Home Grown

Dial M for Murdered Out! Shawn Beintema’s wabbit is some local flavour that had to be photo’d-frame’d-and-hung’d.

Born in a shed.

Shawn and I met on the side of the highway, some light corrosion had pooped the connection to his distributer. The car was too badass to just blast by and not offer a helping hand.

Shawn’s 79…cough…84 Rabbit is home grown. Built locally with his own hands, none of this spending money at a shop, he got in there got his hair dirty and broke some nails. Low, but not slow, Shawn’s 1800lb rocket is nearly 200hp, giving it a nice snappy get up and go. Drive by with a whoosh!

I’m surprised Bell Canada hasn’t forced Shawn to move up to at least a dial pad, as his old rotary dial is difficult to deal with Service Canada’s hotlines. Take it from someone on assistance, that those help lines really are not designed for those living in the past. 😀

There’s always something nostalgic and real about the old approach of ‘power to weight’. Unlike the new GTR, it’s much easier to just pick a light chassis to start with!

Shawn is extremely proud of his car, and so he should be, it’s a well rounded ride with all the bases covered. More displacement, better brakes, better suspension, comfortable interior, but on a minimalist and survivalist approach. For the most part the vehicle uses borrowed parts from many other models to not only improve the performance, but keep the costs down, and the ease of repair simple. Very much something to hold your head high about.

Shawn is also an involved player down at the local cracker factory, associated heavily with www.VWARMY.net as a moderator, and perhaps a founder? I should’ve asked! In any case, I had a lot of fun with Andrew Glutek and Shawn Beintema shooting this car. Thanks Shawn for letting us capture your rad ride, and thanks Andrew for the photos!

If you’d like to know more about the specific build of this Rabbit feel free to check this link out. It covers everything there is to know about what went into such a cool car!