Cute, surreal, grotesque… Whatever you call it, you won’t miss this Volkswagen Beetle restyled to look like a Porsche 959.
The vehicle, shared by Benjamin Battles on Instagram, has a Porsche logo on the front bonnet, a front bumper closely resembling that of the 959, and similar wheels to the iconic sports car.
At the back, there’s an enormous spoiler – seemingly more exaggerated than that of the 959 – plus an unmistakably Porsche single strip tail light.
All that’s missing on this wannabe Porsche 959 to really complete the look are air intakes on either corner of the rear bumper.
Although there are no photos of the interior of this makeshift Porsche, if the exterior bodykit is anything to go by we can imagine some changes were made.
The original Porsche 959 first debuted in 1985 and was produced until 1993, with just 292 examples produced in total. It was the first production car Porsche built to have a bi-turbo boxer engine with sequential turbocharging to reduce turbo lag.
While original Beetles were often used as donor vehicles for Porsche homages, it’s unusual to see the modern, front-engine, front-wheel drive New Beetle used as a base.
1986 Porsche 959
Judging by the Japanese number plates, this may hail from the Land of the Rising Sun where these kinds of retro conversions are common.
Mitsuoka, for example, has turned a Mazda MX-5 into a Corvette homage and transformed Toyota RAV4s and Nissan Micras into tributes to 1970s Chevrolets and 1960s Jaguars, respectively.
Smaller firms like Cal Stage will also restyle kei cars to look like Volkswagen Kombis and Citroen H-Vans.
