I'm an early 30s millennial, but growing up I was the weird kid in school because I was OBSESSED with Herbie. Had all the movies on VHS, including the 90s made for TV movie, a dozen model cars, Herbie themed birthday parties, and restoring a 60s Beetle is at the very top of my bucket list... And now you're driving one that's a legit rally racer?? Veronica, can I please be your friend? 😭
Also 30s millenial reporting in, but not as obsessed until like, retroactively. My dad was enamored by how silly the old Herbie movie was, and he swapped out boxy Corolla for a white Beetle (later repainted to Lemon Yellow). The bug isn't with me anymore but my uncle and dad's bro made it their restoration project after his passing (and it's been going well last I saw the bug). I did learn to drive with it though for a little bit. The gearing was definitely weird, and the steering felt heavy, responsive, but also weird all at the same time. In retrospect, I now understand why dad liked the funny bug so much lol.
@@foxracer1703 Personally I wasn't a fan of how they used CGI to make Herbie look like he was made out of rubber, and everything else was... fine. But I'm mostly just happy that they tried to make another movie at all lol
Herbie was my childhood hero! I’m nowhere near the normal age of nostalgia for the era this film was made, but ever since my dad showed me the original movie, I’ve always wanted a replica 63 Bug. I’ve seen every one!
Same! Born in '94 so this was long after the original releases of all but the Bruce Campbell one (and later Fully Loaded I guess). I think Rides Again is my favorite, especially the scene where all the Beetles in the neighborhood band together to fight the real estate asshole. :P Now I have a '99 Beetle turbo.
I passed a calculus class because of a Volkswagen Beetle. Across all subjects I refused to do homework in the later half of HS, and my grades were riding on test scores. All of which were always B’s to A’s if not better. But my calculus class focused much more on homework so I was struggling. It wasn’t till I turned in a test paper I spent most of the class period drawing a VW Beetle on the back from memory. It was one of my more accurate freehand drawings. Simplicity was why I wanted one, and the difficulty of getting curvatures, highlights and shadows right is why I chose to attempt it. But my teacher saw it and sat me down after class for it. Her father apparently was the biggest fan of beetles and made one of the first “two headed” beetles. It was the last class of the day and we talked for hours about them and her father and it was a genuinely great time. We never discussed her messing with my grades, but she ended up passing me with a low A.
There have been other RCR videos I’ve laughed harder at, but there hasn’t been an RCR *car* I’ve loved more than this one. The Herbie movies, as silly as they are, were my childhood and are absolutely responsible for my car culture obsession as a grownup. Veronica is a freaking treasure. She actually went out and did what I’d been curious about my whole life - making an actual race worthy Herbie and driving him! Seriously I hope y’all do more content with her, she’s ridiculously cool.
Honestly, most other "living cars" are about putting human levels of intent into a vehicle. Herbie has always been more of a tough and fearless little Terrior dog. He's small, cute, smart, he'll jump right up and grab the bad guy by the nuts-- a repeat gag is him literally pissing on people's shoes-- does it at least once every movie.
I lost my beetle in 2016 during the Alberta wildfire. It was a strange 1978 Bug with mechanical fuel injection. I miss that car dearly. I used to drive it (gently) over ATV trails down to the local riverbank and everyone was so friendly. I desperately miss that car.
@@Mr.CorySnyderYou’re really just finding every single person who mentions Veronica and deadnaming/misgendering her 😭 Please find something more useful to do. Maybe read a book?
Kinda crazy, but they were able to get those NASCAR-modded Beetles up to around 140mph before backing off because the stunt drivers were too TERRIFIED to push it further. Go figure that an economy car designed in the 1930s feels like a flying death trap at modern sports car speeds.
Herbie won the Rally Monte Carlo by outrunning a Maserati Indy and several DeTomaso Panteras. Herbie can keep up. A Volkswagen Beetle on the other hand...
@@VulpesHilarianus AND a Laser 917, which ironically had VW Beetle underpinnings. This realization made the villain's mocks all the more ironic to me, but I assume they were implying that the car was supposed to be a Porsche 917... Disney probably couldn't justify the cost to get their hands on one considering that they're ultra rare, not street legal, and the damage that can come from stunt driving and reshoots.
My dad bought a used 1969 VW bug in 1974 right during the gas crunch. it was light pale blue. I was 8 years old. Herbie the Love Bug was in the theatres back then. .I fell in love with the movie so much that aI drew a big round 53 and some red & blue stripes with magic markers on paper, and attached it all to his car with scotch tape. He was so livid with me when he tried to peel off the scotchtape off the paint because the tape took the paint with it. We drove All the way to Key West from Maryland, and went to Disney World and back in that little thing.. Loved that car!😊
Just as Arasaka troops have helmets that evoke Samurai helmets, I'm imagining Disney troops with helmets in the shape of Mickey's head, complete with large mouse ears that function as advanced sensory equipment.
The original “Love Bug” has better race footage than a film with its premise has any right to have. For all its child-friendly antics and overall ridiculousness, I would put the Riverside sequences (which is some of the ONLY cinematic footage of that track) alongside “Grand Prix” and “Le Mans” any day of the week.
God I love small cars with like 50hp. Your foot is on the floor the whole time and 30mph feels like 150, you are constantly managing the car. Driving something like that teaches you what Driving, capital D, is. Even if you had a radio, you wouldn't use it because it's too distracting. Veronica seems like a blast to hang out with and her taste in cars is beyond S+ Tier.
I owned a couple of Beetles and a couple of Kombis, many years ago. I've also owned an E class and an S class Benz at the other end of the scale, and a number of other cars in between. All these years later, if there was one car that I'd like to have again it would be the Beetle. Why? Because it was just such fun to drive. You had to drive it every inch of the way. Every trip was an adventure.
@@JacksonRhodes42my first thought was that it was an actual, flying beetle! That would make for a cool Disney crossover film (herbie and chitty chitty bang bang) !
You watched the Herbie movies as an adult without children being the reason. That's rough. Herbie will always have a special place in my heart but I couldn't sit through it on my own as an old man.
I'm sorry, is this meant to say "props to you for watching the Herbie movies as an adult, they're great" or "wow you're an adult and you watched the Herbie movies, have you no shame?" because I'm hoping it's not the latter
Under normal circumstances taste's change with time. A 40 + year old doesn't see things the same way a 4 year old does. At 4 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was the best movie ever made. At 55 it's a collection of clips I show my girlfriend who is 5 years younger than me and hasn't seen it.
For some reason I decided to bingewatch the Herbie movies the day before my dog died. I didn’t know it was coming, but now every time I see a Love Bug or hear Get You Back by the Beach Boys I think of Arthur and get pretty sad. Funny little car. A very good dog. Strange what meaning things take on under specific circumstances.
8:53 The sweet hell are you talking about? The love bug has some incredible acting. So much charisma and chemistry between the leads, a hammy but completely captivating villain, a completely lovable side kick. Are we expecting marriage story here or what? Did ghostbusters or back to the future utilize method acting? Even the kid from Herbie Goes Bananas gives a solid performance as a streetwise orphan.
Any video where Veronica makes an appearance is a good time. The fact that she owns the car that got me into cars is just...man. I wish Veronica was my friend. That'd be great.
I think the first movie (The Love Bug) was good and charming with genuine performances. It had that magic and also served as a time capsule for sports car racing in the late 60s. It was cheesy, but good cheesy. The 2005 version, or any of the sequels can just make you uncomfortable. The Love Bug is a classic comedy movie that deserves to be remembered.
The Autopian's Jason Torchinsky nicely defended the movie when he was on Reels & Wheels Podcast. It's a surprisingly loving tribute/entre into that form of racing. Also, the "Thorndyke Special" is a pretty rare, amazing car, and the film has some bizarrely heavy moments, including a scene where Herbie almost commits suicide.
Hey! I have owned a Mexican 1984 Beetle since 1995. Came with a carbureted 1600 dual port, still has swing axles. The swing axles in US market cars went away in favor of a fully independent rear suspension with the beginning of the Auto Stick in 1967, and on all cars for 1968 on, but the Mexican Beetles were swing axles all the way until they stopped making them in 2003. If your shift rod bushing in the tunnel is known to be good, and you're sure the coupler at the trans is good (might want to check it with a second person, sometimes the ferule that goes on the trans can move inside the cage of the coupler, especially if it is aftermarket), then it might just be a simple adjustment. The two bolt holes on the shifter base are large to accommodate adjustment of the base as it relates to the shifter. If you are getting reverse when looking for second (mine is doing the same thing), then loosen the bolts and nudge the base toward the passenger side and tighten them again. You probably only need to move it one or two mm. As far as whether the original Beetle was a good car, it's really a matter of context. It was an excellent car for its time. You have to remember, Ferdinand Porsche was starting to design this car as early as 1926, so by 1969 some of its design was already over 40 years old. These cars were known for longevity and ease of maintenance. They only hold 2.5 qts of oil, valve adjustments were simple, and there was no liquid cooling system, so seasonal maintenance and oil changes were simple and inexpensive. They ranged in hp from the original 1949 1.0L of 25 hp, to about 60 hp in the 1600 dual port, settling for about 56 hp in the last fuel injected version (in the US that is. Later Mexican Beetles received a more modern fuel injection system and I'm not sure what their hp was). What has given these cars a bad reputation is the last 50 years of owners "improving" them, plus rust and lack of maintenance. A good quality original example that isn't beat to death is a pretty reliable car. They are noisier than modern cars but in stock form they aren't terrible. Mine is sporting a 1914 with higher compression, a W110 cam and dual Weber IDFs with a louder than stock exhaust, so it is definitely noisy at highway speed, but around town it is not too terrible and I can still achieve around 30 mpg. That was the other thing they were good at especially in their heyday was fuel economy. I think they were rated at around 27 mpg when many cars were struggling in the low teens for mpg. If you want to see a quick clip of mine, look at my YT page, I think I have a clip of me running against my buddy's Datsun 510 on an air strip. Keep up the good work Veronica and Mr. Regular!
Oh thank you! I’ll have to try that with the shifter! I was in there a while back to check and did fiddle with the adjustment slightly but it’s totally possible I didn’t get it quite perfect, it definitely felt better after it went back together but not by much
Yes!!! That is the best Herbie replica I've seen... Veronica can do no wrong. You might want to revisit the original "The Love Bug" movie if you haven't lately - the others are pretty much garbage - hell, "Herbie Rides Again" had a scene where Herbie attempts s*icide (which still haunts me) - but The Love Bug had a decent cast and story, moves along well, it's kid-friendly but also presents the excitement, frustration, and general camaraderie of car racing like nothing had done before or since, really. I can still remember being a kid and wanting to get out there and race my dad's '68 Beetle. Jim : "You don't understand what happens, do you? They make ten thousand cars, they make them exactly the same way, and one or two of 'em turn out to be something special. Nobody knows why." Tennessee : "I know why."
I freaking loved the Herbie movies when I was a kid, British TV would show them a lot as I imagine they were cheap. I think I loved the idea so much because I was a neurodivergent kid who was already anthropomorphizing inanimate objects. So seeing a cute car that was a cheeky little rascal was just perfect for me.
As a person that grew up watching all the Herbie movies as a kid and as someone who has watched this channel since middle school, the inner kid in me was so happy to see this! I’m not even 2 minutes in and I’m smiling ear to ear just hearing that little beetle sound exactly as he did in the original four films! While I will probably not make a Herbie replica, I want to own a beetle to appease that inner kid and this just makes me want one more. Alright back to the video lol
I can't tell you how many weekends I rented Herbie the Love Bug as a kid. Loved that movie. My parents owned 3 beetles growing up and I'd kill to have just one.
10:05 Holy fuck, the Cyberpunk references caught me off guard. I had to remind myself that I was watching an RCR video and not playing the game... but yeah, anyway, what a great car. Looks 100% like I remembered from the movies. Tho, these days, I care more about the "love" than the "bug," if I'm honest.
Herbie got me into Beetles, Beetles got me into [Beetle] Adventure Racing on the N64, which then got me interested in racing games. Bing-bong-bash, eventually got Forza 1 on the OG Xbox, and now I've got nearly 2,500 hours clocked in JUST on driving/racing sims on Steam, all with a sim wheel and shifter, and an '05 Accord coupe 5MT in real life. We all start somewhere.
Similar trajectory but I stopped at simcade and have a '99 Beetle turbo. :P (Also 5MT but because it's first year it's the earlier box they used in the mk3 VR6 GTIs and not the later one they used in the other 5spd mk4 cars)
I remember there was a scene in the Love Bug where Herbie flew past some modified car at the lights which I found out was based on Dean Jones on his way back home from set with the Porsche engine swapped beetle used for the film drag racing a Corvette at the lights. Fuckin cool
33:36 threw me for such a loop, that acceleration sounded damn near identical to Herbie's from the original movies Gotta love those classic air-cooled motors.
My grandma introduced me to the Herbie movies when I was a kid and I loved them. When I was a teenager, I had a friend who had a '67 Beetle and being crammed in the back seat with two other people was not fun. It also didn't have A/C and with +100F temps in Texas, it was brutal lol
I haven't seen the movie since early Disney Channel (early 80s, we had just gotten cable) and that reference triggered a memory 😁 The Herbie movies were on pretty heavy rotation, Disney movies in general, since that's pretty much all they had regarding programming
The Love bug (original movie) was my all-time favorite live action Disney movie. Seen it at least a few dozen times, during my elementary years. There was also a TV series of Herbie, it was okay.
Little side note on the transmission. If this is a stock transmission, reverse is down near second, and the reason for the grinding into first is because on the earlier type-1s didn't have a synchronized first gear. At least this is my experience with my 1960. That said, great video, and great work by Veronica on that build.
I’ve loved the Herbie movies, especially the original (which is a legitimately good movie and I WILL NOT HEAR OTHERWISE), since I was a kid. If I ever got a Beetle, it has to be white with a big 53 on the side. Veronica is living the goddamn dream.
My first car was a 63 Beetle that I bought mowing lawns the summer before I turned 16. $300 but it didn't run. I worked on it every day after school and got it running. I did almost all my practice driving in it. I think I'm a much better driver today because of that experience. He's right when he says you have to be totally engaged when driving one, especially on the rural dirt roads where I grew up. I later owned a 75 I bought for my part time job of pizza delivery because I knew how to fix everything on it and delivery work is hard on cars. These things are great fun and everyone who's ever owned one has fantastic stories about theirs.
The secret is spending way too much time watching his videos in the 2010s. It's so bad cause my friends and I quote/do impressions all the time and it feels weid doing them with him around.
15:31 Funny that you mention the FNAF weirdness in relation to the plot of the Herbie TV film, since that series also has a plot revolving around inanimate machines gaining sentience from life-infused molten metal, albeit instead of a picture of his wife it's the souls of dead children. Not sure if it's ripping off The Love Bug or just pure coincidence lol
One thing to remember about the Super Beetle 1302 and 1303 is upgraded with MacPherson suspension in the front which improved handling over the older Type 1 Bugs with torsion suspension all around.
When i was a child, in the early 2000s. I had all of the Herbie movies except the 90s one because Disney wont re-release it. These used to be movies I would watch while sick home from school. It was a fantastic break between hurling my guts out as a child. I still use this movie as an escape when i need to brain off.
I had one of these in highschool. Stock with worn out tires, and I would take it off-roading and show up to everyone with the 4x4s and they were laughing asking "How the hell did you get that up here?". Three of my friends who happened to be the biggest kids in school were squeezed in there one day and I went into the ditch at slow speed on the ice turning off the road. Had to replace that front suspension piece. Fun little car.
Looks great! I had restored a 63' Rag roof Herbie of my own back in 2007. Put a 1641 cc motor, and a freeway flyer Transaxle. Got the same deep wheels like the one she got, that had the stock hub caps on it.
The type of rear axle that The Beetle has - and also an East German Wartburg - teaches you how moving the weight of the car affects your handling. Try making a turn like this: approach the corner, press the clutch, then a quick braking and let go quickly off the brake, while keeping the clutch down, and turn. You can feel the weight of the car shifting front to back. I've surprised some passengers with this trick, especially when parking. Learning the timing of braking and not braking is essential.
I purchased a 1963 VW with that big rubberized canvas sunroof in 1970, right after graduating from high school. If I remember correctly. I paid $375.00 for that car. After installing seatbelts myself, I drove it for a while before going off to Sunny Southeast Asia for two years, then for another couple of years in the mid 1970s, right through the first oil embargo gas price shock (its high 20s mpg was much envied then). In memory that car enjoys something of a rose colored glasses effect.
To be honest, I think the General Lee is more widely known than Herbie. I love Herbie, the movies were really fun non-serious movies, but man they did not get a lot of recognition.
Herbie was the reason my late father actually got a (1972 Super) Beetle that's still around somehow, though now under the custody of my uncle who's made it his restoration project. Veronica's Herbie is pretty damn awesome, and LOUD!
I saw this in the thumbnails and went "He's going to spend a good chunk of the video talking about the movie the way he talks about car culture, isn't he?" And he did not disappoint.
If you really want a treat...... try to find a Nordstadt Carrera-Käfer. That is not your common beetle, but a modified Porsche 914. The faces of BMW drivers on the Autobahn getting overtaken by a beetle are priceless.
At the K-8 school I went to, once or twice a year they would seemingly randomly gather all the kids in the gym, put up a tiny 4’ wide movie screen, and run a projector from the 60’s for everyone to watch a movie. And the movie, for all 9 years, were one of 3 Herbie movies that the school owned. The lowest fidelity you can imagine watching a movie, complete with the single speaker built in to the reel to reel projector thacking along, frame by frame. And the fan running to keep it cool so the bulb didn’t burn the film. Oh, and it was during school time, mid day, and they couldn’t block light out of the gym, so the image was washed out. I should watch the films now and see everything I missed back then.
The rear axle issue you discuss is also unique to 1968 and earlier beetles as later models came with a true IRS suspension with stub axles and CV joints eliminating completely the tucking and rolling issue related to swing axle transmissions which is what this car is equipped with.
I remember a movie where Herbie was swimming, chasing a ship, very rusted. Finally it was drowning and calling for help. As a kid that was sad & disturbing to see.
