The Love Bug

Cafe Society
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I watched The Love Bug last night, which I haven’t seen since I was a kid. Aw, Herbie is so cute!

They never called Herbie a VW. I only remember hearing it referred to as a ‘Bug’ once (maybe twice). Instead, Herbie was ‘The Little Car’. It struck me to wonder, in these litigious times, if the film inspired people to attempt the impossible stunts they saw in it with their own VWs. I mean, it would be quite dangerous to take curves at high speed in one. I can imagine some yutz seeing the film today, and wrecking his Bug. ‘But it took the curve at top speed in the movie!’

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Oh – Does anyone know what kind of car the Thorndike Special was?

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Can you link to a pic of the Thorndike Special?

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:smack: No wonder I couldn’t find it! I spelled ‘Thorndyke’ wrong!

Spelling it correctly, I found this

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Here’s a photo.

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There were, however, later Herbie movies in which the demonically-posessed car is, in fact, referred to as a “Volkswagen”.

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I’ve always thought that Herbie was possessed by Hitler’s ghost.

Only the Parkinson’s left him too zoned out to commit evil, except in the middle of races, in which he tried to kill, not save, Buddy Hackett.

Of course, given that it was Buddy Hackett, I really can’t blame Hitler too much…

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You know there’s a new Herbie movie coming, right? I saw a trailer. Herbie is a new WV Beetle, all souped-up with a spoiler, and it will probably have bouncing hydraulics and 24-inch rims and a boomin’ sound system to make everyone do the boogie-dance. And Lindsay Lohan is the new driver. Yikes.

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That’s incorrect. Herbie is the same “classic” Beetle he’s always been. One of the jokes in the trailer depends on this fact; Herbie sees a yellow “new” Beetle and makes a noise or flashes his lights or something, and Lindsay Lohan tells him, “She’s too young for you.”

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Oh, I stand corrected. Probably was too busy ogling Ms Lohan.

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And that’s entirely forgivable.

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And she’s too young for you.
I’ve never seen a Herbie film or if I did I don’t remember it.

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i know i’m not in the target market for this film (too old), but the biggest problem i had was that they “riced” Herbie out, putting all sorts of useless, meaningless bodywork on him and making him look like a race car

yes, Herbie is in fact a racing beetle (contradiction in terms? :wink: ), but part of the charm of the original Herbie is that he looked like a mostly stock Bug (albeit with a racing stripe and number paint job), he looked completely normal (and slow) there’s no way he could intimidate other racers based on his looks

Herbie was (and always should be) a sleeper, the opposing racers should look at him and see “just a Bug, we can beat it easily, he’s toast”, so when Herbie suddenly ends up miles ahead of the other racers, their first reaction should be WTF?! did i just get stomped by a Volkswagen Bug?!?

by putting the useless cosmetic frippery on him, they destroy the sleeper look

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Or they were complying with NASCAR’s rules. Well, at least the target audience’s understanding of such rules.

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Huh? I don’t recall seeing any changes to Herbie in the trailer, other than a brief scene where he’s doing the curbside shock-bounce that the kids today are fond of.

But then, I could have been distracted by Ms. Lohan’s bodywork… :cool:

(Anyone else saw Lindsay Lohan’s picture promoting the movie in Newsweek a week ago? With the license plate on her rear? yowch! :smiley: )

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The rear end made up to look like a Porsche 935.

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Porsche 935
New Herbie

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Lohan’s rear looks like a Porsche 935? :smiley: