Nikon 500mm f/4 VR or ?

Wow !  Thank you all for the excellent feedback and the inspirational photos. I continue to be impressed with the results this lens can produce.

Re. VR:  I would consider a non VR lens for the reasons posted, if I could find a very good copy.  However, so far I've found only a few early manual focus 500s, which I'm not interested in.

Is the 500 f4 "portable" enough that people shoot from a car window with the camera/lens resting on a beanbag ?  Some of my shooting is like this when driving slowly through parks or country roads.