What happen to the real Herbie ?

The Real Herbie

By Richardd Adams: October 2012

Herbie is an 1963 Volkswagen Beetle with lots of human like characteristics and is featured in several Disney motion pictures starting with the 1968 feature film “The Love Bug”.

He has a mind of his own, is capable of driving himself and is a serious contender in auto racing competitions. Herbie is distinguished by red, white and blue racing stripes from front to back bumper, a racing-style number "53" on the front trunk lid, doors, and engine lid, and a yellow-on-black '63 California license plate that says, "OFP 857".

In the movie “The Love Bug”, he initially appears as a plain white vehicle with a gray colored ragtop sunroof, an option on VW Beetles up to 1967.

 This is Herbie No. 12 as used in the movie “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo” and “Herbie Goes Bananas”. With lots of screen time it was also one of the few cars that the actors actually drove in. Unattended for years it required a complete restoration. This car was recently offered for sale. They were asking $30,000, which seems fair considering its status.

 

 The movies do not advocate this but Disney built quite a few Herbies for each film. Recently a whole collection came up for sale by Colome Motors and they hoped to sell the whole lot together as a single deal.

 

Well looked after and with recorded histories. These cars are well worth collecting.








In this Herbie family there is the 1976 Lancia Scorpion from “Herbie goes to Monte Carlo” movie.

 

And for a preview of the great car (s) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SdNW3_Sh6E