VW Beetle superfan Luke Theochari really has the Love Bug after splashing out tens of thousands of pounds to own one of the original Herbie movie cars.

The Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own and sporting a classic cream paint job with bold red, white, and blue racing stripes, has been charming audiences since its debut in the 1969 classic film 'The Love Bug'.

And after watching the movie as a 10-year-old boy Luke fell madly in love with the car and dreamed of one day owning it.

Luke, 65, said: "I went to see the film with my cousin Mike. I saw it three times at the cinema in Ealing.

"Herbie pulled wheelies and beat the Hot Rod. He's magic! He won races in a car that was loved by its owners and as a child it creates an image in your head."

Fast forward 55 years and dad-of-three Luke is bringing "joy and happiness" to the UK roads with Herbie after buying him from an owner in America - one of only three cars used in the first movie.

Luke said: "When I'm driving down the street people shout 'Herbie! Herbie!', but they don't realise it's the real car. That does make it a bit easier to get around.

"When I park up at the shops people come and look at the car and when I used to go to the cafe in the mornings the workmen - those really hard builders and roofers would say 'Hi Herbie!' and they'd go and talk to the car!"

Now, thanks to Herbie, Luke will appear on the big screen himself when he features in a Volkswagen advert as part of a new campaign that celebrates genuine Volkswagen fans.

Luke's Beetle model - codenamed H2 - was built specifically for the movie's race scenes with a beefed-up Porsche 356 engine and loaded with performance upgrades, including Porsche finned brakes on all four wheels, Koni shock absorbers and a suspension system that could handle some serious bends in the road.

He has been restoring and repairing Beetles at his business, Terry's Beetles in Hanwell, West London, for almost four decades and has a collection of 32 VW Beetles and three Porsche 911's.

Luke had originally settled on building a replica of Herbie from spare parts. But then in 2005 Luke had a heart attack which changed everything.

"I was working in my garage and I felt uncomfortable and didn't feel right," said Luke.

"I had heavy heartburn and my colleague said 'go home'. So I drove myself home and when my wife, Helen, saw me she took one look at me and said 'come on, hospital!'

"I was laying there in hospital not knowing whether I was going to have another heart attack because you don't know what's going to happen next.

"A mate called me up and asked if I needed anything so I told him to sell some of my cars in case my wife needed money if I died.

"The whole episode gave me time to reflect.

"While I was at home recovering I'd watch films with my daughter Flori who was three at the time.

"We'd watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then when she went to bed I'd put on the Herbie films again and I just knew what I wanted to do."

Through his contacts Luke managed to track down one of the original cars which was owned by an American fan. But getting him to part with Herbie took a lot of persuasion.

Luke said: "We emailed back and forth for about a year and eventually I managed to get the car off him.

"He was asking loads of probing questions and wanted me to come and see the car before I bought it, which obviously wasn't possible. He did his own checks on me to make sure I was responsible enough to own the car. I think he just wanted to make sure Herbie would be loved.

"What swung it for me was when I spoke of the car as though it was human. What I didn't realise was that although I was emailing him it was actually his wife I was trying to convince!

"They asked 'How would you get the car to the UK?' so I said to them 'You'll have to send him off with an empty belly because he'll be on a ship for a couple of weeks and you don't want him getting sick'.

"That's how Herbie was treated in the movies and that's how they spoke of him."

The car was put into a container and shipped over from Florida to Southampton before being taken by transporter to Luke over a six-week period in 2007.

"When I took delivery the hairs on my arms and back of my neck stood on end and I ran to Herbie to have a look," said Luke.

"It caused a bit of a scene in the streets with neighbours coming to have a look but none of them knew it was the real Herbie. They all thought I'd bought a replica."

Luke is tight-lipped about how much he paid for H2 but another model used in the fourth film Herbie Goes Bananas sold for £80,000 at an auction in 2015 and Luke's insurers have capped the value of his car at £100,000.

He added: "I'll never reveal how much I paid because money didn't come into it.

"My late wife, Helen, never asked. She wasn't interested. All she wanted to know was that I was happy."

Luke's love for his bug, which has just short of 85,000 miles on the clock and can cruise all day at 80mph, will be featured in the new VW campaign - YourWagen - which will be launched with a special 60-second advert on Saturday during Britain's Got Talent.

YourWagen will celebrate the unique relationships and roles Volkswagen [volkswagen.co.uk], which translates as 'the people's car', have played in the lives of those who drive them - putting the fans at the very heart of the campaign.

The YourWagen platform will have a selection of true-life tales from real Volkswagen owners and will invite fellow customers to reflect on what they might name their own Wagen.

The film features memories of friendship, love, overcoming life's difficulties, turning hobbies into careers and, of course, even a film star.

Luke has watched the original Love Bug movie hundreds of times - but just don't ask Luke about the 2005 Disney reboot 'Herbie: Fully Loaded starring Lindsay Lohan'.

"Oh no," he groans.

Luke said: "That is so not a Love Bug film because all the tuning firms got involved and put chrome engines in the car and that's just not the right thing to do. It takes away all the magic.

"We got tickets to see the film before it went out on general release and we stole all the posters off the walls!

"We left the cinema thinking it had lost a bit of its magic. It's supposed to be about a standard car that performs and outruns the big cars. Whereas, with the Lohan film, Herbie was tuned with silly spoilers and things."

When he's not working Luke loves to spread the Love Bug's love and once made a 212-mile round trip to Leicester for a sick three-year-old boy who was a mad Herbie fan.

Luke said: "I had a message from his mum telling me how much he loved the films. The boy had undergone several serious operations and she wondered if I could drive Herbie up to their home.

"So I took Herbie up complete with a kid's racing outfit for him to wear - similar to what they wore in the first film - and it was a great day!

"My wife would also take Herbie to the homes of sick kids and give them a ride to help give them a boost and I still take him to weddings to transport bride and grooms around for free. I don't charge because Herbie's not for hire!

"I've got to an age now where it's getting harder getting around and doing lots of things.

"The brain wants to, but the body can't. So I'm slowing down a little bit but I'll always have a tickle with Herbie and just enjoy driving him.

"It's nice to make people happy. When you see people smiling as you're driving down the road it's a lovely feeling."