For decades hot rodders have done these mashups, taking the chassis from one vehicle and bonking it under a different body. But this one is different. Someone took a Honda S2000, admittedly, a pretty desirable car unto itself. Then they cut the body off, to then mount this Volkswagen Beetle body and fenders onto it. 

All car mashups begin and end with available funds

As with many a car project, money played a part in this swap. The builder, Garrett Dawson, had the opportunity to snag a totaled S2000 for a grand. So at least this wasn’t a decent, running car. The original plan was to restore the Beetle, but how boring is that? 

“A good friend that works for a towing company sent me a Snapchat of a wrecked 2005 AP2 S2000 sitting at an impound/repair facility in Connecticut,” Dawson told the Drive. “Immediately, my brain started turning, googling dimensions. I went to the Beetle with a tape measurer, and soon I had everything in my mind to pull it off. The wheelbase matched perfectly; 94.5 inches.”

Before proceeding, you better make sure it runs

But was the S2000 turn-key? Dawson had to find out. He spent a weekend stripping the mangled body panels off the chassis. Then he strapped the steering column to a bulkhead, strapped his butt to a milk crate, and drove it around his neighborhood. 

The remains of the S200 needed some trimming to work with the VW. He had to narrow the pan and take a foot off of each end. As he dug deeper into his swap, it slowly came together over a few weeks of evenings. “I work quickly, which I have to with everything going on in my life,” he said. 

This dude owns nine other projects

But Dawson is a sucker for car projects. He’s got many of them going in one direction or another. So things have slowed down on the Beetle/S2000 mashup. 

“Owning nine other project cars that also need attention is also tough but not the worst problem to have. What really pushed back progress was ordering widened fiberglass fenders in May of this year—I didn’t expect them to arrive until late September.”

This Honda/VW mashup has a plan

While he takes a rest with this project, he hasn’t forgotten what he’ll do next. The radiator will be put into the trunk. He’ll tilt the decklid open ala Cal-Look VWs, to aid in cooling. He plans on matching the fiberglass fenders to the body but isn’t going to press out the body itself.  

It sounds like to the unsuspecting, this slightly beat-looking Beetle is going to be just some old air-cooled banger in need of a resto. But when Dawson squeezes the trigger, and especially looping around tight corners, this sucker will command respect. 

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