Spider VW Bug

Lexington, Oklahoma, United States

·

Buildings and structures

✓

Current

Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A Volkswagen Beetle converted into a red-fanged spider, listed by TravelOK as fifteen feet tall, was reported in 2023 (Oklahoma Magazine) beside US 77 at Moffatt Road north of Lexington, Oklahoma. Oklahoma Magazine said it was built to advertise a Volkswagen salvage business and speedway.

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

No recommended arrival yet

We have not checked a recommended place to arrive or stop here yet.

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Spider VW Bug

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Approximate location · 35.019° N, 97.352° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A Volkswagen Beetle turned into a red-fanged spider was reported beside US 77 north of Lexington, Oklahoma, in 2023.

TravelOK, the state tourism site, describes a classic car turned into a fifteen-foot-tall spider with metal tubes, a "wicked paint job" and red eyes and fangs, and its listing says free admission and open 24/7 at Moffatt Road and US 77. It began as an advertisement. Oklahoma Magazine reported in 2023 that Robert Leroy Wilson, who collected some 2,500 Volkswagens, opened a salvage and repair business in Lexington in 1978 and built the Lexington 77 Speedway in 1984, and that he built the spider as an advertisement for the track and shop. Speaking to News 9 in 2019, a Lexington resident said the land was the old Volkswagen salvage yard, once dubbed the world's largest, and that a racetrack lay just behind the car. News 9 noted that the car was once called the "Beetle", and he thought the track took the name "Black Widow" in 1984.

Accounts differ on when it went up. The same resident recalled 1979 or 1980, while a visitor comment on Roadside America in 2017 says the spider was built in 1973 or 1974 by the commenter's grandfather for Wilson. The speedway closed in 1996, and when Wilson died his Volkswagen collection went to auction without the spider, Oklahoma Magazine reported.

Age has taken its toll. In 2019 News 9 described a campaign to restore the car and preserve the land it sits on; Oklahoma Magazine says its "Save the Spider" Facebook page had nearly 2,000 followers by 2023. A visitor comment in October 2022 said the spider was looking older and needed paint.

Roadside America places it in a field beside a church.

Add a photo

PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

TravelOK's listing says free admission and open 24/7. Visitors in 2022 described it as aging, and a 2018 visitor comment says it is not lit at night.

ACCESS

Beside US 77 at Moffatt Road, about a mile north of Lexington, Oklahoma (Roadside America gives 951 Moffatt Rd). It stands in a field next to a church, per Roadside America; the building that housed the shop is now a church (2013 comment).

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

✓

Current

65-foot Dinosaur (Jameson's Discount Home Improvement) (relocated 2020)

Midwest City, Oklahoma

“Big Jim” is a blue fiberglass brachiosaurus first put on show in 1996 outside Statuary World beside Interstate 35. Jameson’s Discount Home Improvement moved it to Yukon in 2020, and the Midwest City Beacon reported in November 2025 that it had moved again, to the firm’s Midwest City store.

Animals and creatures

·

48 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Something not right?

If this Big Thing has changed, moved or gone, telling us keeps the guide honest for the next traveller.

Suggest an update →Report a problem →