Intro: An amazing story is depicted by many of these aftermarket tuning companies,
but the story behind Bill Neuman and his company Neuspeed is an absolute
story from a novel. What began in 1947 with a Model A restoration spun into
many other avenues of performance and projects. During the 1980s Bill toured
many of the German tuning houses, and came home with a special head that he
bolted onto a modified Rabbit engine. With suspension upgrades, the car was
coined by Motor Trend as Thunder Bunny. Thunder Bunny ran through a slalom
at over 60 miles per hour. The only cars of the day that could do that were
the Lamborghini Countach and Ferrari B512. Not bad for a VW. With all this
test data, Bill informed VW of what the little car was doing, and asked them
to build a high performance Rabbit for the states. For years, VW had been
selling the GTi with great success in Europe, and three years later, it made
it to the US. Bill recognized that VW sales were lagging in the late 1980s
and early 1990s, and that the trend was turning toward Hondas and Acuras.
So, Bill did too. While not abandoning the VW roots, he began producing
parts for the Japanese brand that was so popular, and within a short amount
of time, the Honda-Acura sales and parts development nearly equalled that of
the VW force. Today, Neuspeed is a tribute to both VW and Honda-Acura
tuning. Some of their project cars include highly modified Audi TTs and S4s,
and Honda Accord coupes, and an S2000 Roadster. They even have a couple of
true race cars that actually raced in a couple of races, bringing in
victories for Honda and Neuspeed. They are developing a turbo kit for the
S4, which should prove to be interesting. |
