VW Beetle Spider

There are as many as four of Reno artist David Fambrough’s giant “spider bugs” crawling around the American Southwest. Some have changed locations over the years. This one is lurking just outside of Carson City, Nevada. As the property appears to be for sale, it’s possible the art car will be creeping along again at some point. 

The idea for the first spider bug was hatched in the late 1970s when Fambrough, while sketching an Egyptian scarab, noted its resemblance to a Volkswagen Beetle. Then, upon finding an abandoned Beetle body, was inspired to make his first “automobug.” Though Fambrough intended a scarab, his viewers often see a giant black widow or, given Nevada’s atomic history, something more like that 1950s giant movie tarantula.

Another of Fambrough’s spider bugs is located atop Scudder’s Performance, an auto shop in Sparks, Nevada, with yet another reportedly in Palm Springs, California.