Always take a SPARE CAL LOOKER on a Road Trip!

[rick m]

This is another of my all time favorite times on one of the GENE BERG Memorial Cruise trips back east.  The first year I trailered my car back to Detroit (Auburn Hills) for the VWOA Car Show put on by the Michigan VW Club. 

Somewhere in the middle of OHIO, Don Bulitta's 66 dropped a valve.  This was a real bummer for a few minutes until I told Don I would just pull my car out of the trailer, load his up, and we would proceed to drive mine. While I had been showing it the first year I had it completed, I told Don that I built it to drive and we'd unload the car and do just that.

Back to the story.  When I pulled out my car and we had loaded Don's 66 in my trailer, I will never forget Don's wit and what he said in the moment.  It was hilarious.  While we were readying my car, cleaning the windows and putting on his 66 front bra to protect my paint,  his infamous comment still lives in my memory.

Don stated, "It was a good thing we brought a spare car along!"  We've laughed at that story again and again. What followed this event was another story in and of itself, as Gary Berg flew into Michigan and he joined us on the cruise and helped put Don's motor back together.  I will let Don Bulitta comment on that.

This was one of the best times we ever had...during the early days of the initial BERG CRUISES!

Rick M

[Donny B.]

Yeah, I was definitely bummed out when that happened.  By the way it was in Iowa about 40 miles west of Des Moines. It was a great experience working on the car with Gary issuing instructions.  From the time we began to the time we fired it back up I think it took about 4 1/2 hours.  We had to pull the engine and the head and put in a new valve.  The seat needed to be ground and the valve lapped in.  The interesting thing is that I made it almost all the way home when I dropped another valve and had to drive it home on 3 cylinders.

[javabug]

That's a good story.  Did you make Don pull the trailer, or did he get to drive your '67, Rick?

BTW, Donny must be right about Iowa—there are too many hills in those pics to be OHIO!   

[Donny B.]

Rick and I rode in his '67.  Rick's wife drove the motorhome pulling the trailer.

[rick m]

Yeah...my wife will never let me hear the end of that story either.  The motor home with trailer was 68ft long and IOWA had all the roads torn up at the time and she kept having to drive through barricade's on the freeway.

Still, the whole trip and the camaraderie was great!  It was a trip we will all remember.

Rick M

[madfrog]

That's a good story, now I have a good reason to invoque to buy a trailer 

And maybe then I should get rid of my friends with unreliable cars ...

Thnks for sharing.

madfrog

[rick m]

Hey Madfrog,

One of the things we always joked about on the cruise is how we had always heard that big motors were not dependable, got terrible mileage and would never start.  I can still remember sitting in the middle of Wyoming at Little America hotel with Don Bulitta, Art Thraen and myself standing in minus 32 degree weather and joking about this.  All our cars started, idled, warmed up and away we went.

We are all very detail oriented guys and made a point to have the best tuned cars on the cruises.  In fact, I drove 5200 miles round trip, 2600 miles one way, to Auburn Hills, Michigan and back without one incident...other than having to raise my front end a little for the bad roads back east.

We make a point of advising all the guys with marginal cars to get them road ready when we make a long trip. We've helped put a number of cars back together on a few of the cruises too, including complete tear downs and rebuilds. We have a lot of great stories around this.

Rick M

[madfrog]

Hey Madfrog,

One of the things we always joked about on the cruise is how we had always heard that big motors were not dependable, got terrible mileage and would never start.  I can still remember sitting in the middle of Wyoming at Little America hotel with Don Bulitta, Art Thraen and myself standing in minus 32 degree weather and joking about this.  All our cars started, idled, warmed up and away we went.

Rick M

Yes Rick,

I must say I amazed by the way those Hi Power engines start at once, warm up, rev up and idle perfectly  trough all kind of traffic without missing a beat.

Very impressive!

I am not sure tough that I would drive up to the SCC event from Paris.  At least not without a spare Cal Look  AND a trailer 

But I am sure such a trek would  be great fun and would bring plenty of good memories .

madfrog

madfrog

[rick m]

Speaking of high power machines...you certainly picked up a couple nice ones.  Do you now own the brown 67 I've seen on the lounge that used to belong to Lanny Hussey?

Rick M

[madfrog]

Speaking of high power machines...you certainly picked up a couple nice ones.  Do you now own the brown 67 I've seen on the lounge that used to belong to Lanny Hussey?

Rick M

Yes I do,  it is a sharp and fast car but still very "user friendly" .

What never cease to amaze me with this car is that  you can take it to the dragstip or in town for diner,

 you know that the car will behave perfectly and that you will have a lot of fun too.

 A fabulous testimony of Lanny's expertise.

madfrog

[rick m]

Madfrog,

Now you have a car that is living proof that large motors can be driven.  Take it on a road trip.  You will be surprised how well it runs if Lanny built the motor.  Heck, big motors idle down the motorway on the idle circuts and can actually get decent mileage if you don't have your foot in the throttle.

I attached a couple shots of my old 67 that was on the 1996 February issue cover for Hot VWs.  I like the roadster that Geoff Petersen built so much (the one you now own) that it compelled me to build a VW Rod of my own.

Stay in touch.

Rick Mortensen