The Cal-look Lounge

Just to remind you guys out in SoCal what we here in the UK have to put up with, here's a video taken last weekend by a member of our club up at York.

Rain + Drag Racing = BAAAAD....

http://vholdr.com/video/youre-going-wrong-way

Oh, and congratulations to Rich for not totalling it!
 :o

And a more successful attempt at getting from one end of a piece of straight tarmac to the other...

http://vholdr.com/video/13-5-second-pass

The joys of British weather well done on the second run. :)

nice cross winds  :o

 :o

Just thankful Rich had the run to himself :o

It was all fun fun fun at york.  ;D

some facts:

Los Angeles averages 15 inches (381.00 mm) of precipitation annually, which mainly occurs during the winter and spring (November through April) with generally light rain showers, but sometimes as heavy rainfall and thunderstorms. The coast gets slightly less rainfall, while the mountains get slightly more. Years of average rainfall are rare; the usual pattern is bimodal, with a short string of dry years (perhaps 7–8 inches/180–200 millimetres) followed by one or two wet years that make up the average

In Aberdeen, Scotland the average yearly precipitation is 753 millimetres (29.7 in), with 64 millimetres (2.5 in) in summer (June - August) and 62 millimetres (2.5 in) in winter (December - February). The wettest months are October and November.

Therfore there is more individual cal look driving experiance in the rain in my home town than in LA.  ;D

  The second pass was a decent run, 13.5 in those conditions is plenty quick.
Looked like it had dried up a little, but nice and dark on the horizon. First pass was a seat pincher for sure. Was he on slicks or grooved tires?
Crashed my first Cal-look on 135's in the rain, plowed right into a curb. Ouch!
That's when I took off the T-bars and put on Euro bumbers for more body armor.
Glad I only get less than 15" a year! Thanks Russell.

He's on standard treads as he drives the 250 mile round trip to the track & home, 195/65's or 205/60's.... can't quite remember.

Rich is knocking on the door of the 12's, having 2 weeks ago run a 13.00 at the same track.

::)

Good Lord... if you've never driven in So Cal back when Cal Look VWs were in full swing and during El Niño heavy rainfall... then the ol' Google copy pasta (copy & paste) is rather futile. When the water's coming down so hard that most heavy cars hydroplane and many of us were running 135 Michelin tires up front and little 165s on the rears. Made for some dangerous, but challenging driving. Drove in my friends' cars that had huge engines during those record breaking rainfall years, too. We made sure that our wipers worked, that we carried insurance, and drove. It was just life.

It's much different, now. Less rain, we're way older, smarter, and leave the cars in the garage when it's wet out. If you weren't here during those great days, you'll never know.

Here was me thinking that California was the rust free state. :)

I'm broken hearted for you guys ;D

I have family in the Scottish Highlands, and it rains in every direction, even up, pretty much the whole time!

Trust me, you're not gonna convince everyone here in the UK that the weather is worse in Cali than here. You'll have better luck convincing folks on here that graphics are cal look. Well... maybe!  ;) :D

I'm just having fun, where ever the rain is its shit, onward and upward, take it easy...

It only rains about 7 inches per year here in Phoenix, but I remember driving through Michigan on the way home from the 1996 Berg Cruise behind Rick Mortensen. He was driving his huge motorhome towing his enclosed trailer with his '67 inside.  It was coming down so hard the cars on the freeway were only going about 35 MPH.  Rick was going about 65.  He was above all the water coming up off the road.  I had to tuck in behind his trailer to avoid all the spray.  I could actually read the small print on the stickers on the back of his trailer.  For tires I was running 155s in the front and 185/70s in the rear.  Drove that way for about an hour an a half.  Pretty stressful...

Those memorys will fade when you get to Fontana, bring your sunscreen and a hat!

                                                                       Mark used to scare the crap out of people. In Cerritos, they put pavers in the intersections, circa '82 or so. They were REAL slippery in the rain. Mark would grab his ebrake and turn the wheel. The car would do a 360 while going through the intersection. He'd never slow down, just correct the car and keep traveling down South St. like nothing happened. Passengers generally needed to change their shorts .

Jamie they are 215/65's.

3 weeks ago we drove the 250 mile round triip to the strip only to have breakfast and go home again cos it rained all day.  >:( had a huge tail out moment at 60mph on the way home.
2 weeks ago we did the same trip and it rained again but the sun came out in the afternoon, the track was then dried so i got a few runs in.  ;D

If it's the last thing i do i'm going to run a 12 on treads. Oh and drive it there and back.  Have the slicks waiting. not sure my gearbox is going to like it though.

I can vouch for that 60mph tail out coz i was riding shotgun at the time, we almost got a second wiff of my breakfast too as a result ;D

 :D