Chris Pratt’s car collection contains something unexpected

Chris Pratt: An All-American Action Movie Star Worth More Than estimated $80 million, listing hobbies including fishing, farming, and camping.

You would expect his car collection to contain a combination of luxury SUVs, tough off-roaders and American muscle cars, right?

While that’s not entirely inaccurate, the actor’s garage includes both a Volvo XC60 and Ford F-150 – his car collection also includes an unexpected nod to his humble beginnings in the form of a 1965 Volkswagen Beetle.

And if you think of the bright yellow vintage Beetle is an unlikely ride for a macho movie star, it’s backed up by a fascinating story of how it came into Pratt’s possession.

Pratt, who grew up in a trailer and earned money selling coupons as a door-to-door salesman and working at a Bubba Gump shrimp restaurant, lived out of a van before he started acting and was, in his own words“broke broke”.

Around 2004, long before his breakthrough as a blockbuster in the Guardians of the Universe franchise, the actor actually won the Beetle in a game of Blackjack.

At the time, he estimated the car was worth about $2,500, describing it as a “scrapper.”

Although the 1965 Beetle was the first of the more “modern” classic Beetles, with larger windows and more legroom, it still lacked rear seat belts and a radio was an optional extra.

With very little mechanical knowledge, Pratt set out to restore the car using YouTube videos as his guide — a process that took a total of 12 years and, according to the actor, “many dollars.”

Pratt first teased the end result of his efforts in a Instagram post in 2015shared a video of him happily driving the Beetle while blasting heavy metal music.

“So excited to have my Volkswagen on the road. I worked on this car for 10 years. It really has been a labor of love,” Pratt captioned the clip.

A few months later, he shared a full reveal of the car to Instagramsaying that restoring it had taken “a lot of trial and error”.

“Started with a $2,500 scrapper I won at blackjack. Reduced to 12 years and many more dollars later and it’s complete! (For now) They just don’t make them like they used to,” Pratt wrote.

“Nobody is going to walk into a car museum in 40 years and say, ‘Whoa! Look! A 2003 Jetta! Fully restored,'” he joked. Instagram†

“Classic cars (this is technically antique) keep getting better with age. And rolling these through the Hollywood hills is a dream come true.”

The Beetle’s “antique” status was further enhanced when production of the classic model ended in Mexico in 2003. The later Golf-based ‘New Beetle’ was officially discontinued by Volkswagen in 2019, although it left Australian showrooms in 2016.

can a Love Bug remake starring Chris Pratt? Your move, Hollywood.