The Cal-look Lounge

Hello everybody! My name's Arrigo, (Arry is how friends call me  ;)). I've been reading this forum for a while, it's a nice place with very cool people, so I think it's time to introduce myself and my car.
I live in Italy, and I got my VW as a present from my parents for my Diploma in classical guitar at the Conservatory. I guess I was 19 or 20, and here's the car me and my dad bought: a pretty rusty (though it didn't seem from the outside  :D :-\) 1972 Super  (see attachment)

Ok, I was a student (no money basically) so I kept the Super in its stock form for a while. I added a radio, and drove it around. We had a mechanic rebuild the 1200cc motor, which was really beat up!
Then, after a while, I started to think about going faster :  )  I mean, I knew there was the trend, or should I say, a culture in the USA, of hotrodding cars and VWs were no exception.  So, why not applying that to my car? Remember, at this stage I probably just started to realize that I had a Super, not a Bug, but I’ve always liked the car a lot and never thought about selling it to get an earlier model.
I felt I needed to know more about it, so what I did, I ordered a copy of Keith Seume’s book “VW Beetle Performance Handbook”. Thank you Keith for that book! I guess I read it twenty times or so! It really opened my eyes about the vw engine, the different stages of tunings and showed some very cool rides as well.

First step into performance was a 1600cc. And it was not a mild one (I basically know very little, so the mechanic was free to do what he wanted...!)
Here’s some of the specs:

CB 044 heads, 40x37, square ported
CB rods
Berg c/w 69mm crank
Engle 130 camshaft (!)
40mm Dells
1 1/2 header

High strung for sure, but sort of streetable. The car was capable of running at 150km in third gear with that setup. Of course, not very responsive under 4000, but I could live with it.
I raced it a little bit against friends’ rides, and it was fun. That’s when the car gave its best.
The car still had its stock rims, and that two-tone paint job. It was time to change for a single color and some decent wheels.

This way it looked much better.
Then I got into the cal look thing badly. Even though many kept telling me that a Super would never been a true cal look, which is true to some extent, I kept working on it. I really like the elegant, clean appareance of a california look vw, and of course the emphasis on outright performance, and that’s what I wanted my car to be like.

Anyway, time for going bigger. 1915cc.
Same heads, rods and crank. Engle 120 this time, decided to stay on the conservative side (though after driving the car a couple of days ago, it was screaming for more cam...), 1 5/8 header.
Carbs were supposed to be 44 IDFs. But, thanks to many guys that write here on the Lounge, I went for 48 IDAs.
Those carbs ARE AWESOME. But, above all, they perform like a dream.
I mean, I was scared they had flat spots, driveability issues... “it’s a race carb, it’s either ON or OFF, you can’t make it on the street”... all this stuff many people (not everybody luckily) keep saying... Well, they perform very smooth, flawlessly.
The way they scream is terrific! They sing like an organ!
I really like to thank Jim Ratto for his very interesting posts about these carbs and the Weber tuning.

So the car now is still at the mechanic’s shop, waiting for some braided hoses (for gas and oil) and then will be ready to run!

Ok, time for some pictures now!

1. Picture of the Super in its stock form.
2. Single-tone paint. Kept the original Volkswagen color (Blood Orange, If I remember right). Had the 1600 already installed here.

More soon

Arry.

1. Heads! Good ol' square port intake.
2. New 1915cc IDA engine.
3/4. The Super now (actually, this was before we installed a Top Line system, the front end is a bit lower now. Unfortunately no pics until the car comes back home...)  :(

Hope you like it!
Arry.

Welcome to the Lounge Arry,

As much as I don't like the Super usually, yours looks seriously Cool, Very nice Car...The Cal-Look Super... ;)

Frank

I like it! Looks like a cool ride.

--louis

Nice Super and nice colour!

Is that Clementine Orange L20D?

 :)

Welcome Arry,

The Lounge is a cool place to hang out 8)

I like your car & look forward to the pic's of the new "stance"

~DR.

Looks much better with one color paint and gas burners!!

Lets see some pics with the nose down!!

 :o :o  another italian guys on the lounge
benvenuto  arry

 ;)
fabs

welcome to the lounge dude  :)

Welcome dude,and don't worrie about it's a super.  ;)
Looks cool with the new wheels.(and let the pics come)

Yes! Welcome to the lounge, very nice car. Yes, lets see some more pics!

Welcome  ;)

The car looks good, the engine looks good!  Very cool.

Welcome to Lounge... glad your IDAs scream! Nice car!  8)

good lookin arry.have you thought about a DUMPER lookalike ;) its very nearly there,get the stance and wheels and its a hit ;D

Thank you everybody!  :)  I'm really happy you like the car!


Oldspeed, if I remember right, the color should be Blood Orange (21E).


67worshipper, the Dumper is one of the best looking Super ever, one of my favourite cars too. I think about buying a set of chrome alloys sometimes (and I'd like to get some 4.5" front wheels; that would allow me to lower the front end even more...!), but I like gasburners a lot, they really look nice. So... maybe in the future, who knows!   :D


Thank you Jim. Your posts about Weber IDAs have been a very good source of information. And I wanted to let you know, that the IDAs on my 1915 are running WITHOUT any 3rd hole in the progression circuit.  ;)
I was determined to run them with their 2 holes, and so far their working very well!

I'd like to post some more pictures but the car is about 150kms far from where I live... so until I'll drive over to the mechanic's shop (and drive back home with the Super this time  ;D) we got to wait!