Just in case you'd fallen into the trap of thinking of the modern-day Volkswagen Beetle as a girly car, the guys at Wolfsburg's ‘R’ skunk works have given the newly launched second-generation Beetle a big dose of macho.
They call it the Beetle Concept R and it's on display for the first time, right now, at the Frankfurt motor show.
OK, it's just a design study, so there are no performance or engine details, although there is no reason it shouldn't have the 199kW, two-litre Golf R turbopetrol - and it certainly looks the part.
It's finished in a colour the white-coats call 'Serious Grey' and runs on special five-spoked, 20" versions of the Golf R's 19" Talladega alloy rims, over R brake callipers finished in bright blue.
Front and rear bumpers have been widened by 30mm each - in fact, the front bumper is practically all gloss black air-intakes, the middle one supplying the engine with oxygen and the outer two ducting cooling air to the brakes. The gloss black front splitter has a chromed strip and there are ventilation slots on the sides of the bonnet.
The rear spoiler is significantly bigger than the production model and the rear bumper also has air slots - air exhaust vents, actually - and a diffuser, over two sets of dual chrome tailpipes. The bumpers merge into the free-standing wings, also widened by 15mm a side, with gloss black sills and chrome trip strips. The roof, the upper part of the bootlid, the mirror housings and door handles are also gloss black.
The driver and passenger sit in sports shell seats, on special 'Ergopads' made of gray nubuck leather; the remainder of each seat is trimmed in black nappa leather, with blue seams and piping, and embossed with the 'R' logo.
The trim elements on the dashboard and around the gear shift are finished in gloss black, as is the R-specific instrument cluster (with the rev-counter in the middle, as befits a sports car) The pedal caps are brushed aluminium and the door sill plates carry the 'R' logo, as do the floor mats with their blue-black double borders.