Some old pictures

[Jim Ratto]

looking for old pictures, for the "4 years thing" I found some that were separate from that post. Enjoy,

[Jim Ratto]

SODA's '65, my 2276 shortblock in my kitchen,

[Jim Ratto]

some Babe Erson cam and special lifters I never used, not sure who the tan '67 belonged to, but I liked it, and Larry Mckenzie and I at Solvang 1996.

[Olaf A./DFL]

Very cool- Thanks for sharing!

[alex d]

I like the red '67, got more pics of that?

[Jim Ratto]

Jim K

[Jim Ratto]

Donny B's '66 in between the ostriches at Solvang

[Jim Ratto]

Me bored, should have been at work or school probably

[Jim Ratto]

Nao's car along time ago. I think 1997 or 98?

[2manytoys]

looking for old pictures, for the "4 years thing" I found some that were separate from that post. Enjoy,

Wow Jim,

That brings back great memories,..Thanks.

,...but really,..white fender bead and white dual quiet pack?!?!?!?! WTH

[Jim Ratto]

M & M Green was always one of my favorites, particularly the green engine shrouds AND the white mufflers. Where is the car today?

Jim

[Nico86]

Really great looking car. Do you have more pictures of it from that time? And engine specs?

[Jim Ratto]

I do somewhere. It was a cream puff of a car, that I found for Bryan in Berkeley CA. One owner, I swear, it was a little old lady's car, she passed on and left it to her mechanic. He had a dingy shop on Shattuck in south Berkeley. At the time I was in Berkeley all the time and saw the car parked out front. Not for sale. We talked to the guy, he was a bit of a wingnut, made us sign a waiver he had wrote that Bryan would never convert it to 12V, never put a dual port in it, would never lower it, etc.

Bryan built a pretty cool 1679cc for it with all the good stuff, including VW stock valve heads (dual port, of course) done by Roger Crawford. It had a new oem case, Rimco 69 crank, Crown aluminum flywheel, Web 110 with 1.25 rockers, 010 with (12V) blue coil and 40IDF (32mm venturi) on tall manifolds. It ran better than I told him it would. We were going to use a 125 Engle or K8, but he got the Web cam for free and it was almost the same cam anyway. With this engine and stock 4.375:1 trans, Bryan went 14.71 on 195/60 radials at Sac.

We always wanted more. So Bryan, about a year later, pulled the engine down, and replaced the 69 crank with 74, shimmed the 88 cylinders and dropped in an 86B with 1.4. He borrowed a pair of 48IDA's from John Bates and the car was scary. I swear it was one of the fastest, but smoothest VW's I've ever driven. Probably in my top 3 favorite street engines I've had my hands in. It just screamed from idle to way past 7K. I don't think Bryan ever ran the car with this motor, but when we used to goof around at the local (painted off) "public proving grounds" he'd stay with my '67 by less than a car length when I had the 2276 in it.

That picture is from Sears Point, looking at the exhaust, the car had the 40HP in it still, that Bryan breathed on. I remember he used gas filler hose and attached a 48IDA air stack to the 30mm carb from his 1300 1966 car, put an 010 in it, and a Santana power pulley and early VW fan. It eventually kept spitting spark plugs out, so he took the 1300 from his wrecked '66 and put it in this car with a header, while he built the 1679.

[Jim Ratto]

Really great looking car. Do you have more pictures of it from that time? And engine specs?

here is a picture after he tidied a few things up on the car.

[Jim Ratto]

This was a fun car. My late friend Darrell's '66 he brought to Bay Area from Hawaii when he moved to Newark. When I met Darrell he was running an 1835 with 48IDAs, 041's and 125 Engle and the car was going low 13's and somewhat streetable. He then built a 1776 with same carburetors, had the heads done @ Fred Simpson's and ran a 120 Engle with 1.25 and ran 13.00. In the latter half of the 1990's we built a 1914 out of junk we had collecting dust, my old K10 cam, some heads that were mostly weld off a midget, his 48's, etc. We built the engine in no more than 2 hours I think. We put Bryan in it at Sac and told him to never lift. The car was wheelstanding but ate 3 gearboxes in one weekend. After 2 trans just on Sat night we drove back to Newark to get another close ratio trans from another car, slept for an hour then back to Sac to swap the transaxles out. Then after a few 12.80 passes, it broke too. Bryan was hard on parts. That's him in the car.

[Jim Ratto]

This car was kind of an urban legend when I was a kid. They guy, Rob, lived in Fremont. I went to see this car when I was 16 or 17 years old. The engine was pretty full-tilt, 2276 turbo, with 4-bbl and nitrous. I think in Hot VW's he was quoted saying it made 450hp before nitrous. The car was really pretty, I know it's not the style of today, but in the late '80's it was something to see. The guy lived minutes from Baylands racetrack and from what I remember, would drive the car there and go 10.80's and drive it home. Here it is on display @ Bug Bash in Pleasanton.

[Jim Ratto]

Wish I knew where these ended up. They were supposed to go on a 94 x 78 about 22 years ago, with Babe Erson steel cam, into a '55 Oval window
never happened.

[Mike P]

Were those Pete's old heads for the alcohol motor?

[Jim Ratto]

Yes Pete's but it was going to run on super unleaded.

[Nico86]

I do somewhere. It was a cream puff of a car, that I found for Bryan in Berkeley CA. One owner, I swear, it was a little old lady's car, she passed on and left it to her mechanic. He had a dingy shop on Shattuck in south Berkeley. At the time I was in Berkeley all the time and saw the car parked out front. Not for sale. We talked to the guy, he was a bit of a wingnut, made us sign a waiver he had wrote that Bryan would never convert it to 12V, never put a dual port in it, would never lower it, etc.

Bryan built a pretty cool 1679cc for it with all the good stuff, including VW stock valve heads (dual port, of course) done by Roger Crawford. It had a new oem case, Rimco 69 crank, Crown aluminum flywheel, Web 110 with 1.25 rockers, 010 with (12V) blue coil and 40IDF (32mm venturi) on tall manifolds. It ran better than I told him it would. We were going to use a 125 Engle or K8, but he got the Web cam for free and it was almost the same cam anyway. With this engine and stock 4.375:1 trans, Bryan went 14.71 on 195/60 radials at Sac.

We always wanted more. So Bryan, about a year later, pulled the engine down, and replaced the 69 crank with 74, shimmed the 88 cylinders and dropped in an 86B with 1.4. He borrowed a pair of 48IDA's from John Bates and the car was scary. I swear it was one of the fastest, but smoothest VW's I've ever driven. Probably in my top 3 favorite street engines I've had my hands in. It just screamed from idle to way past 7K. I don't think Bryan ever ran the car with this motor, but when we used to goof around at the local (painted off) "public proving grounds" he'd stay with my '67 by less than a car length when I had the 2276 in it.

That picture is from Sears Point, looking at the exhaust, the car had the 40HP in it still, that Bryan breathed on. I remember he used gas filler hose and attached a 48IDA air stack to the 30mm carb from his 1300 1966 car, put an 010 in it, and a Santana power pulley and early VW fan. It eventually kept spitting spark plugs out, so he took the 1300 from his wrecked '66 and put it in this car with a header, while he built the 1679.

Thanks for the pic and story!

[stealth67vw]

Wish I knew where these ended up. They were supposed to go on a 94 x 78 about 22 years ago, with Babe Erson steel cam, into a '55 Oval window
never happened.

I think Les Kovach has those squirrelled away with the wedgemated 78 crank and the 55 bug they were intended for.

[nicolas]

very nice flashback to an era that may not have enough coverage in my opinion. i wish the history of callook in general was more documented and 'timelined' from the late 80's to the early 90's