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CC Follow-Up: The Inside Story on “The Pumpkin”

By
Paul Niedermeyer
– Posted on June 1, 2018

Last December, I saw this elongated VW Rabbit (Golf Mk1) in traffic, and gave chase in order to peel off a few shots and post it here. Which means we had to speculate on its creation, although the basic facts were obvious: a two door Golf front half married to a four door back half with a bit of filler in between.

But a week or so ago, a comment was left by the wife of its creator, with some more details:

Thanks for all the great comments and great pictures. The Pumpkin, as our granddaughter calls it, began it’s 2nd life in Florida.

About 10 years ago her grandfather had the opportunity try to do something different. He had a couple Rabbits just sitting around and this is the result. The front half is a 2-door rabbit and the back is a 4-door.

The backseat area gained 14″, which makes for a comfortable backseat ride (and the kids can’t kick the front seat!). The diesel engine was swapped out for a 1.8 carburated (old-school), gasoline engine with Tectonics tuning exhaust. (Grandma wanted a little more “get-up-and-go”!)

We had great times with it, but decided it was time for someone else to make good times with “the Pumpkin”. So we made our last trip in it out to Eugene.

Finding it parked gave me the chance to look it over a bit more carefully, including underneath. A pretty clean job of it, for what it is.

The body gaps aren’t at all bad for home baked.

Obviously not everything aligns quite right, as the Rabbit isn’t exactly as square as it might look.

The interior stretch is nicely done too. This would have made a great taxi cab.

It rather reminds me of this, the Rometsch VW four door, which was built primarily to make the Beetle a suitable taxi.

I always like it when folks find their cars here and offer more details. It happens quite a bit.

← Vintage R&T Auto Dictionary: T -Z – Want The Rest?
Cohort Outtake: “A Great Night at the Drive In”, and the Gas Stations Too →

8 Comments

  1. Reply
    avatar eddie
    Posted June 1, 2018 at 10:09 AM

    That is …………………………………….weirdly………………………nice! i like it and if were to be done at a profesional shop……….wow! love that pumpkin!!

  2. Reply
    avatar DanEKay
    Posted June 1, 2018 at 10:18 AM

    As I understand it, Jettas in the Chinese market had a similar stretch engineered into them. I don’t know if the factory still does that or if China has it’s own Jetta, like the USA?

    This is a pretty decent job. I’ve been in several 1st generation Rabbits, and luckily it was always in one of the front seats….except for once in the back seat of my uncle’s diesel Rabbit. That was a tight squeeze for my feet.

  3. Reply
    avatar geozinger
    Posted June 1, 2018 at 10:36 AM

    When I saw this pop up again, I immediately thought of the Checker Taxi cab prototypes from the 70’s. Then, that led to the Chevy Citation prototypes of the early 80’s. What fun!

  4. Reply
    avatar J P Cavanaugh
    Posted June 1, 2018 at 11:17 AM

    I have mentioned this before but my sister’s first VW was a 2 door 77 Rabbit salvage job that had been made pretty much just like this, only without the stretch. It was even orange. I was taken aback when I noticed it, but the car drove nicely and felt tight, so whoever did the welding did a good job as it was hard to tell beyond seeing the light blue paint under some of the weatherstrips on the back half.

    The fender flairs and the GTI wheels are a nice touch.

  5. Reply
    avatar slow_joe_crow
    Posted June 1, 2018 at 12:52 PM

    It reminds me of the famous B+B car which was a Golf widened to allow Porsche 928 running gear to fit inside.

    • Reply
      avatar tonyola
      Posted June 1, 2018 at 2:05 PM

      The Golf/928 was built by Artz. It used a 928 chassis and drivetrain and the Golf body was built around it. Supposedly a few were completed.
      https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/news/a24826/super-rabbit/

      • Reply
        avatar Staxman
        Posted June 1, 2018 at 2:09 PM

        Sounds a bit like the Saab “Paddan” prototype–a 99 in 96’s clothing:

        http://saabmuseum.com/en/saab-model/saab-paddan/

  6. Reply
    avatar nlpnt
    Posted June 1, 2018 at 7:17 PM

    I’ve always thought more limos should’ve used the long front doors of the two-door sedan to keep the proportions right.

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