RIP Der Renn Kafer cup - Photos or stories

[Wayne]

I was lucky enough to be in the very first DRKC in Phoenix.  It was a great time!  I remember the DKP crew rolling in and I was shitting my pants.  I ended up racing DKP cars all day, figured why not go for the big dogs (I got beat up all day - even tried red lighting but still no good).  I made some great friends that day though.  DKP guys were very cool.  20 plus cars total in class!  I don't think DRKC ever came close to that number again.  Hopefully the Holes will put something out there for the lost boys.

Wayne Elam

[NoBars]

red 67 up front is now mines!

[Wayne]

Glad you still have it!  Have fun with it I know I did.  Damn I miss that car!

[Zach Gomulka]

Those were the days! Real street cars!!

[NoBars]

Wayne, I just noticed it was you who  posted first! I wasn't trying to rub it in!

It always suprises me how often this car shows up on the net or in print...

I am enjoying it, cruised it around a little today.

Anthony

[Donny B.]

Here's a photo of the first ( I believe) and the largest at Bug-O-Rama.  There are about 22 cars lined up on the drag strip for photos at the end of the day and at least one poser.  My car is in there somewhere way down near the end.

[mg]

DRKC was a concept Jim Kaforski and I came up with together on the phone one day.
I called the club engineer Doug Mische and a half hour later he had a spread sheet that scored the cars.
The fields ET spread would dictate the car show point spread, it seemed to make sense.
So I pitched it to Rich Kimball and he got Steve and the Hole family to help and we had a fantastic time.

Racing Art at Sac was wild, his angel was in the right seat to survive that without serious harm.
Couple weeks later some guy stopped me at the Classic DQ meet and showed me a perfect video of the accident run, he offered to sell me the tape for $3,000. He wanted to meet Art so I introduced them and walked away.
shezzer trying to make big bucks off a guy after a huge loss?

Later at Vegas Pep's black oval welded the field by several tenths with an 11:40 but did not win overall?
At that point the bias of the car show points on the final results started to feel not quite right.
I wanted to see the fastest shiney car win.

Luke hi dude like your car, gonna make someone real happy!
PHX was the biggest field, it was great all the street cars and friends in the pits.
Racing Damon that day was good fun.
PHX line up, something close to 20 cars.

[The Ideaman]

Viva, Mike Gagen.  Viva, Mike Gagen.  (sung to Viva Las Vegas by ZZ Top).  Nice to see you here.  Sure do miss our hanging out at Red Lobster, and goofing off down by the coast.  Tell everybody about our trip to Carlsbad, with Pep, Damon, KCR, The Nitrous Bandit, the Lauffers and others I can't remember.  My Flying Tomato shirts are worn out.  Got any in a box?

[louisb]

It would be nice to see a revival of this series with an emphasis more on street cars than race cars that look like street cars.

--louis

[Fastbrit]

Easy: DOT-approved radials, pump gas, belt, muffler, all steel, 30-mile drive during which all cars have to fill up at a regular gas station. Now I'm getting out of here before it turns into Cal-Look.com all over again!

[louisb]

Easy: DOT-approved radials, pump gas, belt, muffler, all steel, 30-mile drive during which all cars have to fill up at a regular gas station. Now I'm getting out of here before it turns into Cal-Look.com all over again!

ROFL!


--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

I suggested something like that on the CLF a while ago and damn near got my ass caned. The first DRKC was awesome!

[Bernard Newbury]

DRKC was a concept Jim Kaforski and I came up with together on the phone one day.
I called the club engineer Doug Mische and a half hour later he had a spread sheet that scored the cars.
The fields ET spread would dictate the car show point spread, it seemed to make sense.
So I pitched it to Rich Kimball and he got Steve and the Hole family to help and we had a fantastic time.

Racing Art at Sac was wild, his angel was in the right seat to survive that without serious harm.
Couple weeks later some guy stopped me at the Classic DQ meet and showed me a perfect video of the accident run, he offered to sell me the tape for $3,000. He wanted to meet Art so I introduced them and walked away.
shezzer trying to make big bucks off a guy after a huge loss?

Later at Vegas Pep's black oval welded the field by several tenths with an 11:40 but did not win overall?
At that point the bias of the car show points on the final results started to feel not quite right.
I wanted to see the fastest shiney car win.

Luke hi dude like your car, gonna make someone real happy!
PHX was the biggest field, it was great all the street cars and friends in the pits.
Racing Damon that day was good fun.
PHX line up, something close to 20 cars.

Hi Mike, how are you going? Have not seen you for a while. Glad to see you here. I will be in town early January. Bernie

[too old for this]

DRKC was a concept Jim Kaforski and I came up with together on the phone one day.
I called the club engineer Doug Mische and a half hour later he had a spread sheet that scored the cars.
The fields ET spread would dictate the car show point spread, it seemed to make sense.
So I pitched it to Rich Kimball and he got Steve and the Hole family to help and we had a fantastic time.

Racing Art at Sac was wild, his angel was in the right seat to survive that without serious harm.
Couple weeks later some guy stopped me at the Classic DQ meet and showed me a perfect video of the accident run, he offered to sell me the tape for $3,000. He wanted to meet Art so I introduced them and walked away.
shezzer trying to make big bucks off a guy after a huge loss?

Later at Vegas Pep's black oval welded the field by several tenths with an 11:40 but did not win overall?
At that point the bias of the car show points on the final results started to feel not quite right.
I wanted to see the fastest shiney car win.

Luke hi dude like your car, gonna make someone real happy!
PHX was the biggest field, it was great all the street cars and friends in the pits.
Racing Damon that day was good fun.
PHX line up, something close to 20 cars.

Nice photo....not sure but 2nd car down looks like the oval I now own...built by Bill Frost in Vegas,I know back then the Fuchs weren,t detailed and the 2276 I was told it had,shrunk to 2007 by the time I got it,am I right ?great foto anyway

[The Ideaman]

Easy: DOT-approved radials, pump gas, belt, muffler, all steel, 30-mile drive during which all cars have to fill up at a regular gas station. Now I'm getting out of here before it turns into Cal-Look.com all over again!

Nah, the difference is here most if not all of us are adults.  I don't get the feel too much of the "My dick is bigger than yours" syndrome.  I'd like to see a "Real Street" DRKC type class too.

[louisb]

Easy: DOT-approved radials, pump gas, belt, muffler, all steel, 30-mile drive during which all cars have to fill up at a regular gas station. Now I'm getting out of here before it turns into Cal-Look.com all over again!

Nah, the difference is here most if not all of us are adults.  I don't get the feel too much of the "My dick is bigger than yours" syndrome.  I'd like to see a "Real Street" DRKC type class too.

I agree. Most folks here can have an adult conversation without it degenerating into a flame fest. (At least I hope so.) Though I would have to quibble on the no fiberglass comment. Then you could not run those EMPI style decklids. Plus some of the nicer fiberglass panels out there weigh more than the crap metal stuff coming out of South America. The rest of it I could go with though maybe requiring a legal registration and tag to drive it on the street. (So it would have to pass MOT or equivalent I guess.) That would take care of issues like lights, wipers, etc. Anyway, bit of a non-issue on this board unless they plan to run something like it at EBII.

--louis

[mg]

 

Hi Mike, how are you going? Have not seen you for a while. Glad to see you here. I will be in town early January. Bernie
[/quote]

Bernie good to hear from you, your new race car looks great, must have big POWER!
Sent you a pm please do call me for a pint is So Cal!

Luke and Donny you guys too, when you are in SD let's have cold one(s).

The rules were minimal, we joked during the first season about who would be first to plug in a Pro Stock motor?
I saw the  photo of the Gears car hanging the front wheels, it did look awesome.
Agree with KS, his rules would encourage guys to build dual purpose engines, good for the street and drags.
Maybe more could enter if you only needed one reliable street engine?
Maybe no slicks would be easier on transaxle parts too?

Show time in the pits, I was not a fan of having my car judged.
 

[louisb]

 

Hi Mike, how are you going? Have not seen you for a while. Glad to see you here. I will be in town early January. Bernie

Bernie good to hear from you, your new race car looks great, must have big POWER!
Sent you a pm please do call me for a pint is So Cal!

Luke and Donny you guys too, when you are in SD let's have cold one(s).

The rules were minimal, we joked during the first season about who would be first to plug in a Pro Stock motor?
I saw the  photo of the Gears car hanging the front wheels, it did look awesome.
Agree with KS, his rules would encourage guys to build dual purpose engines, good for the street and drags.
Maybe more could enter if you only needed one reliable street engine?
Maybe no slicks would be easier on transaxle parts too?

Show time in the pits, I was not a fan of having my car judged.
 


[/quote]


12 posts for someone not into VWs anymore. Your going to get sucked back in. Now that you have the Porsche for going really fast, don't you need a cruiser. Say a type 1 with some 48s and a throaty exhaust? 

--louis

[Donny B.]

Yeah Mike remember the rides in Colorado?  Down the hill with me then the 100 mph run back to the Denver area?  You need a driver!

[Jesse/DVK]

Just a kick, does anybody have more pics or info/specs on the cars?

[rick m]

This was one of the great FIRSTS that took place at some of the earlier Phoenix Events. I miss these days once in a while.

Rick M

[valdeisel]

Was looking through my pics....some of my favorites.

[valdeisel]

Some more...The ragtop on grey BRMs is my ATF...badass!

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[valdeisel]

Couple more.....shitty pic quality

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[valdeisel]

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[Zach Gomulka]

Your ATF was the car Buddy Hale built.

Man, those were the days. They may not have been running deep 11's or 10's, but they were true blue street cars. I remember everyone was excited about building a car for DRKC!

[Flow]

Perfect looking car !!!! 

[Rennsurfer]

The '66 on BRMs looks rather nice. Of course, one of my two favorite years helps, too.

[Jeff68]

I would love to see this class once again but with some of the rules listed above. As far as the use of fiberglass parts, maybe just put a minimum weight limit on the cars.  In the beginning of this class the cars were IMO true street cars.  Even though my car is no where near as nice as the DRKC cars, these cars inspired me to finish my car and drive it.  If ever this class, or one like it appears again, someone build and race a LATE MODEL!  Ha-Ha

I have the first VCR tape of VW speed scene. It's a great video! It has a whole part of the video just on the DRKC class. Frenchy describes the DRKC class, shows and discusses his car etc. Also Alan Weiss talks about his car as he was running in this class at that time.  It's incredible to see and hear all of these cars run and race.

[Mike Lawless]

I don't know how I stumbled across this topic, but I did. There were a lot of good times during our involvement from 2000 through 2003. There were also some sour times

It's kinda funny reading back through some of the comments on this subject, since we involved almost from the very beginning. In response to Jeff68's comment that in the beginning the cars were true street cars is not accurate. As Mike G said, it was his and Jim Kaforski, and Doug Mische's brainchild, and at the very first races, Mike and Art came packing over 12-1 compression and running on race gas gas. As such, the die was cast and the rest of us were merely playing catch-up.

Being from Central California, and considered an outsider from the So Cal "street car" scene, we faired pretty well the first few times, placing third or fourth against the DKP boys. We quickly figured out how to win without being the fastest, playing within the rules set forth by the Founding Fathers.

You can't imagine how much it stung when upon winning Vegas in 2001, the founders criticized our win because we weren't the fastest. Water under the bridge.

We went on to win 12 events and were the season champs twice, in 2002 and in 2003, competing against the best in the heyday of the class. Interestingly, our 2002 championship year was run on BFG drag radial tires, until the Vegas event that year, when it became obvious we were fighting a losing battle trying to compete at such a disadvantage.

Some of the things that to this day leave a sour taste was the constant criticism from those on the outside as to what they thought the class should be. Also that our accomplishments as the winningest team to ever compete in DRKC have gone largely ignored, mostly because of our outsider status, not being from Southern California.

All things considered, it was a fun time, and we met many of our current day friends through DRKC. Allen & Sue Wiess, Scott and Betty Bakken, Troy and John Palmer...all of us still active in various race categories.