Hot Rod VW General Stories Thread
Bryan67:
Around 13 years ago I had a Lotus White 67 daily driver with Ansen wheels, a stock geared built trans and a 2176 with 45 Dells. It was a great sleeper of a car. And most of the time it had my daughters booster seat in the back. One day. I was just running errands and headed home. Driving down one of the 6 lane main streets here in Fresno. Just trying to get home when a young couple in a new 2000 Mustang GT convertible pulled up next to me at a red light. He looked over at me and smiled. I have always had a hard time saying no so when he revved it up and looked at me, I did the same thing. The light turned green at it was on. When I pulled up first to the next light, he did it again, and I beat him again. After three lights with the same results he pulled up next to me at the fourth one and his girlfriend was laughing. He didn`t look very happy. I waved goodbye and turned right and went home.
mg:
Near the end of my 45 year Cal Look phase I was inspired to create some fun Cal Look events for all to enjoy.
First initiating and promoting the heck out of this 1999 Carlsbad VW event and was honored to co announce it with Dyno Don.
Coordinating the event between VW Paradise/dkp and sent out 100 faxes (before emails) to VW shops soliciting sponsors for a couple dozen "Best of trophys" for participants.
Although I was too busy to race at the event we stayed busy working at it.
It was fun day spent working in the announcer's tower with my wife helping by placing the entry card with car/driver info in front of me as Dyno and I announced the action and the drivers as they entered the track.
VW Paradise sprayed the track with VHT and made some fast passes.
The added grip was hard on gearboxes, there was reported a total of 17 broken boxes at the starting line.
Turned out it was one of the biggest events held at Carlsbad raceway since the funny cars in the mid 70s.
The event poster was designed by Dean K, thanks Dean for all the help and advice back in the day.
After that with input from Jim Kaforski and Doug Mische we invented Der Renn Kafer Cup and were then able to sell the idea to Rich Kimbal and Hole family
Der Renn Kafer lasted on the west coast for over a decade.
Here's an old Video of some Renn Kafer action.
The last pass at Vegas is me, my one and only lucky Renn Kafer win.
Fwiw Renn Kafer was a combined Show and race result competition.
https://youtu.be/8hjUpADqURg
So while I had 40 years of Cal Look with 20 or more VWs my success with the Carlsbad event and the Der Renn Kafer Cup series were most satisfying.
That and in 1989 with Tickled Pink at Famosa winning bracket A at a big VW event and getting paid $400. ;)
It turned out to be the last time I got paid for racing. :D
Since then did volunteer work for PCA and R Gruppe helping organize/announce a PCA parade AX and plotting R Gruppe Treffen tour books.
Now I just want to road race my car at Laguna Seca.
Today satisfied to have 3 sound free Laguna vintage race weekends planned for 2018.
brian e:
Good topic!
My first proud moment was when a real good buddy in his Acura TL type S, and me in my lowered '67 with a hodge podge 2054cc I had just finished a few weeks earlier. It was my very first engine build. We both left my shop in our cars, headed the same direction. He rolled through the stop out onto the highway and got on it hard. I also rolled through the stop right behind him and also got on it. I went into the far lane and drove around him and just kept going. I remember hearing his quick little Acura must have been spinning 7k+ as I was pulling past him. We kept on it till about 80mph. He was starting to make up some ground, but I had already seen his wide eyes and the look on his face as I pulled past him.
That poor 2054cc was a mess. China crank, non-line bored case, I bored the cylinder bores with one of those drill press cutters spinning at mach 8, w110, 8.5cr, hogged out stock valve heads, 1 3/8" hideout, and 40mm Kads. I was pretty proud of it at the time, but I certainly know more now.
Brian
andrewlandon67:
Had another one of these yesterday at the Denver Bug In, people had a hard time believing that my car was running 15.0's with "just a little 1914," but I assured them that my cam and heads more than made up for the relative lack of displacement... My first pass was fun as I'd lined up next to a beautifully detailed white early car with a ragtop and gasburners, and once I finally took notice of the green light, I kept my front quarter panel right next to his rear and went through the lights with my speedo well past 90. Hope y'all have been out having that sort of fun with your hotrods!
andrewlandon67:
I mentioned in my post earlier that I'd tell the story of my Friday night, including my car's first 14 second time slip, and figured this would be the best spot for it, which is also why I changed the thread name. Feel free to post up any good stories you have about your lookers, old or new!
Arriving at the track around 4:30 in the evening with only a few people having taken their first runs, I quickly said my hellos and got my car down the track in wholly unremarkable 15.3. Waiting around for another hour or so, I idled my way down to the staging lanes for my second time trial and got my fan belt undone while waiting in line. Fast forward to going around the water and creeping up to the lights. Same stuff as usual, bring the revs up to about 3500-4000 rpm and gradually let the clutch out as the throttles stay wide open, what I've been doing for the past few years with no issues. Staged and the lights come down and for some reason, I'm not paying attention to timing them until I see a green flash from behind my tach and jerk my left foot up. The rest of the run was more of the same other than the world's slowest Mustang convertible in the other lane falling further and further back, but I knew it was a good run as soon as I let off the gas at the top of the track. Pulling around to the timing booth, I couldn't wait look at my slip as I pulled off to the side and I immediately grinned ear to ear as I saw the numbers 14 followed by .907.
I'd finally done it, gotten my car to the official mark of what makes a "fast car." Grabbing my wrench, screwdriver, and belt out of my door pocket I shoved both my hands up as triumphantly as I could to try and flag down my buddy Sam who'd run right behind me in his berserk Mustang. I couldn't really stop grinning for about half an hour, and didn't calm down for even longer than that. The first two rounds of eliminations, I launched more like my usual self and ran two 15.0 passes, the first one knocking out one of the points leaders in my class and the second being a perfect 15.000 pass with a better reaction than I'd ever expected of myself. After a quick explanation to the guy who I'd run against in the second round that "no, it's still a bug motor," I went back to my team's spot in the pits and sat down with some teammates.
I had been sitting down for maybe 4 or 5 races when I heard the announcer call out for my class to come down for the third round and I jogged over to my car, key in hand. Something was wrong though. I couldn't get my ignition switch to turn. It'd been acting up lately, taking the right touch to turn, but this time was different. I finally pulled my key out and saw that it'd been bent somehow, most of the way to the base, and the tip pointing down. I touched it to see if it'd hold and it immediately split into two pieces. Fuck. Not only did I just break the only extant key to my car, but I had to be down in the staging lanes about NOW. I ran back over to my friend Sam in the stands and over the next five minutes we pulled the ignition switch and ashtray out of my dash, made three little wire extensions out of the spare wire I keep in my spares box, and pulled the fan belt off.
Belt off and with three lengths of differently colored wire sticking out of my dash I bolted off to the lanes. If you've never been to Bandimere, the pits are up above the track, with a long road along the outside that loops down around the south end of the pits to run into the staging lanes. I've always been sympathetic to my car and have never run it without the belt for very long, but I told it that I'd give it a good valve adjustment in the morning and went for it. Pulling around the outside of the waiting cars of the faster class, I saw the track marshal standing with a flashlight and was told to head down through the tunnel. I'd made it, just barely in time, for as I pulled in the guy who'd been hopefully expecting a bye run pulled up to the burnout box. I'd actually made it with about thirty seconds to spare, as there was one more pair of cars to go ahead of us. I won't bore you with the details, but I ended up losing as I'd been a little distracted by the live wires hanging about half an inch from my Berg shifter's handle. No matter though as I'd successfully made it a few rounds, gotten my car into the 14 second club, and had run a race in a hotwired car.
I ended up hanging out for the last few races of the night and had a friend who'd come up to spectate follow me back to the home base, just in case something in my homebrew ignition switch went wrong on the 10 mile drive. It was, without a doubt, the most insane and eventful night I've ever had at the track, and I couldn't be prouder of my car for getting me there and back without a single hiccup relating to anything other than the key. The morals of this story are: it never hurts to have a ridiculously packed spares box with several different colors of wire, a friend who is willing to help with just about anything relating to your car, and a SPARE GODDAMN KEY OR TWO!
I also thought it was funny that my shoe polish number's drip was a little... altered by the speed
Anyways, thanks for reading, and a biiiiiiig thanks to my friend Sam for all his help and inspiration throughout the years and the insane night!
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