“I left Florida to become a student of literature, which I did not enjoy as much as I had anticipated. For one thing, I struggled to understand my classmates, who all knew how to style winter scarves. Each time I tried to wear a winter scarf I felt like I was being strangled.” SchoolLiteratureStudentsWinterScarvesClassmatesStranglingStylesStyling Book:State of Paradise Source: State of Paradise
“Oval Window, 1953 - 1957 In 1953 came the first major changes in Beetle styling. Rear view was increasingly a problem and so the boys in Wolfsburg cut out the centre post and made the split into an oval. Some callous butchers are known to have manually cut the center post of the split rear window out either to improve rear visibility or to make their cars look newer! This window stayed in vogue until 1958 with the first small square rear window model. Note that the rear bonnet was the same as the Split, except for minor changes such as handle and ‘popes nose’ designs. Taillights are larger and also oval shaped. Outer lens is GLASS, not plastic and has a distinctive honeycomb pattern. These Bugs also came with pop-up (semaphore) indicators in the b-pillars.” KnownWindowCentreBugsChangesDistinctiveToACarsIndicatorsInImproveSameOvalWithAreModelGlassThisTheirPatternAsPostCutIntoSplitNoteDesignsSuchTheseOuterBeetleShaped1957StylingTaillights1958B PillarsIncereasinglyNewerSemaphoreWolfsburg Book:Bugspray Source: Bugspray
“Postpone, not because you are being lazy. Postpone, only because you want to appear in a grand style.” DelayTacticsSophisticationStylishCraftsmanshipAppearGrandDelaysDelayingStyling Book:Sips And Little Portions Source: Sips And Little Portions
“The Beetle’s body, whether it be a ’49 split or a ’73 Jeans Bug, or an ‘03 Mexican, was originally conceived in the mid 1930’s. This is evident in it’s body styling which aside from it’s rear engine layout and absence of front radiator (or radiator!) grille, is very similar to other cars of the same period. Believe it or not, in those days streamlining was a hot new concept, kind of like how wireless networking is today with computing. The only problem was, in the beginning they didn’t seem to realize that streamlining ought to be applied sideways as well as longitudinally!” ProblemBodyMexicanNetworkingNotComputingSidewaysCarsRealizeConceptLayoutPeriodBugStyling1930 SGrilleRadiator49LongitudinallyMid Book:Bugspray Source: Bugspray