The Cal-look Lounge

Some recent pics of my daily driven Norcal looker, sees 100+ miles on my work day.  Anyone else actually drive theirs daily?

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1564389.jpg)

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1564370.jpg)

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1564376.jpg)

Nice.  As it should be!!

What spec is the motor?
Lee

2180cc
DPR 82mm crank
AA Thickwall 92's
Engle FK7
Custom ported and polished 044 heads
CR 8.02:1
SCAT 1.4 Rockers
CB 1 1/2 inch heater box exhaust system
45 dellorto's

Ran on Roger Crawfords chassis dyno 2 years ago - 135hp @ 5200, 145 Ftlbs @ 3900

Nearly every day. I use my Golf GTI to take kids to school in the morning but errands get seen to in my '67, 3-4 days a week.

I'm lucky to have a nice little highway drive to work where I can sometimes stretch its legs and surprise all the Audi's and Porsches on my morning drive. There's a nice short downhill over the rail yards just before the ramp to the elevated Gardiner expressway where I can blast down the hill, grab second and slide sideways with the Yokohama's slipping just right before pointing it up the ramp and blasting into the merge lane, still in thrid, and with my new 3.88 RP I can sit in third for a moment and then nail it, moving over to the big boy lane before shifting to fourth. Those are the good days and I don't need a coffee when I get to work with some of those 150 km blasts, the turbo smelling hot as I park it and run in to the punch clock every day. On my way home I usually take the very Victorian style Queen St. and putt along in first or second checking out the action in the bars and sidewalks full of people. The street pic is when there was some kind of impromptu organized bicycle parade or demo which went on for several city blocks. You can see my left mirror in the pic. ;D

I wore out the front tires on my car on my longer drive with a different job 3 years ago (185s). I kept drifting it thru the ramps and probably had too low front tire pressure making the front end slide. That was really fun! :P

I've got nothing, sorry! My '73 Super is years away (too much fun pottering around it after work!), and my '06 NB is doing the job.
My last ACVW daily was a basic tweaked 1641 with DCNFs and good heads in a '61, stock cam with 1.4s.
I always wondered what the FK-7 (or the 86a) would be like as a daily in a little engine.

Those peak points suggest it may have worked really well.

Not daily driven but driven all day  :) Trying to figure my gearing out on my gearbox. Around 1.05 4th.  My wife was good enough to drive her car in front of the bug to see if my 70 on the speedo was actually 70 mph. Way out by 6mph.

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You can get a free app to read your speed (gps app). I checked my cars and it's good to know. My 71 van speedo read more than 5 mph optimistic and I think that's one of the reasons that the original engine is in such good shape still (never overheated).

Interesting Martin, my Wife probably would have preferred than being followed by a strange man in a bug  ;D Thanks for the information.

It's not easy to keep these old cars on the road and there is no way I could pull it off all on my own. Luckily my neighbourhood shop has a rich VW history and I like stories about installing Corvair engines in VW vans and cool stuff like that from my buddy Peter at Peter's Garage. When my hand made fuel rail cracked an aluminum weld which held it to the end casting on my way back home from the Pfaff Porsche dealership VW show, and started spraying gas everywhere, Peter had it patched up the next day and I jumped in it and headed back to work. Here's a pic of his shop in downtown Toronto, where I drove my original paint 71 van to chat, drink some Crown Royal and pay him for fixing the fuel rail. ;)

awesome ride brother, one of my favorites I see regularly on FB  8)

clean car!

your on ramp experience is similar to mine.  very often i end up first in line to get on the freeway right outside my neighborhood.  Straight through the light and your on the freeway.  I generally start off mild and go the the intersection fairly normal due to light runners and a decent amount of foot traffic, but once across its time to grab 2cd spin the firestones and make the 45's scream! ....and up the hill we go...cresting the hill find 3rd and hammer it down, merge over 4 lanes to the fast lane and grab 4th right about 90 mph....such a good way to wake up - who needs caffeine when you have HP in an aircooled!

yes i am pleased on how this combo turned out, such a blast to drive.  peak torque under 4k rpm is perfect for a true daily driver as far as i am concerned.  No need to really wind it up to make power and truth be told it is not very often i actually spin it much more the 5k anyway - maybe once a day lol.  I had considered going a little more radical on this one during the build, but kept it tame on purpose - drivability, longevity and good gas mileage are important factors considering this is my commuter, and my commute is 52 miles each way.  the little kf7 cam does just fine for me. the combo has over 35k miles on it now and it's worst tank of gas was just under 27mpg, best just a smidgen over 33 mpg, 29-30 is normal.

Sure, it's not Cal-look, but it is driven almost every day. With proper refinements, it'll be a great car eventually.

I get about 26 or 27 US mpg in my turbo, which is exactly the same economy as another 68 bug I have with the original 70,000 miles on it engine. Turbo has almost 200 hp at the wheels and the stocker has about 25 or 30. You could up your compression ratio and back off the timing with a tight deck, which is what my wife's bug has with its 9.5:1 1776. That car flies! It gets the same economy as well.

Thank you. I like the thought behind keeping the torque in a real-world, accessible rpm range with your engine and its components. My old 94 x 74 ran like that and I loved it, with good old Engle 125 and Pauter Machine heads.
I'm surprised how forgiving this 2165 has been, made out of stuff I had laying around, runs for regular use on an almost daily basis. It prefers to wind up, sure (I normally shift it @ 5000 once the oil's warm). But for as much as I drive it around, there is basically no drama. It's on the loud side. Next step will probably be a set of Bilsteins on all four.

Yes! Good shocks are a must for a hipo bug on the street. I noticed a huge improvement first when I bolted on the rear Koni reds set at light, and at the same time, after talking to Lanner, pushed the axles back all the way in their slots for a little toe out. (He said to do this for lowered cars, and for slammed cars to grind out even more in the slots for even more toe out). This helped a lot in the whoops and random lane changes with my driving. Then I was lucky to find the guy who sold me the rear reds, and I bought the fronts (meant for a lowered front end so I lengthened them with a bit of all-thread) as well as the Koni red steering damper. Then it handled even better! Wow, now I can hit those bumps with confidence, amazing! And in the wind I can drive more normally as well. Keeping up with fast modern cars is the goal. There are tons of nice cars on the road around here.

Where is Bruce? He was a great street driver racking up huge mileage with his car. ???

Ohh, so Roger finally got a chassis dyno that measures transmission drag. Good. Not many of those around Stateside. Nice to know though.

T

Roger has closed the doors to 'Heads Up' about 6 months ago now -- -- He moved a lot of his stuff to the house, but I don't know if the dyno's got moved -- -- His Ghia was sold to the east coast and I understand he is planning on racing the fast back next year (Marty Staggs old car)  -------

yeah unfortunately Roger closed up shop...and no clue what happened to the dynos he had.  I will never forget  that it was gary berg who randomly last minute set up the dyno time at Rogers durring the Classic Week 2015 for me, my brother and a friend of ours.  Here we were just hanging out with Gary at his shop jsut shooting the shit, he steps away and makes a call then a few minutes later he's like hey guys we are going somewhere, just follow me.

I had never met Roger before, nor had a ran a car on a chassis dyno. Roger was really awesome in coaching and let me have a few "practice runs" before really getting down to the real pulls.  the three of us must've occupied his dyno for 4-5 hours that day, and only cost us $75 total.  such a fun afternoon!

here i am on the dyno (this is with my shiny but bent and full of  bondo bucket pig in lipstick 67 as my sunroof was still under construction during this time - but the exact same drive train is in the sunroof).  Thats my son in the foreground - turns 16 next year and we have a nice 64 under construction for him. 

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1365915.jpg)


and heres the "daily drivers" that attended the Classic 2015 together.....we left a lot of rubber on the street of OC - best part was this was the first time since about '98 or so that me and my brother got to "hot rod" around together.  back when we were kids he had a little single port 1776 in a 66 bug and I had my (not so) beefy 1641 in my old 68 fasty - we thought we were the fastest things around lol!

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1380964.jpg)

green 67 - my brother Randy with his 155hp at the wheels daily driven 2387, white 67 - me, Blue Oval our friend Tom daily driven 2276 with air conditioning (he has since sold that car), Ghia our friend (and one of my best friends) Jim - 1776 with almost 300k on the bottom end and still going strong, blue 69 my dad Steve with his 1883cc mileage motor experiment.

Me and Jim cruised down to OC from SF Bay Area together and the other 3 rolled out from the Phoenix area.

Hi Jason, cool story! Lots of streeters in that line-up.

If you don't mind me asking, how is your dad's 1883 fuel economy science experiment going?
Would it be possible to ask for more detail, basic spec, but mostly the driving experience.

Just curiosity really. Thanks if possible.
Dave

67jason- great to see a photo of your dad, Steve H from V.W. Performance in Phoenix! I first met him when he still had his shop in San Jose; would've been in Sept. '91 when I flew out for the Solvang VVWCA meet which was held at the ranch field just west of the town.  He drove that '69 to the Michigan Vintage VW Club meet in the early 2000's; many of us stayed at the Marriott in Ypsilanti. He let me take the '69 for a drive down the street. I remember it having 42 (?) DCNFs, and he rigged up a cruise control using Rabbit/Audi parts. It drove and accelerated so smoothly.

And Jim K- what a trooper- he also drove his Ghia to Michigan for one of the MVVC meets. Pls tell your dad (and Jim, if you are reading this) hi from Roland in NY. 

My car is DEAD!  After 103k miles, it ate a lifter.
When I built it, the goal was long reliable life, like Jason above.  I told a few people around here that I wasn't going to take the engine apart in less than 100k miles.  I really wonder how the car knew it was supposed to live that long?

Engine specs 2054cc 74mm crank 94mm bore, Engle 46 cam, 5.500 rods,CB wedgeports 42mm x 37.5 10.1 compression,1.4 ratio rockers, 1 5/8'' exhaust ,48 IDFs match ported manifolds, jetting courtesy of UDO.
A great running engine. Wouldn't mind seeing what horsepower it makes. Need to find a decent rolling road.

I had 3 or 4 years that this was my only personal transportation. The wife had a mini van to haul kids around.
I eventually got an old truck to beat back and forth to work. The scooter became more of a toy then.
It is currently in a rebuild.

(http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy65/superexification/BBO%202015/7403269630_a82e37efbe_o_zpsz30q80hd.jpg)

Another 40 miles today. My co-driver (son) doesn't rate my driving and wonders why there is no central locking. ??? ;D

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(https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a6ce39b3127cceed313626a28500000030O08AcsWLJw0ZtQe3nwY/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00005348211920161018151430523.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/)

Very clean.

Looks fantastic Pete. Loved the FK46 when I ran one (ditching an 86C for it). Are you using an alu case?

Thanks Zach and Jamie. I'm really happy with the bug, the FK46 feels good Jamie.

he gets 34-36 mpg if i recall correctly.  its a pretty torquey motor, but not a lot of top end.  best guess is around 100hp.  my 2180 makes a lot more power and isnt that far behind in fuel mileage lol. 

Hi roland - dad still has the cruise control but changed the DCNF's in favor of Dells - I believe he's got 36 DRLA's on there now....and Jim K still has the 1776 that was built in '98.  nearly 300k on the bottom end and he still goes everywhere in it!

This is a great thread  8)

I'm driving mine daily from late April to early November. I'd drive my looker all year long if we didn't have so much salt and dirt on the road during winter.

Do you have more pictures of this late model on the far right?

I do...thats my dad's car he owned since before I was born...and I am 40 lol

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1567347.jpg)

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1567346.jpg)

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1567345.jpg)

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1567344.jpg)

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1567343.jpg)

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1567342.jpg)

this one is from back in 2003 - oldest pic I have available at the moment

(http://www.maxwelton2k.net/gbcruisesite/images/GBC2003/GBC2003_028.JPG)

Thank you for the pictures, that's a great looking car :) What are the engine specs?

im not sure of the full specs, but its a 85.5x82 motor with dual 36 DRLA's and an old school berg header and single quiet pack mated to a berg 5.

Sounds really nice, thanks for the infos!

with new engine, built to last, run cool and haul ass. This was on one of my daily lunch runs.

.

/\ I like that late one!

Thank you! It's far from being perfect but not bad for an original paint. A few small scratches and dings due to almost 50 years of use add some character  ;D

.

Looks good! Also looks like you're out having fun with it, which is even better! Enjoy the nice, warm looking sun wherever you are...