Paul Newman puts his Volkswagen Beetle up for sale

Paul Newman, a world-famous actor although he has since passed away, was one of those wealthy lovers of automobiles and of the world around them in general, a motoring enthusiast whose private collection once included one of the most coveted cars of recent times, a Volkswagen Beetle.

As you well know, there are many Beetles currently for sale, kept in better or worse condition, and they are not news; I doubt this particular vehicle would be either merely because it once sat in the garage of an actor of the stature of Paul Newman. This Beetle is newsworthy specifically because it is one of the few, if not the only one, to feature a build carried out by Jerry Eisert, as well as because of its price.

Specifically, what you see on screen, and the wheels alone should already give away what awaits you, is a Beetle as special as the V8 it carries, capable of producing 300 horsepower, built to order and as a special favor to the legendary actor.

The work carried out by Jerry Eisert basically consisted of fitting and tuning a huge V8 taken from a period Ford Windsor engine, capable of delivering, as we mentioned earlier, 300 horsepower, power that was sent to the rear wheels through a superb five-speed ZF gearbox.

So much so that, as you can see in the gallery images, the tuner had to remove the rear seats in order to install the enormous engine block. Naturally, many other systems had to be modified, among them, to name just one, the cooling system for the new engine, for which no fewer than two new radiators were fitted, one at the rear and another in the bonnet, hence those extravagant air intakes.

Shortly after the modification, Newman donated his vehicle to the automotive technology department of Chaffey College, which, years later and due to budget adjustments, the institution closed the department, and the modified Beetle passed into the hands of its director, who decided to restore it to the condition you see on screen.

Now, after all this time, this exclusive vehicle could be yours, though you would have to go through an auction house, since the current owner is asking 250,000 dollars, roughly 178,000 euros at current exchange rates, for this work of art.

Source | insideline
Source | DM