but the minimum weight of the GRC is 2,668 pounds, which is 280 less than the base 2014 Beetle.

Drivetrain

Powering the Volkswagen Beetle GRC through the remainder of the Global Rallycross Championship is a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder, TSI engine. This turbocharged and intercooled unit generates 544 horsepower, a figure that makes it the most powerful third-generation Beetle ever built. Sure, this bug isn't allowed to roam public streets, but that tiny four-banger has an amazing amount of power at its disposal.

All that oomph hits the wheels through a sequential six-speed transmission. The unit mates to a fixed-ratio, all-wheel-drive system that comes with multiplate, limited-slip differential at the front and rear. The rally car should be able to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in only 2.1 seconds. This should enable the Beetle GRC to post some fast stage times and make both Tanner Foust and Scott Speed forget about their previous Volkswagen Polos.

Suspension

The rally car will tackle the most enduring on- and off-road courses using an all-around strut-type suspension with ZF dampers and 9.1 inches of travel. The 17-inch wheels are wrapped in Yokohama rally-spec tires, while stopping power is provided by 14-inch front and 11.8-inch rear vented disc brakes with four-piston aluminum calipers.

Volkswagen Beetle

At last year’s Chicago Auto show->ke225, Volkswagen debuted the production version of the GRC Beetle. The low-production Beetle built in model year 2014 features the yellow and black paint scheme make famous by the original GSR Beetle from the 1970s. GSR, or Gelb Schwarzener Renner translates to simply the “Yellow Black Racer” and only 3,500 units were built back then, making them rather collectable today.

Today’s GSR (Not the GRC rallycar discussed above the jump) is also limited to a production run of 3,500. The updated GSR is powered by a 2.0-liter, turbocharged I-4, making 210 horsepower and 207 pound-feet of torque. A six-speed manual is standard while the six-speed dual-clutch DSG gearbox is optional. Zero to 60 mph comes in a decent 6.5 seconds with a quarter mile in 14.8 sec at 94.9 mph.

Pricing for the GSR starts at $29,995 but climbs to $31,095 with the DSG gearbox selected.