Brazil is one of the most important South American countries with respect to car culture. Brazil’s rich history with the VW Beetle is well known; this is the car that brought motoring to Brazil.
With such a deep love for the Beetle, it only makes sense that this Porsche 959 look-alike would come from Brazil. This vehicle is the Fusca Cintra 959, a kit car that converts the humble Beetle into one of Stuttgart’s supercars.
Images of this vehicle from the late 1980s popped up on social media last week, introducing youngsters to the kit car created by Andre Durgante DaCunha Cintra as part of an automotive design course. The vehicle is powered by a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, so the performance is not quite the same as the twin-turbo flat-six in the actual Porsche 959.
This vehicle is just a glimpse of what Brazilian gearheads are capable of, and hopefully some more details will emerge about this piece of history.
Soooo cute!
Really?! That truly never occurred to me. The Porsche 959 which the Beetle is dressed up as is a fire-breathing monster. That’s what I see.
.
But those round headlights are almost cartoonish, aren’t they?
When I was in my late teens I would’ve KILLED for a VW bug, the older ones not the new ones (newer ones) they came out with later on….yes I think she’s cute!
I looked into a fully-restored original Beetle a couple years ago (for my kids first car) and the lunatic wanted CAD $18,000 for it.
.
Maybe somethings are better left as dreams.
Speaking of old, expensive cars, I was looking on Kijiji yesterday and someone here has a restored ’67 Camaro listed for $79,000…is this a typo??
Hate to say it, but those cars command big dollars now. Totally out of reach of the local gearhead.
.
There are so many cool old cars from that era, but I guess because so many people remember the Camaro and Mustang, they bring in top-dollar. Which is weird because they’re not rare birds.
.
Take a look at this madness:
https://www.groganclassics.com/all/segment/ClassicVehicles
OMG that is insane!!!!! I had no idea! I honestly thought that 78,000 was supposed to be 7800!
Absolutely insane. If you wanna feel depressed just spend a bit of time on that website I sent the link to.
.
1970 Chevrolet Camaro SS
$98,500
.
1972 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible
$32,500
.
Because I am a bitter, nasty man who is pissed off that I cannot afford such toys, I’ll say that these prices are a reflection of how much people lack originality or creativity. When everybody wants a Camaro the price spikes. But there were SO MANY cool cars. What’s wrong with an American Motors AMX. Easily as cool as the Camaro, and I get you can get them (restored) for $15,000.
Cool Beetle. It’s a great-looking car. My daughter had a SunBug from Mexico. It had bullet holes in the hood.
Do the bullet holes make it a SunBug? Or is that what you call convertibles?
Wow, how did you find it, Chris?
I do remember seeing this car in a few magazines back then. Allow me to put a contest and try to explain this silliness. In 1976, the military government in Brazil imposed a ban on imported cars and motorcycles; the idea was to protect the domestic industry from unfair competition. As one can imagine, our auto industry became lazy and did not produce interesting cars. In an attempt to give customers something different, dozens of small companies started to create what we called “backyard sports cars,” which were fiberglass bodies for the VW Beetle platform.
Another popular name for those cars was “Fuscas de Plastico” or Plastic Beetles” in English. Because of the silliness behind the concept, this movement never took off.
The only one that saw some success was the Puma.
My friend Rubinho… just the man I was waiting for!
.
I have no idea how I found this! People say lots of bad things about ‘The Algorithm” on social media. But my algorithm seems to know that I like retro 1980s sports cars and VW Beetles. So it found a post about the Fuscas and showed it to me.
.
I am so glad that you explained how these bugs came about. A ban to protect local industry. Sound like something idiotic a certain american would come up with.
.
It does not surprise me that the Brazilians petrolheads would find a way around this by making VWs that looked like 959s or Testarossas. That is the Brazilian spirit on full display.
.
I think the Puma had a big name behind it, and the fact that it looked like a Ferrari Dino didn’t hurt. That was a lovely car, although I only ever saw one ONCE in my life.