Unfortunately, there are no written / well-founded answers to this question. But the following information should not be dismissed out of hand! Without the involvement of VW Wolfsburg and their approval for using the parts of the RSI Beetle and also Cup Edition Beetle specially produced for VW, no other VW plant in the world, and under no circumstances a " VW Foreign Tuner", would have been able to convert a number of 80 VW New Beetles, in order to then send them to the UAE to the local importers in Abu Dhabi (Ali & Sons) and Dubai (Al Naboodah), e.g Not to mention that these cars were officially serviced by the importers in UAE! The available and appropriate service documentation also proofs this fact! The legal department in Wolfsburg would certainly have done its best to avoid that :) Almost all special parts came from suppliers of the VW Group. Plastic parts - MS DESIGN - remainders were scrapped on behalf of VW! Seats - KÖNIG in Illsfeld / frames/substructure - FAURECIA / near Stuttgart Chassis springs - H&R and Volkswagen Racing Exhaust tailpipe with E1 number from Volkswagen Gear knob - VOTEX ECU software - company ABT - adaptation to gasoline in the Middle East etc... The statement of a contemporary witness, who also claims to have seen Cup Edition cars from VW in Germany, does not agree with the statements of many other sightings. However, there are the following two assumptions: These cars were CUP racing cars, which were probably further converted at Auto Becker - like many other racing cup cars? I don't know what happened in there, the contemporary witness said: For your information: the workshops were so large that there could probably be a few hundred vehicles under the roof. There were about 50 lifting platforms inside. There were blue and silver colored ones there, as far as I remember. At the same time there were 60 Polo 6Ns there, all in red and converted into racing cars, as well as Golf 4 R32s that went to Japan. OR it was the two prototypes that were then approved for scrapping by VW's internal car recyclers in Germany? Information about this can be found in the report about the Cup Edition prototype!

Here is the report from a VW R&D engineer ( Research & Development ) involved in production, how the RSI was built and how the "Millennium Cup Edition Beetle" was built: ( Translation from Spanish - errors excepted ) ! I don't know if you've heard of the VW New Beetle RSI? The thing is, I can tell you a thing or two firsthand about how and why this model was made. Look, they had just launched the NB (the New Beetle) and the marketing department felt they needed something spectacular to help with sales in Europe. They certainly needed that! not because they lost money, but because the factory made the car for $14,000, VW sold it in the US for $25,000, and the buyers took it from them. But in Europe they sold at lower prices than a Yola Berrocal record. We had already completed a "SIMPLE" version (which in Spanish means less than the essentials - and we removed everything possible to lower the price, like sunglass holders, seat or steering wheel heater, more actively Interior mirrors, computers... even the one-touch window regulator! - and it still wasn't looking good financially. So the idea was to launch a limited series of the New Beetle ( NB ) to create a Clio-Cup style promotional trophy with a sporty, macho look and a powerful engine. We rubbed our hands: you can't & can't do something like that often! Later you could see that they changed their minds a lot and decided that it should not only be a sporty car but even a luxury car because they wanted to gift it to personalities and celebrities, including our Spanish king. Therefore, the Limited Series was renamed to Numbered Series changed. ​ No matter what it costs, they said ! That's our thing we said! We're going to put the most powerful engine that can be put into the Golf (because, according to some people, the New Beetle is a Golf in disguise), and we're going to put the 4-Motion, and people are going to freak out! Hahahaha... We couldn't start designing a new floor though, so the only option - because of the 4WD - was to use the Golf Syncro floor. But the bottom of the Golf Syncro is higher, and this car is meant to be lower! Oh... and that floor was wider too!! What started as a modification project turned into a total redesign of a car that we had to produce within a year! To make it wider, we changed the front and rear windows, the roof. In the end, only the doors and a few other parts from the standard New Beetle remained. Wide fenders to cover the wheels. XXL side skirts to hide the height of the underbody and new bumpers (aprons) covers to the floor. But with the dynamic intakes (the air intakes to the fenders), the designers insisted on using as open a grille as possible, and of course, if you bent down, the whole cake came out...you could see the car was hollow from underneath . Solution? Putting a cover behind it so that when you look through the grilles you see everything black. An epidemic of aluminum parts inside and that's it! The car was introduced, we were on TV and we partied a lot. It was a project I loved very much, although I gave my life and toiled 14 hours a day, 6 days a week for four months, but still enjoyed the work. There aren't many projects like this in my career. And then they gave a car ( RSI ) to the Emir of Dubai. And this guy says he wants more. Many more! But that the car is too uncomfortable and too powerful. What if one of my children is having milk? And if one of my wives loses her child because of the shaking? No: I want them to look the same as the RSI but with a more sensible engine and more comfortable suspension. And no 4x4 as Dubai is all asphalt. So let's say with that1.8T engine and everyone will love it!. I'm going to give each of my kids/relatives one on my birthday so I need exactly EIGHTY cars of these. Don't spare any expense! When we heard the news at the technical center, we believed in a dream. But when the director of research and development called us, we saw that he was serious. Come on - let's just do the fenders, the side skirts and more on the standard New Beetle. Oops... a nightmare! Because now the floor of the standard New Beetle was too LOW! So we had to up the suspension and make other brackets. All the necessary parts were revised piece by piece and the pilot plant of the New Beetle RSI was put back into operation. We made the eighty cars, packed them in containers and shipped them to the United Arab Emirates. And for six million dollars the 80 children / relatives of the Emir of Dubai got a real VW in small series. ( ... I will have to be an Emir one day ) According to this, the price of such a CUP MILLENNIUM BEETLES was 75,000 US$ ==> about 147,000 DM .. in the year 2000 !! The selling price of an RSI BEETLE these days was around DEM 135,950 ==>US$ 69,000 specified and at that time even cheaper than the MILLENNIUM BEETLE

The Beetle that has become widely known as the DUBAI BEETLE is ultimately exactly the "MILLENNIUM CUP EDITION" Beetle. Why did he become known as the Duabi Beetle? For years, pictures of a Beetle in "RSI LOOK" kept appearing in various web forums. Pictures showing foreigners living / working in the Emirates on the streets, shopping malls, etc . made Tourists also reported a car that would be very similar to the RSI Because these sightings mostly happened in Dubai. people spoke very quickly of the "DUBAI BEETLE Ultimately, it is precisely this car about which information has been collected on this website for years and VW does not respond to any inquiries regarding these cars. If one or the other should suspect similar behavior as in the well-known "Diesel Scandal", that would certainly not be appropriate and probably an unfortunate interpretation of the reports, pictures, videos and statements from former employees on this site. The facts are on the tray: Statements from employees who planned the cars who ended up building the cars supervised & maintained them in UAE mail from the Manager of AUDI / VW Middle East FZEVW Product Support Department the VW importers in UAE Service booklet documentation etc...

The RSI models were built to boost the poor sales of the New Beetle in Europe. After the "Beetle's" success story, the target group of buyers obviously didn't agree at all with the design and the associated purchase price. VW Marketing therefore tried to make the New Beetle more attractive than it was actually seen by the public with the help of the RSI Edition, which was limited to 250 pieces - a racing car on the road - in connection with and involving personalities (VIP's). Apparently this problem didn't exist in the US. The associated racing series with the so-called "CUP BEETLE" was also refreshed a little with well-known people, such as the RAPPER SMUDO from the "Fantastische Vier". The RSI went mainly to larger car dealerships and well-known personalities to boost sales! In this way, one of these RSIs also reached the ruling family in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai). The people there were so impressed by the car that the following saying from the ruler of Dubai quickly made the rounds in Puebla: "I WANT MORE OF THIS"! As reported, the ruler wanted to present 80 of these cars to the whole family as part of his birthday celebration - the "millennium year" probably helped the Beetle to get the name "MILLENNIUM CUP EDITION" Beetle and the corresponding decor! It was probably more of a gift to the numerous princes, cousins and the like ? male ? family members. A special series and production / conversion for the Sheikh was probably only possible with a minimum purchase of cars and probably also dependent on the stock of special parts. Based on these specifications, they somehow agreed on the number of 80 cars and various differences / changes to the RSI. However the three colors came of the cars came around will always remain a secret, I assume? No four-wheel drive, not so powerful engines, different chassis, special seats, speedometer and a few other things then formed the basis of the MILLENNIUM CUP EDITION Beetle.

None of these cars could be purchased from the dealer. All cars were handed over to the Emirates to the importers "ALI & SONS" in Abu Dhabi and "Al Naboodah" in Dubai. The service of these cars was also provided by these importers, although it was not possible to buy spare parts for these cars from the dealers there or anywhere else in the world! WHY? These cars were never included in VW's parts program and do not appear there! Parts that were installed in similar models or cars from VW could be bought this way. Spare parts for the body kit could only be obtained with the help of the VIN number, the vehicle registration document from an RSI, and an inquiry from a "friendly" VW dealer in the VW racing department! No retailer can find the MILLENNIM CUO BEETLE in their documentation today! Whatever the reason for this strange business conduct by VW was/is will probably always remain a secret!

The VIN / serial numbers verified by this site and provided by owners do not show any pattern or sequence, so the cars have specific VIN number series / sequences. Quite the opposite! Even within the respective colors, no system could recognize that the cars were specifically planned for this project. According to the reports of the engineers and workers involved on site, unsold cars in the required three colors were taken off the production line and then brought to the pilot department for conversion.