CT Poll: Retro VW Beetle GSR Or Modern Beetle GSR - Which Would You Have?

Not a lot links the modern Volkswagen Beetle with its huge-selling predecessor, but if there's one thing the Beetle has always been, it's a love-or-hate it car.

Even back in its earliest days (post-war), it was derided. When the war ended in 1945, British Major Ivan Hurst wanted to re-open the heavily-bombed factory and start producing the car again.

The idea was run by several British manufacturers but none were interested:

The vehicle does not meet the fundamental technical requirement of a motor-car ... it is quite unattractive to the average buyer ... To build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise", they said.

Well, more fool them. Given the British car industry's downfall by the 1990s and the fact the original Beetle finished worldwide production as recently as 2003, those early comments can reasonably be summed up as "bollocks".

"Bollocks" is how you might describe the 1997-2011 New Beetle too. Based on the MkIV Golf it was never that accomplished, though we might make an exception for the batshit GSI model with its huge wing and VR6 engine.

The current Beetle - no longer "New Beetle", just "Beetle" - is a much more interesting proposition.

Despite appearances it's actually larger than the New Beetle, but its proportions are much closer to the original. The screen is more upright, the arches more pronounced, and there's no longer a football field between yourself and the bottom of the windscreen as there was in the New Beetle - in fact, it's much more like the classic car in most ways. Even the special editions are the same - the cars you see in the pictures are both GSR special editions.

GSR? "Gelbschwarze Renner" - yellow and black racer. We're quite fond of the yellow and black combo here at Car Throttle...

Forty years separates the two, but the yellow paint and the black bonnet and bootlid remain. Even the newer car's GSR side stripe echoes the black-painted front and rear bumpers of the original.

Naturally, there are a few other changes - horsepower has risen from 50 to 210, and at 7.3 seconds to 62 mph the new GSR is around three times more accelerative than the 1.6-litre classic model.

It's comfier, quieter, grippier and easier to drive too, but some might argue it doesn't quite have the character of the original - there's a lot to be said for the distinctive rear-mounted flat-four and rear-drive layout.

And as the owner of a Beetle from a similar era to the GSR, I can confirm that old Bugs are still a lot of fun to drive - strong torque, a satisfyingly mechanical gearshift and a great view down that curved bonnet.

So which would you have in your dream garage? Modern power and sophistication, or one of the most enduring, numerous vehicles ever?