HISTORY - RESEARCH - SUPPORT - SOURCES

On the history of the “Cup Edition Beetle”

The "CUP EDITIONBeetles "..."Millennium Beetle" ...also frequemtly called the "DUBAI Beetle" ghosts for decades through the Beetle fan community, but also within the Volkswagen AG. Especially when it comes to inquiries about the topic in Wolfsburg, people consistently just shrug their shoulders and refer to other departments - customer service to the museum, which in turn goes to the Classic Cars Depot, VW publications ==> Try with Volkswagen USA and others at the common Audi or VW tuners like ABT, etc... you would think this is about a state secret or "hidden corpses" in the basement of VW AG :(?

There are publications, press reports, pictures and information about any VW model, prehistoric racing vehicles, but also the most bizarre special conversions - but nothing about the Cup Edition Beetle! :(
You wouldn't find a Cup Edition Beetle anywhere in a VW depots or museum , but the strangest prototypes and special models ever built!

But exactly there, we now discovered Traces of the Cup Edition Beetle... and undeniable!

An Austrian collector passed on pictures from a VW depot, where the only and so-called “RSI CABRIO” is stored. This "convertible prototype" (... is obviously not an RSI CABRIO) has parts installed, that were only produced and installed on the Cup Edition Beetle cars!
The Cabrio there uses the standard Beetle as a base and the look only from the RSI. Unfortunately, the second exhaust pipe from the RSI engine is missing at the rear and for this reason the cover of the reversing light and two of the center grilles of the Cup Edition model were used to hide the defuser outlets and the hole of the second exhaust pipe of an real RSI !

20 years of research revealed...

Unsold series cars were taken off the assembly line in Puebla and converted in the pilot department
Engineers who converted the cars there report of 80 units (2 prototypes)
There are also pictures and a list of the visually recognizable features, which were later changed for the series after the presentation to the customer
There is a lot of evidence and people who confirm the upgrade in Puebla! Some information about this can be found in the FAQ's page and also in the presentation of the CUP EDITION prototype ==> Presentation!
Parts of a prototype were later found in Germany and are now in the possession of a collector!
The cars were built at the request of a sheik from the UAE who was so impressed with the RSI Beetle that he simply wanted several of these cars. A lot of money makes quick to inventions!
It was agreed to build 80 cars in the look of the RSI, but with a different engine, on the base plate of the standard Beetle and many small and massive changes... but the look remained the same!
Insiders speak of a gift from the ruler to members of the family and some also in connection with the "Millennium Year" - hence the MILLENNIUM stickers on the doors! ... The ruler had even bought the fastest racehorse and renamed it MILLENNIUM in order to see it win the race in the Al Maktoum Challenge Dubai.
According to VW employees, the cars were built in Puebla for a few million US$ using the RSI's existing production line. All of these cars were shipped to the UAE! A few cars later found their way to neighboring states such as Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia through family ties and friendly sheikhs/princes. When the interest of these “clan members” later evaporated, the few cars that were still in good condition ended up in the hands of private individuals.
Of the 80 cars built at that time, it is estimated (... from letters by owners) that there are still 15 cars in circulation that are reasonably good-looking cars. Unfortunately, I only know of 3 remaining cars in original condition, unpainted, with service documents and proper documentation.
The heat, unavailable parts, tuning madness, wild street races and also the local "Vehicle Testing Stations" have literally slowly but surely evaporated the cars in the air.
The fact is that a VIN query for a data sheet of these cars corresponds to the standard Beetle as it rolled off the assembly line in Puebla. But the fact that these cars went directly to the pilot department at the site and were also converted at site is obviously being deliberately covered up and no answers are given
This unintentionally brings back memories of the answers to the diesel scandal,... right?

Support & interest in clarification from VW ...

Today there really doesn't seem to be anyone left in Wolfsburg who has any idea how these cars came to be built in Puebla. Reading this website should challenge someone in Wolfsburg to think about and spark interest - one would think! Statements like "... we didn't build them, ... probably was done by a tuner, ... there are no documents about it, ... are not in any vital VW database like KVS or ELSA, etc. ...
An attempt to raise interest by owners or further information with a post in WIKIPEDIA ended with an insulting comment from a self-proclaimed "WIKIPEDIA apostle", who called the cars a product of street tuning and was therefore able to stop the post there!

You can also understand the unsatisfactory answers from customer service in Wolfsburg! How are these new and young computer & database users supposed to know what was going on in Puebla in the years from

1999 - 2001, since the cars were consciously never entered into one of the databases accessible to them or maybe only people with sepcial access rights be able to do so? ...what could be the reason for that?
What I really can't understand is, despite repeated inquiries and requests to investigate a little closer, that no one at VW pursued the topic of "CUP EDITION BEETLE", forwarded the request to older employees or simply showed some initiative - for me a MUST of a VW Sercice Representative - even without instruction to do so !

The sum of US$6 million mentioned by employees in Puebla for these 80 cars cannot simply have disappeared somewhere in petty cash. If there is no technical documentation for the cars ( if there isn't - how else would they have been built?), there should at least be the documents for our dear tax office in Germany?
How did they get all the special parts - Parts that obviously come from VW stocks, the racing department or the usual VW suppliers - to Puebla, without the approval of VW AG? Who ensured that the VW importers were involved in the car presentation of the prototype and later for the blessing of the final version of these cars, which were then only shipped to the UAE - and why?

Following are the SOURCES of the above research & Data

VW customer service in Wolfsburg
VW Museum Wolfsburg
VW Pilot Department in Wolfsburg
VW employees working on construction & Planning the upgrades in Puebla Mexico
VW Importers Abu Dhabi & Dubai - Al Naboodah / Ali & Sons and their branches
VW publications in Wolfsburg
AUDI / VW Middle East FZEVW product support in DXB Freezone (answer from 2013)
ABT TUNING - responsible for the ECU software & Configuration of the ECUs used in the cars
People who were present at the Ali & Sons Musaffah stores when the cars arrived there
VW Beetle forums on the Internet
Owner of the few remaining CUP MILLENNIUM BEETLE cars
Affected car dealers in the UAE and Spain