The Cal-look Lounge

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later…….Last night I decided to take my ’68 Beetle out for a ride.  All I intended to do was to return a movie (Up) to the local video rental store.  It was a nice balmy Florida evening around 78 deg. F so I thought it would be nice to take a ride.  Opened the garage, started the engine, back the car out of the garage, let the engine warm up a bit.  Off I go to the video store.  As I’m driving I say to myself, “Ok, just a nice easy ride today”.  I get to the video store, car is running great, and I get some smiles and “I love the car” comments when I drop the video off.  I leave the video store and I’m driving my regular route that I take when I just want to take a spin around the neighborhood.  Stop at a red light, out of the corner of my eye there is a shiny gold metallic latest generation Corvette next to me.  I think to myself, “Remember what you said when you left the house?”  Light goes to green and I begin to ease in to the throttle, let the clutch out and take off.  The Corvette leaves an instant ahead of me.  I remember thinking Corvette guys don’t care about old VW’s anyway…..but then I see and hear the Corvette begin to pull away. The road ahead is clear so Screw it, foot to the floor up to 6500 rpm – shift to second I’m a little past his door handle– up to 7000 rpm shift to third my car lurches ahead of him a little and then we’re side by side– he cannot seem to pull away and I can hear him hammering the thing (windows are open).  Then I hear him get out of it. So I get out of it and slow down.  After a few seconds the Corvette rolls up next to me and I wave to him and smile.  He has a huge smile on his face, gives me the thumbs up and says “Man that thing is nasty! I couldn’t believe that!   That was awesome!”  I was afraid he was going to flip me off or something!  Then he slows down and pulls in behind me to take a left at the next traffic light.  When his light turns green, I wave and he gives me another thumbs up and I read his license plate.  It says “QUICKEE”. 

NICE!

What kind of engine combo are you running Jeff?

Thanks wolfswest.  The car is a street car - all glass, trim, seats, you get the idea.  Engine is a Berg 82 X 90.5, mag case, Porsche length Carillos, K10 cam, CB 044 castings 42 X 37.5 CNC and hand massged by Bergs to be like the 870 head, 8:1 static compression, dual 48 IDA's, Stinger S4 ignition, 1 5/8 exhaust with 2 1/2 magnaflow muffler.  I tried to make this engine match what was in Gary Berg's street car as much as possible.  I figured if it worked for Gary Berg it would work for me too.  So far so good.  It runs hard and cool as well.  Blast to drive.  I have no idea what's in the gearbox so that is a ??.  When my budget permits, (I don't have money to break a transmission right now) I want to get a proper / built gearbox for it and race it at the track.  I want to see what it's really capable of in a safer and more "legitamate, legal" environment.  ;)

Sore-loser V8 stories are fun, but it is way cooler when they can dig it like that guy did.

sounds like a realy sweet street engine Jeff  ;)  Hope you smoke more of those b*st*rds!  ;D

Doesn't happen very often for me, but isn't it GREAT! ;D

Nice sounding engine ya got there, Jeff.
I run something similar but moved up to 94s on the last rebuild and I use Fumio heads, currently running Web 86C.

Congrats on the especially good ride home!
Tom

great, now you can go and register a new license plate: QUICKR  ;)

  Great story with a better ending.

Yeah maybe but I don't like to advertise.  8)

Thanks!

Damm Corvettes!!!!

ah ha. nice!

blown Mustangs are funner... ;)

Haha great story  :D

nice one :D
in States You've got V8s here in europe we've got subarus and Mitsus but most of them are ok the worst guys are in shity BMWs and Opel calibras (as we call them "tracksuiters" they weare tracksuites and are bold big and totally dumb but always with really hot blond bibos on the passanger seat) :D

I see a lot of Subi's and Evo's buzzing around but never lined up next to any.  Where i live there are a lot of people that have late model Porsche's and some Ferrari's.  They actually just opened a Lamborghini dealership in town as well so I see those in traffic occasionally too.  Oh, and let's not forget the lifted 4 wheel drive truck crowd, lots of that here in Florida. The local drag strip here is pretty active and some pretty fast cars show up there but it's mostly V8 muscle car stuff and many trailered race cars.  At some point when I raise some funds for a better gearbox and get more confidence, I'll bring my car to the track and try my best.

There are also many Z06's that prowl around.  I've seen those at the track and in the right hands they are very fast.  I think if a Z06 was next to me at that traffic light the ending of my story would've been much different. 

Nice,I love it,HOT VW's   ;)

Most of them are pretty quick out of the factory. 4 wheel drive helps them get to 60 in around 4 or 5 seconds, so unless you've heaps of power, have a crack at them when you're rolling. Always a good feeling wheel they can't shift you from their bumper  ;)

Had a go against a Nissan Skyline GT-R at the strip once, he was pleased with himself 'til I found traction and went past him. He looked pretty pissed then...

Thanks vwcab, Fred, and Alfie.  I can't wait 'til I can face some of the imports and V8 cars at the track.  I wonder what it feels like when you're in the other car (Corvette, sube, tuner car) and things aren't going like you expected?  I wonder what the conversation in their head sounds like after?  ;D

You know, just being able to line up against these other cars and know you have a shot at them is a really cool thing. VW's rule!  8)

How about a pic of this street sweeper?   8)

Reminds me of me beating a corvette callaway at an illegal highway race in curacao in the late eighty's ;D

Not the best picture but.......

Looks great, Jeff ... Let's see the ENGINE!

Real street racers always keep their decklids shut – unless you pay to take a look...with a pink slip! ;D

Thanks Fred, I appreciate that.  It's not as nice as most cars I see on here and I want to give it a more traditional Cal-Look stance and put the bumpers back on it.  The paint is 15 yrs old now and it's been touched up here and there.  It's more of a driver.  When I re-did the car I didn't take the body off the pan and I wish I had.  I learned a lot on this car (it was my second one). I really want to do another car and make it perfect this time. But this one's OK for now.

Thanks Tom.  I'll post pictures of the engine later.

I like that a lot.  The level stance and tires make it look like it is ready to get on the road, any time.  That's a great effect for a late car.