The Cal-look Lounge

And how long ago.

(http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/books/californiavwbeetle.jpg)

It's all Sarge's fault... And Ron Fleming, Greg Aronson, John Lazenby, Jim Holmes, Darrell Vittone,.......

My older Brother got me in to VW's around 1970 (I was about twelve). He had a red Meyers Manx and a '63 Ragtop bug. The Ragtop was typical with wide tires, American Mag wheels, flaired fiberglass fenders, scoop decklid, Hamcan hood, glasspack exhaust, etc.

His two cars made me really like VW's, but there were two other cars that made me decide on the Cal-Look style for myself.
 
#1) Local neighborhood car owned buy a guy named Rusty Mazzery (I think). It was a spotless white '67 with BRM's, this was around 1972

#2) Marc Souter's Aqua '67 with EMPI 5 spokes... I think I first met him around 1974, that's when I built my first Cal-Look, a 64 Sunroof. Lowered front, Porsche chrome rims & hubcaps, Michelin X tires, fiberglass buggy seats, eight track stereo, one of Gene Berg's first "quiet" mufflers (Gene bought a bunch of WWII Jeep surplus muff's). I painted it Ford Grabber Blue. (I was sixteen :))

~DR.

dune buggies and hot VWs..The day my dad threw down a new copy of the Feb.'75 edition on the kitchen table when i was a kid... I was hooked!

I've liked bugs for abouy as long as I can remember, but originally all I wanted to do was get it running well and drive it. When I got the February 1994 HotVW's in the mail, everything changed.The cover picture was Mike Smith's red '67 doing a giant burnout, and there were features on Mike's car, Scott Smith's Black '67 with nearly every EMPI accessory known to man and Angie Vanderhorst's green '67. After I read that magazine, I was obsessed with turning my bug into a Cal looker. That's still my favorite magazine issue and Mike Smith's car is one my favorite Bugs.

My dad and uncle were in to VW's, kind of a family sickness I suppose.  We used to go to FAT and JSC, Barret Ent, Berg's, BFY, etc.... when I was a kid.  Working @ the gas station in Orange while in HS didn't help me.  Gary and Clyde occasionally came to get gas in their cars, among other guys I knew in town running VW's.  I already had the itch......now I've broke the skin.   ;D

What got me into callook is the fact that i saw beetles beating most of the detroit iron on th estreets in the beginning of the 80's.
My dad was into(and still is) v-8's and so was i till i saw the beetles and i had to have one just to kick the v-8's their asses too and
it was cheaper to tune one then a v-8. 8)

li read my first vw magazine in the late 80's maybe 89 and had my first car in 94
begin go into resto cal (original , just dropped) and at the end of 95 go to the oldschool way with the 74 , and in 99 into cal look with the 61

1987, thanks to the meatheads at high school that drove V8's.

1982, thanks to the magazines seen below.
And that DKK article in particular...
(sorry, stole this pic from one of Nico86's posts!)

 ;D :D That reminds me I have to scan and post them here !

For me as I've always loved old race cars, muscle cars and old rally cars, and as I also love vw's, I guess that cal-look was for me ! ;D And Cal-look and old-speed are two "vw styles" that have a real history starting in the 50's and 60's.

I second that. Now the new one just needs to hit the shelves.

--louis

Growing up a played pop warner football with a kid name Brett Hunsaker. Our families became friends and my father even worked for Brett father's construction company. A few years later, I was 16 [1976] and was visiting my dad at his office. In their warehouse Brett's older brother Mark stored his Beetle. I can't remember the year but it was plum and had BRM's on it. Mark was an early member of DKP. It left quite an impression. At the time I had a '69 Impala, but I had a neighbor who decided to sell their '66 ruby red sunroof Beetle. I jumped on it and never looked back. A few months after I bought the '66 I was cruising Whittier Blvd and ran into a few other VW nuts that just started a club, DKK. The rest is history.

-jeffrey

Mark's plum beetle was a '66. My 1st set of BRM's came off that car when John Fawley owned it . Mike is still pretty heavily into VW's he has a Super Street car that Ron Fleming  drives  (and  Keith Sueme now and again) .

Oops, I'm getting old, I was friends with Brett, Mark's younger brother. It was a nice car, I actually thought it was an earlier car. A the time ['76] it didn't look like Mark was using it much. I think I saw a pic of Mike's current car in Ultra VW or Volksworld recently.

-jeffrey

I bought my 68 bug in 2004.
Have it restored during the same year and always like the simple look of Old school and Cal look. As lot of people, the buy of the california look book show me the way  :D
I've hesitate with resto cal 2 years ago, but definitively go the cal look way since.

A friend lent me a pile of Hot VWs back in early 1975... The rest is history. 8)

That little book had something to do with my obsession too - That and seeing the feature on Dave Rhoads 64 :)

 Way back a friend of mine  give me a few Hot VWs from the years 1976-77, and the I was sold!!!.... ;)

In the mid-80's,a subscription on VW-Trends (here in Belgium it al had to start)  ;D  :D

My Dad and my Uncles Lonnie and Floyd.

Besides my father buying a new Beetle in 1969, it was seeing a red 68-69 Cal Look car parked in front of the Buena Park shopping center in December 1981.  Bright red, lowered, 8 spokes (I think), Vitalonis, 135's, everything was either blacked out or body color. I'd love to find out who owned that car. It was parked near one of the entrances in a no stopping zone. Anyone?

I worked at Sharrett volkswagen in Maryland and a mechanic that worked there Joe Bausman had a 65' with" BUGASMN" plates that I saw in the parking lot .That got me thinking of the speedester replica I dreamed about when I was 14 or 15.Next was a friend Bob Cooks pink 62' rag named "Pepto" that made me want a ragtop.Finally a trip to bugout and a blue prostreet oval that made me have to have an oval.Then of course Keith's book and it was on! What came after was my porsche inspired 56' rag named "Ferdinand".You never really shake the bug you just kinda pass it on to the next person! ;D

I was about 14 years old and my oldest brother owned about 5-6 bugs within a short period. All of them beeing sort of 80's lookers.
I remember especially one that I was sooo in love with.
It was a white 60 something with empi 5 spoke and no need for a center console due to the massive Pioneer casette, amp, equalizer stereo mounted under the dash. I actually thinked it reached as far as the tunnell. Front suspension was lowered and there were no trim or bumpers.

Definetly the first car I remember as a kickstart for my VW interest. Probably also my taste for lookers.

I think it was the Bill Taormina '63, the Aronson replica in the Feb '96 issue of Volksworld. Up until that point I hadn't really settled on a style I liked - in fact my '68 was lowered all round, and nearly ended up with graphic'd paint at one point... :o I got my first issue of Volksworld the month after the Dave Rhoads feature, but picked it up at Beetle Bash that year and thought it was the coolest car in the mag! Then I got KS's Cal Look Bible and the rest is history!

Blind luck...I happened to be in the right place at the right time.  My folks had a '56 sedan that I learned to drive in, so I got started at an early age.  Like others have posted, it was KS that steered me back onto the Cal Look path after floundering in the dunes for 20 years... something for which I will always be grateful. :-* ;)

Early 90's when I was 13 with a peppermint Beetle in Volks World, no trim, empi 5's and a hot 2.0 with NOS. A few years later I fell in with the wrong crowd in England, I now donate money to Pete and Alex in exchange for going fast and looking good (well as good as I can)  ;D

 :o :o :o ;D

Street cars don't leave that gritty feeling in your teeth, either.

They've also been known to take money for 'other services' too  :o :o :o

"A few years later I fell in with the wrong crowd"

I think there are quite a few of us who have been down that path  ::) ;) Its just funny how VW's & Cal Look always draw you back :)

My experience was similar to Jeff Hickens.  My older next door neighbor bought a former DKP car (Hulberts(?) sparkle brown oval w/BRM's) in 1976 or 77 and it was parked in the driveway every day at home.  So for my first car, instead of buying a primered 66 Ford Falcon pick up (almost did), I bought a 67 Fastback for $800 that had a runny bright red paint job.  At that time, I worked for Albertsons grocery store in Brea and this gal I worked with (Paula) said her boyfriend was the president of a VW club and I should show up to a meeting.  Her boyfriend was Bill McKinley the pres. of DKK.  After the first meeting in late 1978 I dont think I missed one for 3 or 4 years.  These guys were NUTS!  Almost all of em'.  Sneaking me underaged beers across the table and always throwing some of the most insane parties.  I loved all the rules.  How we were required to caravan (in line always and no lane change until the car in front is 1/2 across the line etc..) very classy, totally fun, I couldnt say no.  Of course the fastback was never voted in and it was traded by late 79 to Marty Cohen from AutoHaus for a beat up 56 that eventually earned the DKK stickers.
Looking back it was probably the DKP car next door that I was never allowed to even touch let alone ride in.  So, it was decided that I would build one of my own, and the DKK crowd I was with was an incredible influence on how it was done.. 
Worm

If you had video taped alot of that stuff, many of us would probably be in jail! Anyone remember the party Alex and I had at our house when we were forced to move? The LA County Sheriff's and their helicopter were our special guests, which gave Don [our other roommate] and myself a ride back to the pokey. That sure was a fun night.

-jeffrey

Hey, don't forget Mark ,that the caravan was ONLY for cars with voted in stickers on em'.  All other cars had to lag behind or find another lane.  We always ran the far right lane even on the freeway.  I just remembered one time driving south on the 57 freeway, one of the loonies (not in the line) drove past all of us at 80mph while sitting in the passenger seat with his arm resting out the window!  He had the tip of his left foot on the gas and was hiding his hand on the bottom of the steering wheel making it look like a ghost was driving.  Too funny.  I think that was same guy that at Hillcrest park one "wax party" day, started his car in 1st gear from OUTSIDE his vehicle.  Then while laying on the hood backwards he steered the car around the park with no one in it.....  Funny.

I got hit by a white 69' with T-bars, literally, when I was 6. Rolled up on the bonnet and down again hitting the tarmac.

I later also found out that i could climb the front, run across the roof and then slide down the back on my a$$, until this time rolling off the back and copping a black eye in the process.

After all the pain suffered, I've been fascinated by them and now own a 69 cal-look with t-bars, stock 66 de-luxe, stock 56, stock 69 panel lo-light in rat-cal process.

stay safe

benito

As a lot of people had, my parents had many Beetles when I was a kid, so always been around them.

But it was the 1994 VolksWorld magazine - issue with Schwimmer's 59 on the cover that did it for me, then seeing Ivan's 67 beat up the streets of Guildford on a regular basis.

I remember trying to follow/keep up with it once in my Polo - no chance! Who would have thought 13-4 years later I would get to drive it to Santa Pod! Happy Days!

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