The Cal-look Lounge

I had someone email me from the forum months back about pictures of this yellow drag bug they bought and I told them I had more pictures of it. If you know the person, can you let me know or let them know I found more shots of their car. I will email them a higher resolution copy for their scrap book.

One of the shots is a nice one from an early Phoenix Bug-O-Rama where they are racing Jack Sachette.  The funny thing is that Sachette put a light on the previous owner bad!!! The FIAT is lifting the wheels and the other car has not moved yet![attachment=1]

Rick Mortensen

Helge, who works for CSP in Germany... :)

Also check  www.dflvwclub.com  please.

WOW! Thanks Rick! I can`t tell you how much I love to see these old picture of Stage Fright. Is the picture below (hot VWs scan) shoot at the same event just from the other side of the track?

Helge,

I lost your email address from our last correspondence.  If you email me, I will send a better resolution picture for you.  You will have to unzip it to open it but you will be able to print out a better copy of it than these reduced resolution web shots. 

I was glad to find these. I have one more I found from BAKERSFIELD but cannot remember if I already sent that one of Stage Fright.  Let me know and I will get them off to you once I get your email address.

Rick M

What a GREAT CAR!!!  :o One of my personal favourites!   ;D

I remember when Stage Fright was a white street car in DKK. Mike ??? cannot remember his last name. I think he was from Whittier.  He was in about '82 or so. Maybe somebody else will chime in. It evolved into a race car in the mid 80's. It's cool that its still around   Bill

Was it Cory _______..? ???....... or Steve Wilkerson...?

his name is Michael Irwin. He is still in racing. He runs hisown top alcohol funny-car "Strage Behavior" and a dragster for Dan Cox Racing. Have a look on the dragster, the colors look very simular to Stage Fright, or is this just my fantasy? I tried to contact Michael several times, but be did not answer. Some years ago we send us some emails. Even talked on the phone one evening. He told me about the time when the car was white, that he still have all the photos and that the show-sign that he used on car shows is still hanging at the wall in his office. I think, I will try again to contact Michael.

oh, here is the link to Michael Irwin Racing
http://www.michaelirwinracing.com/

Hi,
Here’s the picture of the yellow drag with Cory McClenathan behind the wheel while winning the Bug-In 26  x/gas and top gas eliminator awards. The article was featured in the vw trends winter issue back in 1981.
tomi
[attachment=1]

Hi Tom,

thanks for the scan, but that is not Stage Fright.

if I take a closer look  hm... sorry!

I hate to have to correct you Rick, but  Sachette did not drill me on the tree.  We are at the 60' clock and I am pulling 2nd. gear (note how low the front end is)  and Jack has not yet come down from the launch. In fact, if you look closely I am ahead.  . . . . He may have left on me but not that bad!!

WOW !!  Great memory Bill.  You are correct,  the car was white when it was on the street and when I was in DKK.  Jimmy Yowell and I used to come to the meetings at Scooters (Nicks) from Whittier.  Always had to stop at Fullerton Airport to fill up with Av-Gas.  Do yo remember Yowell's car with the black and silver Dick Vale paint job?  . . .   I'll try to put up some pics. of "Stage Fright" for ya Helge.

Man! I loved being there to see that "stuff".... Pretty Cool!

Mike How the heck are ya!

Hi Rick . . . Meredith ??  Right??   Good to see your still into the kampfwagens!! 

I am doing well.  Still racing,  I have a funnycar that I have been running for the last ten years on alcohol.  I sold all my alcohol stuff earlier this year and I am now building a nostalgia nitro funnycar.  '77 Trans Am body with a billet Alan Johnson hemi.  I am also driving the "Nitro Fever" nostalgia top fuel dragster.   Check out our website . . . michaelirwinracing.com

It's kind of funny, I got out of the VW because of the escalating cost back in the '80's (heads-up pro sedan full "pro stock" style chassis were nearing $40K)  . . . . now, i'm building a fuel car !!    . . . . . I should have stuck with the V-Dubs!!

My wife and I moved to Northern Ca. in 1990 (influenced by the Sacramento Bug-O-Rama's) and are still here.  I took my 13 year old son to Sacramento Raceway earlier this year for his first Bug-O-Rama.  Hard to impress a 13 year old who is wrenching on a top fuel car BUT we were both impressed with some of the #'s the drag cars were putting up on the scoreboards.  The event still packs 'em in, I was amazed.

HOW ARE YOU ????
Are you still in So-Cal??

Oops!  Your right Mike.  My Bug-O-Rama sign was well out in front of the starting line lights.   Good catch.  Glad to see you are still racing. We enjoyed having you and the Stage Fright car at our events back in the day.  In fact, I think one year (if I remember right) we awarded the car "Best Looking Drag Car" as well.  You looked a lot younger back then. I fact, we all did.   :-)

Rick M

I'll PM ya so we don't bore everyone!  ;)

OK... so we don't bore anyone!  ;)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PK72ALI-_i0/SFNuFNyaa7I/AAAAAAAABMw/RxH4tP983Ac/s1600-h/Bugrun+2008+023.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PK72ALI-_i0/SFNuFNyaa7I/AAAAAAAABMw/RxH4tP983Ac/s1600-h/Bugrun+2008+023.jpg)

http://griebel.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html (http://griebel.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html)

 :)

80th

This picture looks like a show of "Johnnys Speed and chrome " . The distributer of the parts in germany shipped the car to europe ...

Udo

Was that Peter from the Käfer-shop?

Yes , Peter Kramer - California Käfer Shop -
He did not drive it often but turned the rpms so high that a rod came out of the case ...  :(
Udo

Didn't know that he owned "stage freight".What happened with the California Käfershop?(I still have a t-shirt from his shop with the "jsc" logo),out of bussines?
I saw him 2 weeks ago at the Essen motorshow,with a tradestand,selling US-numberplates and toys.

They closed the door many years ago , Peter is still selling some parts in germany and in the us

Udo

"Stage Fright" . . . . when I had it white on the street.  Was this way for about two years.  1980-81[attachment=1]

Interior

Transformation begins . . . .

 . . . . . . . .

Getting Paint . . . .

That's my old pal Jeff Shearer who painted Stage Fright. . . . Yes that is in his garage and this was the third car he had ever painted!!
Just sprayed the yellow . . . .

Great pics Mike!

waouww mike thx for sharing with us , those are great pictures from back in the day  ;)

fabs

Jeff and I just pulled off the masking tape and paper . . .  rolled it out into the sun, and were very pleased with the colors.  Jeff did all of the bodywork and paint, he and I laid out the graphics and I chose the colors (all except the yellow) . . . We had originally wanted to go with a charcoal gray or silver but there had already been a few bugs done like that, So . .  Yellow seemed to be our only choice, but I hated lemon, so Jeff mixed up the darker yellow and it looked alot better than I thought it was going to.

First outing . . . .   Show Promotions Event at L.A. County Raceway (Palmdale) 1984

Still in "street" trim . . . . .

you weren't anymore into DKK at that time ??? no stickers on the quater windows

No, I wasn't  . . .  When we began changing the car I stopped going to the meetings and it just kind of fizzled out.  Was not intentional just happened that way.  I was never in another club.  Stickers came off the quarter windows because of a photo shoot for Hot V.W.'s and they insisted that their decals be put in the same spot (what a nightmare story that turned into).  Long story short . . . Turns out R.K Smith from Hot V.W.'s did not like the free-lance photographer who did the shoot, they had a "pissing" match and the photographer (who shall remain nameless) threatened to take the negatives to V.W. Trends.  I spoke with Lane Evans at Hot V.W.'s about four months later when the car had not appeared in either mag.  He said they were heartbroken that they could not feature the car because they were afraid that it was going to appear on the cover of Trends on the same month.  Same story with V.W. Trends, they were afraid it was going to be on the cover of Hot V.W.'s!   

I took some black and white photos that day.  The shoot was at an old closed down restaurant called The Wharehouse, I think .  Right off the 10 freeway in West Covina.

Sorry for the double posts!

. . . . .  Would have made a bitchen cover with all the greenery in the background

for sure , :o

mike here're a few picture of stage fright , i've taken 2 years ago at das drag day @ bitburg AFB in germany ,and the one of the car racing was at ebi (european bug-in)atchimay (belgium)

 ;)
fabs

 The car didn't change a lot since you had him   :D

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POW! I`m totally blow away!!!! No words for that. THANKS MIKE for these great old pictures! Never saw the car bwefore in white, or pics of the build. Love to see that. ow cool to see Stage Fright with number plates! Thanks, Michael.

Helge, I have a whole bunch more that I will email you if you are interested.

Thanks for the photos speedwell !!  Amazeing to me that it still looks pretty good after 24 years, especially the pinstriping and lettering.

Helge, did you remove the fire extenguishers or were they gone when you bought it?

OK, last one and i'll stop boreing you guys . . . . this has been a cool trip down memory lane . . . .  This one's for our fearless former DKK pres.  . . . .

LOL There we go! ;-)

OK, I lied . . . .   Since my beautiful wife of  23 years has put up with me and all the car BS . . . this is for her (this was before we were married, we've actually been together for 28 years . . .  poor woman!

One more  :o . . . . OK, I'm done, I promise!

Mike, the fire extenguishers standing here warm and safe in my shelf. They will come back in the car 2011.

If there is something that you cannot bore us they are the period pictures and stories, if there is more (your car, DKK, events, other cars..) and you have time please do post them  8)

At that time I was a kid growing up thousands of miles away and the only "contact" were the U.S. magazines we were subscribing, it's just too cool to see those colours, "pro-street paintjobs with graphics" etc.

from Sweden two years ago:
(http://www.terovirta.com/imagesToo/2008_BugRun_001.jpg)

Second that! Mike, it's so cool to see pictures of SF when it was a street car. Gives a lot more life to the car. Please don't stop posting old photos and telling us old stories!
Thanks for taking time,

Georg

BTW, SF looks the same from the outside, but Helge redid more or less everything underneath.

[attachment=1]

Great shots of a great car!

Thanks for sharing!

x3

I think those pictures are the best christmas present you could give to Helge :-)
I have a video from 1989 when the car raced at german bugin Giebelstadt . May be i get it on the pc and post it

Udo

Thanks guys,  glad to hear you are enjoying!

I'll put some more up soon.

Oh,  . . . . .  MERRY CHRISTMAS Helge !!

You are right Udo. Thanks Mike. Santa comes early this year to me.

Mike, I just wondered why and where you got the nickname "wild child"? Can you tell us that story?

What an awesome thread  ;D
Thank ya Mike and don`t stop telling those good storys and showing pic`s from back then!

I totally dig SF. Everytime I see this car I discover more cool and complex details...

Here are some pic`s from the mild restoration Helge did to the car.

His main intention was to leave the shell how it was.With alle the little scratches and here and there and dents (race scars).
The underneath of the car was carefully restored.The overall condition of the car was very nice if you mind that it was unrestored.
Helge really wanted (and did) to keep everything how it was back then when the car was running in US.
Some club members me included always teased Helge about the very furry front carpet and that a race car doesen`t need carpet up front.
But Helge whitstanded (luckily) our necking. He leaved the carpet as the car was running back then WITH the carpet. You get the idea...
On many other details Helge even walked the old/original way and only did some mild updates. A real cal-look nerd as many of us  ;)

Helge is running his own parts buisness now. So give him a call if you need some parts or are searching for some special parts.
And check out the coulor sheme of his website and buisness cards:

http://www.helge-ohmes.de/

(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5042/5274150033_baebb3740b_b.jpg)

(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5087/5274758092_5d52d4b730_z.jpg)

(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5288/5274150287_6cbca5153b_z.jpg)

(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5169/5274149949_87b8a2a23d_z.jpg)

(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/5274150173_5d933eb220_z.jpg)

Have fun,
Felix

May 1989

hot VWs advert.

11,7 so you know what you have to do  ;)  Driving , driving .... Remember Karin did 11,5 this year with the black 67

Udo

Very cool dash in Stage Fright.  He still has some of our early Phoenix Bug-O-Rama dash plaques in it. Makes me nostalgic!

Rick Mortensen
Phoenix Bug-O-Rama Founder

Found this one on the net.

(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs079.snc4/35317_102701413118004_100001344360778_17519_7716229_n.jpg)

this was my first run with SF in Mantorp/Sweden. 14.something....you see i had to much stagefright by myself to push the pedal down...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clZRVUPrcu0

   Hi George,  I got the nickname from Jeff Shearer (the guy who painted Stage Fright) when I was a kid.  I was about eleven years old and Jeff was about six years older than me and he used to date my sister.  I was into BMX bikes at the time, and every time he would see me, I would be doing wheelies and stuff so he started calling me that.  I had Jeff paint my bike which was really cool!  It was whit in the front then faded to candy apple red in the back.  Dennis Jones did some pinstriping on it and I anodized all the components red.  I have some pictures somewhere, but I did find the old helmet which Jeff also painted to match.  Here's the visor . . . . .

Speaking of old helmets,  here ya go Helge . . . . .

 . . . . . . .

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. . . . . And, the show sign

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Jeff was an airbrush artist, these were some shirts he did for us . . . . .

 . . . . .

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 . . . . .  Hats, . . .

Yep, you are correct Rick.  I think we won a total of five "best appearing" awards.  1988 was when we got the one from you guys at the phoenix Bug-O-Rama.  Yep, I still have 'em! . . . .  I am (and was) very proud of those awards because the car was still winning them after years of racing.  "Stage Fright" appeared on the cover and was featured in Chrome & Flames magazine in May of 1989, five years after the car was built and raced!

A few others I found . . . .

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 . . . . .

As with Stage Fright,  our funny car Strange Behavior was finished in 2000 and was on the cover and featured in Full Throttle magazine in Feb. of 2007.  Not bad after six years of racing abuse and hundreds of runs.

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. . . . . Back to the V-DUBS

Great Stuff Mike!

Thanks Rick !!  . . . . . Can you tell work is SLOW right now!!  Just a little too much time on my hands . . . .

 . . . . .

Working on the race car then?? Hope you make it down for the March Meet.

We're trying . . . . .  we'll see,  keep'n my fingers crossed!

Funny car is a very exciting machine .... Good luck

Nice collection of the beetle items :-)

Udo

blown away.....call the doctor.... ;D :D

How about a nurse? ;D
(http://doclehman.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/000bettienurse6.jpg)

Lic. Plate . . . . .

Awesome photos Mike.  Drag racing like it should be, a working mans game. No corporate sponsor, no multi million dollar shop. I love the lawn mower & bikes in the garage. Looks like your having a great time.   Bill

Thanks Bill !!   I appreciate it. 

I guess I need a bigger garage.

We are haveing a blast . . . . . .  but, I sure would'nt mind one of those million dollar corporate sponsorships  ;)

Almost finished mounting our new body (nostalgia '77 Pontiac Firebird),  front and rear "trees" are done, need to finish front latch then on to the tin work.

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 . . . . . .

Also, finished the repairs on the "Nitro Fever" nostalgia Top Fuel dragster that I had an unfortunate crash in last Sept.  Now it's off to the paint shop next week . . .  . woo-hoo!!

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was that the car that got up on the wall at Famoso? or was that Blairs?

Are you gonna put a "Screaming Chicken" on the hood?  ;D

Right after you get done chokeing your's !!

Well, we were not able to get the dragster panels off to paint yet, but finally fired the car up last Sat. at Sacramento Raceway's "funnycar fever" event.  Got to do a burnout but had reverser problems and could not get the car in reverse.

 . . . .

Funny Car Mike....your dragster leaves me breathless.  I can still remember the early days and Sacramento raceway in 1972 watching blown front engine dragsters. I will have to dig up some of my old photos of them from that era and post them.

Rick Mortensen

   Looks as good as it sounds ,or at least I think I can here it.      KG

Found it in Super VW Mag #6 (late '80s).

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v215/427/49133.jpg)

Thanks Nico86 !!    I never knew about the Super V.W. mag. photo

Have a look to my birthday gift from my DFL-Club-buddys. A Longboard with the colors of my racecar Stage Fright! I am totally blown away.

cool!

But Helge, what ever happened to the ULTRA cool mirrors?
The paint and those are the defining factors of you cool car...   not political correct any more?
Are they for sale?

Hi Jon,

the mirrors where already missing on Stage Fright since the early 90th. I would fit them again, sure. But i was not able to find them in Europe. Can a lounger help?

Here you have some new ones:
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=tornado+vitaloni&_sacat=See-All-Categories (http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=tornado+vitaloni&_sacat=See-All-Categories)

see what popped up over here:

http://keversite.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27388 (http://keversite.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27388)

Ages ago, we had a thread here at the lounge, about the old R&R-Machine racecars. The Ghia and the “Ufo”. My car (Stage Fright) was sponsored by R&R-Machine. I bought the car without the old engine. But some of the original parts are still around. Like the old Super-Flow-heads. I never noticed that these SF-heads had special R&R-valve-covers. Udo Becker had them, but he never told me, that they are special. So, at least i get the covers from Udo. Thanks!

I just want to know, is R&R still in business? Can`t find them at the web. How is the status of the old racecars? Any news?

The heads are sold now and do a good job on a 2,4 engine. i changed the intake valves to 48 and cut the seats nice . The good news is that they are now on the track  :)
The engine got some nice street heads , I saw that it was in the wrong hands when i freshend it up

http://ultimateaircooled.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php/topic,9046.0.html      here you can read something about that cars . I have seen that silver prostock car racing at Phoenix in 1992 or 93  :)

Udo

Thanks Udo!

larry mc kenzie was in process to restore the R&R car

http://web.mac.com/larry_mckenzie/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html (http://web.mac.com/larry_mckenzie/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html)

Hey Bill,

It was so cool to see and talk with you at the March Meet, I enjoyed it very much!!  Thanks for stopping by our pit and saying hi

It was great to see you too. I was stoked to see your win in the 1st round & it took you into the semi's . How did you do on Sun.?

EDIT: oopsie, posted my previous comment in the wrong thread...

That being said, I'll take the opportunity to bring my comment up to appropriate topic:  I LOVED some of the graphics that came out of the '80s on the race cars, especially.  The car in this thread looked sweet.

Sunday we did a "planned" shut-off at the 330' cone to save parts.  Ironically, we burned the #8 piston.  Semi's we had #2 cylinder drop at the hit and #8 dropped about 1 second later . . . two dead holes on the same side which neither picked back up so the car drove me out of the groove to the right until I lifted at about 600', lost with a coasting 6.48 @ 185.  We were obviously VERY lucky to get by Bartone in round 1 and have the bye in round 2,BUT, I'll take round wins any way I can especially against the #1 qualifyer!.  We still have a few gremlins that we are sorting out but I think we progressed this weekend. ;)

2nd Round Bye run, backing up after the burnout

 ;D