Jerry Seinfeld has embarked on a new webisodes series called “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee” which will be on Crackle.. There are a good amount of Hollywood types with beautiful car collections. When it comes to Porsche, Seinfeld owns one of the largest collections including various 911′s, 55′ 550 Spyder and a 959.
In the first Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee episode, Seinfeld fittingly teams up with Larry David in “Larry Eats A Pancake”. We’re sure you’ve already drooled at the beautiful Volkswagen Beetle screenshot above. Driving the streets of L.A, Jerry casually calls up his bud Larry and ask if he wants to grab a quick coffee. Larry agrees and Jerry shows up in his 1952 Type 1 Beetle.
Now we are not going spoil webisodes for ya! This is the first video from the series but it is quite entertaining and not one of those comedic overkill interviews.
What we are going to do is give you some history on this exact Beetle and a bit about the model itself. See if you can find the two references to Seinfeld (sitcom) episodes and one movie that Jerry did. Answers are at the end of this post.
As Jerry said it’s a 1952 VW Beetle featuring the air-cooled flat four engine pushing out 25 horsepower. These date back to the K.I.S.S principle and success of the engines seen in the deserts during the North African Campaign of World War II.
The video kicks in immediately with some of the finer details of the ’52 era. The editing is pretty bad in terms of order.
The color, Azur Blue is correct for that timeframe. Color code was L36.
The Wolfsburg hood crest mark cars built between 1951 and 1963.
The switch (17sec) that Seinfeld flips does nothing to the brake light (bad edit) but is the left/right semaphore turn signal activator seen at roughly 18 seconds in. Semaphores were last seen on US bound cars about 1955. Also known as “idiot sticks” in late 1950-60s. German safe pedestrian laws in 1961 made them illegal.
The part where Seinfeld pulls something from the dash (17sec) is actually the fresh air vent door release as seen a few frames earlier. They were located on front quarter panels and were nicknamed “Crotch Coolers”.
At 30 seconds in you’ll get a great look at the center mount antenna. It’s all in the details! Unfortunately, it is not a NOS Hirschmann Red Tip Aerial VW Antenna. Rare and if found can be had at $500 or more.
The last feature we will call out is the white-yellow dome that Jerry flips closed. It’s an ashtray. Early Porsche had the same. Unhealthy, but very cool.
Check out the dome light above the split window!
The Bugatti Veyron Coupe they stop at is owned by the late designer, bijou. He also design a series of 10 Bugatti Veyron Special Editions.
Ownership History:
The ’52 Beetle is still running stock drivetrain with numbers matching motor and trans. It has had one respray around 1976 give or take a few years.
TheSamba.com member, 52brezelfenster drove it for about two years then it was sold to another member Wiggy. A restoration was done sometime after that in either Arizona or Florida. Seinfeld picked it up sometime thereafter and had some suspension work done at Oldspeed. *Names withheld
In the end, Larry David finally nails it with “You have finally done a show about nothing!”
Next episode starting August 2nd @ 9pm ET/6pm PT on Crackle.
Answers: Soup reference (4:32), The Bee Movie (4:50) and The Show About Nothing (12:18)
- Shawn Blanc | Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee | TheSamba.com
