The 1970s were a great time for Volkswagen. The Golf was launched, the Beetle was retired, and sales kept increasing, along with profits. However, people wanted more from VW. They wanted a sports car, one that had the reliability of a Volkswagen but better performance. However, Volkswagen refused, instead continuing to sell the beautiful but aging Karmann-Ghia.
VW Brazil, however, saw an opportunity. You see, in the 1970s, Brazil wasn’t open for imports, so Brazil had an independent operation set up in Brazil, one that designed and built VW cars with specifications fit for the Brazilian public. Since the operation was independent, VW Brazil was free to develop their own vehicles. So, at the turn of the decade, they began developing a sports car codenamed ‘Project X’. The car was based on a Brazilian spec Type 3. The car was not extremely successful, and the design team hoped that a sports car based on the platform of the Type 3 would increase the popularity of the whole range. They named it SP2, the SP standing for Sao Paulo.
Initial reactions from the public were mixed. Almost everyone loved the styling- even today most people think it looks good- but people were disappointed by its lack of power, leading to the nickname ‘Sem Potencia’, meaning ‘without power’. However, this didn’t stop the car from being a relative sales success, with over 11,000 produced over four years. But by 1976, the car was considered too slow, and production was stopped as sales decreased. A successor, named the SP3 was planned, but in the late 1970s, Brazil opened for imports and the sales of other sports cars were much more powerful. VW Brazil also lost its design freedom as the Wolfsburg headquarters took over the design.
The SP2 was never marketed internationally, as it was only intended for the Brazilian public. However, around 650 cars made their way put of Brazil, of which only one ended up in Europe, in Portugal. This rarity makes the car a collector’s item, with prices 100 times of its original price, given its rarity.
Nowadays, cars like the SP2 have appreciated in value. In a world of sports cars with thousands of horsepower, people are finally appreciating light sports cars with less power. These cars are fun to drive without worrying about things like speeding, although it may be quite slow for the Autobahn! The legacy of cars like the SP2 were cars like the Lotus Elise, which used the low weight, low power formula to become a sales success. These cars provide the purest, greatest form of driving fun.
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