| [ Total Views: 3183 | Total Replies: 8 | Thread Id: 75266 ] |
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 bianca marie
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| posted on March 10th, 2009 at 06:15 PM |
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what does the "L" stand for in Super Bug L
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
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ian.mezz
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| posted on March 10th, 2009 at 06:28 PM |
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| 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
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Love as in love bug  
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Joel
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| posted on March 10th, 2009 at 06:28 PM |
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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
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kombivw
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| posted on March 10th, 2009 at 06:36 PM |
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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
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 vw54
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| posted on March 10th, 2009 at 06:38 PM |
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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
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Phil74Camper
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| posted on March 10th, 2009 at 07:54 PM |
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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:
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Phil74Camper
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| posted on March 10th, 2009 at 07:55 PM |
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Here's the back page of the same brochure. You can see they DO use the 1600L designation, but it isn't prominent.
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Joel
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| posted on March 10th, 2009 at 08:02 PM |
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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
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Phil74Camper
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| posted on March 10th, 2009 at 08:24 PM |
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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.
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