i know this probably sounds like a stupid question
but what exactly does the L stand for in a VW super bug L
i googled it but i cant find the answer

bianca

Quote:

Originally posted by bianca marie i know this probably sounds like a stupid question but what exactly does the L stand for in a VW super bug L i googled it but i cant find the answer bianca

people will try and tell you Luxury
which to an extent is true
superbugs were the top of the range model beetle
but it was more to differentiate it from the previous superbug S model.
about as close to luxurous as beetles were ever going to get

each country had its own name for strut bugs
they were just superbeetles in the US, 1303 in europe and Superbugs in aus with the 71-72 being Superbug S and the later curved screen ones being superbug L

most people just know them as Lbugs

S L and GT actually used to be Luzury, Sport and Grand Tourer when I was a wee lad Late 50's early 60's. And that seemed to be universal with all makes of cars. Thats is what I always assumed with the VW. But dont bet your house on it

well in 1973 / 74 when i was in the VW showroom they were refering to the L as Limousine

which is Bull shit talk from the salesmen of the time

Yes the 'L' designation seems to have been Australia-only. As Joel said, in Europe the curve-screen 'L-bug' was called the 1303, while in the USA it was just called the Super Beetle. Like us, the USA models were 1600cc but in the UK the basic 1303 was 1200cc. The 1600 version was the 1303S, and was a special-order model.

There was a 'GT' Beetle sold in the UK, but not in Australia. The USA equivalent was called the 'Sport Bug'. They weren't souped up - they only had special trim, extra accessories and special paint jobs. In Germany there was a version called the 'Black and Yellow Racer' - http://www.sebeetles.com/yellowb.htm 

Here's an Australian brochure for the new 1974 Superbug L, and as you can see it doesn't actually refer to 'L' at all:

Here's the back page of the same brochure. You can see they DO use the 1600L designation, but it isn't prominent.

those UK GT beetles were interesting Phil, i used to chat to a bloke that had one

they used a standard 1300 bug as they were lighter but shoved a 1600 twin port in with an LBug 3.88 diff in a swinger box and disc brakes so much like our 76s but with swinger rear
they did about 88mph from memory

the US sports bugs tho were built on Lbugs
one of the mods on SBO had one

Yes Joel, makes you realise the interesting models we missed out on here. Still, I guess our Supers were better than many of the US ones with their drum front brakes, and the standard UK ones with their 40-hp 1200 engines. I remember reading a Wheels road test from around 1975 that mentioned finding a cigarette butt in the engine bay, neatly painted over in body colour. An assembly line worker in Melbourne must have had a smoke and dropped his butt in the body before it went into the paint booth.

I sometimes wonder why VW didn't go the whole hog when they designed the Superbug as an improvement on the torsion-bar Beetle. Why not use the wider Ghia/Fridolin pan front, with struts, and make the body roomier? Or even use the Type 3 pan with a strut front, and roomier rear? But then VW was losing money in 1971-74, and their resources were going into the coming Passat/Golf. They actually went very close to going under in those years.