I know for most of you, when you see classic cars converted to electric drivetrains, you have two fundamental, burning questions: first, how can I get by without the soothing thrum of an internal combustion engine, and second, how can I incorporate old milk jugs into my car? Happily, the internet provides us with an answer. And, even better, it’s an answer that comes wrapped in A 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle. Perhaps you’ve seen this online already, as it’s been sort of blowing up, but I think it’s worth looking at because it’s just so damn clever and effective.
I admit, when I first saw these videos, I was just scrolling past them and I didn’t really linger long because I missed the point of the videos. I missed the point because I was scrolling with the sound off, so I never got to appreciate the essential punctum of this build, which is all auditory.
Here, turn up your own volume and hear-see for yourself:
@snorlaxsnacker “????????hey no revving????☝????” #vw #carshow #carsoftiktok #cartok
The guy yelling “hey no revving!” at the end is just the icing on this EV cake. If you can’t see Tik Tok videos or choose not to for your own complex and personal reasons, here it is on YouTube:
Now, there’s a lot of fascinating stuff happening here: it’s a nice clean EV conversion, of a type I’ve seen often on air-cooled VWs; the motor just replaces the engine and bolts right to the existing transaxle, making for a very tidy conversion. I’m not entirely sure where all the batteries are, but some appear to have replaced the fuel tank up front, though that’s not the fun part up front. The fun part is the milk jug.
This is really amazing. All the sounds you hear there, the sounds that seem to be coming from a big V8 engine lazily yet powerfully idling are all from a pair of floppy arms, driven by a little electric motor, slapping an empty milk jug. Look!
I’d also like to point out that you can tell it’s a ’74 and up super by the big triangular bumper-shock cutouts in the fender – this was the year that demanded the huge 5mph bumpers – and also note the turn indicators are freed of their chrome casings, a bold choice.
The milk jug is mounted on what is essentially a shock tower brace – remember the whole big thing about the Super Beetle as opposed to the standard Beetle was that it replaced the conventional front torsion bar suspension setup with a MacPherson strut setup that freed up a lot of under-hood space. VW enlarged the front hood, relocated the spare tire to a horizontal position, and, from 1973 on, even gave the Super Beetle a real, curved windshield and a more normal-car-style dashboard. But the nearly-doubled luggage accommodation in the front trunk was a huge selling point.
Whoever built this particular conversion clearly isn’t so concerned with luggage space, as they’re taking up a lot of room there with the milk jug-based combustion-engine simulator.
It’s funny in that it doesn’t sound at all like an original VW engine, and it’s coming from the wrong end, even if it did. It’s like the builder made an EV-swapped Beetle and made it sound like a V8, front-engined-swapped Beetle.
But the way the throttle spins the little milk-jug-smacker motor faster is just absolutely brilliant. And that huge, useless “exhaust” pipe on the back!
All of this is just one very well-executed joke, and it’s delightful.
Here are more details about the car:
@snorlaxsnacker running on sh!ts and giggles fr???????? . . . algorithim invoice: #vw #volkswagen #ev #beetle #evconversion #cartok #carbuild #respectallbuilds #carshow #carsandcoffee
So good. Best use of a milk jug in an EV build I’ve ever seen, easily.
It looks like there are two speakers in the back that are hooked up to a sound tube. I don’t know if they are playing the sound from the jug or not. Seems like the jug is for engine rumble sounds up front. Either way it’s a riot of fun.
Nothing I love more than a really cheap and ridiculous solution to a problem.
This gives me an excuse to tell my favorite [punch] Bug story:
My best friend in college had (IIRC) a ’73 Beetle, although he never brought it to school (urban campus, scarce parking). But we talked cars and played punch buggy. One day I happened to notice a yellow Bug parked in the little lot behind our dorm. That night we were hanging out, and I heard that telltale engine note, called out “yellow”, and slugged him one. He was mystified, then suitably impressed.
OK… I don’t get the sponge handle. Did I miss the joke?
Maybe the engineers over at Dodge are over-thinking this whole Fratzonic chamber thing.
Canada could never lol
https://images.app.goo.gl/68BWzfHXfSRzWsD29
I mean, both are an option. But bags and cardboard cartons are the preferred delivery method in the east-central provinces.
+1 for risky at-work search term.
Ugh, barbarians with their jugs.
Milk should come in bags
That’s freaking great! I’d buy that guy a beer.
I want this guy to fine tune the number and spacing of arms on the motor axis.
It wouldn’t be hard at all to simulate the beat of an actual VW Beetle engine. Or Porsche flat 6, for that matter.
If you have a removable sprocket, you could do a Harley (or Morgan), a 3 cylinder, or whatever you want on a given day.
Imagine the fun if you change the milk jug to a cymbal, or something even more odd…
Right? At first I was like “wow, this is awesome”, but suddently it was like “wow, this could be awesomer”. Doesn’t even have to take much math, you could probably get to the sputtering rhythm of the flat-4 with a few minutes of trial and error spacing the arms.
While major OEMs invest millions of dollars on ways to simulate engine sounds in their EVs, this guy completely one ups them all for just a few bucks.
There are just some folks I know I would like to sit and have a beer with
Can we replace the jug with a tuned drum and introduce a mechanism to adjust the pitch while driving?
I’m guessing there’s a microphone mounted near the milk jug, and the sound comes out of the rear undercarriage. There looks to be downward facing speakers mounted on either side of the electric motor. I’m guessing something like these ones from Polk Audio https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/product/outdoor-speakers/atrium-4/112577.html
I have a set in my home theatre and they look very similar, at least at a glance.
At first I thought the exhaust pipe extended to the front and attached to the mouth of the milk jug — allowing most of the noise to come from the back. I guess not.
I was totally expecting this to be a replacement for using the spare tire air pressure for the windshield washer fluid. Who’d a thunk it was just a whoopee cushion?
hilarious!
“Got milk?” says the Super Beetle
“Slugbug yellow and green!”
Best EV pedestrian warning system ever!
Or this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLZe3LzHQVY&t=9s&pp=2AEJkAIB
Thats a pretty impressive strut brace, why?
Pretty much the exact same thing as baseball cards, rubber bands and bicycle spokes. My personal angst against the Chinese malware TikTok is despite never downloading TikTok every tolime I turn my phone on I am forced to watch videos of tiktok sponsored companies. Can’t remove it and I doubt a company that forces malware onto a phone is that lovable and fluffy. I don’t begrudge those who willingly sell their information to watch really stupid videos but when a country is forcing their scam on people I’m against it.
Its like riding over a soda can on a bike tire for those sweet motocross sounds.
Meanwhile the Dodge ev needs a hugely complicated and expensive fartzonic chamber to do the same thing, with none of the charm.
“Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power” –this VW, gesturing to the Dodge.
Not to mention negating all that expensive and heavy sound deadening.
This is shadetree engineering at its finest and I wholeheartedly approve.