Did Paul Newman Build The First VW Beetle Muscle Car?

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Jay Leno is said to have the largest car collection, with more than 180 models to pick from. Ralph Lauren is up there, too, with more than a quarter billion in steel sitting in his garage. Believe it or not, Rowan Atkinson, Mister Bean himself, is a die-hard gearhead, too, with rare Aston Martins and BMWs at his beck and call. But the award for coolest car collection most likely goes to Paul Newman, because of models like the one we're highlighting today: a classic Volkswagen Beetle with a V8 engine.

The so-called 'Indy Bug' was the ultimate sleeper in its day, appearing for all intents and purposes like a humble little hippie car on the surface, but packing honest-to-goodness V8 muscle car power. The Bug is a testament to Paul Newman's passion for cars, and to the kind of crazy stuff you can get up to when you've got the money and the imagination for it.

Meet The Indy Bug

In building the ultimate Volkswagen muscle machine, Paul Newman's starting point was a simple 1963 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible, the same car anyone could buy right off the lot for a couple thousand bucks. A convertible would sell for around $21,000 today, adjusting for inflation. From there, Newman would pay a visit to race car builder Jerry Eisert with the intention of building a professional-grade track car.

Paul Newman's 1963 V8 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible 'Indy Bug' Red Front Angle

Eisert pulled the stock engine out and replaced it with a Ford 351 V8 producing 300 bhp, mid-mounted right behind the front seats. The mid-engined layout no doubt improves handling, and likely helps the car from heeling onto its rear wheels every time Newman tapped the accelerator a little too abruptly. The V8 was paired to a five-speed manual ZF gearbox they got out of a Ford GT40, with the seats being given protection by a custom quilted cover, which probably did very little to dampen the sound of the V8 roaring inches behind you.

Modifications made to house the water-cooled V8 and handle its power included:

• Electric fans and additional radiators in the original engine compartment
• A cutaway air intake in the hood
• A padded roll bar
• Side-sill extensions for improved structural integrity
• An upgraded steering system and suspension
• Brakes taken from a Chevrolet Corvair

This is all topped off with a high-end interior featuring cross-stitched bucket seats and extra gauges, because why spend all that time building the ultimate V8 Beetle only to cheap out on the cabin? We don't have extensive performance specs available for this car, but the 1969 Mustang was able to get to 60 mph in just 5.7 seconds with a 351 under the hood, so it's safe to assume Newman's Indy Bug was able to get there in a flash, too.

Newman drove the Bug around for a few years before donating it to Chaffee College (on the insistence of his agent and managers, who were worried that he was daily-driving a death trap). When Chaffee College closed its racing program, the department head bought the Bug and set out to restore it to its former glory. Unfortunately, Newman passed in 2008, well before the project was finished. The restored Bug did the car-show rounds in Vegas for a while, before going up for sale and eventually selling for a cool quarter million, according to a listing on the Old Bug website.

Weird Selections From The Paul Newman Car Collection

Paul Newman's car collection was so extensive that there are modern car collectors, like Adam Carolla (the same one who hosted The Man Show) who specialize in collecting cars that once belonged to the legendary actor. We could sit here all day listing his Nissan and Oldsmobile race cars, but everyone already knows he loved the track. You might not know about some of his quirkier pieces.

Newman might be the only actor who ever owned a car based on a cartoon character he'd played. Remember in Cars when he portrayed retired Piston Cup champion Doc Hudson? One of the coolest movie cars ever, and Gunnar Racing actually built it in real life, a 1951 Hudson Hornet packing a 410-CID (6.7L) big-block Ford V8. They were able to recreate the animated car down to the last detail, missing only the ability to speak.

Paul Newman's 1951 Fabulous Hudson Hornet Front Angle

Another oddball from the Paul Newman collection: a 1988 Volvo 740 packing a turbocharged V6 engine borrowed from a Buick Grand National. You could definitely say that the man had a thing for sleepers. The Buick GNX's 3.8-liter six-cylinder engine was advertised with 276 hp and 360 lb-ft of torque, but testing proved these numbers to be closer to 300 hp and 400 lb-ft, for a 4.7-second 0-60 time.

This Wasn't The Last Beetle To Ever Pack A V8

While Paul Newman's V8 Indy Bug might be the most well-known engine-swapped muscle car Beetle, the little Volkswagen has been a popular project car for muscle-car fans for a long, long time. The German magazine Motor Und Sport references an engine-swapped V8 Beetle as far back as April 1958, and while no photos were provided, we can at least confirm that Newman wasn't the first to give this idea a try.

And he wasn't nearly the last, either. If you check VW driver forums around the web, you'll find dozens of engine-swap projects, with one popular switch-up being a front-engine Beetle, which requires replacing the original chassis with a ladder frame. One of our favorite V8 Beetle builds is 3L Engineering & Design's LS-powered mid-engine "Stealth Beetle," running a 430-hp Chevrolet LS3 6.2-liter V8 crate engine paired to a Getrag six-speed manual transmission, all resting on a BMW M5 suspension system. This car is also offered with an Audi 4.2-liter twin-turbo V8, delivering 402 horsepower and 308 lb-ft of torque, but we really like the idea of putting an American muscle-car engine in a German compact. 3L offers the Stealth Beetle for sale, either as a finished car or as a kit.

Who knows what it is about this little German compact that makes Americans want to drop the biggest engine they can find into it, but the roar of an American V8 just sounds right coming out of a tiny European car. While Volkswagen might not be interested in bringing the Beetle back anytime soon, we can at least rest easy knowing that the world is full of gearheads who will keep the classic love bugs running for as long as Chevy and Ford are still selling crate engines.