This is one of six original Herbie stunt cars built to “street race car” configuration for the 2005 film Herbie: Fully Loaded starring Lindsay Lohan, Justin Long, Matt Dillon, Michael Keaton, and Breckin Meyer.
The cars were built by Mike Yager and his company Mid America Motorworks, and when production of the film wrapped, Disney allowed Yager to purchase one of the Herbie film cars – this is that car.
Fast Facts: An Original Street Racer Herbie
- This Herbie is one of six stunt cars built in “street race” trim for “Herbie: Fully Loaded” in 2005. Mike Yager and Mid America Motorworks created the cars for filming, and Disney let Yager buy this one afterward. It carries the look and equipment used for the movie’s many racing sequences.
- The wider Herbie franchise began in 1968 with “The Love Bug” and grew through multiple sequels, plus a 1997 TV revival. “Herbie: Fully Loaded” brought the sentient Beetle back to theaters with a modern racing story starring Lindsay Lohan, Michael Keaton, Justin Long, Matt Dillon, and Breckin Meyer.
- The film follows Maggie Peyton, a young graduate who discovers Herbie in a junkyard and ends up racing him against professional driver Trip Murphy. It performed well financially with a global box office around $144 million on a budget of roughly $50 million, though critical reception was mixed.
- This specific car wears the fiberglass whale-tail deck lid, modified fenders, lowered suspension, and chrome wheels used for the on-screen street-racer look. The interior includes Sparco seats, a Grant GT wheel, custom gauges, and JVC audio gear. It heads to auction with Mecum in mid-January.
History Speedrun: Herbie Fully Loaded
The Herbie film franchise kicked off in 1968 with The Love Bug, a Disney comedy that introduced audiences to a seemingly ordinary 1963 Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own. The film starred Dean Jones as down-on-his-luck driver Jim Douglas and Buddy Hackett as his eccentric mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz, and it became a surprise hit thanks to its mix of lighthearted racing action and the charm of Herbie – characterized by his white paint, red-white-blue stripes, and the racing number “53.”
The Herbie film franchise kicked off in 1968 with The Love Bug, a Disney comedy that introduced audiences to a seemingly ordinary 1963 Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own. Image courtesy of Disney.
The original film grossed strongly, helped push the VW Beetle further into American pop culture, and established Herbie as one of Disney’s most recognizable live-action characters, and by far its most recognizable four-wheeled creation.
The success of this first film led to a run of sequels – Herbie Rides Again (1974) shifted to a new set of characters but kept the Beetle’s personality intact. Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) returned Dean Jones to the series for a European rally adventure, followed by Herbie Goes Bananas (1980), which sent the little Volkswagen to Mexico for a lighter, more comedic storyline.
A long gap followed until Disney revived the franchise with the 1997 made-for-TV feature The Love Bug directed by Peyton Reed, which blended the nostalgia of the earlier films with updated effects and an all-new storyline.
All of this set the stage for Herbie’s return to theaters in 2005 with Herbie: Fully Loaded, a modernization that attempted to bring the character to a new generation with a plot centered on racing.
Fully Loaded was the sixth (and still the latest entry) in the long-running “Herbie” franchise and the first theatrical Herbie film since Herbie Goes Bananas. The film was directed by Angela Robinson for Walt Disney Pictures and it carries on the legacy of the mischievous, sentient Volkswagen Beetle named Herbie into the world of modern stock-car racing.
The story centres on Maggie Peyton (played by Lindsay Lohan), the youngest member of a racing family who has just graduated from college and wants something more than the typical path laid out for her. Her father, Ray Peyton Sr. (played by Michael Keaton), a former driver turned team owner, wants her to join the family business in a safe role, not behind the wheel.
Above Video: This is the original theatrical trailer for “Herbie: Fully Loaded” starring Lindsay Lohan, Justin Long, Matt Dillon, Michael Keaton, and Breckin Meyer.
When Maggie visits a junkyard to pick out a car as a graduation gift, she picks up Herbie (a white Beetle with racing stripes and number “53”). As you might expect, Herbie promptly proves he isn’t just any car. After a series of impromptu races and street-chases, Maggie and Herbie enter the world of local racing, and ultimately a major NASCAR-style event where Maggie drives for her brother Ray Jr.’s seat on the Peyton team.
The film’s bad guy is Trip Murphy, played by Matt Dillon, a professional driver determined to beat Herbie and secure victory by any means necessary. Kevin, played by Justin Long, is Maggie’s mechanic and romantic interest, and Breckin Meyer plays Ray Peyton Jr. The film also features cameo appearances from real-life NASCAR stars like Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.
I won’t go into too much detail about the plot here as many haven’t seen the film, and I don’t want to ruin it lest they decide to watch it or wait to watch it with their kids along with the other Herbie films.
Herbie: Fully Loaded was budgeted at around $50 million, the film grossed approximately $144.1 million worldwide – about $66.0 million domestically and $78.1 million internationally. Its opening weekend in the US brought in around US$12.7 million across 3,521 theaters. Critical reaction was mixed – on Rotten Tomatoes it holds an approval rating around 40%, with the consensus calling it “a decent kids’ movie that is pretty undemanding for adult viewers.”
Despite the reviews, the audience response, especially among family viewers and franchise fans, was positive enough to ensure the film turned a profit of almost a hundred million dollars.
The Original Street Racer Herbie Shown Here
The car you see here is one of the six original “street racer” Herbie film cars built by Mike Yager and his engineering team at Mid America Motorworks for use in Herbie: Fully Loaded. As noted above, Yager and his team were able to buy back one of the cars after filming was completed, and this is that car.
Each of the street racer-spec Herbies were fitted with a fiberglass deck lid with whale-tail spoiler and see-through engine cover, fiberglass fenders and running boards, faux air intakes, lowered suspension, and chrome wheels.
This is one of six original Herbie stunt cars built to “street race car” configuration for the 2005 film “Herbie: Fully Loaded” starring Lindsay Lohan, Justin Long, Matt Dillon, Michael Keaton, and Breckin Meyer.
Inside the car you’ll find Sparco racing seats, a Grant GT steering wheel, a custom dash with white dial gauges, a dash-mounted AutoMeter tach, custom door panels, and JVC Warren G amplifiers with subwoofers behind the rear seat.
The car is now due to roll across the auction block with Mecum in mid-January. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Mecum
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
