page_title: Puma (car manufacturer)
section_title: Volkswagen era
hierarchical_section_title: Puma (car manufacturer) / Volkswagen era
caption_attribution_description: English: A somewhat weatherbeaten 1981-1984 (1985?) Puma GTI seen in Poços de Caldas, Brazil.
context_page_description: Puma is a sports car manufacturer based in South Africa. Puma was originally based in Brazil where it built cars, from 1964 until roughly 1995, and trucks, from 1978 to 1999. The company then re-opened in South Africa in 2013 under the name of Puma Automobiles. Puma Automobiles manufactures the Puma 52 and the Puma GT 2.4 Lumimari.
  In Brazil, Puma sourced engines from DKW, Volkswagen and General Motors and mounted them on their own chassis and fiberglass bodies. A small number of cars were exported to US markets during the 1970s to the 1980s, but a more cost effective kit car option was responsible for the majority of US imports. The kit car variant was a complete car exported without the front suspension, transaxle, engine, wheels, and tires. The buyer could purchase the components from a Puma North American distributor or supply their own. Since it had less restrictive regulations, a greater number of complete cars were exported to buyers in Canada.
  Production of the first models started in 1964 using DKW components and a front engine, front wheel design. These models were sold and manufactured exclusively for auto racing.
context_section_description: In 1967, Volkswagen (VW) bought DKW-Vemag and ceased production of the DKW engine in Brazil. With no DKW engines available, Puma designed a new car based on a shortened chassis of the rear-engined, air-cooled 1,500 cc Volkswagen Karmann Ghia sold in Brazil. The design, inspired by the Lamborghini Miura, remained largely unchanged for two decades. The new design with a Volkswagen 1,600 cc engine was named the Puma 1600 GTE. It sold relatively well for a specialist sports car. Puma sold the 1600 GTE starting in 1969 and offered kits to make the engine more powerful. 
  A convertible version, the 1600 GTS, was added around 1970 and Puma began to export the cars to other South American countries, North America, and Europe. Most of the cars exported to North America were sold in kit form. However, all cars sold in Brazil were complete. In 1976 Volkswagen began to honor the warranty of their standard engine supplied to Puma. At the same time Puma introduced a three-month or 5,000 km warranty on their tuned engines and a 1.9-litre kit with Mahle pistons that had a bore and stroke of 88 mm × 78.4 mm.
  VW stopped production of the Karmann-Ghia in Brazil during the early 1970s so the Puma was redesigned in 1973 to use the Volkswagen Brasilia (VWB) as a base instead. During the same period, the Puma began to be assembled in South Africa by Bromer Motor Assemblies. Bromer Motor Assemblies produced 357 cars in two years but closed due to poor fiscal management. The bodywork was restyled in 1977; while similar in appearance to the original, the bumpers were molded as part of the body, rather than attached as separate chrome units. The body was redesigned to be somewhat less rounded than before and the Coupé's louvers were replaced with rear quarter windows. The Puma models were restyled and renamed in 1980. The Coupé became the GTI and the Spider became the GTC. The new look included rubber bumpers with decorative cast-in ridges, which mimicked the Porsche 911 G's telescopic impact bumpers. The tail lights were replaced by the Volkswagen Brasilia's Mercedes-style units. The small push-button door handles were replaced with more modern units borrowed from the Alfa Romeo Ti 4.
  The P-018 model came out in 1982; it used a version of the VW Brasilia Variant II's more modern chassis with the Brasilia's front suspension. The P-018 had slightly wider front and rear tracks, and a rear suspension that featured semi-axles with constant-velocity joints, sprung by transverse torsion bars, rather than the Brasilia's simpler semi-trailing rear. As with other Puma models, an air-cooled 1.6-litre Volkswagen boxer-four was standard equipment, with larger 1.7-, 1.8-, and 2.0-litre versions available at extra cost. An annual production of 1,000 was planned, but only about 55 of the P-018s were completed.
caption: 1981-1985 Puma GTI, showing the false impact bumpers and new light arrangements
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