The 1973 model year saw the Super Beetle modified to incorporate a prominent curved windscreen and a radically different style of dashboard, the car now being branded as the 1303 to denote this progression. Developed out of fear that US safety legislation would shortly demand a greater distance between the driver/front seat passenger and the windscreen than the 1302 range afforded, the expense involved in the advance was In vain, as any such plans were aborted by the American authorities. Although the modernistic dashboard of the 1303 was frowned on by many Beetle owners and not just diehards, the curved screen was undoubtedly suited to the Cabriolet – the hood seeming to melt into the screen, something not achieved previously.
