Ed Stembridge initiated the idea of VW Week, and its been a success. I was afraid interest might flag a bit towards the end, but it’s been one of our best weeks ever here at CC, so obviously the Volks-love is true and enduring. Ed was going to do a post on Herbie, but that will have to wait for another time. And I’m still working on an article about the VW’s genesis, but it’s just not ready yet, so what should have been the beginning of the story will arrive late. Well, the VW is an ass-backwards car, so that’s almost appropriate. Thanks to all the Contributors and your excellent comments. I could keep doing VW Week indefinitely, but I know Carmine and a few others would like to crawl out of their bunkers now. Bring on the Broughams!
I was waiting for the Love Bug post, since I consider the Disney’s 1968 film, the Love Bug to have been my automotive gateway drug, I must have watched it on Beta about a thousand times, we recorded it from TV when the movie was about a decade old. I don’t know if I came pre-wired from the factory to love cars and the Love Bug triggered the fuse, or if exposing my undeveloped little brain mind to such an automotive cavalcade, seared that love of cars in there forever. Because of The Love Bug, Beetles became the first car embedded in my brain, they were the first car I ever learned how to draw.
But I always tip my glass to Herbie and The Love Bug for setting me off down the road on an automotive obsession.
For what it’s worth, I’m really bored with Broughams. Don’t any of the other contributors appreciate cars other than the land yachts that killed the US auto industry? More VW content would be welcome…
It won’t be all Broughams, I assure you. Admittedly, there’s a lot of love for the big guys, as they are the quintessential American cars, and they are consistently our most popular posts. But we strive hard to have a balance, and I think we do that reasonably well. There will always be VWs, and we’ve had a huge amount of VW content in the past. In fact, this isn’t our first VW theme week…
The best improvement this website could ever do to its already excellent record is to NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER SHOW ANOTHER BROUGHAM AGAIN! Why we must constant wallow in the worst that the American (or any other) car industry has ever produced is beyond me.
I’ll happily take the next six months of solid Trabants, Ladas, Moskovitchs and ZILs over one more stinking brougham.
I do remember the first VW on our street, a black 56 with a sunroof… these same neighbors are in my earliest car memory.In 1963 the neighbors lined up for a ride around the block in our new Grand Prix..
So many variations on a theme. I use to imitate the sound of a VW BUG verse a CORVAIR… Does anyone else have memories of doing that with your tongue? I wonder if I could still recall the differing distinct sounds, of shifting, acceleration.
I guess I’m just car crazy. Thank you for an excellent week of reading, once again.
I learned the sound of a VW at a very tender age, and would call out “VW” whenever one went by our house in Innsbruck, which of course was often.
Thats a great image. Does anyone know if its available to purchase?
I forgot where I got that from; somewhere on the net, obviously. If you right click the picture, you can get the “View Image Info”, which might lead you back to its original source. Stuff like this gets bounced around the web repeatedly.
Thanks Paul. I have never seen that image before and I am struck by the imaginable concept that all of these VW’s have driven themselves to the drive-in to watch one of their own kind
A movie about a Beetle for Beetles
The story goes that when the premise of The Love Bug was being discussed and which car to use in the movie, they watched out an office window as people passing a parked Beetle actually patted it on the roof as they passed.
Automotive anthropomorphizing aside, the Beetle earned its place alongside other legendary cars like the Model T in how it was a revolutionary game changer. Love it or hate it, there’s no denying the VW Beetle’s place in not only US automotive culture, but that of the world.
Bring on the specials. And the vans, the pickups, the trucks, the tractors, the offroaders, the workhorses, the motorhomes, the rarities, the cars with a (personal) history, the “other” cars from all over the globe. As far as I know this is the only website which spotlights those vehicles AND has commenters from all over the world.
I say hats off to CC !
You would think that everything that *can* have been written about air-cooled VW already *has* been written. And then along comes CC to prove that theory wrong. Well done!
I’ve enjoyed this week! And it may please many to know that I have a Brougham-ier Curbside Classic post coming in the next week or two.
You totally missed the type 3 fastback and squareback and the thing
And a whole lot of others, frankly. When we do a theme week, we don’t even attempt to cover everything. And much of it is spontaneous, depending on what shows up and such.
But I promise to do the Type II soon. We need to keep something VW for future days.
Thank you Paul I enjoyed VW Week a lot more than I expected.What next? Early AMC Javelin, a secretary’s specials special,wallpaper woodies and Euro American exotics like the Bristol,Facel Vega,Iso etc please
Thanks for making my VW story a COAL feature.
While the story of my ’59 Beetle is the best one, I could definitely do more contributions in the future and not necessarily only Volkswagens.
Thank you for sharing it! I am several days behind in reading CC posts but thoroughly enjoyed it when I read it the other day.
You’re hired! 🙂
I’ll send you an e-mail with more details.
I am not a Beetle fan – this is the only one I’ve ever photographed.
That’s a Herbie: Fully Loaded movie car, for the curious.
Eh, judging from all the vacuum tubes in there, I would say older than that movie. Disney used to have a Herbie that would participate in the parades at Disneyland that was rigged to do all sorts of crazy things like drop its bumpers and move its headlights like eyes, this looks like one of those cars.
You’re hired! 🙂
I’ll send you an e-mail with more details.
Who are you talking about Paul?
That was supposed to be a reply to Adam Simpson’s offer to write more posts.
Nice photo, but there should be a few Karmann Ghias and buses in the shot as well. A great week and a lot of great VW stories. Keep ’em coming. By the way, my sister just bought a 2013 Passat TDI. She’s quite happy with it, and I hope it holds up like her 2000 Accord has. They still have it, and my niece is learning to drive on it. Still, I’d like to take the Passat for a cruise next time we’re in Michigan.
Ha ha!! I loved VW week at CC. Thanks for all the great articles and comments everyone, and thanks Paul for running my little QOTD and letting me showcase my VW project, as well as my OCD.
Maybe by the time VW week rolls around again I’ll have my own running and driving VW CC.