This ’61 Bug has been on our radar for longer than we can remember. It’s no wonder, as its owner, Mark Akullian, began working on it some 27 years ago now, not that long after I wrote a story about his former car, a turbocharged ’57 Oval, in the early 1990s! That car left undeniable marks on my memory. Bought shortly after Mark turned 15, it shook southern California’s VW scene thanks to its turquoise paint (applied by early Der Kleiner Panzers club member, Mike Martinez), fully polished Fuchs wheels and a Kawell Race Engines-built turbo motor sticking out the back.
After the turn of the century, I would regularly bump into Mark at local Volkswagen events, which he often entered in his simple, clean, black ’67 Bug on Flat4 BRMs. Our conversations often revolved around his long-term project, a ’61 ragtop Bug, and what I heard definitely piqued my curiosity.
You see,
