Veni Vidi Vici – ’63 Drag Beetle

For 44-year-old Italian Aurelio Papi, restoring VWs is a full-time passion and fortunately his occupation offers him plenty of spare time as he grows grapes and kiwis in the hills about the ancient ruins of Rome. Clearly, Aurelio isn't one to sit and wait for his fruit to grow, he has to do something productive in the meantime, hence he has been churning out show-winning VWs for years.
However, it wasn't until we spotted his rat look Beetle at a show in Italy last year that we knew his style offered something more, so we caught up with Aurelio in Rome to check out his garage, which he rents with his good friend Luca, another VW enthusiast.
Upon entering I was immediately drawn to a gloss black chassis sporting replica BRMs and racing tyres. The quality of the work was second to none, but there was no body in sight. A blast through the streets later found us at Dr Brush, and I'm sure you can guess what they do.
Once inside the small workshop, Aurelio excitedly produced the engine lid for his project, which wasn't quite finished at the time but looked outstanding. He mentioned his intention to show the car at the VolksWorld Show, so a snap of the lid was sent off to the editor, Ivan, explaining the situation.
"Very cool and we'd love to have it at the show," came the reply. This enthused our Italian friends to push for finishing it in time for the show.
So what do we have? Well, the base car is a '63 Bug, and when you check out the before and after photos you'll see it looks very different after Aurelio set about stripping it down to a bare shell to split the body from the chassis to make it easier to work on. Once he'd done the necessary mods to the body, cutting the rear away to allow easy access to the engine and removing the heavy front end sheet metal, the body was dropped off at Dr Brush for its stunning paint and pinstripes. Oversize wings now adorn the car in all four corners, along with a fibreglass bonnet and that decklid.
With mechanics being Aurelio's forte, he set about stripping the chassis for extensive modifications including a fabricated four-inch narrowed adjustable beam and dropped spindles at the end of the trailing arms that lower it to give an aggressive racing stance. To take care of any bumps along the track, KJB/GR2 hardened shocks were installed all round. Stopping the BRM replicas up front comes care of machined aluminium two-pot callipers on CNC'd aeronautical-grade aluminium flanges. Out back, larger surface stock drums and shoes were offered up, and a hand-activated line lock has been fitted to ensure Aurelio can spin some heat into the M&H Racemaster tyres out back prior to lift-off.

For the full story on this car make sure you pick up a copy of the September 2010 issue of VolksWorld

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