the 40mm 12 sec black '67.. Dave Conklin thread....

[Jim Ratto]

How about some talk and pics of Dave's black Euro '67...   I was stunned how fast this car went on 40mm heads @ Carlsbad when he brought it out.
If I recall, Dave it was a 2276 with some compresh, K8 and those magic Primo heads....
Tell us more about your car.
 
Jim

[Brandon Sinclair]

That engine in that car was sweet.  I remember the threads on the old CLF talking about the engine-everyone liked to give Dave a hard time for the small valved heads.  I think it had some funky jetting too like 150 mains and 150 airs with 40 vents, but the numbers didn't lie!

[Zach Gomulka]

That engine in that car was sweet.  I remember the threads on the old CLF talking about the engine-everyone liked to give Dave a hard time for the small valved heads.  I think it had some funky jetting too like 150 mains and 150 airs with 40 vents, but the numbers didn't lie!

Did you smell something??

[Cornpanzer]

awww, shucks  

I have never given the black car a name, but she has been a good little beast.  I will need to scan some photos from when I bought her.

Interestingly, I still have those heads on the car.  High 10's with 40mm valves.  hehehe

When we were building the car, I was on a very tight budget.  I built the 2276 with a Demello welded crank and a set of Rimco super rods.  Eventually, the crank cracked, but it held up to a lot of abuse.  The heads belonged to a friend that used them for a few years on his race car.  They were old 041 castings with a mild "D" port (unwelded) and 40mm intake / 37 mm exhaust.  Cam has always been an FK-8 with Berg rockers.  Compression was set at just under 10:1 and it did great on the 94 octane gas that we have.
The box was pretty simple with a super beetle mainshaft and 1.48 third and 1.14 fourth.  Car would cruise down the highway just fine at about 4000 rpm.

This was all going on during the height of the DKP era of the late 90's and I used to pick Jim Kaforski's brain about transmission combos and the like.  One day I asked Jim if he thougt I could get the car into the 13's with that combo.  His answer was ' not likely with those small heads'.  

First time to the track was on recapped slicks and the heavy Americans.  First pass, the car pulled hard all the way into fourth and then went flat and nosed over.  Hmmm...weird.  Time slip was a 13.51 though!    (turns out that the fuel vent was plugged and I was sucking the float bowls dry)

Never really made any major changes to get the car down to the low 12s aside from seat time and little tweaks (and slicks of course).  I tried to pull as much weight out of the car as possible when I went to the track in an effort to save the trans and shave hundreths off the time slip.

The car eventually ran high 12.30's on pure pump gas on a 90+ degree day at my local track.  Meanwhile, there were three "friends" who were participating in the Renn Kafer Cup class heavily and one spring, all of them mysteriously picked up 2-3 tenths with no changes to the cars.  Propelyene Oxide had been discovered by the Cal-Look world.  Pretty soon, myself and another Cornpanzer (who will remain un-named) started experimenting with the stuff and found with some jetting changes we could pick up a few tenths.  Eventually I had it down into the 12.20's with the fuel juiced.

Carlsbad was very frustrating.  At home, the car would rip off 1.58 sixty foots on a good day and my 12.20 pass at Cbad was a 1.64.  6 hund on the start is probably a tenth and a half at the big end, so I really think that the car would have been deep in the 12.0's if I could have got traction.  Without a doubt, it could have run in the3 12.20's at sea level Cbad on pump gas with everything else being perfect.

I still have everything to take it back to N/A when I decide it is time.  That is a great combo.  brutal throttle response and yet still VERY street drivable.  

[Cornpanzer]

That engine in that car was sweet.  I remember the threads on the old CLF talking about the engine-everyone liked to give Dave a hard time for the small valved heads.  I think it had some funky jetting too like 150 mains and 150 airs with 40 vents, but the numbers didn't lie!

Did you smell something??

hey, I got a bum rap for that    You really think that some guy from Ohio figured that out?  I was just the only guy who admitted playing with the nasty stuff! 

[Jim Ratto]

no matter valve size or fuel, your car hauled ass, Dave. The 12.30 on pump gas, you must be damn proud! 

[deano]

Dave, as you will no doubt recall, you allowed me to take a spin in your car at Milan, and without a doubt, your 2276/K8/9.0/40mm combo had the best mid-range, and torque of any of those engine I have ever drove. As you say, brutal torque says it best. From 3500-4500, that engine flats gets your attention...

[Cornpanzer]

Ha, I will never forget that 
I figured the only way I was getting my car back was if you ran out of gas or got arrested!  Seriously, what you said and Schwimmer  said stand out as the best compliments that ever got.  My Cal-Look heros dig my car...what more could you ask for!

Remember driving it to that party the night before Milan on the freeway with slicks and the line of traffic behind us getting shotgunned by the stones off of the tires?     Had no idea why nobody would get close enough to pass us. 

Here are a few pics.  1) shortly after I bought it (in 93 I think) I drove it for a summer with a 1600, 8-spokes and blade bumpers.
2) painted it in the garage with a lot of help from my dad.  15 years later, the paint is starting to fail    3) eeeek!  Polished 5 spokes 

[javabug]

I've said this before, but if there is one car that sits RIGHT, it is Dave's.  Of course the killer wheel/tire combo does not hurt.  Also, as far as the engine combo goes, once in a while I put on the OSV Carlsbad DVD and watch the few seconds with the engine lid up and the car idling/blipping the linkage.  For inspiration, of course.

[The Ideaman]

Dave, I'm pretty surprised with the low compression it picked up anything with the "can".  Around the same time, we put some Propylene oxide into a low compression 2387, and it didn't do a thing except smell funny.  Other guys with high(12-13 to one) compression picked up 2-3 tenths.  Your car and the Palmers' were my favorites of the "Behind the orange curtain" tour.

[Zach Gomulka]

That engine in that car was sweet.  I remember the threads on the old CLF talking about the engine-everyone liked to give Dave a hard time for the small valved heads.  I think it had some funky jetting too like 150 mains and 150 airs with 40 vents, but the numbers didn't lie!

Did you smell something??

hey, I got a bum rap for that    You really think that some guy from Ohio figured that out?  I was just the only guy who admitted playing with the nasty stuff! 

I knew you were down in the 12's on pump... but I didn't know it was that far down!

Here's one vote for putting it back on IDA's

[Jim Ratto]

never ridden in Dave's car, but it sure goes against "the need" for 11:1, megaflow race heads, FK89 and everything else that turned fast street VW's into nothing much more than "conversation pieces".

[Cornpanzer]

Dave, I'm pretty surprised with the low compression it picked up anything with the "can".  Around the same time, we put some Propylene oxide into a low compression 2387, and it didn't do a thing except smell funny.  Other guys with high(12-13 to one) compression picked up 2-3 tenths.  Your car and the Palmers' were my favorites of the "Behind the orange curtain" tour.

Thinking about it now, it was pretty silly to spend $50 a gallon on a toxic chemical in an attempt to eke anoth tenth out of the car if that.  I suspect that a tenth was all it ever gave me.

Thanks Jim for the kind words.  The car means a lot to me.  I dont play with it as much as I should, but it isnt going anywhere.

Like I said, the paint is getting pretty hinky, so someday I will go through it.  I have a lot of choices.  I keep telling myself that I am ready to chop out the roll bar and return it to the IDA spec...but then I drive it!  Seriously, that kind of power in a VW is a real hoot.  I am totally done with the racing thing, (way too lazy for that action any more) but part of me knows that there is a 10.50 or better in that car and I would like to have one last blast at driving to the track, laying down a mid 10 and driving it home.

Other days I look at it and want to strip it down, dechrome it, buggy bumper it and build a "real" Cal-Look car like these guys from the UK and Europe are building.  But I dont know...it has an awful lot of history just like it is.

The third option is to just freshen it up and return it to the way it was in 2003 when we drug the cars out to California.  I just cant leave things alone.  I have the attention span of a retarded kitten and I get restless if I'm not changing things. 

[Cornpanzer]

 

[Jim Ratto]

Dave, I'm pretty surprised with the low compression it picked up anything with the "can".  Around the same time, we put some Propylene oxide into a low compression 2387, and it didn't do a thing except smell funny.  Other guys with high(12-13 to one) compression picked up 2-3 tenths.  Your car and the Palmers' were my favorites of the "Behind the orange curtain" tour.

Thinking about it now, it was pretty silly to spend $50 a gallon on a toxic chemical in an attempt to eke anoth tenth out of the car if that.  I suspect that a tenth was all it ever gave me.

Thanks Jim for the kind words.  The car means a lot to me.  I dont play with it as much as I should, but it isnt going anywhere.

Like I said, the paint is getting pretty hinky, so someday I will go through it.  I have a lot of choices.  I keep telling myself that I am ready to chop out the roll bar and return it to the IDA spec...but then I drive it!  Seriously, that kind of power in a VW is a real hoot.  I am totally done with the racing thing, (way too lazy for that action any more) but part of me knows that there is a 10.50 or better in that car and I would like to have one last blast at driving to the track, laying down a mid 10 and driving it home.

Other days I look at it and want to strip it down, dechrome it, buggy bumper it and build a "real" Cal-Look car like these guys from the UK and Europe are building.  But I dont know...it has an awful lot of history just like it is.

The third option is to just freshen it up and return it to the way it was in 2003 when we drug the cars out to California.  I just cant leave things alone.  I have the attention span of a retarded kitten and I get restless if I'm not changing things. 

you and I are riding in the same boat. I look @ my car, and think how proud I was of it when it ran 12.60's, and though it did it on pump gas, it was still a close ratio, slick'd prima donna that truly was driven a fraction of the time I drive it now. My paint is definitely showing its 20 year old too, lots of nicks and knocks. I look at and think "one of these days....  I will repaint it same color, leave the brightwork, leave the US bumpers, leave the Japanese BRMs...etc", then I get into the groove of "nope I'm gonna build my dream California Look thing, Porsche 930 Ice Blue, fully dechromed, no bumpers, 911 alloys in RSR finish (7" rear), huge cc 230hp flashbulb motor, 5 speed, FTC m/s...etc...", but truly, I think I am going to let my kid's blossoming interest in VW's continue to grow, and end up letting him dictate what we do... within reason of course... (no Baja jobs  )
I think, if you enjoy driving the car with the turbo.... if it blows the cobwebs out of your eyes, then leave it dude... you have the 911S too for the 'refined' side of things, right?  

[.]

Remember driving it to that party the night before Milan on the freeway with slicks and the line of traffic behind us getting shotgunned by the stones off of the tires?     Had no idea why nobody would get close enough to pass us. 

For some reason that still stands out in my memory !?!
Remember the Corvette that passed you on the right on the shoulder  ?
     

[Brandon Sinclair]

Dave what kind of suspension set up did you run in the front and the rear when you were running deep in the twelves?

[nicolas]

i am not a trim-fan, but yours and Art's green car are allowed to have trim. 

[glenn]

i am not a trim-fan, but yours and Art's green car are allowed to have trim. 

There's nothing wrong with having a little "trim" on your car.

Dave's car is one of my two favorite Euro 67s.

[glenn]

i am not a trim-fan, but yours and Art's green car are allowed to have trim. 

There's nothing wrong with having a little "trim" on your car.

Dave's car is one of my two favorite Euro 67s.

I keep telling myself that I am ready to chop out the roll bar and return it to the IDA spec...but then I drive it!

Sorry.. you can't have the IDAs back.... i'm using them.

[louisb]

I love that car and those Americans. Hairdryer or IDAs its still a kick ass car.

--louis

[Neil Davies]

I keep telling myself that I am ready to chop out the roll bar and return it to the IDA spec...but then I drive it!

IDAs maybe, but leave the rollbar in. If it goes shiny side up even running 12's it'll ruin your morning... The bar in there may stop it hurting through the afternoon too.

[Cornpanzer]

Dave what kind of suspension set up did you run in the front and the rear when you were running deep in the twelves?

Branden, its always had the same simple set-up.  Stock torsions in the rear with bus snubbers and cheap oil shocks.  In the front I had a 2.5" narowed beam with drop spindles and three way drag shocks

[Liou]

exact beauty 67 lol

[Cheesepanzer]

Nice comments here for Dave and his sweet car. 

Dave, I never saw the pics with the polished 5-spokes.  You really got the nose down low huh?  

Perhaps you should toss the IDA's back on and add a 5-speed?   

[Cornpanzer]

Blowing the dust off this one. Hopefully you guys can provide some motivation for later this year. Finally uncovered the 67 after about three years in the corner of the garage. The paint is really starting to look rough after 25 years. The motor is wounded and the gearbox is suffering. If I can find time, I’d like to pull the motor out this winter and throw the IDAs back on. Jason at Paradise is sending me some Weber rebuild kits as we speak. Had a lot of fun with this car… need to get it back together.

[70slooker]

Thank you for such a wonderful post!

Hearing this car in front of voa so many years ago is the reason I’m still hanging around these cal look forums/cars

[karl h]

go for it, Dave! hope to see some pics

[andrewlandon67]

Blowing the dust off this one. Hopefully you guys can provide some motivation for later this year. Finally uncovered the 67 after about three years in the corner of the garage. The paint is really starting to look rough after 25 years. The motor is wounded and the gearbox is suffering. If I can find time, I’d like to pull the motor out this winter and throw the IDAs back on. Jason at Paradise is sending me some Weber rebuild kits as we speak. Had a lot of fun with this car… need to get it back together.

Well that's one hell of a way to get the Lounge excited... Any thoughts on what you'll be doing with/to the motor aside from taking it back to IDAs?

[Brandon Sinclair]

Awesome Dave!  If you need some pointers on getting the paint looking good enough for you send me some photos and I will provide some input.  I used to detail on the side and there has been so much advancement in detailing products over the years it is crazy.