What if Porsche had built a VW Type 181 in the early 1970s?

We were looking to build something unique. Something that most people would never even think of let alone build. We looked at what Porsche was doing in the early 1970s and wondered what that would be like as a Type 181 Volkswagen. Our Type 181 was first introduced by the name “Lunatic Fringe” which is defined as, “an extreme or eccentric minority within society or a group.”

Design:

“Lunatic Fringe” is larger in scale than a traditional 1973 type 181 Volkswagen Thing. We consulted with the owner to execute an offroad Volkswagen type 181 with our imaginations running wild. We started off with a sketch which was approved by the owner. The vision was for it to be the vehicle for any terrain, offroad, baja, mountains etc. The whole idea behind the build was that it can do anything, and can go anywhere and everywhere.

Right from the start, we knew that we were going to need quite a lot of unique parts. In order to build what we had set out to-do, creative liberties were necessary. Using computer aided design (CAD) and our in-house machining facilities, we were able to create whatever we needed, so the sky was the limit.

We knew that to make our vision come true, we had to think of a way to make everything exactly the way we imagined. The only way to make this a reality was by machining our own parts to the exact requirements that fit our vision.

After hundreds of hours working in CAD, we were able to machine 347 parts that will be present on this build. This Volkswagen could not have lived up to its full potential without all the time put into designing and creating these pieces.

Chassis:

The project started with a complete running and driving vehicle. The first step in the process was to disassemble everything and get the chassis sandblasted. We learned after sandblasting the chassis that it was not going to work for our build. At that point our only option was to have the chassis built from scratch.

We handed the project over to Colorado Sand Cars who built a full chromoly chassis and installed the driveline which is a one of a kind combination of pieces from Porsche.

Powertrain:

“Lunatic Fringe” has an air-cooled Porsche 3.0-liter flat-six motor punched out to 3.2-liters. It is fitted with lightweight rods and rockers, titanium valve hats, a custom ground cam, and a MoTec wiring harness and ECU. Our build uses a front diff sourced from a 996-generation 911 turbo, and the transaxle out of a 997-generation 911 turbo. The transmission is a 6-speed manual also out of a 996 911 turbo.

Fabrication:

After a bit of brainstorming, everyone was in agreement with the concept design. Once we had a complete rolling chassis and driveline, we started creating custom panels. Our machinist complimented all of the panel and metal by designing and creating custom machined parts. All of the custom pieces were built after we had laid the groundwork with the custom fabricated body panels.

With the initial metal and panel work in place, we had to figure out how to fit all of the system components. The main task was to make all of the plumbing and electrical systems function properly within the limited available space.

We fabricated a custom exhaust to fit tightly to the engine within the confines of the rear engine space. Custom mufflers were also built in house.

Polaris RZR headlights were integrated into the bodywork via a set of custom bezels designed and created in our shop by 3 axis mills.

Paint:

The body panels were painted using Glasurit 90 line base coat in the original Porsche 328 Gulf Blue, which has been used by Porsche from 1972 to present day. After the base coat was painted, we applied several layers of Glasurit 109 clear coat.

Interior:

The interior of “Lunatic Fringe” consists of hand fabricated panels painted in gulf blue. The seats are finished in green leather complimented by a blue plaid pattern. The dash was machined in two pieces and is perfected with a fine textured wrinkle finish.

Wheels and Suspension:

The wheels on “Lunatic Fringe” are a 1-off set of 5 built by Mike Curtis at Curtis Speed. These wheels are based off of the legendary Porsche “Fuchs” wheel integrated with beadlocks. The large disc brakes are made by Alcon racing. These brakes are Porsche RSR inspired with custom machined rotor hats.

The long-travel suspension incorporates double adjustable bypass Fox shocks and coilovers. The brake and clutch reservoir is a custom built piece that we made to fit our exact specifications.