1979 Puma GTE at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2023

The 1970s saw a surge of interest in fiberglass kit cars built on a Volkswagen chassis. Cars such as the Bradley GT and Fiberfab were popular at the time.

The Puma GT is based on the chassis of a Volkswagen Brasilia chassis. The Brasilia was a 3-door economy hatchback, but here it has been reimagined as a 2-door, rear engine sports car.

This car is titled as a 1979 Puma GTE and features a 1600cc engine paired with a 4-speed manual transmission. The car has a leather interior, air conditioning, power windows, alarm system, and touchscreen audio system.

The Puma 1500 GT was first revealed at the 1970 Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville, Spain. Later that same year, the engine capacity increased to 1600cc and the car evolved to the 1600GTE.

The Puma GTE, the most famous sports car made in Brazil at the time, was produced with a fiberglass body and Volkswagen boxer engine from 1970 through 1980. This model was based on the Puma GT; the letter “E” added to the nomenclature means “export” or “Europe” according to other sources. This was the more successful Puma model with a higher-volume production.

I see a little bit of Porsche, Datsun, and other cars in the design and styling of the car.

This car sold for $23,650 at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2023 collector car auction. What do you think about the Puma GTE?

Is that a Mk. IV or a Mk. V Jetta?

Actually it’s a little bit of both. Welcome to the confusing world of the Hispanic auto market. If something is popular, they just keep making it. What you see here is basically a Mk. IV Jetta chassis with an updated drivetrain, and refreshed front and back clips to better assimilate itself with the new (at the time) Volkswagen corporate face. Although this car is from south of the border, they actually sold the car like this in Canada too, as the Jetta City model. In the Mexican market it was known as the Jetta Clasico, which later changed to it just being called the Clasico. This is one of those later models. If you’ll believe it you can still get a Mk.IV Jetta like this brand-new in Mexico.

It isn’t too weird though: In Brazil you can purcahase a Volkswagen Type 2 ( the rear-engine van popular among our peace-loving, hallucinogen-abusing, wimpy “friends” of the Hippie movement.) brand-new with a radiator mounted in the front and and water-cooled engine mounted in the back! It’s conception dates back to 1947 and was first produced in 1950! Those “crazy” Hispanic people don’t like change. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if Chevy still made 88-98 GMT400 trucks with updated drivetrains (they actually sold vehicles based off this platform up until 2000 for those not in the know)

Anyways, the whole reason behind posting this is because not many people in the U.S. get to see what other markets are selling. In Arizona we often see many strangely modified cars from down below, but occasionally you’ll see a car like this or a Ford Lobo (Mexican market F-150) and other things like that.