This VW Thing Is Well-Named Because This Thing Is Hard to Explain
The VW Thing is a strange little car/SUV/thing. When Volkswagon created the Thing, it was aptly named due to the fact that it’s hard to know what category it belongs to. Now, someone has made an already confusing car even more confusing. This custom VW Thing is confusing because it was built to run the Baja 1000.
How fast is the VW Thing?
The VW Thing was the spiritual successor to the Type 82 Kübelwagen, developed during the Second World War. As a general rule, anything made to fight in WW2 was slow. The Jeeps, the Tanks, hell, I don’t know anything about WW2 planes, but I’d guess they were relatively slow, too. On top of actually being slow, the VW Thing just looks slow.
When VW’s strange creation came to market in 1968, VW called this vehicle the Type 181 everywhere else. It was only called the Thing in America, which didn’t get the strange car until 1973. The Thing launched with only 46 hp. At the risk of being redundant, that makes for a very slow car.
However, the one we are looking at today has been wrenched on a little bit. The 46 hp turned into 153 hp thanks to the Subaru 2.0 liter EJ20 Subaru flat-four that its builder dropped in.
The VW Thing can be anything
The engine swap was the least extreme mod this VW Thing has. The builder turned every bolt to give the VW improved performance across the board on the road and off. You might have noticed that this Thing is sitting a bit higher than its peers.
The most extensive upgrades were applied to suspension and handling parts. Silodrome notes that underneath the Thing, you’ll find King Shocks coilovers with remote reservoirs, custom front suspension components, four-wheel disc brakes, and a front bash plate. It also has PRP front bucket seats, a rear bench, a carbon-style dashboard with Speedhut gauges, a Lowrance GPS system, a PCI race radio, and a Kicker Bluetooth stereo controller.
All of these upgrades come wrapped in modified bodywork with wider fender flares, aftermarket bumpers front and back, and a custom grille that covers a radiator for the new engine.
How much is a VW Thing worth?
Things are particularly rare and exclusively had poor performance, but they are very cute, and some people really love them. That said, they aren’t all that pricey. It seems that the average price of a VW Thing is somewhere around the $20k mark. Pretty reasonable considering it’s a unique vintage car, which, according to VW, can be anyTHING you want.
The incredibly cool bulked-up one we see here sold on Bring-A-Trailer for $37,000. If you want to know more about this car, go to the listing here. Let us know what you think of this VW Thing below in the comments!
