This 1969 Volkswagen Beetle Limousine commissioned by noted Porsche/Volkswagen West Coast distributor and amateur racer John von Neumann is so unusually extravagant that it prompted VW of America to run a national print ad titled “The $35,000 Beetle.”

“Have we gone stark-raving mad?” asks the first line of copy below a large image of the car, chauffeur in full uniform standing behind it with chin held high. “No, but when we heard this car was on display at the Los Angeles International Auto Show, we thought somebody had.”

Exactly why von Neumann commissioned the $34,499.95 conversion of a $2,063 Volkswagen Beetle into a lavish stretch limo in the late sixties remains a mystery, but documents in its history file point to publicity being the reason—besides being yet another remarkable endeavor by a remarkable individual.

An Austrian expat from Vienna whose father had the foresight to relocate the family to California ahead of World War II, von Neumann was an influential figure in West Coast auto racing, helping establish the sport there while seeding interest in Porsches by avidly racing 356s and 550 Spyders in the Sports Car Club of America. He was also instrumental to Porsche and Volkswagen’s early success in the United States, initially buying Porsches two at a time from noted distributor Max Hoffman in New York, then driving them cross-country with his wife to buyers lined up in California. Von Neumann eventually established Pacific Volkswagen, Inc. in the mid-fifties as the official distributor to the West Coast and Hawaii, and it is for this business that the “Rollswagen,” so dubbed in a 1977 VW press release on file, was commissioned.

A certificate from Volkswagen Classic Parts confirms that the limo started life as a regular Type 1 manufactured on 8 October 1968, originally delivered in New Orleans finished in Black with a Gala Red leatherette interior and a 1,500-cubic-centimeter flat-four. The car would be shipped to California, where Culver City coachbuilder Troutman-Barnes—builder of Chaparral and Scarab racecars, and widely publicized for converting a 1968 Porsche 911 into a four-door—added 40 inches to the wheelbase, stretching the car to an impressive 16 feet, 6 inches overall. The cohesive conversion’s factory appearance is thanks in part to genuine VW components being used wherever possible, including for the custom rear doors and running boards.

A spec sheet dated 20 October 1969 titled “VW Limo for L.A. Auto Show” calls out two fixtures of the SoCal hot rod scene as contributors to the build: Junior’s House of Colors in Lynwood, responsible for the “baked enamel” black paint, and well-known hot-rodder/drag racer Tony Nancy of Sherman Oaks for the interior upholstery—button-tufted gray English broadcloth at the rear and black vinyl on the other side of the power-operated division window up front. Factory steel wheels were modified to incorporate wider rims and polished, while a higher-spec 1,600-cubic-inch flat-four with 48-millimeter Weber downdraft carburetors helped compensate for the extra 400 pounds added to the car. A very detailed original window sticker in the history file also notes mahogany trim, a minibar flanked by foldout jump seats, an intercom, a five-speaker Phillips audio system with cassette player, soundproofing, power windows, and a carriage lamp on the roof “to signal the doorman.” The car has since been updated with a modern Kenwood head unit and CD changer in the rear compartment.

Notes in the accompanying history file assert that the Rollswagen shuttled actor John Wayne to the 1970 Academy Awards, where he won his first and only Oscar for True Grit—though this information remained unconfirmed at cataloguing time. Becoming a celebrity of its own, the VW limo graced the cover of the September 1971 issue of Dune Buggies and Hot VWs. The very next year, von Neumann sold his distributorship to VW of America and the Rollswagen with it, as confirmed by a registration card on file. In 1974, the car was displayed within Masterson Motors in Ventura. VW of America continued to promote it through 1977, as indicated by the previously mentioned press release, before auctioning the stretched Beetle via sealed bid in January 1979. Correspondence on file indicates that the winning bidder was none other than prominent Newport Beach car dealer Chick Iverson, proprietor of the first VW dealership in Orange County and a dear friend to John Wayne (so close were the two that they were buried side-by-side at Pacific View Memorial Park).

Iverson would retain the Rollswagen until 1996, selling it to friend Lorenzo Pearson, founder of VW parts supplier West Coast Metric in Harbor City, California. The Beetle limo has remained within Pearson’s notable collection ever since, clearly well appreciated, as indicated by a meticulously handwritten logbook and various service invoices chronicling its dutiful upkeep over more than 20 years.

Von Neumann orchestrated the transformation of “the world’s best known economy car into the world’s most economical limousine,” as the VW ad copy declares. “…Why not be the savingest millionaire on the road? That, children, is how the rich get richer.”