I have recently rewatched episodes of the “I Love The ’80s” specials that first ran on the VH1 cable channel starting back in 2002. It wasn’t wasted on me that these shows that were created to spark nostalgia for the Eighties were now close to twenty years old, themselves. It remains hilarious to watch some of the stars and public personalities from the early Aughts give their takes on some of the things people spent money on. In my early elementary school days, popular items for kids my age included the “Speak ‘N Spell“, Rubik’s Cube, Scratch ‘N Sniff stickers, and the lucky rabbit’s foot.
We never had a Speak ‘N Spell in our house, but there was one in my second grade classroom that some fortunate boy or girl who had first pick of the toys during playtime would invariably claim immediately. I remember occasionally trying to make it spell out and say words that would have earned me a spanking or some other punishment had such language come out of my mouth, just out of curiosity, but the good people at Texas Instruments were apparently way ahead of me.
Most forms of entertainment for young folks back then was non-electronic in nature, in an almost complete reversal of what is true today. Looking back, it seems like the early ’80s was the time that the marriage of technology and entertainment intended for mass consumption had started to pick up serious momentum. Nothing remotely electronic was generally allowed on desks in any of my classrooms until high school, and even a Casio watch with a rudimentary calculator was forbidden by teachers for fear or suspicion of cheating. (What was the point of getting something that cool for Christmas if you couldn’t show it off to your classmates?) Now every student learns with a laptop computer. For many children my age, though, a lucky rabbit’s foot was the kind of drug store or grocery store trinket that was allowed to be kept in the laminated, flip-top box on our desks that also held our pencils and other school supplies.
The lucky rabbit’s foot always intrigued me, and I had so many questions. Was it the actual hind foot of a rabbit? That sounded gross and not lucky at all, at least for the rabbit. Why wasn’t it badly decomposed in that plastic bubble in the vending machine? What happened to the rest of that poor rabbit? Was it served for hot lunch? How much luck could come from the maiming of a poor, defenseless rabbit? I wouldn’t have purchased one because in our family, we kids were taught not to believe in luck for some pseudo-spiritual reason my mom or James Dobson had come up with. I honestly don’t believe in luck today as a matter of personal philosophy, even as I acknowledge that some things are just random but can have beneficial outcomes. Many of my own less-than-ideal life situations have had some resulting lesson from which positive growth was possible if I could get to seeing past my anger, sadness, or disappointment.
Of course, in my young, isolated, uber-conservatively raised naivety, there might have been some kid who would have me eighty percent convinced that their rabbit-foot-on-a-ball-chain was indeed lucky, and that there was some farm where bunnies were bred and raised, with their hind legs being harvested for just this purpose. This was supposed to make it all okay. I don’t know. I never ended up owning either a pet rabbit or its “foot”, whether or not it was real. There are lots of stories on the internet about the origin of the rabbit’s foot as a lucky object, with different traditions coming from the majority of the seven continents. Apparently, this wasn’t just a European thing, or an African thing, or an Asian thing, etc. – which I also found fascinating. Maybe there’s just something inherent about a rabbit that lends itself to good fortune.
I thought that downtown Las Vegas was a particularly apt place to have come across this beefed-up looking Volkswagen Rabbit during the weekend of the annual Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival in 2016. With its Oregon plates and rough-and-ready stance, it seemed to possess a look-at-me presence that was unlike that of many of the black cars, taxis, and general traffic in and around the area. By standing out as much as it did (when’s the last time you saw a Rabbit or Mk I Golf?), it seemed to blend in perfectly with the accent on individualism of the Fremont Street area and many of its tourists. No Rabbit in the U.S. came with four, round headlamps, but the vertical, segmented, rectangular front and rear side-marker lights might peg this one as a 1979 or ’80 model. (The related Cabriolet would sport quad lamps starting in ’88, one of which may have been the source of this one’s grille.)
By ’79, the Rabbit was being built in Volkswagen’s former Westmoreland assembly plant in Pennsylvania about thirty-five miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Factory power came from a 71-horsepower, 1.5 liter four cylinder gasoline engine. A diesel with the same displacement churned out 48 horses. The first Rabbit / Golf was a highly successful and influential car, which you can read about at CC in Paul Niedermeyer’s essay from 2013. I couldn’t find any 0-60 mph times for the gasoline-powered version, but according to Consumer Guide, the ’79 diesel took 21.2 seconds to get there, being named the slowest diesel-powered car that year. This one ain’t no diesel (confirmed in the comments, as evidenced by the side-marker lights). I can’t imagine any vehicle that would have regularly tried the patience of its driver and passengers in that manner having made it into the last decade in this kind of shape.
Volkswagen sold over 215,300 Rabbits in the U.S. for ’79, easily making it the company’s volume seller that year. Also sold here that year were over 24,500 Dashers, 26,000 Sciroccos, and 10,700 Beetle convertibles, for a total of 292,500 cars. Only the gasoline-powered Rabbit was built in U.S., with the diesel version and those other models being manufactured in and imported from what was then West Germany. This was good for about 2.4% of the market share in the States, which increased to 3% for 1980 despite similar volume at 293,600 cars in that recession year. These numbers were but a fraction of Volkswagen’s peak of 569,700 units sold in 1970, its best sales year to date, which amounted to 5.6% of market share.
If wheels could be thought of as the “feet” of the car, the rear-mounted spare could perhaps be thought of as an extra “lucky Rabbit’s foot” on the back of this car. Supposing this Oregon-based car was from Eugene, the 862 miles between that northwestern city and Las Vegas could make for quite a long, long fourteen-hour drive at legal speeds. In order to accommodate as much gear for this Vegas trip would mean that the spare would have to go outside of a car this size, which makes sense if its occupants were here for the festival. I wouldn’t necessarily call it luck, but rather an actual blessing to have a solid, full-sized spare available should something run amuck on the road.
As for this particular Vegas trip with my friends, one might be wondering if I got lucky and won big. The randomness of the slot machines and my favorite video poker games didn’t make me a rich man, but I left with the bounty of another memorable set of experiences with some of my best friends. Life is beautiful. I may not consider myself lucky, but I am indeed blessed.
Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.
September 2016.
Looks like the VW engineering department slipped up by a decimal point. Behold the prototype for the 50 MPH impact absorbing bumper! 😉
Lucky catch, Joseph, on an otherwise fine looking Rabbit.
Haha! Now I’m wondering what might actually happen in a rear-end collision with this Rabbit…
I remember somehow coming into the possession of a rabbit’s foot around maybe 4th or 5th grade. I don’t remember how I got it – a trade with a pal? Or a prize at a fair game? I also don’t remember what happened to it. My only memory of it was an odd combination of fascination, horror and pride at having obtained it. And like you, I wondered why it wasn’t decomposing.
I love the idea of a wheel/tire being this Rabbit’s foot. They need a white furry cover for that spare, though.
“…combination of fascination, horror and pride… That would have about summed it up for me, too! Haha By the ’80s, they were also available in those day-glo colors like fuchsia and yellow, which resembled no rabbit I had ever seen.
If the tire was on the roof, I’d enter it on a Baja rally.
I like the spirit of if not the full execution of the lighting array. The uncovered lights look like the hella long distance units i had on 2 of my company trucks. (Transferred along) i liked them. Notice though that are not aligned correctly…those ridges should be vertical. Beam pattern will. Not be optimal. Middle one who knows. Then you have what looks to be a amber painted regular sealed beam in the left and a legit spread/fog on the right. Perhaps i am too harsh. Or stern? Still would give the pilot praise for having fun
You too Stern? I can’t wait now for him to give the forensic takedown of the lighting arrangement.
“Perhaps i am too harsh. Or Stern?”
I see what you did there…?
Add more harsh. No, more than that. Keep going.
Where’s any spirit here to like? This is random-ass, childish misuse of lights as ornaments. Outboard we’ve got a pair of 5-3/4″ high/low sealed beams—the only (at least nominally) effective, safe, and legal part of this mess, and then only on low beam. Inboard on the right is a 5-3/4″ halogen sealed beam with a cheeseball yellow plastic cover over it; on the left, pointlessly, is a Bosch fog lamp from a W123 Mercedes. As you point out, those Hella “driving” (aux high beam) lamps are wrong way up; their cockeyed installation here makes them useless as anything but primary glare providers. That middle lamp, whatever it is, doesn’t belong. The whole dog’s breakfast here makes the car look like a wannabe from “The Apple”.
Bwhaha!
I was waiting for Daniel to chime in as well.
In all honesty, I have learned much from his lighting discussions.
Yes! Daniel, this did not disappoint. I will say, though, that I do not take issue at all with lights as ornaments. From an aesthetic standpoint, I think the situation on this Rabbit added to its mystique.
I just can’t get onside. The lights on a roadgoing car are life-safety equipment first through twentieth, and maybe then, down at position № 21 on the list, we can start talking about them as fashion toys.
On an art car or something never driven in public? Sure, g’head, go nuts.
I don’t believe the quad-round headlight setup is from a (US-spec) Cabriolet. I believe those had a 7″ high/low and a 5 3/4″ driving (or fog) beam. My guess is that the grille and lights came from South Africa.
As far as I know, there was no quad 5-3/4″ headlamp setup on any of these Mk1 Golf-Rabbit-Cabriolet cars, in any market. My guess is the grille’s from a US Scirocco.
A nice find ! .
This looks like the aftermarket HELLA brand grille that was very popular on A1 Rabbits .
The swing away spare was usually fitted to the Diesels when a huge auxiliary fuel tank was fitted .
In 1979 both my elder brothers paid way over sticker price for a two door Rabbit Diesel , they were dead slow but incredible fuel economy .
Last year I dug out some old keys and rings, I was surprised to discover a real set of bones in a thirty year old rabbit’s foot key ring .
-Nate
I never saw Hella offer a grille such as this for a car such as that. They did offer a grille for the Mk1 cars that kept the standard 7″ round headlamps and added a pair of ~5-1/4″ round fog or “driving” lamps inboard of the headlamps. This isn’t that; the pictured car has quad 5-3/4″ round headlamps.
Now, I need to look up the swing-away spare on these! I honestly don’t remember seeing Rabbits with them, but then again, in the GM town where I grew up, there were way more Chevettes running around.
My grandpa trapped rabbits to make hassenpfeffer and there was always lots of pelts, tails and rabbit feet free for the asking. When I stayed overnight, part of the ritual was to see Grandpa open one of his fresh catches, yank out a struggling rabbit, twist off its head, skin and dress him and toss it into a large plastic vat of cold water. Then my grandma would clean it up, and drop the rabbit into a Tupperware container filled with vinegar, oil and pickling spices. Tasted like delicious chicken!
That was one LUCKY bunny!
Perhaps luckier than the rabbit from “Roger & Me”! For years, I’m sure people assumed that many of us Flint residents killed rabbit for dinner in our backyards.
About hassenpfeffer, I was familiar with that word only because of Bugs Bunny cartoons. It would be years before I saw it on the menu at a German restaurant.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d3gvHWf7ldY
Remember when that wstrn PA plant opened. VW got $$ and things from PA. Don’t know that PA got a lot back.
If this is a diesel it’s a 1980 model, as the ’79 diesels were still built in Wolfsburg and used the smoother horizontal side marker lamps.
Cool fact: the Texas Instruments voice chip used in the Speak ‘n Spell was the same one used to tell us a door was a jar in mid-1980s Chrysler and Nissan products:
https://handwiki.org/wiki/Engineering:Electronic_voice_alert
I might have been that kid who would have “argued” with the Chrysler that the door was, in fact, a door and not a jar.
My grandparents owned a Fifth Avenue from the mid-’80s, and now I’m lamenting that theirs didn’t have the Speak ‘N Spell voice! My grandfather was an OG techie, but I’m sure he would have been irritated by it after a while.
Excellent article Joe. I love your blending of recollection with pop culture that ultimately comes back around to cars (and then keeps going to something even more universal). Very enjoyable reading.
I think I’m about 10 years older than you, but rabbits’ feet were a fad at some point in my youth as well. I recall a year in elementary school when it seemed that many kids suddenly had them…and I recall thinking much the same as you. “Yeah, well, the rabbit certainly wasn’t very lucky.” Charms were a mystery to me as I too was raised (for perhaps similar pseudo-spiritual reasons) to not believe in “luck”…much less in the power of inanimate objects to confer such things.
Love the VW Rabbit though. The one you found looks like a sort of time-travel device. Perhaps it just materialized there curbside in Vegas. Like a tardis or Bill and Ted’s phone booth. Those lights might have been necessary for a dimensionally transcendental conveyance.
Jeff, thank you so much. I actually love the idea of this Rabbit being a TARDIS. Take me back to downtown Vegas in 1979 when more of the classic spots were still open! And even though I’m not a superfan, I love a good “Doctor Who” reference.
I don’t generally like modified cars, but for some reason this one somehow clicks for me. OK, so it looks like a pretend Paris-Dakar rally vehicle, and I can’t see owning this myself but this car just makes me smile.
And I had all but forgotten about the rabbit’s foot good-luck charm. I had one in elementary school… eventually I realized it didn’t bring me good luck, so I lost interest and forgot all about it.
It’s not totally unlike my xB, with a lift and bigger tires. I don’t have the spare on the back though.
IIRC, the rabbit’s foot didn’t seem to bring some of my classmates any luck when it came to spelling test time. Luck is no substitute for proper preparation!
Just bought a 90 Gulf but can t stop saying ” I got a Rabbit”
And “convertible instead of Cabriolet” If we remember incorrectly its OK, huh? $200 bucks
For that price, it sounds like a winning proposition if the car isn’t a complete disaster. Enjoy!
Could be a diesel with an extended range fuel tank in the stock spare tire well. But judging from the rest of the highly functional mods, the external tire mount is probably an engineered feature to balance weight distribution and reduce understeer. Or perhaps not …
If it’s a 79 it would be a factory gas engine. The diesel was still made in Germany in 79 and would have horizontal side marker lights and single round headlights.
Thank you (and la673) for the clarification on the diesel/non-diesel status. I have updated the text!
This one looks familiar to me, seems I’ve seen pictures of it somewhere before.
Similar to a 1st generation Fiat Panda with 4×4.