This is the car in question. The 2003 Volkswagen Beetle RSi. It was a race spec Beetle for the road. And it was extremely rare. Only 250 silver models were made for the public. Except for 1 that came in blue. It was made for a VW official.
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Now all models were made in VW's main plant in Mexico. The retail price was a staggering $80 000. And till this day it still holds it's value. You can find a decent example for around $50 000 with low mileage.
Alright the first thig you notice compared to a regular beetle is the massive body kit and flared wheel arches. It's got a completely different front, side and rear.
It's got rally style wheels by VolksWagen Racing, which came standard. In fact the entire car was put together by VolksWagen Racing. It's got a dual exhaust setup by Remus. A massive wing on the rear with another wing above the rear window. These are the features of the Beetle Rsi.
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Now most companies would have been done with just doing a little on the outside, but VolksWagen went bananas with this car. Firstly, the doors are completely made out of carbon fiber, which is extremely light and also has manual window winders to keep everything as light as possible. Secondly, it has carbon fiber bucket seats, which didn't come with the standard car, and all 251 cars came with the exact same orange seats.
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It has a 6 speed manual gearbox sending power to all 4 wheels using VolksWagen's 4Motion system, which is basically an ELD-X system. There's also more carbon fiber on the dash, and it also has a rev limiter, which tells you when to change gears. So yeah, you can get an idea of how race focused this car actually was. Now under the vents you got special gauges, which told you the oil pressure, battery and all those cool stuff.
Above the rear view mirror is where you'll find your radio, and the headliner is made out of alcantara. You're also going to find a special plac which says RSi and the build number. Another cool thing is that it has a starter button, just like in a Lamborghini.
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But there's one more thing even more special than the carbon fiber, the rest of the interior, the wheels, and body. They also went mad with the engine. Because they put the engine from the VW Golf R32. The 3.2 liter VR6 engine, producing roughly around 245hp.
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Well that's it. That's the world's most expensive Beetle.
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