This Volkswagen Beetle hails from Thailand, where it is raced bt the Thepprathan Sarkham Drift Team with a seriously modified powertrain under its iconic and wildly modded exterior. Where the Beetle left the factory originally with a puny flat-four behind the rear wheels, this Bug has received a turbocharged 2JZ engine from a Toyota Supra that is now mounted underneath the front hood. The 2JZ has proven itself wildly popular for use in engine swap projects over the years, helped no doubt by the Fast and Furious films, and is known for being able to create massive power with little in the way of internal modifications. But dropping an inline-six into a Bug sure looks like a serious project.
Under The Skin
A series of posts on the Thepprathan Sarakham Drift Team's Facebook page reveal more about what's going on under the skin. Where the front trunk (or "frunk" as Porsche fans know well) used to be, this Bug now houses a cramped inline-six that has received what's clearly an enormous turbocharger.
Fitting the powerplant in there clearly required some inventive custom mechanical work, as proven by the intercooler visible mounted up front—though to be fair, it will get plenty of airflow given that it's not impeded by any body panels or grilles.
Fitting It All Together
What looks like a coolant radiator and fuel cell are now mounted out back where Volkswagen would have traditionally hung the Bug's original flat-four. How exactly the setup affects balance is a legit question, though given that the car is used for drifting, it must be doing alright.
And no doubt employing a Nissan Silvia's subframes probably helped, given that that's the car that earned the moniker "The Mona Lisa of Drifting" in the third Fast and Furious film that brought drifting to the forefront of automotive culture all those years ago. With a claimed output of 640 horsepower, the 2JZ setup is probably running conservatively, perhaps due to concerns about the Beetle actually tearing itself apart.
Sources: Facebook, Jalopnik