A Puma is a glassfibre (but not kit *) car built on VW Beetle running gear. Pumas were built in South Africa and in Brazil, with the designs drifting apart with time. (* Trivia: in the USA, Pumas were available in "kit" form to get around DMV regulations). The first run of South African Pumas were built in Durban, and the second run in Verwoerdburg. My Puma is one of the very first, later Pumas (might have) had rear quarter windows. Bill Jackameit's production figures show that there were 357 first run and 26 second run Pumas built in South Africa. Yes folks, only 383 of these little cars built locally. No wonder you don't see too many of them around. 21 733 Pumas were built in Brazil, for a total of 22 116 worldwide. The good news is that the factory is open again.

• The story of my Puma, #129.
• I've just started the big rebuild.
• Technical information:
  • The best engine for a Puma
  • Type IV pulley timing marks
  • Mating a Type IV engine to a Type I gearbox
  • Oil temperature sender
  • Dipstick tube
  • Building a "freeway flyer" gearbox
  • Building a large fast Type IV engine
• Apparently the South African Pumas were available with 2 litre engines from the factory. Armand Botha on the topic.
• Contributions to my pages:
  • 70's Puma Owner's Manual scanned by Juan Menendez.

  • Armand Botha send the following:
    • Four pictures of the two Pumas he's working on [1] [2] [3] and [4].
    • Two 1973 photographs of the first Puma built in SA, the first featuring an unknown lady,
      the second with Mitzi Stander, Miss SA of that year.
    • A Puma Marketing VIN plate.
    • A Puma advertisement.

  • Tony de Haas (Durban) sent five pictures of his really wicked looking 1989 Puma GT:
    [1] [2] [3] [4] and [5].
    This is a second run South African car, with a 2 liter Golf GTi engine.
    Tony then made a sub-frame to take a Jetta 2 front suspension. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and [6].

  • Stephan Zankl sent a picture and had the following to say about this Puma which is in the VW museum in Germany.

    "The puma at the museum seems to be one of a lot of about 35 pumas they imported to germany in 79. at least, it looks pretty much like one of those. I would guess it is a 79 gte."

    "I have to admit, i have never been to the museum myself. I just have seen 3 or 4 pictures of the car they have, and i am quite sure, there was only one single lot of cars being registered here in Germany. They were shipped and imported in 1979, but stored away and finally licensed for traffic in 1982. Out of what happened meanwhile, you could easily write a script for an evening-filling-movie. So, what makes me guess, that the car is one of those, is the simple fact, that they are all similar down to the detail, for instance the door-locks."

    Arsenio Fornari sent these two pics [1], [2], saying "Here are the 2 pix from the museum. It is a gorgeous Puma, although not my favorite colour."

  • Paul Visagie's 1974 Puma GT P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P7 and P8.
  • Miscellaneous images.

Links

Bill Jackameit's page. www.pumacars.com Ama-bugabuga South African Volgswagen Club site.

Photo from VW T&A^H^H^HTrends March 1987

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