TheSamba.com :: View topic - Would you take possession of Herbie the Love Bug?

Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:13 am

Hey, I do some of my best thinking in the bathroom. :) I just realized something:

I'm not so sure that I'd want to take possession of Herbie the Love Bug if he were real. I mean, look at the facts.

1. He's very jealous. Remember in the first movie when he smashed that sports car? Could you ever drive another car? I mean, suppose you wanted a bus for camping? Too bad, because Herbie might get jealous and smash it.

2. He's unpredictable. He may not do what you want. You need to go to work, but Herbie wants to go up into the hills to the scenic overlook. Suddenly you're locked in and away you go.

3. He's not mentally stable either. I mean, he did try to jump off the Golden Gate bridge, right? What if he gets mad and suicidal? There you are, locked in, as he tries to pitch himself over a railing. Not cool at all.

4. He's prone to murderous rages. Hey in the first movie, there isn't a doubt in my mind that he tried to kill that evil guy. What if he gets jealous of your girlfriend? Explain that one to the police.

Maybe its not such a mystery that he kept moving from owner to owner in all the movies, eh?

Steve

Fri Jun 20, 2014 5:51 pm

Ya mun - give da boy some ganga....and he be real mellow....... :lol:

Listen - I dont know about your cars - but some of ours aint far from Herbie. My wife's buggy was meanest. most tempermental thing I had ever seen. Took years for her (the car) to quit getting all pissed off when I did anything to her (the car)....

My damn woodie thought that since I took 4 years to finally build it, that it was a permanent fixture in my shop....stupid stuff would break constantly.....UNTIL my wife had a very "come to Jesus" talk with the car, which essentially was "Just one more time you break, and you are going down the road." No issues since.

My 65 is kind of like a really faithful friend......Only time she died on us was my wife was driving her home on Friday at 5PM through a section of the road that is kind of a bottle neck, but REALLY busy that time of day. Only 2 small pull offs. She gave a warning sputter, wife pulled off the road and she died - was a new fuel pump failure.

More stories, but Herbie got nuthin on our cars :lol:

Fri Jun 20, 2014 6:07 pm

Westy Steve wrote: Hey, I do some of my best thinking in the bathroom. :) I just realized something:

I'm not so sure that I'd want to take possession of Herbie the Love Bug if he were real. I mean, look at the facts.

1. He's very jealous. Remember in the first movie when he smashed that sports car? Could you ever drive another car? I mean, suppose you wanted a bus for camping? Too bad, because Herbie might get jealous and smash it.

2. He's unpredictable. He may not do what you want. You need to go to work, but Herbie wants to go up into the hills to the scenic overlook. Suddenly you're locked in and away you go.

3. He's not mentally stable either. I mean, he did try to jump off the Golden Gate bridge, right? What if he gets mad and suicidal? There you are, locked in, as he tries to pitch himself over a railing. Not cool at all.

4. He's prone to murderous rages. Hey in the first movie, there isn't a doubt in my mind that he tried to kill that evil guy. What if he gets jealous of your girlfriend? Explain that one to the police.

Maybe its not such a mystery that he kept moving from owner to owner in all the movies, eh?

Steve

Is this a rhetorical question?

Fri Jun 20, 2014 6:50 pm

If I was the imagine a movie car I'd pick the Aston Martin DB4 Mr. Bond had.

Fri Jun 20, 2014 8:02 pm

yup.I wish I had never sold the one I had/I built,(not a vw)

Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:14 pm

Never saw the film...

Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:48 am

That's too bad Cusser.

Even if you ignore half the movie, the outside shots of SF in the 60's are worth it. Michele Lee is smoking hot, and the race scenes are pretty cool.

Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:16 am

Sat Jun 21, 2014 11:46 am

pb_foots wrote: That's too bad Cusser.

Even if you ignore half the movie, the outside shots of SF in the 60's are worth it. Michele Lee is smoking hot, and the race scenes are pretty cool.

If you watch the interviews on the bonus disc you will discover that most of those outside shots of SF were painted, as was the cool house he lived in!

Sat Jun 21, 2014 12:06 pm

pb_foots wrote: Michele Lee is smoking hot...

works for me....

Sat Jun 21, 2014 3:35 pm

Glenn wrote: If I was the imagine a movie car I'd pick the Aston Martin DB4 Mr. Bond had.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock: I get to correct Glenn - its a DB5...... :lol: And I agree - remember seeing that chase seen when I was a little kid........Freaking awesome!

Sun Jun 22, 2014 5:59 am

Yep...I'd take him...and ... if he gave me shit... I tell him Im putting new Empi parts on him...
Just go ahead and try me fella... :twisted:

All vehicles have a "personality" so to speak.. Some can be a bit temperamental. So owning another one.... its no big deal.. :lol:

Id much rather have the truck from "Duel"... just to scare the hell out of people texting and driving.. Nice part about that "movie vehicle" .... Its actually currently owned locally to me...... I've even been in the cab a few times.. :wink:

.

Mon Jun 23, 2014 2:32 pm

VOLKSWAGNUT wrote: Yep...I'd take him...and ... if he gave me shit... I tell him Im putting new Empi parts on him...
Just go ahead and try me fella... :twisted:

All vehicles have a "personality" so to speak.. Some can be a bit temperamental. So owning another one.... its no big deal.. :lol:

Id much rather have the truck from "Duel"... just to scare the hell out of people texting and driving.. Nice part about that "movie vehicle" .... Its actually currently owned locally to me...... I've even been in the cab a few times.. :wink:

.
Funny how 40something years later that photo still make the hair on the back of my neck tingle!

Thu Jun 26, 2014 1:37 pm

If he needed a place to go, I would help him out and loan him some garage space.

He might be able to get a job and help out with the bills too, that would be appreciated.

Thu Jun 26, 2014 2:58 pm

Bebe already shows some of the same Herbie tendancies. I decided not to take her to Des Moines and all of the sudden the dome light which hadn't worked for at least 9 months starts working, kind of inviting me to sit down in the drivers seat.

I get back from Des Moines and the generator light, which was working when I left, all of the sudden doesn't light. I ran a couple of short trips without the generator light but I don't like to do that and I like to have an alternator that charges. I find a light bulb and turn the key so I can verify voltage before swapping the bulb and the generator light is now working. That EMPI threat might just work, I had dug that spare bulb out of a EMPI light bulb set to swap for the original. She doesn't like that.

Thu Jun 26, 2014 3:22 pm

VOLKSWAGNUT wrote: Yep...I'd take him...and ... if he gave me shit... I tell him Im putting new Empi parts on him...
Just go ahead and try me fella... :twisted:

All vehicles have a "personality" so to speak.. Some can be a bit temperamental. So owning another one.... its no big deal.. :lol:

Id much rather have the truck from "Duel"... just to scare the hell out of people texting and driving.. Nice part about that "movie vehicle" .... Its actually currently owned locally to me...... I've even been in the cab a few times.. :wink:

.

The actual vehicle from the movie? So did they throw the "stunt double" truck over the cliff in the finale?

That final scene was filmed less than a mile from my old house. For locals, that cliff is still visible on Vasquez Canyon Road between Sierra Highway and Bouquet Canyon Road in Saugus, California. There is a turnout that has a gated driveway leading up to "Cruzan Mesa" (known locally as "Mystery Mesa") where a lot if filming has been done over the years.

I thought of that damn truck every time I got tailgated coming up that road!

The rest of the drive was filmed along Sierra Highway and Soledad Canyon on the way to Palmdale and out across the desert toward Victorville.

Thu Jun 26, 2014 8:16 pm

You mess with VW’s long enough and you discover they all have the same tendencies as Herbie, they just show them in different ways and to a different degree.

I had a 63 years ago that had some sort of issue with the starter. When parked, it would just start cranking on its own for no reason. There were many mornings when I came out to go to work and the car wasn’t parked where I left it the night before.

The first time it did it I was sleeping in the car at the race track. (I had removed the back seat and built a nice sleeping platform in there) I was awakened to find the car driving itself away on the starter. I had to pull it out of gear and get out to lift up my platform and disconnect the battery.

The really strange thing about it was that it never ran the battery dead when it did this. And the car was still 6volt. If you disconnected the battery it stopped, and then if you put the battery cable right back on it would be OK the starter wouldn't be running.

I was living in an apartment at the time and it would drive itself from one side of the parking lot to the other. It did it several times and never hit anything else.

But then once at the race track I parked behind my buddies 57 that he had just finished painting and it tried to drive up the back of his car. People who saw it said it looked like it was trying to hump the 57.

Then just this last Sunday we had the 55 out for an afternoon of driving. We made several stops along the way and the car did just fine and always restarted right up.

I keep it in my box trailer for the race car since the 2 car garage currently has 4 cars in it. When we got home I pulled in the driveway and parked behind the trailer. We had dinner and when I went to put it back in the trailer it wouldn’t start. The only way I could get it to fire was to pull the choke out all the way and then it would only run for a second or two before it died.

After trying to start it a good 10 times or more, we finally ended up pushing it into the trailer. Once in I tried to start it again and she fired right up and ran just as good as ever!

The wife said something to the fact that the car is just like the cat and didn’t want to go inside on such a nice evening. I believe that!

Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:41 am

KTPhil wrote: [
The actual vehicle from the movie? So did they throw the "stunt double" truck over the cliff in the finale?
.

Yes and no.
In the end... there were 2 trucks and cars used total. One truck was recreated shortly after the made for TV version to add the scenes for the "extended theatrical" version.

Yes the first Pete and Tank used in the original made for TV version was destroyed at the end, but the second truck used in the extra scenes needed to fit the required minimum time for theatrical versions is still alive and kicking and has made its way here to NC.
The extra scenes are the School Bus and Railroad scenes. The extra added scenes are awesome. If you're into spotting differences, look at the side mounted air cleaners on the Pete tractors...they are different in shape and design. :wink:

Fri Jun 27, 2014 7:12 am

Quote: I was awakened to find the car driving itself away on the starter.

drscope - Christine? You should have let it drive to see where it was going... :D

Fri Jun 27, 2014 7:26 am

drscope wrote: I had a 63 years ago that had some sort of issue with the starter. When parked, it would just start cranking on its own for no reason. There were many mornings when I came out to go to work and the car wasn’t parked where I left it the night before.
If in it was me, I would have chose to leave it in neutral if it did this more than once. :wink:
And no, on the Herbie, I have had temperamental VW's before