1990-1993 (FORMERLY 4 YEARS- NOW CONDENSED TO 3)
Jim Ratto:
I am happy you guys are enjoying these old times too. When I think about this period, it reminds me of how enthused you can be when you're young and before adulthood takes hold of you, and forces you to straighten up.
Jim Ratto:
There's still 1991-94 to cover, so more to come. I do actually get the big engine running, and running better than I expected. All kinds of road trips, nighttime street races, broken parts, being held at gunpoint by cops in South Los Ang, and learning to make 48's work (sort of). It's all part of the upcoming stuff.
Jim
andrewlandon67:
Held at gunpoint, eh? The lounge awaits with bated breath... :o
Stephan S:
Great stuff Jim! Thanks brother!
Jim Ratto:
VW Jamboree, Costa Mesa CA, Summer 1990, Berg Merged-Heater Header Mistake
Sorry I forgot to mention in that last post with pics of DKP cars, those are pictures Glenn Gaskey took. The only pics I still have of that lineup, are of GB's car.
Back to that day, so I ended up talking to a guy that was probably a few years older than me, with red, wild curly hair, and a backwards baseball cap. The other black sedan with BRM's was his, if I recall. It had what looked like a serious motor, topped by 48's, a Berg breather can on the generator stand, and a big exhaust. This is one car I wish I still had pictures of. I don't know what ever happened to this black car, I never saw it again. I understand the guy I was talking to worked at GBE at the time and his name was Brody Hoyt. In any case, he was cool to talk too, and I told him about the engine I was hopefully going to build pretty soon, pointed out my merged header, told him about the heads I had, and the Engle 125. Fortunately, in talking to this guy, it sounded like my plan made sense. But... after asking him about some of the cars that were lined up in front of us, and their engines, mine sounded awfully plain vanilla. He did mention the 125 Engle was a great cam for a fast street car, and my car should run hard once I was done. But to hear "that car's running an FK89, that car runs's 12.40's, there's another guy that didn't make it that runs FK87 in his car....", wow, I thought I was pushing the envelope. These guys had blown right through the envelope, and seemed to running drag-race only parts, on the street! How can they do that? The ads in the magazines clearly say "Drag Race Use Only." It was clear to me that these guys had figured out how to get around the "rules", and walk softly, all the while, carrying a big stick. I asked how they all managed to run such big Webers, and make them idle, respond, etc. He answered it was all in how the motors were set up to work with them.
I strolled around the lineup a few more times, and snapped a few (now lost) pictures.
I had a few bucks left, so I thought it'd be smart to cruise the indoor swap meet spots. After passing a few spots that were either selling unremarkable parts, or stuff that I wasn't smart enough to recognize (most of them), I came across a couple of guys and a spot full of pretty radical heads. A bunch of VW dual port heads that had been welded all over, and had huge egg-shaped intake ports, and very organic looking chambers. The fins even had weld bead across them. There was another set of Super Flow heads too, with some kind of tube in the rocker area with an aircraft fitting on it. I asked what it was, the man there said it was an oil spray bar for the rockers, etc. At the time I had no idea what that meant. But again, the guy was cool. He handed me a wrinkled business card, which read "JEFF'S VW SPEED", yep it was a man that was later to become a real friend of mine, Jeff Denham.
A few spots down, I spotted a big merged header, no mufflers, bolted to VW heater boxes. The guy also had a bunch of stuff in Gene Berg skin packages, like oil pump covers, gland nuts, a set of VW rods, etc. I inquired about the merged with heater boxes, which I thought was the holy grail. I don't remember what size it was, but I asked what he wanted for the system. Now this fully shows how stupid I was.... I THOUGHT I heard the guy say "Fifty bucks." I still am incredibly embarrassed that I did this, but I asked him "Would you take forty?" The guy just looked at me and said "What did you think I said?" Man I felt stupid, I felt like I was going to choke, turn beet red, etc. I said I was sorry and walked away. With that, it seemed like it would be a good time to take off. It was now getting close to noon, and I had 6-7 hours in front of me, back in the Fiat, on my way back to the Bay Area.
I remember walking back to the BRM car lineup, and just taking one last look. The overcast had kind of burned off, and the cars were now looking outstanding in the mid day sun. All around were suicide doors, murals, way-out paint schemes and colors, yet here were these almost stock looking cars, that had very few observers, that would change the VW world in a few years. I turned to walk back to the parking lot, and told myself, going forward, I knew where I was going to fit in. I knew how I'd find my career. I knew I'd learn these cars, the parts, I'd learn how to listen, I'd learn how the little things would make a big difference. All of the sudden it was as if my brain got some kind of message from the future, saying loud and clear "keep doing this, keep figuring this stuff out, keep trying and learning, it's all going to make sense someday."
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