The Cal-look Lounge

While the internet has made it much easier to contact friends, foes, colleagues, vendors, customers etc....hasn't it kind of made life a little homogenous too?
It's cool that we can log in here and hang out with our VW friends, but has the internet made it easier not to actually "go see your friends" and actually hang out with them?
How does this relate to VW stuff?
In my mind, like this: Back when I first got into modifying Bugs, there wasn't any internet. You went to shows to hang out, or you went to somebody's garage and stood around and shivered and lied about how fast your car was. If you needed parts, you drove to the local speedshop or you called to mailorder. If you wanted to build something fast, you'd hang around a speedshop and get in with the old crusty crochety guy that knew what worked and what broke. You couldn't log in to a web site and build a motor based on answers you'd get from lord knows who. Not that I am saying there is anything wrong with that, but just that things are sure different from when I learned how to make VW's go better.
Before, my friends and I that were into hot-rod VW stuff would make sort of a pilgrimage to Southern California from up near San Francisco, as our mentors had that we worked for....years earlier to go to Bug Ins. We'd go maybe twice a year.....and soak up what we saw as the center of the Universe of Cal Look cars and stuff. In between, we'd go home and mimic what we saw, to the best of our ability, and in our sort of interpretation. What I noticed, is that we'd set up cars like what we "thought" the guys in So Cal were doing, but when we came back next time with our cars, the differences were pretty apparent. So my point is, there was individuality, and that was cool.
I like seeing cars that have their own individual quirks or characteristics. Looking at pictures of all the old DKP cars, you can see individual thinking. And for the most part, you can with newer Cal Look cars too. But there are some cars that I have seen that seem to be pure carbon copies of somebody else's. I like looking at a car that says something about the guy that drives it.
Ok, just my thoughts for the night......no trying to ruffle anybody's fur.  ;D

I just wanted to see how my avatar looked ;)

To me the Internet just added another dimension the international or Central European scene and introduced me to some really cool people that I have been fortunate to meet in person too. The forums doesn't take anything away from meeting my friends in Helsinki. I share a garage with around 9 other Volkswagen enthusiasts, couple of blocks away is another garage with around as many VW enthusiasts, so the hobby is quite social anyway.

The internet was an addition for me, it took nothing away.

It looks Baaaaaaaaaaa  ;)

It is kind of neat to see others take on Cal-Look. I also see what you are talking about.

My read on it is that there will always be others that try to mimic what others are doing and there are others that will set the trends.

While Magazines (and books) from back in the day can be a valuable resource, they are limited in scope and certainly fall short in describing Cal-Look as it was. Remember, there purpose is to sell magazines and advertising and their content is skewed to meet that.

One of the things that I am amazed at is stuff like Treuhaft and Race Trim parts being valued. I hate to tell you guys this but that stuff is rare because it was considered to be of substantially lesser quality than stuff like Empi, DDS Berg etc.

For me the Internet brings the cal-look even more in our lifes, like on a daily basis.
Otherwise you only had time to talk about it in the weekends or when time allowed... wich I still do.

I totally agree, that there are quite a lot cars around, that were built to the highest standards and are show-winners but have no soul. It just doesn't work for me, to copy a car or buy the rarest bolt-on-fashion-empi-dds parts, if the car just looks like any other cal-looker with the same color and the same wheels. Individuality can't be bought.

Internet surely helped some of us a lot, to get in contact with like-minded people. Regarding our club, internet is probably the best tool to get things organized and without it some things would just be much more difficult. We're spread all across germany, so it's nearly impossible to make a quick visit to your club-mate and check out, what he's doing.

The other thing is: at least here in germany less young people drive or want to drive a bug, Owning a funky Hondazuki with neon lights is cheaper... So the few young guys, that actually buy a bug are surely happy to have the internet to get them started asking questions to the more experienced guys and find like-minded people.

I think that's a good example of why it's mostly a good thing from a social point of view, like everything there are some downsides but that's the same out in the real world too. :)

I'm quite positive the internet increases influence and the "me too" effect.  There are a ton of people who can't seem to think for themselves and automatically get stuck on what someone else tells them is cool.  That is everywhere and is just a part of society.


I'm thankful to have the 'net as a resource to see what is going on, particularly with the cars overseas lately.  There are some truly excellent examples.

How did people manage to buy cars before internet?
You know, outside of their local newspaper offcourse...

 I hate that. I see more and more people converting their car to Cal-Look because they want to be found cool/different...
 I think it's gonna be the next big thing over here, since everybody is getting tired of driving around their slammed crap...
 too bad... :(

Booooooo!!! ;)

I couldn't agree any more with you Jim. It seems like every car built these days is the same. IDA engine, big or little as long as it has IDAs. As much tacky, gaudy Empi garbage as they can afford or find like the GTV steering wheels, door pulls, glove box pull, guages, eyebrow decklid, bumper bars, valve covers, manifolds, linkage and who knows what else. Add an Autometer tach, fake BRMs or Ercos, A1 Magnaflo, all the Bene Gerg junk they can use that is seen including shifter, linkage, traction bar, sump, full flow stuff, breather and pulley and you end up with a 100% poser mobile that we see today. All of these parts can be found on the samba or Berg's web site. I'm getting a little sick of seeing people dump $20K-30K+ into a car that cost $1,800 USD or less when new just to fit a certain clique or fad. I build my cars to what I like, not to fit in with the masses. That is why I painted my mufflers red, to be an individual, not a copy cat. Sure the internet has made things more accesible but it has stifled creativity.

Don't even get me started on hoodrides......it's not patina, it's a f%@cking rust hole you retards.

Did you buy them on the net?????? And how long have they been on your car? 15+ years I bet.

You are the one they are copying Jim. It's all your fault...as April would say.LOL

As usual Jim, you bring up thoughtful discussions. This one I'd like to be a part of. Let's face it, there are always going to be "chiefs" and "indians". Most of the folks around the "Cal-Look" community today are "indians" who emulate those "chiefs" from before them (to varying degrees). As with most, I cut my teeth (and fingers) on ideas gathered from events and magazines from the late 70's and early 80's. The first event I took my freshly painted Sahara Biege '64 to, I was asked if I was entering the show. I said "no" and found a nice space to park right on the roadway entrance so I could see all the cars coming in.......It was fifteen minutes later I was standing around (thinking I'm the only one here with this color) and a certain Sahara Beige chop-top went by. My first thought was "I'm not so original"....I followed him until he parked and took a closer look......My next thought was "I'm not such a much, either". I left shortly after that, but I still have the car. Point is: There is somethiing a little original with all of the VWs that still grace the planet with a unique style and attitude that NO other car can come close to.

Yes but you came by your poser status honestly and not through the internet!  ;D

I love what John said about hoodrides,hahahaha
Jim are you sure your Empi wheel is real, where did you get it?

How did my avatar become a picture of Jimr????? ??? ???

Very well put dude - but if I'm honest my buggy would never have been posible with out the net - you just have to be carefull  :) just my 2 cents  :)

You could use this one  ;D

wasn't the beetle the most produced car for years?

so in the end we all could imagine we would be 'copying' a style.

i think there is no other make of cars where so many people invest so much time and money to make their old cars look so different...

and i am glad there are so many tastfull cal-looks out there.

and yes the net has helped me a lot, honestly i could be standing next to all you guys at a show and no-one would recognize me or know me, but i have had some very good advice that i am very thankfull of

I HATE PEOPLE WHO SIT ON THE FENCE.......why don,t you just say what you really think ;D

One of the greatest quotes in history!

One of the coolest things I have read on the Internet for a long time.... Give it to us! The Lounge surely has become this wonderful salad bowl of Americans with history, Europeans without - and the old and odd Swede & Brit... I love it.

Stealth67vw for PRESIDENT! You hit the nail on the head there, but I would not blame it on the Internet, I´d blame it on the "icon" cars themselves! They look sooo good in all the magazines that people wants a piece of heaven for themselves! But I guess you only spend so many years making "copies" if you call it that, and then you get bored and starts to wonder if you got what it takes to make Looker that stands out on its own rights! I have never wanted to copy any car , but I do admit to falling in love with parts... to a point where I just have to find it and buy.

Just to throw a curve-ball, hasn't Cal-look been about copying since day one...? Thinking about the Nose-down, the T bars and the dechroming.... it started somewhere.  ;)

Its a good thing they found ONE name for the cars we have called all the negative words in the world...  Hoodride!
  

:o

Not a sentence you'd normally expect to see! :P

 :D

Sorry, couldn't resiist.  :)

Ya know... I'm regretting saying that... I think I shot myself in the foot! I know I have a Truehaft catalog  that I could put on eBay.  ;D

Very true.

i'm with you on that one......

That rings true with me too, just like the Hardley Davidsons all the rich yuppies are building these days. My dad calls them internet or ebay bikers.They spend $30,000-70,000+ for a "Custom" mail order bike. Then they buy the whole leather "costume" so they really fit in with the crowd. They blend into the back ground like a fish swimming with a school, afraid to look different and stand out. No soul and no character.

 But I think we can expect a wave of such soulless cars, because Cal-look is getting a "fashion" over here. Soon all hoodriders and restolookers who see that cal-look is getting bigger and don't wanna miss out because they certainly don't want to be un-cool, build a car that's like the cars in the magazine just to be part of the hype... :(

 I think you should grow into Cal-look and your car should grow along with you...
 
 

hmmm...i'm not so sure it'll become too much of a fashion thing.....it just costs too much money to build a proper cal-look car,
those other fads like the hoodride shit enable people to fit in with very little financial outlay.....

me and my frends used days and weekends in our cars.... driving and looking for cars around everywere...

OH god i miss those old days...

Alien

 But does it really take much money to build a car with a soul?

 
 And btw I don't think hoodride should disappear. I mean now some people will actually pay me for crap I'd have thrown away otherwise... ;D

no, i dont think you  need to spend money to build a car with soul, i think thats a different issue from my above post about cal-lookers becoming too commonplace.

 A lot of cars that i feel are lacking a certain something whether it's 'soul' or whatever, are the  pro built cars where the owner maybe hasn't put their own personality or mark into the car because the builder of the car isnt the owner/driver. i dont have any problem with people paying the professionals to build cars for them, but it bugs me when a read a feature about a car where the owner hasn't really known what to do with it and their chosen restorer/customiser has persuaded them to go for the cal-look.

then the car has no 'soul'

if you need someone else to tell you to build a cal look car then you shouldnt be doing it.  :)

Okay, if we agree on that a cal-looker is a bunch of parts, that makes up the "sole" of the car. What parts are the "solemaking" If you can say such a thing...??

 It's the odd things in the otherwise perfect combination of parts/things that make a car a looker that is soul-giving...
 The personal touch, or just a well chosen/balanced combination of parts. And I personally think that 'wear'/patina is a nice touch, because it shows that a car is being used.
 
 That's also the reason why I bought real 37 year old rims, a used Berg shifter (hope it arrives soon :D ), NOS Red Hella taillights... no mailorder parts...
 Every idiot can select Cal-look items from a list in an Internet shop and screw them on their car... That's no fun...

 Also when deciding a colour for your rims. You can buy them off the shelf and spray them in whatever teint grey or athracite you have around in your garage or maybe leave them like mr. postman brought em, or you can spend days,weeks or even months deciding which exact colour to paint em.

And I think we perceive just that feeling or effort that went into a car when we judge a car...
 
 
 



 
 
 
 

Jick, you took the words straight from my mouth. I couldnt have said it any better.

I think you are right Jordy, I feel that any "real car" has one ore two things that doesn't fit into the "mold"... something everyone today would NEVER fit to an otherwise perfect car. Also a car with ALL the usual suspects has a hard time getting a sole.
If you dare go with a few period parts that could have been used, you may end up with a car with a sole...

Just my 2 cents.

It's on the way.

Jim (and others) I think you're right but there's also one more thing... and it is the hardest thing to quantify.

It's a balance that comes from the right combination of parts, attitude, stance, apperance and maybe aura.

I can often spot it it others cars way before I see it in my own car... maybe because I can be too close to the subject. Like when I look at the picture of my '67 that I've posted here. At the time, I always wondered if I got it right... I though I may have it but I wasn't sure... now I can look at it and say... yeah I got it

One thing else I'll say is that this "soul" as we called it is certainly not limited to Cal-Look cars. I just spent 4 hours today looking at a couple of thousand hot rods at the Grand National Roadster Show this afternoon and maybe 15% of them had it.

yeah, well put Jordy......i'm picking up 2 new front wheels for my '59 tomorrow, and i cant wait, i'll post a picture when i get 'em!

I think soul comes from the quirky ideas that don't make the car conform.

Its funny, as teenagers we all want to fit into a type of gang, as we get older, we become less concerned about how we are perceived by others and we find our own fashion.  Surly this should apply to our cars as well.  I would hate anybody to say my car is similar to so and so's, I like to think it is different (No sarcastic comment Jick), but also has certain features that people recognise.  I also hope its got a blend of function and looks.  For example it has stoneguards on the headlights does this mean it is not cal-look?

(http://www.michaelliddle.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/car_restoration%201/headlight%20guards.JPG)

get your fucking done lids.

see Mike.....no sarcsam. ;D

i'll give you a call later dude.

The internet is an addition for me because we can exchange experiences with peolpe we otherwise would never met...

But on the other hand, I think the reason why callook cars look alike also got to do with the internet...
If for instance I say I want to built a type 4 engine in my (callook) car .....80% of the people on the callook forums are the first to say
oooh thats not callook...So what do you get another car with the same typ 1 engine....I used a mexico body  (Because it didn t had any rot, and try to find a body with no rot in the netherlands) for most people a No No for callook....

So aren t we all creating the same cars by telling them....that curten things aren t callook..

But hey thats my oppion

Kind Regards Edgar

I'm hoping the weather improves over half term, should be done then :)

I think having "IT" is the thing that makes a car stand-out......"It" could be the owner with a great personality or the right stuff composed together or just the timeless, good taste mixed with some upgrades never seen before. One thing that never fails is the rake and position of the wheels......lot's of horsepower (not written) that is used goes a long way too. And above all the sedate and timeless composistion of parts. I think in the end that the major thing that differs is the non search for expo in mags compared to conventional customized cars begging for "come and see me"........This is a very interseting subject. I like it!! Internet....probably raised the interest in people, the man behind, or just opened a market for parts worldwide!!

There is a formula to build a Cal-Look bug and anyone can do it, but to do it right takes some talent. For the car to have soul it has to earn it. It can do that by getting out there and racing, showing or just plain time on the road with a loving owner. All this builds history. If you got it right you'll know, and feel it. People will come up and say cool car or just stand and look. There are always jerks who will pick apart any car(they mostly don't have a done car). The most important thing is how you feel about it, do you enjoy driving it? Dose it make you happy?  I learned this the hard way tring to please the judges.

Personally, I own a pre-internet car - I had to work very hard to get the components I wanted to have on and in the car having written numerous letters and spent a fortune in trans-atlantic phone calls to track stuff down.
Before the interent it was left to us, the staff of magazines to spread the Cal Look word, well us an people who shared the  photos they had taken. VolksWorld did more to spread the word and than anyone outside of Orange County - check back through back issues from 1991 onwards and you'll confirm this for yourself. Inside of Orange County, it was Bill, Dave, Hector and the other club members of DKP III.
When I built the '67 I still have to this day - no one else in the UK had built an Old School styled Cal Look Bug, new Flat 4 BRMs weren't out and the fever hadn't started to hit Europe - in fact only a few people were tuned in, one of them being Pal Rui in Oslo, Norway.   
Things changed within a very short time - the UK saw a lot of cars built, and Belgium seemed to become the No1 place for Cal look cars on mainland Europe with the DAS club really going for it.
The internet has changed things - no doubt about it, but personally, I don't think that's a bad thing - far from it. Sure you could say there are numerous very similar cars built - but at the same time each and every one has certain differences which have been added by the owners and make the car 'belong' to the owner - for example Jim Ratto's Bug is Jim Ratto's Bug - Bill Schwimmer's is known as his the world over and remember - all we're talking about here is 2 cars in 22 million... I think it says a lot when a car owner is 'known' by name and a car known as belonging to a certain person - who made be on the other side of the world.
Sure the internet has spread the word and opened the world up, but the fact this means the California Look has become even more popular is great news in my opinion. It's a tried and tested style that is popular for good reasons. Anyway, Beetles all look similar until you start looking closer.
   

Not everyone can be a leader and without followers there will never be a "style". But who cares if a lot of cars were xeroxed? It's the stand out cars that attract attention and those we love to see. I think if you want you can easily build an individual ride but some people just don't have the creativity and they are happier to go along with the crowd.


I believe there is a very cool porsche sepia brown US '67 replica based on a mex bug in DAS? I think that car is quite respected nevertheless.

And I always disliked people who think they know better and insist on imposing their view on you... it's like society in general, an religions in particular.

Jim I remember that car, it didnt have it at all.
Do you remember a red 67 in Livermore that had a 48 ida motor and widened stock wheels painted bright white.
That car didnt really have the cal look, but it had a look all the chicks couldnt resist. ;)

The car you mention Jim seems to have passed the point of Cal-look, but I still have to ask, are only the cars with "it", cal-lookers?

I think, there are a lot of cal-lookers without having "it" (I want a shirt with "I have IT" on the front :-)
Surely they're cal-lookers, but they don't mean much to me, or they don't impress me, or whatever... There's just missing something - a cool owner. some little scratches, that tell stories. Just "it". :-))

my car has scratches, does it have "it"?  ;D

yes, if you have the shirt :-))

I love this topic! ;) It´s something I´ve discussed quite often a while ago with some friends. A friend of us has built up a very nice car with all the "top parts" you can buy lately and the car really looks good - but it´s missing the spirit which some other cars have. About 2 years ago a user in our DFL forum created the word "catalogue car" for it...
In my opinion every car reflects its owner´s personality. Sometimes I look at a car and think to myself "oh, this is a guy who just bought all those crazy parts to be hip" and then I see other cars which - in my opinion - have "it" because I think their owners "live" this cal look thing. Cars like Andi´s '64, Paul Rui´s Split or the Alien Bug come to mind. :P

I'll have to make one ;D

I think "it" can come from choosing parts with some actual thoughts... regarding the functionality of the parts and not just how rare it is. Some seem to  just aim for what everyone else has/ or the hype of the month. Thoughts ads personality, and own ideas.
That being said, I guess there are some guys with "Catalogue personalities" too  ;D

 People call me crazy because I want to keep my mudflaps...  :(

crazy  ;)

The hard part is making personal adjustments that still is are within the Cal-look doctrine. To make the boys think "ahh of course", not "what the hell?".
In my eyes MUDFLAPS are about as far away from cal-look as snow chains are, sorry! 

 ;D ;)

I am a bit conserned becuase I am getting all the parts I think are have read about in magizines and one day when I have everything and the old man who is selling me a 1`967 bug sells it to me I am going to build my ideal car. I have been really really interested in Cal Look for nearly 6 years - from when I was 14 and I started getting volksworldwhen I was at school, and I would be really upset if after doing years and years of finding all the stuff I want someone just said my beetle was an internet car. and I wasn't really into Cal Look. I can't help it if I wasn't even born until 1987, but at least I spend all my time trying to get the money to be able to buy the thing I want and it isn't easy. All my mates are into stuff like Citreon Saxos and Vauxhalls like Corsas and some have got old Novas and they are really into them but I think that they are all wasting there money. I can't help the fact I am 20 instead of 30 or 40 or 50 but I know if noone who was 20 was interested in making Cal Look cars one day every one would be doing other stuff and noone would be making Cal Looks.
I don't care if some one says it about me when I get my car done becuase I will be really really happy to have done what I have wanted.
I have got a tecno CD which has Martin lutherking on it at the start and he says I have a dream and every time I listen to it I think about my dream which is to have my Cal Look Beetle finished and if some one wants to say its only an internet car  would not be really really upset becuase I have only ever know the time when it was internet. I do care what people think but like I was saying I dont know no different. I know I what I want and if it dont happen before I am 30 at least I will know I did it and I will be happy.

Just keep going SixTeeSeven!! You are on the right track, you are going thru the exact thing we all went thru when we got hooked on the "underdog" (the bug).
I have never had a local friend who liked bugs... they all like camaros or big 4x4´s... but I stuck in there, and now I know crazy people everywere...hehe

I live in a place called Blakely which is in north Manchester which is in the North west of England. I know Chris Ashworth who was selling a '67 and also a lot of rare parts he moved to California but whne he lived here he lived in Sotckport and that is on the southside of town. We don't have many people around here who are into American casr. I know one fella who drives American cars and he has got four old italian 48 ida carboretters and a manifold to fit them onto a V8 enigne and i am trying to buy too off him. But the problem is that I can't afford what he wants right now. He's asking me for 850 quid so I'm saving for them. I work on the building and means I need to do extra on saturdays to get money towards them. I am going to get John Meyer to build the engine for me but he has moved away from town and is living on an island in the hedbridies which is miles away. A lot fo the older people that I know have had there engines made by him. I know you can buy new weber carbs but I want the old ones.

.

no worries on here dude - we're all pretty friendly round here  :)

 I can understand your thoughts wolfswest and in a way I feel/felt the same, but in the end the only thing that counts is whether you're happy with your car.
 I've regret the fact that I bought a '68 instead of an earlier model, but I've started to like/appreciate it more and more over the years. If you look at pictures from the 70ies you will see some nice 70ies cars (even 1302/03s) with a Cal-look stance, and some of those late lookers are way nicer than some of the older cars...

 I own a split window beetle (which is a bottomless money pit) and a model 68 bug and I have to admit I enjoy my '68 more than that old wreck of mine...

i got two words for you

PAUL BATE!!!!

check out his car. it must be one of the nicest cars i know of. it is a 72 which is modified, but still it has a lot that you can use against it, like fuelflap on the outside, headrests, that color,...
BUT it looks good, feels right and i bet it drives good to ;)

build a car you like and there will be haters. (just watch the critics when i will someday tell you about my car...), and you are very right, you will make mistakes and the next on will be better (for you)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/SanchoPancho/General/pb01.jpg)

mmmmmm i love that car  :) My Manx once started life as one of these  :o

Almost perfect....Only because nothing can be absolutely perfect.

thanks guys for the nice replies.  It gives me hope that you will look at the nice points of my car and not only the mistakes that I have made cause I was a newbie in the scene...
I will post pics soon because right now he's in the garage for the last works on it.  Steve from Steve's vw shop is now building the 2165cc engine.

grtz,

Fuchs

okay, I can't control myself...  ;D  Here is a preview of my car how it is for the moment.  The fuchs will receive the usual treatment: black and polished look.  It will get the cal-look stance and t-bars.  If I have more pics I will open a new topic. 

looking good so far dude :)  but shouldn't that be "She's in the garage for the winter"  ;) cos lets face it car's are always bitches  ;) :)

That car is beautiful !!!  One of my favorites.

.

What people say about your car means nothing. It's your feel of what it is to you that counts. Just don't do it exactly the same way as a car you saw at some show. Make it your own!

Cal-Look is in the Spirit of those who started it "back in the days."
Take a look at some pics of old Cal-Look cars and you'll see that all of them has personal touches made by the owner to suit him, since there wasn't thousands og cars to copy from.

It's a lot of stuff in the shops today that can give the right feeling, and everything doesn't have to be bought in a shop that mainly sells vw stuff.

Ok I too like real BRM's, and Torq Trust D's, but for people without that kind of money to buy wheels, we have copies, and most of these are safe to use both on street and strip, without ruining you if you break one.

And I can't say that show cars isn't Cal-Look cars since they look right. But I feel that you need to use it a bit more than only to shows, to make it Cal-Look. Thats what makes the car, after you have put on the parts you feel make it Cal-Look.

Here's an ' Internet ' car for ya  :P

(http://www.funkenblitz.com/upload/img_040.jpg)

(http://www.funkenblitz.com/upload/img_024.jpg)

(http://www.funkenblitz.com/upload/img_026.jpg)

(http://www.funkenblitz.com/upload/img_039.jpg)

More on our Blog ...

http://jg54greenhearts.blogspot.com/

man do you know how to photoshop or what!!!!

no really nice car and the others too. i believe i saw it last year at DDD and was impressed

ain't no photoshop, check out last january's volksworld mag  ;)

the black bitch looks bitching  8)

I always thought Suchie was autistic  :D

Top pics from him  ;D

You back on the road yet James?

i really does

    This is a cool website. Hi everyone how is everybody doing?

    Frenchy ( Doc Detail )

Welcome to the lounge  ;D ;D ;D

And another famous guy is into the Lounge ;)
Welcome Frenchy!

Looks like all the good ones find this place  ;)
Welcome Frenchy!

Welcome to the Lounge Frenchy!  It´s all about the old school and all about the detail, I think you´ll like it  :)

hi there Frenchy!  It's indeed a very nice forum!!  ;)

grtz,

fuchs

hello,

this is getting better and better!!! i like this place

internet -look: it aint that bad huh??? never thought i'd meet so many people whom i only read about in books  ;D

Damn,

Frenchy, welcome here...

I like your white 67, hope you still have it.....defenitly not a 'internet looker'

Kind regards Edgar

welcome on the lounge frenchy enjoy it  ;)

 Frenchy?....   Never heard of the dude...  ???








 ;D ;)

Good seeing you this weekend Frenchy! I thought you might like this place ;)

Hi, Frenchy :)

Gotta tell my mates, that's a forum we can meet legends :)

Comin back to the inernet look...

This is gonna be a long post. (Again) Sorry :P

Well, Americans, Brits and Scandinavian Cal-look freaks has hell lotta history, fellas from other coutries of EU shorter, but at least 10-15 years of tradition.
Guys like me and Greentom are in kinda diffrent situation. While fathers of some of you were srteet racing in hot cars, in our coutry a volkswagen was a rare sight.
Iron Courtain, cold breath of Red Army on our backs, Y'know...
Tradition of Aircooled VWs movement (in general in) Poland is dated since around early nineties. And the idea, that It's possible to modify a bug for 1/4mile competition is little more than completely unknown  for about two years. Starting from the time when the drag competion in general began to  be seen on TV and Marcin'the Fingerman'Palusinski started to compete with other cars with a bug. I like to think of him as a pioneer - kind of contemporary Polish Bene Berg or so...

Fast bugs are still something inimaginable for most people here, because they havent seen 'em in action. The non-beliver Thomas syndrome you know...
The most popular opinion about bugs in our country is that It's old, exremely unreliable and very slow car.
In that kind of conditions some fellas of mine and me are trying to open people's eyes.
The opinion about slow VWs is seen even among the 'dynosours' of our our scene.

Without internet there would be almost no info about it. 
You are talkin about 'wannabes' copying the style.
I'd be happy if in Poland the passion for california look of ous (my mates'n me) wouldl spread as a copies of cars presented here for instance (for the begining).
I'm sick of seeng "pimped' golfs and hondas down the streets laughing about old beetles. 
For me there can be a thousand of Aronson's car copies driving around instead of these slow, no-style bugs I can see at our shows.

What is nice about our no-tradition situation is that we are now building that tradition. It's just a few people for now. But the thing that is cool about it - is that these people think for themselves in creating their cars. They do not copy :) They focus on the attitude, rather than fancy stuff.


My intention is not to show that this is a kind of a strange country. The point is we did not have access to info about it all before internet. Even if someone went out foa a show abroad ('90s) and seen some cal-look cars he wouldn't get the point without the info on So Cal roots background.
The timestone was the Keith's Seume book.

Okay... It's really hard to speak my mind at the moment...

It's the best forum I've ever read  - soon after my club forum of coz :)

Greetz, dudes :)

Well, Its kind of popular, but rather primitive behaviour. Can You imagine a Motocycle Club Meeting and see somebody wearing Pink Sweater or something like that?

Coming back to internet and global village stuff... I think a natural need of human beeing is to fit in the group. California Look croud isn't anyting too original in that matter, I think.
Well...Were getting to fundamental questions once again :) 

 

Less is more...Cal-look started it all!!!

Oldschool

I genuinely think this comment scared him off, i never saw the man post another reply ever since...  ::)

Just kidding  ;D

Well its about time Frenchy I am Glad Your Here Now You Can be the Old man of the Bunch since you got a few years on me  LMAO  what ever happened to my DVB stickers and T shirt you were sending  Talk to you Soon Shubee!!!