Some love for the Severance Rabbits

If you're not watching Severance on Apple+ a) you should be and b) you;re missing out on some sweet Mk1 Golf/Rabbit action. Director Ben Stiler posted this shot to his social media this morning, from a recent location shoot in Nova Scotia.

Apparently at least a couple of the film cars are former diesel Rabbits converted to gas engines. And you may have noticed another anomaly as well in episode... 3? I think? of season 2, where Rabbit owner Harmony Cobel awakens fom a nap in the reclined driver's seat and lifts the seatback upright by pulling a handle on the side, letting it spring into place. I'm assuming using the proper VW hand crank wheel would have been less dramatic and too tedious to show on screen, so they swapped in a spring loaded seat with a regular recline lever.

Well now I feel compelled to watch it for Rabbit content.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Wouldn't the seat from a two-door Rabbit have a lever release for rear seat ingress/egress? I've owned both A1 and A2 VW two-doors, but can't remember.

The cars are a major component of the series' world-building. Just one of the many, many things that make it excellent.

Yes, you should be watching.

I won't watch it because I once worked at a company that worked a lot like that.........LOL

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Wouldn't the seat from a two-door Rabbit have a lever release for rear seat ingress/egress? I've owned both A1 and A2 VW two-doors, but can't remember.

There is an access lever to release the seatback and allow it to flop forward, but it won't latch there and can freely be dropped back down to its standard angle.  Angle is controlled by the knob.  The upshot is that you wouldn't be able to adjust the angle back then release it forward -and have it latch in place-.  Without having seen the scene in question, this could be easy to composite around.

Granted, I sold my Golf in 2009, so I can't remember if the seatback release also slid the seat forward.  I also think that the seat rails were rust-seized anyway, so this info wouldn't have immediately presented itself.

i will say that the most comfortable sleeping position wasn't with the seatback reclined, but semi-fetally curled across both front seats with my knees under the steering wheel.  The handbrake fit between my pelvis and ribcage and wasn't all that uncomfortable...

Thanks for the tip.  
-Coniglio Rampante ("prancing rabbit"...you know, like the Cavallino Rampante, but less ostentatious ).

Follow the white rabbit...

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

<snip>

i will say that the most comfortable sleeping position wasn't with the seatback reclined, but semi-fetally curled across both front seats with my knees under the steering wheel.  The handbrake fit between my pelvis and ribcage and wasn't all that uncomfortable...

That is the kind of information you just can't find anywhere else.  Thanks for posting.

Here I was expecting a post about a band I hadn't heard of before, though I'm not sure what genre I expected out of the Severance Rabbits.

In reply to Coniglio Rampante :

Like and subscribe for more rest-area camping tips and tricks.

gearheadE30 said:

Here I was expecting a post about a band I hadn't heard of before, though I'm not sure what genre I expected out of the Severance Rabbits.

Severance Rabbits was an obscure regional punk band.      

Their one and only album was titled Abstinence and Infertility.  Their one hit, if you could call it that, was "Conflicted". It made it on the charts for two days in April of 1983. 

While the song had a riveting back beat, the lead singer (Bunny Humps) walked out of the recording after singing one line and so people often think it's an instrumental. He can be heard in the background mumbling he wanted no part of this abstinence and infertility dystopian lifestyle; hence the album title. 

Last reports where that Bunny moved to rural Utah and lives his wife and nine kids. There is also a rumor that he's fond of tracking BMWs.

In reply to Tom1200 :

It must be my "TIL" day!   From sleeping in an old Rabbit, to a brief history of someone called Bunny Humps.  Oh yeah, and a tv show.

On my list to check out.  Always in for more rabbit nerdery.

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Wouldn't the seat from a two-door Rabbit have a lever release for rear seat ingress/egress? I've owned both A1 and A2 VW two-doors, but can't remember.

Oh but these are 4-door Rabbits that appear to be diesel, because the showrunners have shown exquisite taste in selecting the absolute worst, most depressing cars. Only a true enthusiast could have such unswerving aim for the awful.

Maybe to tie together a combination of Pete's sleeping in the VW Rabbit and the band's lead singers name....what I remember of the 1983 Rabbit I had at age 18...

With the passenger seat fully reclined it was better to then have her butt not on the seat cushion but rather on the now flat-ish back cushion.  This then left room for my knees to be on the seat cushion for better "traction".