1965 VW Puma - Puma GTE

A rare Brazilian sports car based on a Volkswagen model

Stunning bodywork with mass-production technology

A brilliant project for the coming winter

And maybe also for the one after that

For a long time, Brazil was not an easy place for enthusiasts of European sports cars. High import barriers and a heavily protected domestic motor industry meant that if you wanted something exotic, the best solution was to build it yourself. Which is precisely what Puma did. From a small racing-car manufacturer, it developed into one of Brazil’s most interesting sports-car marques during the 1960s.

After its early DKW-based models, the situation changed when Volkswagen took over DKW-Vemag. Puma switched to air-cooled VW mechanicals and introduced the new GT in 1968. Beneath its low-slung glassfibre body lay dependable mass-produced hardware from Wolfsburg – or rather São Bernardo do Campo: an air-cooled flat-four, rear-wheel drive and a shortened VW chassis.

At the beginning of the 1970s, this evolved into the GTE, with the E standing for Export. And exports did indeed follow, in the form of kits to the United States and, in smaller numbers, complete cars to Canada and Europe. With its long, low nose, compact roofline and strongly flared rear wings, it looked considerably faster than its modest engine output might suggest. But at well under 800 kilograms, enormous horsepower figures were hardly necessary to have fun. Puma continued to develop the GTE, with larger VW engines adding a little more urgency.

The GTE was therefore a sports car built to a recipe all its own: Italian-looking lines, German bread-and-butter mechanicals and Brazilian manufacture. Sounds like a wild mixture. Worked remarkably well, though.

This Puma GTE comes from the United States, where it was most likely delivered as a kit and where a 1965 Beetle gave its life for the cause. The Puma came to Austria from California in 2011. It will probably need rather more than a simple inspection before its beautiful shape can once again attract admiring glances. Its body appears remarkably well preserved overall, and the rare Brazilian seems to be largely complete.

What at first sight looks like a project for the truly brave becomes considerably less intimidating once one remembers the mass-produced mechanicals underneath. Quite the opposite, in fact: the longer one looks, the stronger the temptation becomes to return this Puma to its former glory.