These lovely illustrations were done by the very talented Bernd Reuters, who did automotive ad illustrations for a lot of German carmakers, like Opel and Adler and Wanderer. Bernd, I suspect, had a lot of ideas about what automotive beauty was, and if the Beetle didn’t really meet his standards, well, Bernd would just massage those lines until it did. The result was a lower, wider, more bulbous and, well, sensual Beetle, with curves and lines that really weren’t part of the real thing, as you can see up there.
I wonder if anyone who looked through these old brochures would look at the hypercurvy, voluptuous Beetles and then, say, happen to see a little line diagram like the one up there and wonder why all the window shapes were sort of off and why the fenders and roofline and everything seemed so, well, tame in the diagram. Some skilled customizer should build a physical Beetle based on these illustrations. I’d love to see that! Diagrams and X-ray drawings also always had the seats set for those tiny people. It’s almost like they really existed. I’m sure there have been body mods that have moved the needle closer to his, I’d love to see a compilation of them. With a swapped 911 engine, of course. As a designer, I often look at various ugly 70s Fords and Nissans (older and newer), imagining what the designers must’ve been intending before production limitations and/or shared components re-shaped the forms into atrocities. The dream: https://us-browse.startpage.com/av/anon-image?piurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chevy-volt.net%2Fimages%2FChevy-Volt-Concept-07.jpg&sp=1670597281Tca9068a066893ed63921a8004ca814598011f11dc134691829d737b211ddd560 The reality: https://us-browse.startpage.com/av/anon-image?piurl=https%3A%2F%2Ffile.kelleybluebookimages.com%2Fkbb%2Fbase%2Fevox%2FCP%2F8644%2F2013-Chevrolet-Volt-front_8644_032_1819x784_GBV_cropped.png&sp=1670597706Te2932d1485f17996f7df6366a57ef52deed9bf8585daefe089249e36c743d375 My new first is now the Beetle as I would have ordered Herr Reuter’s version and gotten a Bug. Seriously Bishop, haven’t you ever wanted to just cut some throats for what the accountants and engineers did to you beautiful baby?
