Alternative uses for VW Beetle engines

VW Beetle engine, front view. With cooling casing and fan removed

The air-cooled 4-cylinder horizontally opposed cylinder (a flat four) has been used for many other purposes.

From the 1960s it has been used as an experimental aircraft engine. Companies still produce aero engines derived from the Beetle engine: Limbach, Hapi, Revmasterl and others.

Owner-built Kitplanes, notably the Volksplane, are specifically designed to use these engines.

Until 2001, Beetle engines were also used to run several of the ski lifts at the Thredbo resort in New South Wales.

In remote Australian opal mining communities, VW motors are used as air compressors for air-powered equipment. Two cylinders are used as a motor while the others are modified to produce a flow of compressed air. The opal fields are very dry and hot, so an air-cooled compressor has an advantage over a liquid cooled one. Dunn-Right, Incorporated of Anderson, South Carolina offers a similar conversion kit.

Volkswagen engines have also been use in Australia for fire fighting. Country Fire Authority have often used the engines to drive water pumps, colloquially known as 'Godiva pumps' after the pump the engine drives.

In Europe, Beetle engines were used to power mobile water-pumps used by the fire brigade. These pumps have been used from the 1950s till the present day.

A Beetle engine drives the rotating Mercedes-Benz emblem on the top of the Europa-Center in Berlin.

The Zamboni HD ice resurfacer is powered by an LPG-powered Beetle engine.

In 1967-68, the portable sawmill maker Mighty Mite of Portland, Oregon used VW engines to power the circular saw blades of light sawmills. Later, as the US market for VW Beetles declined, the sawmill was modified for other power.

The Amazonas, a Brazilian-built motorcycle manufactured from 1978 to 1990, uses a modified 1,600 cubic centimetres (98 cu in) Beetle engine and gearbox. With a dry weight that could top 350 kilograms (772 lb), the Amazonas was billed as the world's heaviest production motorcycle. The VW transmission's reverse gear, rare in a two-wheeled vehicle, was a useful feature in such a heavy motorcycle. There was later the Kahena with similar construction.

Many "trikes" have been built with Beetle engines.

Dune buggies and sandrails are commonly constructed with Beetle engines and other Beetle components.

In the United States, many farmers still use the AGCO Corporation "SPRA-COUPE" for fertilizer and pesticide spraying, which were manufactured from the 1960s until the mid 1990s, and due to the good availability of parts are still supported.

National Lampoon's fake Volkswagen Beetle print ad mocking Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick incident.

VW-Vincent, 1999, ARTwork by Heikenwaelder Hugo

Names for the Type 1

The VW Beetle is known under many names in many countries, usually local renderings of the word "beetle". Among these are:

Käfer in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Жук (Zhuk) (Bug) also in Russia (Former Soviet Union)
Volkswagen Sedan
Volkswagen Bug
Pichirilo in Ecuador
Pulga ("Flea") in Colombia
Coccinelle (ladybug) or Kever in Belgium
Vocho or Vochito in Mexico, Colombia, and Costa Rica (mostly a shortening of "Volkswagen"; Vochito is affective diminutive)
Fusca in Brazil and Paraguay
Escarabajo (meaning "Beetle") in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, El Salvador and Venezuela
Peta ("turtle") in Bolivia
Folcika in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sedan, then Fusca (popularly, Fusquinha that means Little Fusca) in Brazil
Косτенурка (Kostenurka) (meaning turtle) or Бръмбар (Brambar) (meaning bug) in Bulgaria
Bug, Beetle, Choupette (Herbie's name in the French version of the movies) or Coccinelle (ladybug) in Canada
Escarabat (means "beetle") in Catalan
Poncho in Chile
Jiǎ Ké Chóng (means "beetle") in China
Buba in Croatia
Brouk in Czech Republic
Chrobák in Slovak Republic
Boblen (the bubble), Bobbelfolkevogn (a distortion of 'the bubble' and a translation of 'Volkswagen', the people's car), gravid rulleskøjte (pregnant rollerskate) or Hitlerslæden (The Hitler-sled) in Denmark
Cepillo ("Brush") in Dominican Republic
خنفسة - Pronounced khon-fesa (Beetle in Arabic) in Egypt
Põrnikas (means "beetle") in Estonia
Kuplavolkkari (kupla meaning bubble) in Finland
Coccinelle (ladybug) in France, Quebec and Haiti
Буба in the Republic of Macedonia
Jin-guei che in Taiwan
Σκαθάρι (Scathari meaning beetle), Σκαραβαίος (Scaraveos meaning Scarab), or Χελώνα (Chelona meaning Turtle) in Greece
Cucaracha or Cucarachita (Cockroach or little cockroach) in Guatemala and El Salvador.
Bogár in Hungary.
Cucarachita (little cockroach) in Honduras.
Bjalla in Iceland
Kodok (frog) in Indonesia
Folex(قورباغه ای) meaning frog in Iran
Agroga عكروكة (froggy) in Iraq
חיפושית ("Hipushit," beetle) or Bimba in Israel
Maggiolino (may bug, cockhafer) or the unofficial name of Maggiolone (can indicate Super Beetle) in Italy
Kabuto-mushi (means "drone beetle") in Japan
Kifuu in Kenya
Vabole in Latvia
Vabalas in Lithuania
Kura (turtle) or Kodok (frog) in Malaysia
Sedán, Pulguita (little flea), Vocho or Vochito (sometimes spelled "bocho/bochito") in Mexico
Scoro-Scoro in Namibia
Bhyagute Car in Nepal literally: "Frog Car".
Kever in the Netherlands
Catch Fire in Nigeria
Boble (bubble) in Norway
Foxi or Foxy in Pakistan
"Pendong", kotseng kuba (literally, 'hunchback car') /"pagong" (turtle),"Ba-o", turtle in Cebuano dialect "Boks" in the Philippines
Garbus (literally, 'Hunchback') in Poland
Carocha in Portugal
Volky in Puerto Rico
Broasca / Broscuţă (little frog/froggy) or Buburuza (ladybird) in Romania
Фольксваген-жук(Folksvagen-Zhuk) in Russia
Буба or Buba in Serbia
Volla, Kewer - Pronounced Folla in South Africa
Chrobák in Slovakia
Hrošč in Slovenia
Volks / Beetle/ ibba (turtule) in Sri Lanka
Mgongo wa Chura” (Frog Back) or Mwendo wa Kobe” (Tortoise Speed) in Swahili
Bagge (short for skalbagge, beetle), bubbla (bubble) or folka in Sweden and Finland
Kobe in Tanzania
รถเต่า - Pronounced Rod Tao (turtle car) / โฟล์คเต่า (Volk Tao) in Thai
Kaplumbağa or tosbağa (meaning turtle) or "vosvos" in Turkey.
con bo in Vietnam
Bhamba datya in Shona - Datya is frog in the vernacular from Zimbabwe
Poncho
Popoy
Pulga
Punchbug
Tortuga in Panama
Escarabajo, Bocho o Rana in Perú
Foxi in Pakistan
Kupla in Finland
Цох in Mongolia
Escarabajo o Cucaracha in Colombia
Escarabajo (Bettle) and popularly Fusca or Fusquita in Uruguay

In popular culture

Flower Covered Beetle in the greenhouse of Montreal Botanical Gardens

Like its contemporaries, the Mini and the Citroën 2CV, the Beetle has been regarded as something of a "cult" car since its 1960s association with the hippie movement and surf culture; and the obvious attributes of its unique and quirky design. (For example, the Beetle could float on water thanks to its sealed floor pans and overall tight construction.) Much like their Type 2 counterparts, Beetles were psychedelically painted and considered an ancestor of art cars. One of the logos used by the Houston Art Car Klub incorporated a Beetle with a cowboy hat.

The Beetle has made numerous appearances in Hollywood films, most notably The Love Bug comedy series (Disney) from 1968 to 2005, starring as "Herbie", a pearl-white, fabric-sunroofed 1963 Beetle—racing number 53.