DETROIT, MI - When Ferdinand Porsche began mulling designs for the Volkswagen Beetle in the 1930s ... with first creating the Baja Bug in 1968, Gary Emory of Parts Obsolete, seeing what he ...

On Monday Volkswagen announced its sponsorship of a rather different kind of dirt racing Beetle, the 1970 Class 11 car of Josh McGuckin and ProjectBaja.com for this year’s running of the Baja 1000.

Even without four-wheel drive, the rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive original Volkswagen Beetle made a credible off-roader—so much so that there was a whole class for modified Beetles in the Baja 1000.

Next February, a new version called the Volkswagen Beetle Dune will go on sale as a sort of homage to the off-road oriented Baja Bug. Meanwhile, VW is considering producing a hybrid version of the ...