Draw a tortoise or turtle shell. Then add windows. By the time you add just one wheel at the bottom, I guarantee your sketch -- even if your artistic skills are the worst -- will be recognizable as the outline of the VW Beetle.

I am in Wolfsburg, Germany, for this road test. Waiting for me is the new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle. I am fortunate to be one of the first people outside VW to have a go in it. But before I do, I have another treat: to try my hand in one of the oldest driving examples of the Beetle.

It's from 1938. Sure, it lives in a museum, but it is immaculate. Piano black paint so polished you could use it as a mirror. That color black -- A1 in the VW palate -- is available on the new Beetle. Most cars that are 73 years old look like most people who are 73 years olds -- a little dated. Not the Beetle. Its shape, its simplicity, its ease of maintenance, the Teutonic minimalism. It's gorgeous.

Everyone knows the outside. But I love the inside, too. Art Deco dials. Cloth seats and headlining that would fit into a modern home now. And a tactile, thin-rimmed steering wheel that transmits every sense of its handling direct to your brain. Not that it's great at handling -- remember, it's a 1938.

It is very light, very spindly. It's not necessarily a challenge to drive, but you're a bit more involved with the car than in something new. And it's not just the driving. The engine is a work of art. At college, most of my friends had Beetles. They'd pick them up for $75 and tweak and tune them. No two were the same. Some made buggies from them. Some created hot rods. The Beetle was, literally, the people's car.

Cars have now gotten to the point where people just want to get in and go, and not know anything about how anything works. So the new 2012 Beetle is the Beetle for the 21st Century, and that means it is one you'd never dare try and fix or hot rod, because you shouldn't need to.

The new Beetle is certainly a Beetle. No mistaking tha, but its DNA is instantly evident. I think [Volkswagen] did try to replicate the 1938 car and this is what it came up with. Let's face it, in today's cars, the bumpers have to do so much, the headlights have to be so high off the ground, the beams have to angle this way, you've got to have crash protection.

VW built that same body shape from 1938 to essentially, what, the mid-'80s, early '90s? This is as close the original shape as the health and safety brigade will allow.

I'm sure if they were designing the Beetle from scratch in 2011, not the late '30s, it would look much different to this. But they would start like this with a roofline that's quite high. Space is paramount to both models.

This new car is faster, with better fuel economy, more efficient all the way around and, I'm sure, safer. As much as I love that 1938 Volkswagen, you get hit by a lorry in that thing...oh my God. In the 1938 car the gas tank is right in front of the driver. I mean HELLO!!! It's game over. But back in 1938, people just wanted to get somewhere quickly and efficiently, and safety was not a primary issue. Cars were as safe as they needed to be. They had four-wheel brakes, and that was about it.

That's the end of the connection. The thing that astounds me about this new Beetle is its sophistication and power. Not that long ago, turbochargers and double clutch gearboxes were something for supercar makers. Even Lamborghini, part of the Volkswagen family, did not have those until recently. This car will outperform most sports cars from not that long ago. You put it is S (sport) mode and everything tightens up. You put your foot down and she's got some real power. You have got a 6500-rpm redline. That's something you did not find in previous Beetles.

I think you could fool your wife into thinking this was a sensible car and you then go and enjoy the hooligan stuff in secret. It's like two cars in one. The chassis is very neutral and handles very nicely. To be honest I'm a little surprised. But pleasantly so.

I was on the autobahn and looked down to find I was doing 220 km/h. That's north of 130 mph. In a Beetle! To do that kind of speed in a 1938 version you'd have to be going over a cliff. I can brag to my friends I did 130 in a Beetle. It's good doing that in Germany. In the U.S., I'd be writing this from a jail cell.

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It handles nicely, it holds four people, and it is fun to put your foot down and feel that turbo kick in. The engine is twice the size of the engine in that '38 model ,with nine times the power.

The car feels very safe. Especially coming from a 1938 model. You know, nowadays you gotta be able to hit a guy at 60 miles an hour, hit him in the knee and have him get up laughing and thanking you. That's how safe cars have to be. And that's a good thing. Don't forget, years ago, when you saw a Volkswagen rolled over, the most common thing was it got squashed -- like a bug. The bug thing was cute, but they got squashed like one. Nowadays when cars roll over, the driver gets out and pulls out a cell phone and has their dad come pick them up. In 1938, a cell phone is where you called your dad from when you crashed the car.

It's good trying the car for the first time at the home of Volkswagen and close to the birthplace of the automobile. That means a lot to me. A lot of car companies claim automotive heritage. Volkswagen is one that lives it. This is virtually where the car was born, nearby in 1876. This place is Day 1 of the car; the ancestral home of the automobile. Way before Ferrari. Way before Henry Ford.

I think geography makes a huge difference to a car's DNA. French cars' floaty suspensions work best on French roads because they are so beautiful. German cars feel best on the fast roads of Germany. American cars, with their soft suspension, are best in America because the roads are so bad.

If the Beetle had a human character it would be the kind of person who always likes to turn up early for flights and checks the traffic for the trip to the airport. Unlike a car from more gregarious stock, who might be the kind of guy who turns up for a flight just a few seconds before the gate closes, and probably suffering after a good party. The German character is the one you want as an engineer. You want him making the machine to which you entrust your life.

Road tests in the '60s and '70s were easier and much more fun. There were some cars out there that were just dreadful, like the MG Midget. They overheated at the dealership. And in America, car companies like Chrysler offered just a 90-day warranty. 90 days! 90 days and then you're on your own, bud...

I don't have a Volkswagen in my garage, but I a 1948 model near me in L.A. caught my eye. The owner had it for 50 years. It was wonderful. It even came with the shovel that came with the car. It's a model I would like to have in my garage. I was only half joking when I asked the VW people if the 1938 one I drove in Wolfsburg was for sale.

To get people's attention you need to create something that reminds them of something. Like the Mini and the Fiat 500. These days, not just in cars, there's very little stuff that is really, really new. I mean, why have houses not changed in the last 150 years? The shape works. The Beetle is the same. The shape works. Sure, this is the grandson of the original, but the resemblance is obvious. The roofline, the Beetle bonnet.

I think it will do fine. I don't think it will be a blockbuster. We had it parked on the streets here in Wolfsburg and not that many people walked over and looked at it. If it had been a Lamborghini or SLS Mercedes, a crowd would have formed.

But it is a practical, intelligent choice. It has great build quality, a good amount of space, handles well, and has more power than necessary. But that describes many modern cars, including Volkswagens. What makes this different is that it is the Beetle. It is one of the most famous car shapes on the planet. I received a fabulous sketch of the new car by VW designer Walter de'Silva. That Beetle shape is so identifiable. It is, more than any other shape in cars, a car. It's something kids can draw, and it typifies how we define an automobile.

Ford doesn't make a 2012 Model T, but Mini, Fiat, and VW prove that a mix of a good car and some emotional heartstring pulling from their past makes people buy cars. It's irrational, but it's true. I'd like a Beetle, but as much as I like the new one, I have my eye on the original in the Autostadt Museum at Wolfsburg.