Technical information on this build is particularly scarce, but we’re nonetheless enthralled with the accomplishment of Brazil native Peterson ‘Pety’ Fuser and his awesome Volkswagen Beetle, which recently reset the all-time elapsed time and speed records for an air-cooled doorslammer.
Fuser’s Bug has a turbocharged VW powerplant—presumably all aftermarket billet stuff—wedged between the rear shocks of the full tube chassis machine that’s draped in a lightweight carbon fiber body. Fuser has been making laps at the Autodromo Internacional Velopark in Nova Santa Rita, Brazil chasing the air cooled record, and got it done with a killer 7.665-second lap at 196 mph (314 kmh officially). Impressively, the run was anything but smooth or straight, so it certainly would appear to have 7.50s in it, with even more to gain as the team refines the combination. Already, in short order, they’ve whittled away several tenths from earlier attempts, so what the actual potential of the combination is could be interesting to learn as time goes on.
On the wheels-up pass, Fuser went 1.219 to 60-feet and 5.05 to the 1/8-mile. The video crew at Hot Campinas were at the Velopark to capture the record-breaking run from a whole slew of angles, including a ride from onboard the Beetle that shows Fuser rowing his way through what’s believed to be a five-speed sequential shift transaxle from Mendeola.