The Love Bug (1968)

Mr. Thorndyke: Good sir, would you say this is a compact car?... You do not answer. Well, let me tell you that you've never heard of a compact car until you see what I'm going to do with this. Mr. Douglas, I have a friend with a claw-and-hook auto-wrecking company in San Francisco, and he's going to work on your car. Maybe he'll transform it into a birdbath. Or what about a nice doormat, so I can wipe my feet on it every day. It's too bad this thing doesn't have the gumption to get up to the starting line this morning. I should have enjoyed beating it.
[kicks Herbie again]
Tennessee Steinmetz: [croaking, grunting] AUWWW...!

---

Mr. Thorndyke: Good evening.
Tennessee Steinmetz: Sorry, the other rats are out for the evening!

---

Carole: Have you had much experience with cars?
Jim Douglas: Look, lady, by profession, I'm a racing driver.
Carole: Oh, *that* Jim Douglas.
Jim Douglas: What do you mean, "*that* Jim Douglas"?
Carole: Let's see, two years ago, at Laguna Seca, you spun out and hung a beautiful Buick Special on the back fence. At Willow Springs, was it a year ago... last February, you sprayed a Lotus all over the infield.
Jim Douglas: How do you know all that?
Carole: I have trouble with names and faces, but I never forget a car.

---

read more quotes from The Love Bug...

During the exchange between Jim Douglas and Mr. Wu while hanging from Herbie's rear bumper: "Car very strong." "And very fast." "The strength of forty horses." The stock Volkswagen Beetle engine did have forty horsepower.
The backdrop in the race scenes is of the Riverside International Raceway.
Herbie's license plate is OFP-857; his number is 53.
read more facts about The Love Bug...