Engineering Students Hung A Volkswagen Beetle Body On A Rock Face Over A Highway

The Volkswagen Beetle is one of those few cars that has transcended mere automobilehood and progressed into an icon of human culture. One day I’ll investigate further the hows and whys, but for now, I’ll ask you to just trust me and accept that Beetles have a symbolic role in our culture. That’s part of why an organization like the University of British Columbia’s engineering department has a long history of taking old VW Beetle bodies and placing them in unexpected, unlikely, and difficult-to-reach locations, as both a prank and a way to show off engineering acumen. They seem to have done it again, this time on a sheer rock face in Squamish, British Columbia, but there’s been some blowback about the stunt.

It’s worth noting a bit of the history this group has with sticking Beetles in weird places, such as atop the school’s bell tower back in 1980, or hanging from the Lion’s Gate Bridge in Vancouver, or the Vancouver Public Library, or, in a particularly impressive achievement, hanging a Beetle from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco back in 2001.

Here’s a little sampler of some of their Beetle-placement stunts:

 

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An email sent to the Canadian Broadcasting Company from “spokespersons of the UBC Engineering spirit” takes credit for the stunt, saying

“The wait is over, UBC Engineers do it again. We are so back”

…and the email is signed “Lady Godiva,” who is considered the patron saint of engineers, especially among Canadians.

The Beetle has been a staple of stunts for decades, largely because for so much of the 20th century, these cars were positively ubiquitous, plentiful, and cheap. Getting a Beetle body was relatively easy because a number of Beetles were turned into dune buggies or kit cars, which put whole Beetle bodies on the market. Plus, a Beetle body is relatively light and extremely identifiable, making it ideal for pranks, shenanigans, and other acts of mischief.

Here’s a little collage of some high school and collegiate stick-a-Beetle-in-a-weird-place pranks over the years, in case you’re skeptical:

This current Beetle prank is creating a bit more controversy than some previous ones for a number of reasons, including the fact that the Beetle is hung on Stawamus Chief landmark, which is above the Sea to Sky Highway in Squamish, posing safety concerns, and the rock face itself is considered a “sacred space” by the Squamish Nation.

“This is an area that deserves respect, and that wasn’t the case here,” Squamish Mayor Armand Hurford told the Canadian Press.

As much fun as these pranks are, you can’t ignore that there likely are safety concerns and no one wants to be disrespectful to sites important to First Nations, so these aspects are unfortunate.

The UBC Engineering Undergraduate Society has denied knowledge of the prank, and in an email to the CBC, stated that the group

“… has had, and continues to have, no knowledge regarding the planning of, execution of, or persons involved with any stunts past, present, and future.”

The Beetle is a very lightened shell of what it once was, only being the main body panels, minus the doors, and having no actual chassis at all, just some large wood planks in place upon which the body is bolted.

Also, if you’re curious, I’m pretty sure the body here is from a 1974 standard Beetle, which you can tell because of the beefy 5 mph bumper shock-absorbing mounts visible in the front there. There’s still a lot of good body parts on the shell, so hopefully it won’t just get crushed when it’s taken down. They can sell those fenders and hood!

The Beetle will likely be removed by BC Parks this coming week, so if you want to see it, you should do so soon, or perhaps not, as officials would prefer people to avoid the area.

Top graphic image: YouTube