This was then ….
1973, the year when BS started his long career of doing propaganda for Volkswagen, is known for two equally momentous occasions: Volkswagen prepared for the initial launch of the Golf. Also, formerly staid Volkswagen became a bit risque when marketing its iconic Bug, and promptly got into hot water. 40 years later, they are doing it again. Hopefully, people have more humor than 40 years ago. I doubt it.
At the Chicago Auto Show, staring to day in the windy city, Volkswagen launches a special version of its revived Beetle. Limited to 3,500 editions worldwide, and fitted with a 155 kW / 210 hp engine, the car it yellow/black bumblebee livery is called “Beetle GSR.”
GSR stands for “Gelbschwarzer Renner”, German for yellow/black racer. It was the name for a special model of the VW Käfer 1303 S, likewise yellow and black. That car, and our campaign, got Volkswagen in trouble. 1973 was the year of the first oil crisis. Despite the puny 50 hp engine of the 1303, the campaign was understood as an invitation to hoonery. Huge discussions wafted back and forth, Volkswagen was denounced even in German parliament. Political correctness is not a recent invention.
There was something else that wasn’t discussed. The 1303 S was known for its increased thirst at the pump. Internally, it was called “Dreizehn-Loch-drei” or “Thirteen-Hole-Three” for the hole that was allegedly in its tank. Days after I started my job as Volkswagen propagandist, and after I erroneously praised the fuel-sipping virtues of the 1303, I was told a joke under strict non-disclosure and triple-secret life-long embargo:
A man in a Volkswagen 1303 pulls up to a gas station.
Man says: “Please fill ‘er up!”
Attendant: “Please switch off the engine.”
Also worthy of note: When the “New Beetle” was launched in 1998, any mention of the old Beetle was strictly verboten. 14 years later, that taboo also has fallen.
My, my… at the base of the window… the skinny-ass Beetle door frame.
I’m 19 again.
So what is under there, the GTI?
First car from VW in a long time I’d like to own. Shame the base one costs about 79k reais or almost US$40k. This will surely cost upwards of 100k reais. Not for me then.
Marcelo,
My dear friend at 40k US it is not for me either and I would guess not for many in the USA
As a side not I am in Pakastan right now and just saw my first US car a Chevy joy , everything e,se is a Toyota or Suzuki
Ugh. Otto von Matick. No thanks.
Will the original be at the Chicago show? I haven’t been in a Beetle since 1979 when I was five and my mother traded hers in for a Rabbit.
Worried about hoonery from a 50 horsepower car in a country that has the autobahn ? Bunch of sour Krauts ! Wonder if that model comes in Sunbug gold ?
At that time, cars with half that much power were not an uncommon sight on German roads. E.g. the Renault 4, the Citroen 2CV or a Fiat 126 had significantly less than 50 hp. The base 911 from that time had about 150 hp. How times have changed since then.
Ah Bertel!
Please tell me you were part of the team that did one of my favorite all time commercials. It was the GTI ad singing “Little GTI” in German to the tune of “Little GTO” in 1983.
It’s still on Youtube if you never saw it.
If Bertel never saw it, he wasn’t part of the team.
The best VW ad of all time was, of course, the Nat Lamp Ted Kennedy satire, followed by the terrorist in a Polo blowing himself up outside a sidewalk cafe.