More Airfix Beetles

No 'namby-pamby' seat belts until the 1960s. "If driving on the roads is so dangerous that you're in need of seat belts, dearest, I think you'd better not do it..."

No one really understands anything about road safety/danger until they've ridden a scooter in... Italy.

A modern concession to passenger safety.

Giving too many chums a lift home from the pub can harbour a few road safety probs.

A Sunday family outing to visit granny can lead to frayed tempers. Not so good for road safety.

Ralph Nader's scurrilous report about the Beetle led to VW changing 'dangerous' dashboard switchgear for flat items made of soft plastic (from the '68 model year).

I've always enjoyed driving Beetles according to guidelines to be found in the Highway Code.

It's difficult to improve certain things.

A lap of the Nurburgring is usually enough to teach people about road safety. Perhaps a day out in the Eifel should be a compulsory part of the driving test.

A pic I've posted previously but repeated here because of Jeddah yesterday. Frankly, quick Beetles racing at Interlagos excite me much more than the current F1 scene. Perhaps I'm just too old but F1 has lost its glamour for me. From pundits speaking in clichés, through flawed cars designed by elitists to dreary drivers with nothing to say, the circus is wearing a bit thin, and it doesn't fool me.

Perhaps as the season drones on, things might improve but there are ominous signs that we'll simply get more of the same. "Yeah, no, no yeah, more work to do, mitigating circumstances, all the guys have worked so hard, no grip, yeah..."

Another of Walter Gotscke's marvellous works of Wolfsburg after the War. The pic includes a depiction of Col. Charles Radclyffe's Beetle Roadster - the first post War cabriolet built at Ivan Hirst's behest especially for his boss, Charles Radclyffe.

A few more 'safety-conscious' passengers. All fools, of course.

To illustrate Keith's point above, here's a complete Beetle chassis that could be driven without the need for bodywork. Indeed the very first post War Porsche prototype completed its maiden voyage as nothing more than a rolling chassis.

A number of chaps, found in the 'Lost Husbands' department of a well-known slot retailer, are finally rounded up and returned to captivity to receive a Force 10 apiece from She Who Can't Ge Ignored...

More than 21 million people did.