Volkswagen’s Brazilian SP Coupe Turns 40 This Year [with Videos]

Volkswagen celebrates this year the 40th anniversary of the SP coupe, a car relatively unknown outside Brazil, its country of origin. Built by the company's Brazilian subsidiary in the '70s, the attractive coupe has an interesting story. In 1968 Rudolf Leiding, former CEO of Audi NSU, was appointed director of VW do Brasil, a job he accepted under one condition: to have the permission of building models adapted for the Brazilian market.

In the 1970's auto imports were blocked in South America's largest market, so Leiding thought about building a two-seat sports coupe that he believed would be successful.

Together with ‘Karmann-Ghia do Brasil’, which at the time was building the already dated Karmann Ghia coupe, Volkswagen Brazil started developing a new coupe, which had to use as many parts as possible from VW's local model range in order to keep costs low.

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VIDEOS: 2012 VW Tiguan Facelift and Golf Cabriolet Mk6

First shown in Geneva earlier this month, Volkswagen has now released video footage of its restyled Tiguan and all-new Golf Cabriolet. The short film dedicated to the compact SUV model depicts both versions of the Tiguan, one for on-road use and one with increased capabilities for off-road driving. The Golf Cabriolet video has a more laid-back, romantic approach, featuring a couple joyriding in the open top car on a sunny day. You can get a closer look at both models by watching the videos below the fold.

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VIDEO: 627 hp VW Scirocco + Sweden and Snow = Awesome!

You probably think Sweden is all about IKEA, ABBA and Volvos. Of course you do because, like me, you base all your cultural assumptions on asinine, outmoded stereotypes. Though few would be so willing to admit it, we’ve all done it from time to time, mostly when drunk off our backsides around the family barbie.

So what if I told you the Swedes – well, a few of them anyways – were big into racing stripped out, turbocharged Volkswagen Scirocco’s packing AWD and 627 hp (468 kW)? And not simply racing them but racing them on snow and ice. You heard right, and we have the video to prove it.

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