While I now realize that the patrons of even a taillight-themed strip club don’t like to hear the ear-splitting sound of two air horns as a crazed little man screams at them, excitedly, about a kind of VW taillight he wasn’t aware of, I think the issue had more to do with my ill-conceived presentation than it did with the subject. I say this because as a hardcore VW Beetle taillight fetishist, there is almost nothing better than the personal discovery of a previously-unknown Beetle taillight varietal. And, thanks to my friend and legendary VW aficionado Tory who sent me this eBay link, I have once again experienced the sublime joys of a brush with the Beetle Taillight Unknown. Behold, my friends, the taillight known as Option M018:
At first, you may think this looks just like any oval, three-sectioned Beetle taillight — the sort that was used (in all-red form, on US-spec cars) from 1962 to 1967, and longer on European, Brazilian, South African and other-market Beetles, albeit with the amber turn indicator section. But something is different; while the three primary sections are the same (from top to bottom, indicator, brake/tail, and reflector area) the proportions of those last two sections are very, very different. Here, look:
What the hell is going on here? The reflector section on option M018 is at least twice the size of the stock taillamp’s, reducing the brake/tail section to about half its normal size. Now, VW, unlike many carmakers, has a long history of using the reflector section as a lens as well, putting light bulbs behind reflectors and letting those sections of the taillight emit light as well as reflecting it, so I do not believe that there would be any amount of light blockage from this lamp design. A look at the rear of the lamp, again from that eBay listing, confirms this:
Still, that doesn’t answer why this option would exist at all? Why have a whole other taillight option that just has a doubled-in-size reflector area? A bit of digging online gives a few hints; the always informative online VW forum The Samba offers some answers: So, according to a poster named cj1971, who wrote about these in a 2011 reply, these rare taillights were usually found in Scandinavian countries. Another thread dedicated to the M018 option shows that this option, the larger-area reflector option, was available on several generations of VW taillights, and reinforces that it was normally sold in Swedish/Nordic markets. So perhaps M018 is best thought of as a sub-group of VW taillights, a larger-reflector’d variant that lives in Scandinavia, perhaps existing because those cold, northerly countries have very long nights for much of the year, and perhaps a larger reflective surface on those lights would help parked cars be spotted more easily on dark and snowy or foggy nights? Some links for M018 lights specifically refer to them as “Swedish” taillights, and there appears to be at least one example of a very early Karmann Ghia optioned with M018 taillights, though the picture in this ad does not appear to show taillights of a different design than a normal 1955 ‘low light’ Ghia. There is likely still a lot more research to be done here; for the moment, I propose a new addendum to the standard Beetle taillight taxonomy. If we are sticking with the usual grouping of The Seventeen — the baseline 17 most common Beetle taillights throughout the years, the standard set that you’ll find taught in any collegiate VW Beetle taillight 101 class, and also with the generally-accepted addenda of the “Mad Belgian” taillights (Belgium-market round-reflector lights) and the late-Brazilian smoked-lens “elephant’s foot lights,” also known as The Smoky Brazilian — then I think we can petition to add a separate sub-category of M018-option lights. They’re not exactly entirely new lights, more like varieties of stock lights from around 1955 to 1967. I realize this may be controversial, and I expect a lot of debate in the Greater Taillight Community to ultimately determine how these should be classified. But I promise I won’t try to bring it up at any taillight community strip clubs anymore. I learned my lesson. https://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/dozens_of_us_arrested_development.gif I think I need to find a remedial 098 class Thank you for enabling my mania. Signed, Someone who notices everything. In 1692 they bought a Bug there and brought it back to the states with them when they returned. It was our primary car up until I reached 5th or 6th grade and it is the car in which I learned to drive, which was interesting because it is right-hand drive. My mom loved that car in a benign neglect sort of way. A few years before my mom died, my stepfather, who was very methodical, did a complete restoration of it. Because he was so detail oriented I’d bet he tracked down the correct parts for it, to include lighting. Unfortunately, after my mom died he gave it to my older ex-sister, don’t ask, who lives in the UK. I think he figured it would make more sense there because it’s right-hand drive. That was 2008 and to this day it has never left her garage, it is just slowly decaying. I would love to have that car, and this article makes me wonder what the lights on it look like. I do remember the front indicators always had orange lenses and that the headlights had that little bulb in front of the sealed beam. Be careful in those taillight bars you frequent. You seem to have a lot of close calls in them Can y’all just put a donate button on the website so dear readers can ensure we get more of this kind of crazy? Reading without ads has lowered my blood pressure, except for the fact that TIL there is another variant of the VW taillight and now my BP has just jumped by 40!!! WTH – how can this be? If you found a new one, maybe there is another one out there specific to Surinam, or maybe Uruguay. Damn..let’s go find it.
