The Cal-look Lounge

I have started digging through my pictures and scanning them. I have a bunch of them so I will add them as I can. I hope you enjoy them.
One is waiting in line at OCIR for a bug In or drag day, sorry can't remember, one is Lee Leighton going through the lights at OCIR, One is the Different Strokes for Different Volks II car that crashed, last one is my brother Rod Jr's 53 split
Larry

Some more pics, A car that crashed at the Bug O Rama Septeber 1982, dont know whos car it was but was watching from the line when it took off, My Dad Rod Sr. is in the one pic checking out the damage. Desperation drag car that belonged to Dave Folts and Rich Firsch (not sure on the spelling), one of the first one piece fiberglass VW bodies that I can remember racing the Engine Masters cars from Sonoma Ca. Lee Leightons car at Antelope Valley I think, cant remember who the clown was.
Larry

Me getting out of my Dads (Rod Sr.) 51 Split, Orange county track home, long hair and OP shorts! not quite the same pull Sum Fun had! Gotta love those cable brakes. Pic of the 14" alloys I had on a couple of different cars.
Larry

Wow! Great pics! Thanks for sharing!

Is it Ronald McDonald on the last one?! I knew he´s into racing!  :D

Larry that's great! And thanks for sharing the little stories related to the pictures too.

 8) 8)

Me, Rod Jr, and our friend Doug at Bug O Rama IX, Rod Jr leaving the line at OCIR racing at Bug In running bracket 1.

Sum Fun at Bug O Rama IX, scan from old VW trends, nice wheelie shot from the back.
Larry

This red car looks like Mike Hemsley (sp?)  It was out of Roger Crawford's shop. He built another car that looked just like it. He ended up selling that car to Matt Forquer and it met a similar fate. I still have some misc. little parts from Matt's on my car to this day.

Every time I see one of those mangled gassers I'm amazed that there was never any fatalities.

Thanks for sharing the pics :)

Thanks for sharing the pics ... I like the old days... hope you add more  ;D

My Oval back from Santini's paint shop in 1984, went full cal look, dechroming, one piece windows, filled in dash with diffrent gauges, etc. I had Becker's Bug House do some work also. My oval sitting in my brothers garage while I was assembling it, if you look close you can see Sum Fun in the background, sisters 66 Ghia vert, Dads 51 split under cover, Gene Browns strip teaser II VW dragster my brother drove for Gene. Sum Fun at Carlsbad raceway and at Antelope Valley also.

Great pics, thanks for sharing.  ;D

A few more pics. First one is Cory McClenathan ( Cory Mac) in his bug at Bug O Rama May 1982. A talked to him a couple of years ago and he still had it but had painted it black. Second one is our close friend Aaron L. in his buggy at the Bug O Rama 1984, I believe he won that one. I helped him build it and he ran a 11:33 first pass at OCIR, it was the drag day I think when first took it out and all the timing lights went out that day and they used a flag man like the old days, total mess. Last one is my Dad running against a old 427 Chevy II at Carlsbad, that guy made us take the decklid off after this pass so he could look at the motor. He said that he knew we would get out on him but that he knew he would go flying by on the top end....but he never did, couldn't catch Dad, he was so blown away how fast it was. We ran a lot of those kind of events and had a ball doing it.

First pic is Rod Jr. against Bob Hole in Nasty Habit at a Bug O Rama, Second one is Rod against Peloquins (sp?) bug catcher at Bug O Rama, third pic is Rod against a white buggy at Bug O rama (not sure who), Fourth is Rod at OCIR against a nice fastback, not sure of who it was.

awesome larry , thx for sharing with us , it's cool to see some news pictures

 ;)
fabs

  Good stuff Larry...   btw...I was the one who assisted Mike with trailering the ruined wreck back to sunny so.cal. ..and almost lost everything on the grapvine when an inconsiderate driver decided to squeeze a lane.     note: upon seeing the car in the burnout box from the tower I almost made executive decision to red light before the lights came down as I was concerned about the rear suspension/camber set too high(positive)....needless to say the picture speaks volumes of that unfortunate day..... 

Thanks for sharing.I never tire of looking at old photos.

I have a LOT more pictures but it's gonna be a couple more weeks before I will have the time to scan and post them. I think you guys will enjoy them so stay posted and have fun to all that are going to EBI, maybe we will get to go next year.....
Larry

x2... the safety factor alone is one reason I'm a much bigger fan of the modern drag cars.

Bill, what ever happened to Matt Forquer after he wrecked his car?  He once brought it up to the Portland Bug In here in Oregon in 1990, I think, along with Adam Wik, Mitch Evensen and Jim and Candy Larsen... just curious if he's still out of VWs altogether or if's doing anything else these days.

Is it me or does the trailer in the pics of the wreck have BRM's?


BTW, Great pics.

Larry fantastic picutres, after EBI and the holidays i will post a few of Yours, Rods and your Dads cars reunited again anther one for the family album, once again thanks for posting they are fantastic.

Yes they do look like BRM's wonder where the trailer is, in a back yard i bet !!!!

Hmmm... similar, but I think not...

yeah, the more I look the more the spokes look right but the lip looks off.  Sorry Mr. Ritchie ;D

Those wheels were made by Cragar.
They were an option on early Shelby Mustangs.
But , I asked Joe Vittone and he said they were where the inspiration for the BRM came from !
Also the 1965 Shelby GT-350 is where the inspiration for the GTV came from !

I have not seen Matt for years. I know he got into MTB riding & racing after the car. I hear he pops into George Jimenez's shop now & then. But I think he got cured of wanting to race VW's after wadding 1 up.

Desperation was built and owned by Dave Folts, Rich Fersch, and me (Marc Buehler). We bought the body sight unseen from a guy in Hollywood who made several for The Love Bug movie.  Although potentially a light weight car, we went with a very stout and heavy roll cage (which proved to be a good move-see picture below). We financed the car by installing Select-A-Drops at night, in my garage. I built the motor and wanted to experiment with new things but Rich and Dave just wanted to have fun and drive the car, so I became bored and stopped going out with them.

[attachment=1]
This is me with the car on our first outing

[attachment=2]
Rich was going through the lights and went air borne,  rolling 3 times. That over weight roll cage left Rich without a scratch and in my opinion, started Rich in off road racing <grin>

[attachment=3]
At the time, we thought the car to be totaled, but a new mag, new wheel, etc. and it was surprisingly easy fixing a fiberglass body.

[attachment=4]
Car fixed and looking good.  The car was eventally sold to someone who painted it blue and was in a magazine where he led people to believe he had built the car. I couldn't see anything different except for the color....sheeeez.



Marc
DRA

great story about desperation, you forgot the part about the original builder/fabricator being killed in some bar fight (if I remember correctly).  I was at that first drag as well and have some pictures of it also.  I bought my oval from Rich and still have it.
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/smitty59/richsbug.jpg)
after it was painted yellow.
jim

      All these pics are so cool to see , thanks guys

Marc,
Is that the Ghia that my dad drove on the left in the last picture? I've been looking for pics of that car for a long time.

Yup, that is Jim Brown's ghia. I'll have to look and see if I have any pictures of it.

Marc

Yeah, I don't remember the details, but I do believe the guy who made the body did die in a some strange way. The whole deal was strange......we heard about the guy, found him, paid him $700 (I think) up front, never saw any examples of his work, and came back in a couple of weeks and picked up the body. You could see the outline of the masking tape covering the air intake and the body was rough. It had only 1 working door and it was up to us to figure out how to make it work.


Rich worked for me and is a super great guy. I can't remember his oval....but then I can't remember a lot of things! <grin>

Sorry for going off subject....

Marc
DRA

     Marc

    Thanks for the DRA stickers and the rally dash plaque.

    Frenchy

Mark,
Sorry I forgot about you being involved with Desperation! I do remember now (thanks for the reminder). I use to go hang around the LaHabra Auto Haus after school, my buddy Aaron worked there. I always liked that car and was in the stands at OCIR when Rich crashed it. I had the 4 quart deep sump off of Desperation on my 57. It had holes drilled in it because the filter was bolted to the side, I had them welded up so i could run it on the street, i bought it when Dave and Rich were going to build a vw dragster instead but they never did. I bought some parts off of Rich when he opened a VW shop in Downey also. When they decide not to build the dragster I also bought the accusump and Aaron bought the 89.9 autocraft pistons and cylinders.
I attached a few more pics, first one is the banner we use to hang in our pits, Star Drywall was my Dad's company that sponsored the cars.
second one is the vanity plate off of my 57 now hanging in my garage
third is a old Bug o Rama poster for Bug O Rama 20, it has some neat cars on it, G. Browns dragster my brother drove, Dave Folt's turbo dragster, Carey Taylor's car, Dave Perkins car, Pat Nelsons car, and not sure who's Ghia it was (sorry). I have the poster hanging in my garage now, not perfect shape but is still cool.

Old Bug In pic

stole this off of a friends facebook page  "praise the lowered"

Found a old pic of one of the Bug In queen competitions, I know two of the girls but will not name anyone to protect the Innocent!
Larry

love all these old pics...use to have so many....i lost them in my divorce!! :'(

love the stories and cool pix....thanks

I remember seeing the pictures in their shop and elsewhere, but what was the story behind the tiger pictures at GBE?

Cool pic's  ;D

If I'm not mistaken, the Bergs had a neighbor or friend that had and/or trained the tiger .... so they brought them over for these pics.
Correct? Anyone?

I believe it was someone they knew. I remember when Dee held a big birthday party for Gene at the shop, not sure which one but it was during the Race For The Gold time frame. The tiger was brought over during the party. Could have been other times also but I remember that time.
Larry

Correct Tom, we were told there was a neighbor in the same industrial park that kept the tigers. I remember being able to pet it and being scared
to death it would maul or eat me. One other notable thing that happend at Gene's party. Someone hired a lap dancer for Gene....Frankly you
could see Gene was embarrassed, not surprising since Gene always struck me as a modest and private man. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I
think it was his 50th. birthday party.