CAUGHT THE BUG

REECE REYNOLDS’S VW BEETLE IS A LOW-SLUNG CRUISER THAT PACKS A PUNCH

- KIAN HEAGNEY

DON’T worry, you aren’t having a stroke – yes, this is a VW Beetle, and yes, it’s in Street Machine. But unlike your grandfather’s old clapped-out dak-dak, Reece Reynolds’s V-dub is a sweet little street cruiser with some party tricks up its sleeve.

“The build started out as a typical ‘I’m going to leave it standard’ kind of story,” says Reece. “After lowering it and putting some aftermarket wheels on, I got the ‘bug’ and it began to snowball from there.”

Reece’s love for old-school, air-cooled German machines started with a joyride. “My brother Beau took me for a drive in his 1970s Super Beetle back in 2013,” the 23-year-old says. “I immediately fell in love with the early air-cooled cars and knew I’d eventually own one.”

Reece’s car was a fairly standard and tidy example when he bought it, but he’d only been using it as a daily driver for roughly six months before things went south with the original donk. “I was coming back from a car show in Sydney one day, and the riveted cam gear in the factory engine – which is notorious for letting go – munched the motor,” he says.