Dr. Gustav Stumpfel is a German engineer in the 1997 remake of The Love Bug. He was responsible for the creation of both Herbie and Horace.
Background[]
When he was young he designed and built cars that were simple to drive and easy to maintain called "People's Cars". Sometime after World War II the U.S. Military heard about his work and insisted he came over to discuss it with them. It turned out the U.S. Military misunderstood these People's Cars. They had this crazy thought that these cars were somehow alive and they wanted such a car for themselves. Stumpfel, as a young man, took them seriously and began work on building it.
He spent years trying to find a way to make a living car possible and realised the design did not matter, only the metal it was made from was. He tried every known alloy he could find but all led to failure until one day an accident happened. A precious photo of his loved one "Elsa" fell into the mixture. However, that accident took a turn. Stumpfel believed the strong feelings he had for his loved one were somehow transmogrified into the metal itself making it possible to create a living car, resulting in the birth of Herbie.
Young Stumpfel after building Herbie
Unfortunately, he was aware the U.S. Military would plan to use the little car for evil. So, he decided to hide him. He told the Military he had failed, and once they were convinced he snuck the little car out and set him free. He kept track of Herbie from afar, and was happy to know he found a home and a racing career with Jim Douglas.
Thirty-four years later he was approached by former Formula One racing driver Simon Moore III, to build another one. He was reluctant to do so but he went ahead with it. He succeeded in building another living car, only this time, to his horror, his new creation had come out monstrous due to a photo with so much wrong. he insisted they destroy it but Simon refused and named it Horace. As for Stumpfel he was cut loose since his work was done.
Stumpfel came to Herbie's funeral with Jim and told Hank Cooper they could rebuild him only if they used all the original parts otherwise it would not be him. Hank spent day and night rebuilding him resulting a huge success in his rebirth. He then later burned Herbie's blueprints so they would not fall into the wrong hands.
