In the 80 years since the Second World War, the Volkswagen Beetle has been in production for all but six of them. And in that time there has been only one major change and one other minor one.
The Ford Model T’s production records came and went in the initial run of the Classic Beetle, surpassing the 15,000,000 mark in 1972 after 27 years on sale. It eventually ran out at 21.5m units, coming as late as July 2003, in Puebla, Mexico, signed off with an Última Edición complete with whitewall tyres and two available colour options.
Oddly, while the Mexico factory was still building 170 Beetles a day, the world already had a New Beetle and had done so since 1997– 415 were built at the latter end of that year. It was the first of the new-fangled retro designs, the reboots, which is the central display at the Scramble on Sunday 5 October.
The New Beetle was first teased as far back as 1994 via Concept 1, which its designer called ‘caricature of a Beetle’. It stole the show and a year later a more refined, less bloated version appeared in Tokyo. The name New Beetle first appeared the following January and a cult hero was born.
The peak of the Beetle arrived in 2001, in a way never before seen in its 50-odd years. Just 250 were made, many of which went racing, and was an exercise in 'What ifs?'. It was the RSi, a VR6, 200-plus brake-horsepower race car for the road.
The second generation New Beetle split the difference between the Concept 1 and the New Beetle, the first having earned the second even more creative freedom. It lasted until 2019, and Volkswagen looked to the Última Edición for inspiration with similar blue or white options and retro-inspired wheels. A fitting tribute to the factory in which around 2m New Beetles were built.