A while back, I had been contemplating on the things that have influenced my unstoppable enthusiasm for cars. While I think it’s something I was born with, considering my parents’ stories about me identifying car emblems before I could really talk (that’s their word not mine, feel free to ask them about it). Of course, it’s important to nurture a child’s interests, and mine certainly were. Over the years, I accumulated a massive collection of Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Micro Machines, and various other miniaturized cars. Naturally, they were all opened and played with, since a good car should be driven (see my post about mint condition cars). It didn’t stop with toys though, as movies and games played a large role, and all three happened to build up an early passion for the weird looking but cheap, honest transportation affectionately known as the Volkswagen Beetle.
My early passion for the quirky little car I’m sure started when I first saw The Love Bug. Immediately, I was in love with Herbie, the little car that could. He was cute, lovable, and at least in the movie, fast; elements that seem to have manifested themselves in my current daily driver, a ’99 Mazda Miata. I would watch that movie over and over and over again. Even today, I love the movie, perhaps even more now because now I notice the other classic race cars like Triumphs, Austin-Healeys, Jaguars, and more unusual cars like the Apollo GT (the “celebrated Thorndyke Special”) and a Bizzarrini GT Strada (also noted in Motor Trend Classic Fall 2011). I’ve watched the movie so many times that I can probably recite around 50% of the movie off the top of my head.
My favorite little VW
So after falling in love with The Love Bug and most of its sequels, I naturally wanted more Beetle stuff. Fortunately, all diecast car makers were happy to oblige, and I snapped up mini Beetles in all variety of color, size, and fragility. Most of my Hot Wheels size and Micro Machines size cars have survived, but a couple of 1/18 cars didn’t last long. At the time, I didn’t fully comprehend the idea that someone would make a car that couldn’t be played with. Nevertheless, my VW passion stayed on for a long time, given periodic bursts from the occasional VW magazine I happened to pick up from time to time, even a birthday cake in the early 2000s. It was also in the early 2000s that I was exposed to one of the other big VW influences in my life on the Nintendo 64.
Now something that readers should know is that in addition to cars, I’m also an avid video game player, and that was actually also fueled by my car enthusiasm. I loved, and still love, racing games from arcade to simulation. However, during the early part of my life, my gaming was restricted to Mac and PC. Racing games on Mac/PC have always, and still are, difficult to find in quantity and quality, and so I jumped at the chance to play console video games any chance I got, from department store demo machines, to the best of all; games at a friend’s house. And it was at a friend’s house that I got a big dose of VW with a lesser known racing game called,
Beetle Adventure Racing. Published by EA and developed by the people behind
Need For Speed,
Beetle Adventure Racing was a fun and over the top game featuring nothing but New Beetles. Featuring large tracks with lots of short cuts and beautiful polygonal scenery, New Beetles in every color of the rainbow, and a particularly enjoyable Beetle Battle mode, it was a charming game that’s worth playing even today; which I still do. Everytime I was at that friend’s house, I would want to play it, even over
Super Smash Bros. most times, and it too maintained that long fueled love of the Beetle.
ADVEENNTUURREE RRRAACCIIIINNNGGG!!!!
Of course, things changed a bit when we got our first new car as a family, a 2000 Mazda Protege that I started leaning toward the zoom-zoom brand. I had already been a fan of the Miata at that point, but I really became a fan of Mazda in general when we got the Protege. And, as I learned more that the current New Beetle (1998-2010) was generally rather unreliable and not particularly fun to drive, some of that love began to fade. However, it never completely left. I would love to own an original Beetle, preferably early 60s. I would particularly enjoy building a Herbie replica, but with a Porsche engine to give it the power and performance the “real” Herbie displayed on screen. I mean, how fun would it be to race around in a Porsche-powered bug? Exactly, loads of fun! For that matter, I could see driving the new 200hp turbo Beetle coming out this year. A GTI in Beetle clothing? Sounds like a sweet sleeper to me! In the meantime though, I’ll stick to watching The Love Bug, and playing some Beetle Adventure Racing. Peace out dudes!
Idling: A Car Blog 