Why Cal Look ..... and HOW?
SplitMan:
I loved the start of Georg's thread on WHY are you into Cal Look. It seems most people read it as "When" did you get into Cal Look, therefore this new thread..
WHY am I into Cal Look..??....is it a) The attitude of of the people, b) The "david vs Goliath"-iamge of the little bug beating the veeeights, c) the "Indiana Jones"-feeling of hunting for all the rare and wonderful parts, d) The thrill of stepping on the pedal, feeling the G-forces and listening to the "suck" of the IDAs, e) the "professor"-feeling of building the last few horsepower into this little pre-war designed flat four....or is it...d) The pleasure of looking at a looka' with the perfect stance on a nice summers day.....or...e) the lust of lviivng California living with sunny days and a hot vw?..... I don't really know... maybe the answer is all of the above...or f) or g).. or... what about you?
A related and interesting question is tumbling through my head... "Cal Look" to original VWs is sort of what "Hot Rods" are for vintage Fords. The old debate of original vs, modified and all that. Hot Rodders vs vintage guys. Over the last 15 years the hot rod community has been divided in two.. There are really two types of persons to be found in the hot rod community. There is a BIG difference on a) "being a hot rodder" and b) "owning a hot rod", and the great divide between these two types of persons is as big, or bigger than the old "vintage vs hot rod" guys. If you see what I mean.
So - when will we see "Cal Look guys" and guys that are just "owners of a cal looker"? A rich guy that just gets attracted by the attention a Cal Look cars gets....he pays a shit load of money to a guy that builds him a great looking "all bells and whistles" Cal Looker...trailers this car around on shows and "just" owns it....he couldn't care less about the history of our religion, he doesn't know jack shit about what this is all about...he just likes the looks of one and has the wallet to pay for it. He's got the wrong attitude, but the right car. The times are coming...and it will be interesting to see how "we" react to such a change... What do you think?
Tobi/DFL:
A very interesting question and I would answer that itīs a.) to e.) for me.
The other answer is even more interesting and the debate of BULIDING or just BUYING a car (whether it be a Looker or whatever) has been seen on numerous forums in the internet in recent months. Cars like Randyīs Split come to mind. Personally I have more respect for people who build up their cars themselves as in my opinion those people really know what pain it can be to build such a car.
On the other hand itīs cool that people who could afford well known super sports cars are buying "built" Lookers or something comparable which oftentimes set new standards.
The question for me is if a "real" Cal Loóker has to be absolutely perfect or if itīs just the imperfections combined with lots of power and a great attitude that makes it such a cool car?! Although I often try (!) to make my own car as perfect as possible (as far as money allows...) I do on the other hand donīt want it to be too technically perfect when it comes to induction etc. (Bosch 010 vs. MSD etc.).
I hope itīs been understandable what Iīm trying to express as itīs not too easy for me in english... ;D
Tobi
Luftkraft:
What I like about the traditional cal look is that it's focused on DRIVING, whether it's on the street or on the strip. So it's the performance what it's all about and every modification is done in order to reach that goal. This leads to the timeless appearence of any cal looker, whether it was built in the early 70s or in 2006. There's no fancy stuff just for the looks that might be outdated in a few years.
When it comes to building or buying a cal look vw, I don't see a problem with high-end cars being built for their owners. They help setting new standards and I prefer seeing a perfect cal look VW over a brandnew Porsche Boxster bought "off the shelf". In addition to that, I'm no car mechanic so I'm really glad to know people that are capable of building my engine or painting my car. I love driving it and I don't need to have tightened every nut and bolt on my car for myself to appreciate the joys of owning a cal looker.
LuftsickTero:
Quote from: SplitMan on March 14, 2006, 12:35:57 pm
So - when will we see "Cal Look guys" and guys that are just "owners of a cal looker"? A rich guy that just gets attracted by the attention a Cal Look cars gets....he pays a shit load of money to a guy that builds him a great looking "all bells and whistles" Cal Looker...trailers this car around on shows and "just" owns it....he couldn't care less about the history of our religion, he doesn't know jack shit about what this is all about...he just likes the looks of one and has the wallet to pay for it. He's got the wrong attitude, but the right car. The times are coming...and it will be interesting to see how "we" react to such a change... What do you think?
I doubt that the Cal Look will ever be so industrialized at least in Nordic, in Central Europe maybe, that you could have someone to trailer a rust bucket to local Buddy Hale and have him do all the work for you. This isn't actually very current trend, from the day one there has been shops that build customized cars for paying customers in US like for the Hollywood movie stars. As far as I can remeber all of the American magazines (both hot rod and volkswagen) have featured cars that are built by a shop.. I personally don't see anything bad in that.. And yes someone else is doing welding for my car too..
Jon:
Ten years ago I learned to know a local Hotrod builder, in the little town I come from. He was a hotrod by hart ,but had realised that he could never build what he wanted with the kind of money he was making. So instead he builds the dreamcars for others, and has been doing that for many years. His workshop is kind of a social club for all those who likes to play with mean machines in my area. So I like to hang out there once in a while, listen to all the small power tricks...or the latest in chassis design, you meet them all there, the high-tech double wishbone Hotroders, the Bikers, the guys with old DTM cars, Grand Prix Road racing tuners, drag racers, circuit racers, and off roaders... and ONE cal-looker dude... so...what does all this have to do with why I like cal lookers??
I'll tell you why, whoever different all these guys are, they all preach just one thing... FORM follows FUNCTION.
When I first visited that shop I was into the restolooker stuff... mud flaps, lowered all around and Westfalia roof racks... you know, my bus was pimped out. It didn't take long time before I felt my bus was a big "barbie" with that kind of inspiration... every part has to have a purpose, and it has to do it well. During the winter 98/99 the bus turned a bit more manly, with big Carrera disk brakes on all wheels and all the "shit" came of it...
There's only so much you can do to a bus, so I started to look for a bug to turn into a Performance play car, capable of holding it's own against the other guys... you know, the underdog situation can result in the strangest desires... I just needed to build a fierce engine and set the suspension up right... I knew it could be done from the magazines and the Cal-look bible... seventies style!
My car was built around just one desire, being able to ride around in style....cal-look style, around town once in a while... pick up a burger and cruise along the beaches in the sunset with the IDA symphony in the background... all night, until that burgundy BMW convertible with the daddy-boys pulls up along "the ugly old car with the bad lowering job" at the read lights... RPM - GREEN - End of story
My take on the Cal-look thing is just one thing, form follows function!
And why do they look so damn nice...?? 'CAUSE THEY WORK!!
I know this isn't what cal-look is about for most, and I respect that.... but this is why I like it :-)
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