We drive Herbie 'The Love Bug', the world's most famous VW

Cinema has long been the architect of our passions, and seldom is this more the case than with people who love cars. Whether it be the trio of Minis in The Italian Job, Paul Walker’s Nissan Skyline in The Fast and Furious or Steve McQueen’s Ford Mustang in Bullitt, many of us can trace our love for all things four-wheeled to a film we watched years ago.

For Luke Theochari, that film was The Love Bug. It was adapted from the book Car, Boy, Girl, and Luke went to see the movie on its release all the way back in 1969. He fell in love with Volkswagen Beetles, kickstarting a lifelong association with the iconic ‘People’s Car’.

After establishing Terry’s Beetle Services in 1986 alongside friend Peter Engelzos, Luke went on to become the go-to specialist for VW bugs, building race-winning, 1,000bhp dragsters, and restoring VW Type 2 buses for the likes of Jamie Oliver and Jenson Button.

But what does this have to do with Herbie? After a heart attack in 2005, Luke sought to reignite his passion for what got him into Volkswagen in the first place and began searching for Herbie himself. We say “himself”, because Luke is very keen to point out that Herbie is not a car, but a living, breathing individual. “It’s not an ‘it’. It’s a ‘him’,” he gently reminds us. Luckily, Herbie doesn’t seem to mind being misnomered and thankfully, he doesn’t squirt us with his windshield washers in dismay.

Anyway, after searching for some time, Luke stumbled across a man named Gregg Carr, affectionately known as Doctor Herbie in the VW community. Carr had also seen The Love Bug film in ’69 and went on to build his own replica Herbie over the years, later buying one of the eight Herbies used in filming the original picture.

Yes, you read that right: eight hero cars were used during the filming of The Love Bug, each designated from H1 to 7 and fulfilling a different purpose. In case you’re wondering, Gregg’s H6 was made up of two cars, featuring in the part of the film where Herbie breaks in half, just before the end of the big race.

Luke’s Herbie, on the other hand, is H2, and is pretty special, even among its on-film siblings. You see, in order to keep up with rival racers in the film, such as two Ferrari 250 GTs, a Shelby Cobra and a Lamborghini 400 GT, the production team turned to famous Porsche and VW tuner EMPI to give the bug a bit more buzz.

For starters, while Brian Fong, the actor who played Mr Wu in the original film, has said that driving Herbie is “like being pulled by 40 horses”, H2 doesn’t get the same 40hp (39bhp) 1.2-litre four-cylinder engine as all other Volkswagen Beetles of the era. Instead, H2 is equipped with a ‘Super 75’ engine pulled straight from the Porsche 356. As its name suggests, this unit outputs a beefier 75hp (74bhp) and is complimented by an equally meaty exhaust note, courtesy of the Sebring system fitted by Luke. Eagle-eyed readers will also notice this looks very different from the one Herbie sports in the film. In fact, H2 Herbie originally bore a makeshift exhaust system, which was disguised by dummy tailpipes and held in place by strips of wire.

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Herbie H2 also benefits from Porsche brakes, KONI shock absorbers, plus uprated rear control arms and anti-roll bars. “He’s been built for handling,” Luke tells us.

After over a year of E-mailing back and forth, Luke finally convinced Carr, who lives in Florida, to sell and export Herbie to him. However, Luke tells us that it wasn’t actually Gregg that he had to satisfy, but instead it was his wife, PJ Carr, who he had to convince. “They didn’t want the car to be modified, molested or misused,” Luke explains. “It was very important that Herbie went to the right keeper.”

After the Love Bug made the long journey across the Atlantic, Luke was stunned when it reached his workshop: “When he first turned up on the back of a trailer, the hairs on my neck and arms stood on end and I bolted out there. Honestly. Dreams don’t often come true, but this one did.”

Having owned Herbie over the past few years, Luke has tried to keep the four-wheeled movie star in tip-top shape. “The car doesn’t get modified,” he reassures us. “It’s kept running in perfect condition using quality German parts.”

However, some items are beginning to show their age. For example, the California licence plate bearing the iconic OPF 857 registration has been dented by a huge stone tossed up by another car. His racing livery is also starting to peel off, but Luke insists this “adds to the car’s character”. “I want to tear [the stickers] off!” he says.

After almost biting Luke’s hand off when he offers us a drive in Herbie, we step inside and notice that the seats are covered with vinyl covers. Underneath, the original upholstery still remains, but Luke explains how the seats were ripped during a charity event in which he and Herbie raised over £1,000 for a hospice. Nevertheless, the cabin is just as you’d expect; there’s a roll hoop in the rear seats (not shown on film) to give the car some extra rigidity, while a small number card inside the glovebox indicates this car’s designation as H2. Luke even gives us a replica of Jim Douglas’s (played by Dean Jones) helmet to wear, although this barely fits on my massive head.

A turn of the key and Herbie thunders into life. We drive off, with the rather vague-yet-unassisted steering a quick reminder that, despite his mechanical upgrades and racing stripes, Herbie is still fundamentally a VW Beetle. That said, H2’s unique powertrain does make him substantially more powerful than other Beetles of this era, with a few crackles and pops emitted on overrun from Luke’s custom-fitted exhaust. The KONI suspension is pretty firm to say the least, too, with potholes nearly sending us flying through Herbie’s ragtop due to the lack of seatbelts.

Yet, while a rear-wheel-drive, Porsche-engined classic with a manual gearbox seems like a driver’s dream, Herbie is a car best enjoyed when taking a relaxed cruise – despite his racing credentials. We are surprised by the number of smiles, waves and honks we get from passers-by; driving Herbie almost feels as if you’re cruising around with some real-life Hollywood celebrity in the passenger seat. 

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“When you drive the car on the high street, you hear people shout “Herbie, Herbie!” all the time,” Luke tells us. “You wave to people, and especially the little kids – they love it.

“But when you drive in Germany on the autobahn, you are doing maybe 70 miles an hour and there are people hanging out their windows, taking photographs of the car!”

With this in mind, Luke appears to be less of a passionate car owner, and more of an agent-cum-custodian. Not only does he ensure Herbie appears in major events and leverages his fame to benefit both his business and others, but Luke also cherishes his car in a way few people do. “There is a weight on your shoulders, owning a car so special,” Luke admits. “There’s a lot of The Love Bug fans in the world – particularly in America.”

Yet while this pressure may encourage some people to turn the one-of-one Herbie into a bit of a garage queen – an art piece to brag to friends about – Luke drives him as you would any other VW Beetle, perhaps even more so. 

“I have driven [Herbie] to Wolfsburg and back,” he told us. “We go out for day trips with the grandchildren, too!”

So Luke’s love and eventual ownership of Herbie is a bit of a full-circle moment; Herbie was the car that not only prompted his love for Volkswagen, but also founded his business and led him to meet his late wife, Helen. “My whole life revolves around Volkswagen,” he says. “I have several fond memories, but there’s one that really makes your hair stand on end: the first kiss my wife gave me in my green convertible [Beetle].”

So there perhaps is no better caretaker for Herbie than Luke who, if you notice the glint in his eye when he gazes at his pride and joy, has clearly caught the ‘love bug’ again.

Herbie’s starring roles

• The Love Bug – 1969
• Herbie Rides Again – 1974
• Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo – 1977
• Herbie Goes Bananas – 1980
• The Mickey Mouse Club (appearance) – 1990
• The Love Bug (reboot) – 1997
• Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show (appearance) – 2005
• Herbie: Fully Loaded – 2005

YourWagen

Luke and Herbie feature in Volkswagen’s all-new ‘YourWagen’ advertising campaign, which aims to showcase the stories of some of the brand’s biggest fans. Alongside Luke and Herbie are a pair of best-friend open-water swimmers with their ID.4, a young VW enthusiast with his modified 1990 Scirocco, and a gentleman who has restored his dad’s once-stolen Type 2 Bus. Later this year, Volkswagen will begin its search to find the UK’s 100 biggest VW fans, promising to outfit their cars with bespoke badging – ‘LukesWagen’, for example.

Click here for our list of the best TV and movie vans of all time...