What got you guys into cal look vws ?

[8 spoke]

And how long ago.

[Rennsurfer]

My Dad mostly bought Volkswagens, new, in the sixties. That, and I was with him the first time I laid eyes on a Porsche 911 in a parking lot at an old store called The Treasury. The year was 1967 and ironically, the first year that the Fuchs five spoke wheels were available to the public in this country. The wheels reminded me of my Hot Wheels and many of the model cars that he and I built together. So I had an unfair advantage, of sorts.

Fast forward to 1978. I was 16 years young and eager to buy a VW and thought that making it a poor man's version of a 911 would be a pretty cool concept. After buying a few Hot VWs magazines... I was surprised to find out that people had already been all over the idea. A year later, I found my first car (the orange one, below) and it was on.

I've been hooked on all German cars since I was a kid. It's something that never leaves you, once you've become addicted. But VWs & Porsches will be my faves, always.

[Zach Gomulka]

[deano]

It's all Sarge's fault... And Ron Fleming, Greg Aronson, John Lazenby, Jim Holmes, Darrell Vittone,.......

[Dave Rosique]

My older Brother got me in to VW's around 1970 (I was about twelve). He had a red Meyers Manx and a '63 Ragtop bug. The Ragtop was typical with wide tires, American Mag wheels, flaired fiberglass fenders, scoop decklid, Hamcan hood, glasspack exhaust, etc.

His two cars made me really like VW's, but there were two other cars that made me decide on the Cal-Look style for myself.
 
#1) Local neighborhood car owned buy a guy named Rusty Mazzery (I think). It was a spotless white '67 with BRM's, this was around 1972

#2) Marc Souter's Aqua '67 with EMPI 5 spokes... I think I first met him around 1974, that's when I built my first Cal-Look, a 64 Sunroof. Lowered front, Porsche chrome rims & hubcaps, Michelin X tires, fiberglass buggy seats, eight track stereo, one of Gene Berg's first "quiet" mufflers (Gene bought a bunch of WWII Jeep surplus muff's). I painted it Ford Grabber Blue. (I was sixteen )

~DR.

[WCB Hitler's Hot Rod]

dune buggies and hot VWs..The day my dad threw down a new copy of the Feb.'75 edition on the kitchen table when i was a kid... I was hooked!

[Sam K]

I've liked bugs for abouy as long as I can remember, but originally all I wanted to do was get it running well and drive it. When I got the February 1994 HotVW's in the mail, everything changed.The cover picture was Mike Smith's red '67 doing a giant burnout, and there were features on Mike's car, Scott Smith's Black '67 with nearly every EMPI accessory known to man and Angie Vanderhorst's green '67. After I read that magazine, I was obsessed with turning my bug into a Cal looker. That's still my favorite magazine issue and Mike Smith's car is one my favorite Bugs.

[Hotrodvw]

My dad and uncle were in to VW's, kind of a family sickness I suppose.  We used to go to FAT and JSC, Barret Ent, Berg's, BFY, etc.... when I was a kid.  Working @ the gas station in Orange while in HS didn't help me.  Gary and Clyde occasionally came to get gas in their cars, among other guys I knew in town running VW's.  I already had the itch......now I've broke the skin.   

[Bewitched666]

What got me into callook is the fact that i saw beetles beating most of the detroit iron on th estreets in the beginning of the 80's.
My dad was into(and still is) v-8's and so was i till i saw the beetles and i had to have one just to kick the v-8's their asses too and
it was cheaper to tune one then a v-8.

[speedwell]

li read my first vw magazine in the late 80's maybe 89 and had my first car in 94
begin go into resto cal (original , just dropped) and at the end of 95 go to the oldschool way with the 74 , and in 99 into cal look with the 61

[Jim Ratto]

1987, thanks to the meatheads at high school that drove V8's.

[Stephan S]

1982, thanks to the magazines seen below.
And that DKK article in particular...
(sorry, stole this pic from one of Nico86's posts!)

[Nico86]

1982, thanks to the magazines seen below.
And that DKK article in particular...
(sorry, stole this pic from one of Nico86's posts!)

  That reminds me I have to scan and post them here !

For me as I've always loved old race cars, muscle cars and old rally cars, and as I also love vw's, I guess that cal-look was for me ! And Cal-look and old-speed are two "vw styles" that have a real history starting in the 50's and 60's.

[louisb]

I second that. Now the new one just needs to hit the shelves.

--louis

[jhicken]

Growing up a played pop warner football with a kid name Brett Hunsaker. Our families became friends and my father even worked for Brett father's construction company. A few years later, I was 16 [1976] and was visiting my dad at his office. In their warehouse Brett's older brother Mark stored his Beetle. I can't remember the year but it was plum and had BRM's on it. Mark was an early member of DKP. It left quite an impression. At the time I had a '69 Impala, but I had a neighbor who decided to sell their '66 ruby red sunroof Beetle. I jumped on it and never looked back. A few months after I bought the '66 I was cruising Whittier Blvd and ran into a few other VW nuts that just started a club, DKK. The rest is history.

-jeffrey

[Bill Schwimmer]

Growing up a played pop warner football with a kid name Mike Hunsaker. Our families became friends and my father even worked for Mikes father's construction company. A few years later, I was 16 [1976] and was visiting my dad at his office. In their warehouse Mike's older brother Mark stored his Beetle. I can't remember the year but it was plum and had BRM's on it. Mark was an early member of DKP. It left quite an impression. At the time I had a '69 Impala, but I had a neighbor who decided to sell their '66 ruby red sunroof Beetle. I jumped on it and never looked back. A few months after I bought the '66 I was cruising Whittier Blvd and ran into a few other VW nuts that just started a club, DKK. The rest is history.

-jeffrey

Mark's plum beetle was a '66. My 1st set of BRM's came off that car when John Fawley owned it . Mike is still pretty heavily into VW's he has a Super Street car that Ron Fleming  drives  (and  Keith Sueme now and again) .

[jhicken]

Oops, I'm getting old, I was friends with Brett, Mark's younger brother. It was a nice car, I actually thought it was an earlier car. A the time ['76] it didn't look like Mark was using it much. I think I saw a pic of Mike's current car in Ultra VW or Volksworld recently.

-jeffrey

[j-f]

I bought my 68 bug in 2004.
Have it restored during the same year and always like the simple look of Old school and Cal look. As lot of people, the buy of the california look book show me the way 
I've hesitate with resto cal 2 years ago, but definitively go the cal look way since.

[Fastbrit]

A friend lent me a pile of Hot VWs back in early 1975... The rest is history.

[tikimadness]

 
Michael

[Lee.C]

 
Michael

That little book had something to do with my obsession too - That and seeing the feature on Dave Rhoads 64

[48IDA66]

 Way back a friend of mine  give me a few Hot VWs from the years 1976-77, and the I was sold!!!....

[vwcab]

In the mid-80's,a subscription on VW-Trends (here in Belgium it al had to start)   

[Jason Foster]

My Dad and my Uncles Lonnie and Floyd.

[Lanny Hussey]

Besides my father buying a new Beetle in 1969, it was seeing a red 68-69 Cal Look car parked in front of the Buena Park shopping center in December 1981.  Bright red, lowered, 8 spokes (I think), Vitalonis, 135's, everything was either blacked out or body color. I'd love to find out who owned that car. It was parked near one of the entrances in a no stopping zone. Anyone?

[vwxtc4free]

I worked at Sharrett volkswagen in Maryland and a mechanic that worked there Joe Bausman had a 65' with" BUGASMN" plates that I saw in the parking lot .That got me thinking of the speedester replica I dreamed about when I was 14 or 15.Next was a friend Bob Cooks pink 62' rag named "Pepto" that made me want a ragtop.Finally a trip to bugout and a blue prostreet oval that made me have to have an oval.Then of course Keith's book and it was on! What came after was my porsche inspired 56' rag named "Ferdinand".You never really shake the bug you just kinda pass it on to the next person!

[Trond Dahl]

I was about 14 years old and my oldest brother owned about 5-6 bugs within a short period. All of them beeing sort of 80's lookers.
I remember especially one that I was sooo in love with.
It was a white 60 something with empi 5 spoke and no need for a center console due to the massive Pioneer casette, amp, equalizer stereo mounted under the dash. I actually thinked it reached as far as the tunnell. Front suspension was lowered and there were no trim or bumpers.

Definetly the first car I remember as a kickstart for my VW interest. Probably also my taste for lookers.

[Neil Davies]

I think it was the Bill Taormina '63, the Aronson replica in the Feb '96 issue of Volksworld. Up until that point I hadn't really settled on a style I liked - in fact my '68 was lowered all round, and nearly ended up with graphic'd paint at one point... I got my first issue of Volksworld the month after the Dave Rhoads feature, but picked it up at Beetle Bash that year and thought it was the coolest car in the mag! Then I got KS's Cal Look Bible and the rest is history!

[Sarge]

Blind luck...I happened to be in the right place at the right time.  My folks had a '56 sedan that I learned to drive in, so I got started at an early age.  Like others have posted, it was KS that steered me back onto the Cal Look path after floundering in the dunes for 20 years... something for which I will always be grateful.

[alfie the monster]

Early 90's when I was 13 with a peppermint Beetle in Volks World, no trim, empi 5's and a hot 2.0 with NOS. A few years later I fell in with the wrong crowd in England, I now donate money to Pete and Alex in exchange for going fast and looking good (well as good as I can)