Tuesday, November 18, 2008

"Death" aka "squashed bug"


"It's really ironic," explained John Dixon, the owner of the 1956 slammed and chopped Volkswagen Beetle. "I got a phone call from a friend last week who told me the car was listed in the annual Hot Rod Top 10 in the December issue of the magazine. It had been featured in the July 2008 issue, but I jumped in the car and headed to Books & Co. and sure enough, there it was on page 78. I bought a few copies of the magazine."

Dixon is well known for unique, and sometimes off-the-wall cars, all of the German persuasion (mostly Porsches.) But this hot rod is clearly way out there.

Franz Muhr of Colorado spent 3,000 hours creating this beast. He chopped the top so much that the front window is only about 4 and half inches high. He lowered it on the chassis so it sits about 2 inches off the ground, moved the steering to the right side, and then as Dixon says, "sliced and diced the engine until it puts out over 125 horses."

"When I saw it, I just had to buy it," Dixon said, which was just over a year ago. Hot Rod dispatched a photographer to Dayton last November to photograph it for a feature, and now it's honored with the big boys in the Holy Grail of hot rodding.

"I grew up in the '60s and read Hot Rod every month. I dreamed of having a car in there, but then I unloaded my Camaro 396 and went the Porsche route. Now this, being featured in it, it's like legendary stuff. I can't believe it," Dixon said.

The little Volkswagen is unpainted, and the interior is also unfinished, but the seats are covered in a sort of burlap material.

"It's the only car I ever won an award for that I didn't have to clean. I just blow the dust out of it with an air hose," Dixon chuckled.

"I've driven it a few times, but really, we call it 'Death' because you can get killed in this thing. You can't see out of it very well, it doesn't handle real well, and it's stupid fast. You just sort of point and shoot when you're behind the wheel."

Rob Kinnan, the editor of Hot Rod, summed it up this way in the current issue: "it's the most outrageous thing we saw the entire year ... nothing — and I mean nothing — will get more attention on the road than this thing."


check this link for all the pics from this unbelievable build

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