The Cal-look Lounge

Does anyone out there have any good detail shots of this Great Bug.

 I've mislaid my old magazines with this car in, so could a kind soul help me out.. :)

 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/plasticblack/400188.jpg)

think its in Japan now days
It was in a magazine some years a go

Yes you're right the car is in Japan no with a collector.

It was featured in Volksworld looking Very Dusty Sadly :'(

here we go paul  ;)

the gold DDS shifter is in belgium now , and the car went to bee haus collection since that she was at rich kimball place

 ;)

 ;)

 ;)

Thanks Fabs...

    To the Rescue.... ;D

I have been told that there was a reason why only the pass side was shown in that HVWs story.  Anyone else heard that?   :)

Hmmmm, was one side a little better than the other? Or is it one of those double takes where you look at a babe and are sure one boob is higher than the other   :D ;D

The cars colour scheme always remind me of the JPS lotus F1 cars.... which I loved as a youngster (Sclaextric!)

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2094/2288867132_bc23a008f6.jpg)

Thanks for the info/Pics Folks.

  It's the chassis/underside detailing that I'm most interested in.

    Overall I'm not a Lover of the Car. but it has a place in Cal Look History as Larry rightly points out.

       The Rules had been well and truly rewritten in terms of what a Show Winner had to do from then on.

          Good or Bad?       Right or Wrong?

             That's History for you.. ;D 

To the guys that were around when this car came out... How did you feel about it?

Not that my opinion meant anything then (or now for that matter) but I had mixed feelings. At that time, the car was beautiful and well done. Very high quality. But there was that "over the top" aspect that left me a little cold. It really wasn't too much different than many of the over-engineered cars we're seeing today. That car did set a high bar that continually got higher during the mid to late 80's.The last time I saw it was at Pomona in the cars for sale area. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was  mere shadow of it's former glory. The brass plating was very scratched and dull. The car really was in sad shape. Now it's gone,,,,,,and I still have mine.

As I said it was featured in  looking very sad & dusty.

Not really a fitting situation for a milestone car from back then is it? :'(

I agree that it did seem a little OTT even back then, but everything has its day.

I quite like the idea of some Gold Plating, but getting the amount just right is not so easy as Larry's car proves? :-\

Who's going to be brave enough to' go for Gold'???? ;D

I almost got my glovebox door gold plated so that i could mount all the bug-in plaques (inside and out), but decided against it, £200 was a little steep!

here's the car in bee haus collection  ;)

IMHO

Wow! Gold plated wheel adapters!!  :P :D

i'm brave enough!

(http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c260/jick-r/rare%20parts/Image281.jpg)


im going for a black&gold theme  for my engine....a few gold anodised parts and a few gold plated..... ;)
apart from the interior i love the overall look of Larrys car........sure it's OTT, but its refreshing to see amongst a sea of rule-book cal-lookers

i'm brave enough!

(http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c260/jick-r/rare%20parts/Image281.jpg)


im going for a black&gold theme  for my engine....a few gold anodised parts and a few gold plated..... ;)
apart from the interior i love the overall look of Larrys car........sure it's OTT, but its refreshing to see amongst a sea of rule-book cal-lookers
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You're my Hero......... :D

funny, I always thought the car was parted out, as years ago I had the gold plated Deano shifter

If I recall correctly, either the day before or the day of the photo shoot, the drivers door flew open and crunched the quarter panel.    :o  Maybe Deano can fill in the details.

Jeez..even I am old enough to remember that. Here bud:

 
"Larry Shaw, owner of the 'Brass Bug', called me to color sand and rub out his new black paint job, as R.K. Smith was going to shoot the car for the cover of Hot VW's magazine.

After a few hours of work, the car had deep and brilliant show car shine, was detailed from top to bottom, and ready for R.K. to show up. Upon arrival, R.K. outlined the details of the shoot at Larry's shop in Costa Mesa. We were all jazzed to get rolling.

Larry hopped in the car, gingerly drove about 50 feet , then suddenly put the pedal to the metal, and revved the brilliant black beast to over six grand. He let out the clutch, lit up the rear tires, and the passenger side suicide door came unlatched. The door flung open and smashed the entire rear quarter panel of the car.

We all had tears in our eyes after witnessing what seemed like the worst carnage you could imagine. Despite some serious depression, we all agreed let R.K. Smith perform his magic, positioned the car just right, and R.K. finished a beautiful the photo shoot, with no one but us the wiser.

At the end of the session I turned to Larry and said, 'I think I know why they call them suicide doors now...' ".

yes young justis/my words.....and all very true.  when larry unveiled the "brass bug" heads were turning/some slower than others and visa versa. that day of the photo shoot was tragic indeed but larry recovered rather quickly as they say and had "one day"body and paint respray the passeneger side and I reworked the side and detailed it for its first show win.  YUK..!! was my first impression/not into suicide custon stuff or lots of brass/chrome or whatever/alloy adaptors..etc....but will have to say a nice piece regardless. Kimballs friend and neighbor,(Andy), bought the car and had me detail it like the old days and I negotiated a very fair deal to Akira Ueno from Bee Haus where the car sits along with all the other 'dirty' relics of history.

Where the car sits along with all the other 'dirty' relics of history.
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 Thanks for the History Don.

   It's good that the car still survives and who knows perhaps it will return again one day in some form or other... :-\

Hey, what ever happen to Larry Shaw?

bee haus collection ....what else is in this collection?

Kris Klingaman and Mike Smith's Modified Compact racers, the Goin' Bananas car, and several others. Remember the Volksworld feature a few years ago? Seems like the storage for them isn't great though. Not water tight, everything covered in dirt and dust. I'm hoping that it's all just temporary storage until something more permanent gets sorted, but I know that land is at a premium in Japan so the chance to build something with enough space to show everything off is pretty slim.  :-\ At least Akira had the foresight to store the cars at all, not part them out as often happens to cars that at the time were considered not important.

 ;)

to whom did the beige DZK car belong?

 ;)

I'm glad that the Black Magic car cannot talk. I was very close to Mike Martinez back when he and Kawells built that car. It started life as a little light green sleeper but Dave and Judy made Mike put a cage and all the safety stuff in it. Me, Schwimmer, Mason and Brinton had a great time on the streets of Santa Ana and Orange in the turboed beast. We even saw an OC Sherriff once...................ONCE!

 ;)

Dyno, were did my old / Jim Moore notchback go?

i'd be curious too, that notch is my of my all time favourite lookers!!

Wasn't that over by my Mom's house on Browning Ave?  ;)

Yep, it is amazing how fast you can get a bug to corner through those hills with slicks and front runners when you have to. He made a u-turn and he never saw us again. He didn't stand a chance, we were doing well over 100 when we passed him anyway.

Hey fab's was there a volksworld with the same feature in English......I think I may of seen that before 8)

thanks all for the cool pics /well...just a little disappointed but not surprised at seeing all the cool machines just oozing to have them ALL detailed again....man..those were the days. Akira and I became friends years ago in the 70's when I awarded him the longest distance award at Bug in.  The rest IS HISTORY as they say. As I recall I sold scores of cars to him over the many years/after trying to find new homes here in the states with no ripple whatsoever..economics were strong during those years in japan hence a good working long distance friendship and business relationship/most the cars depicted in the above pics were in fact sold by me to Akira. Each one was detailed to perfection prior to shipping but have since collected some obvious dirt revenue. Im in the process of negotiating a sweet deal for the return of Mike Smith's car back to the states for Mike to return to his VW racing roots..!! This has been quite a challenge and regardless how it turns out I will always be happy to see vintage machines at least have a safe haven to reside in. When I was back in Japan a few years ago I couldnt even walk let alone sleep anywhere due to all the many collectible bits and pieces EVERYWHERE..!! Kudos to Akira for having the desire to keep the legends alive... even with the airborne particulate fallout on them.    Love,Dyno                 gasket/sorry...dont know about that one although that notch was very sweet..

yes there's a similar report on volksworld ,but pictures are different , i will see if i found the mag and scan
 ;)

fabs

Cheers Fabs, let me know what mag it is I think I have it............Ivan??? ;) ;)

I also spent many hours working on Mike's car when I was helping Dave & Judy on the weekends, also I raced the car for mike in Phoenix.

I wondered what happened to it. Mike also had a red 67 that was wery quick.

looks like a job for mister Richie to get them in the gasser garage collection, some real history not getting the use as they should, it seems so wrong that they are  just sitting in a shed in japan gathering dust  >:( >:( >:(

I would rather see the Klingaman car back here in So. CA. Hey, someone re-open Small Car Specialties while you are at it, too.  :o

sorry guys but the cars are there to stay for a long while/akira is a collector and an enthusiast and loves the dirt and loves grease even MORE.....      I know I have a picture of young ERIC somewhere from small car/or other event...some 25+ years ago I do believe ..!!    the DZK car/im not sure if i put the decals in the windows to enhance the look as i was going to rebuild that car as it was such a sweet deal but just cant remember to be quite honest. I detailed the hell out of it as it was crusty and then got into buying type 2 busses so I guess it was time to move on that particular piece. Black Magic also a sweet deal/was sitting for the longest time after Mike martinez's demise (not the same m.m. with the black dkp chop top)that car was a  much earlier deal for me and another story for anyone interested? magic mike was a hell of a guy and into many things that made BIG MONEY...needless to say he died from a gunshot wound from an inlaw dispute...fyi.  going bananas was in fact my late friend dan mcgraths car that was later sold to my friend lonnie reed of the head shop fame(where i worked for sometime) and later purchased by myself to restore back to its glory days then sold to akira. I could go on and on so i would be more than happy to try and fill you all in with bits and pieces if i can still remember it all.   those days wee so coooool/dyno

"I know I have a picture of young ERIC somewhere from small car/or other event...some 25+ years ago I do believe ..!! "   

Just like Cheech and Chong : "If you don't,,,,,I do"

Dyno, any stories are good by us! :D

One thing I can say about Russell is he brings cars back to life and brings them out to show them and race them, what I see in these pictures just makes me sick! Akira WTF, I raced against most of those cars and also helped build the Black Magic car,it looks like you are just rotting away HISTORY!!

Sorry if I sound a little harsh, but seeing these pictures just pisses me off!!!

DOM...how the hell do you think the rest of us feel..any different??...im 100% with you on this one but like i said its HIS personal preference.....seeing gary avis's puma and the small car puma rot to hell doesnt make me feel any better either/those were unique and still are by far....gave me the "HEEBE GEEBE'S last time there....one of the nicest people in the world however and very knowledgeable about nostalgia....most all the cars i sold were in fact bitchin but seeing the rotted interiors etc..made me feel weak at the knees. at least they are what they are and very safe.  I would like a ride in your 'banana vega' just like the old days..!!  Akira is a very happy collector...  with love,Dyno

Next time you see me just ask for a ride, it's much faster then the one I had in the late 70s!

I know he's a collector and I do know him, but dang! I would have loved to have bought Mike's Black Magic car.

Dom>if you are serious>your wish may be my command..??/ and as most know speed doesnt scare me either as you last recall when we took plum crazy on its wild street ride all i could do was laugh out loud hysterically as a young child with a new toy>>as i ALWAYS do..!!  I FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED..!!  diapers could be in order for this one.....?

while trying to stay on track with the orig post here I remember larry's brass bug running his detuned engine from his drag car which propelled that brass bug quite effectively. ... and looked quite good for a relatively inexpensive(cheap)  paint job after countless hours of rubbing and buffing to an awesome reflective finish. and as one can imagine... a TON of money into the brass plating as well.....in the first cover story/that was when the passenger side wasnt shown as R.K.smith used good judgement in positioning the car almost perfect right after the passenger side suicide door flung open under a full throttle attempted burnout. a very sad moment for all there.

Like they say.......

  Speed Costs eh........  ;)

    It would be great so see some of those great cars re born so to speak.

      I accept that collectors can be very different in their approaches to how they keep their vehicles, but I assume these cars were not cheap when he acquired them??

          So I'm finding it hard to understand just how hard it could be to buy some decent dust covers for the cars.......

              Each to his own as the saying goes. :-\

             
         

Akira has hobby visitors from all over the world and feels they should be shown the way they are including the dirt....was in the process of building a HUGE facility until economy and family health issues arose and put all on hold. interesting when i visited him in japan he refused to let me clean the cars/ a good maid cleaning service could make a FORTUNE ..!!   ...but only if he says yes...       he is a very proud man with lots of wealth both in spirit and bank.  we all should be proud of him for at least having a good home for lost ones. I will always be very grateful to him for our friendship through the many years and for his relentless dedication to this industry..!!