Drag racing is all about speed and big horsepower, but it also has some roots in the art of showmanship — putting the crowd on their feet. Illinois’ Byron Dragway has the annual Byron Wheelstanding Championships that puts on a great show for the crowd with giant, track-length wheelstands, and it brings out some radical cars built specifically for this special event.
This year, a team from Canada brought a unique 2005 VW Beetle that has some serious V8 power and an added hit of nitrous to help dial up some monster wheelstands.
Typically, you’re not going to see the newer body style VW Beetle doing much of anything exciting. These cars came from the factory with smaller displacement engines and had no aspirations of being anything quick .. of course, that is until a drag racer got his hands on one.
Urban Hillbilly Videos made the trek to Byron Dragway for the Wheelstanding Championships and happened to catch this nasty 2005 Beetle that’s been converted to rear wheel drive, trying its hand at winning the contest. The Beetle is mostly wrapped around the massive 555 cubic inch big-block Chevy powerplant that rockets the tiny car into the 9-second zone at over 150 mph when its in race mode.
For this event, the owner decided to strap on a hit of nitrous oxide to try and put his bug on the bumper for the rowdy crowd at Byron. To aid in the wheelstand process, it looks like they also set the wheelie bars all the way up to get max height on each attempt. Check out the video that shows this Bug going up, up, and away, eventually getting enough air to pull all four tires off the ground!