1990-1993 (FORMERLY 4 YEARS- NOW CONDENSED TO 3)

[alex d]

great writing like always! can't wait for the followup

[Jim Ratto]

Summer months of 1990, or more specifically, The Weekend It All Changed

Ok back to summer of 1990,  

So when I realized not only was I missing a suitable merged header and mufflers, but also a gearbox which would live, I had to accept none of what I was planning was going to happen in any kind of hurry. Luckily my parents hadn't been on my case about the mess in the garage, with the old engine gutted and spewing oil onto the floor. In addition to the black-green Fiat X19 I had been driving around, I also picked up a 1970 Kombi Bus for $300.00. It was cosmetically not the greatest, with an original wine-red lower and white roof, but it supposedly had a fresh rebuilt in it and mechanically seemed alright. I thought it would be good for camping and hauling parts around in, though the Fiat had worked ok for both conditions as well (yes seriously). A few weeks later, when driving the bus, I noticed the oil pressure light glowing more on than I was comfortable with. I figured, optimistically, that the guy before me probably had 5W30 or something in it, and I'd just drain it and refill with Kendall 40W. But when I drained it, the oil twinkled and pooled in a shimmering metallic blob in the catch pan. Obviously now the Bus needed a motor too. So it would sit while the stroker was attended to for the '67.
I asked at work about what to do about my trans. I got conflicting opinions, of course. Mark, the manager at the time, thought I'd better go full tilt with axles, gussets, etc. Jerry, who seemed to never take anything I did seriously, thought I could get by with a snap ring Super Diff and "some good god#mn mounts, you're not goin to Indy!". In the end, I talked to the guy that did the shop's off road trannys and got his advice. He merely said "I know what you need, no problem kid." (This was Mike Collins, later he'd be the same guy that tried talking me out of running 48IDA's on my street car, but then caved in and sold me his for $400.)
And in a day or two, Mike pulled into the back parking lot, in his yellow Mitsubishi pickup truck, with a swingaxle trans, complete with axles, tubes and boots. He walked up to the counter, quietly approached me and almost in a whisper said "Kid, your tranny's in the back of my truck. Don't let Jerry know it's yours. He's still waiting for me to get his stuff done. Where do you want it?"
I blinked in disbelief. (How could this guy I barely know moved me "up the list", even ahead of Jerry?). "How much do I owe you?"
Mike: "Four hundred bucks. Not now, whenever you can. Don't starve over it." .
Wow. How come that went so easy? Nobody yelling at me. Nobody making me feel dumb. Nobody trying to get rich off a dumb teenager. Only problem was trying to figure out how to get a swingaxle trans home in a Fiat X19....

Oh yeah, Frank to the rescue again, he had a 1973 Ford Courier truck.

So now it came down to the header. What to do? I believe it was this week, on Friday morning, Mark the manager said "You hear about that show tomorrow in So Cal? Cost Mesa fairgrounds? VW Jamboree?"
I replied "yeah I saw something about it in Hot VW's last month, why"
Mark: "Jimmy, take the day off tomorrow, go check it out. You should see one of those Orange County shows. It'll blow that little mind of yours. Go ahead buddy, take tomorrow and head on down..."
I stammered out "You sure that's cool? They have swap meets down there too? Think I can find a header?"
And Mark didn't say anything, he just did his typical big wide grin, squinted and put his shades on. I learned soon what that meant.

And so the following day was The Day. It would be the day my aimless teenage life went from flopping around between dead end girls and dumb ideas, towards a real sense of focus and accepting who I was and was about to become. It would be the day I stopped caring about the trivial and started to give a crap about making the most out of what I could do. I would start noticing detail. I would start listening. I would start to weed through bullsh*t.

The next day I quietly threw a change of clothes into the boot of the Fiat, stuck a wad of cash in my shorts pocket and pointed the Fiat towards Los Angeles.

More soon,

[leec]

Loving the stories. It makes me think I was born too late and in the wrong part of the world

[Nico86]

That's the kind of things I'd like to read in a car magazine Thanks for sharing!

[andrewlandon67]

Holy hell, Jim... this is incredible.

[Good-Old-Ragtop60]

Thanks for sharing your memories. Reading the storys is great!
I think it would make a nice book. 

[guillaume]

Love those stories Jim. I'm impatient to read the next chapter

[Sven/DFL]

Perfect! Can't wait for the next part! 😄


Manche fahren so langsam - die werden nicht geblitzt, sondern gemalt!!!

[Jim Ratto]

Thanks again for all the nice comments. This was a slice of time that meant a lot to me. 

In fact, the day I am about to discuss, (actually the weekend, as the drive down was Saturday and the show itself was on Sunday) is probably more responsible for me still being into this hobby than anything else.

We'll begin the long, strange trip to Southern California shortly. 

[Jim Ratto]

A Searing Day, Headed South on Interstate 5, to Costa Mesa

Going through glovebox of the '67 over the weekend, while looking for more old pictures, I found this, the original map that had been used so many times to find stuff in Southern CA, including my way to Costa Mesa for Jamboree.

My plan, as I headed south on Interstate 680 out of Pleasanton, was to catch CA Highway 1 down in Monterey, and take the coast down as far as I could, then eventually weave and snake my way through greater Los Angeles, and hopefully end up in Orange County sometime later that night. Highway 1 runs exactly along the western edge of North America between basically Carmel CA and San Luis Obispo, CA. From there you hop on US 101 and head inland a bit and drive through the central coast wine country, and then skirt Santa Barbara, meeting up with Highway 1 again near Ventura CA, winding south through Malibu and the snarls of Santa Monica, etc. My plan would avoid Malibu and the crowds near there. Actually south of Ventura, I had no plan. Hence the map.
The drive in the Fiat through San Jose and south to Gilroy was quick and boring. The weather was typical early morning East Bay Area mid summer, clear skies and moderate temps. By the time I got to Gilroy it was nearing 11am and the sun began to penetrate the targa top of the X19. I stopped while heading west on 152 (towards the coast) and stowed the roof panel in the front trunk. As I drov closer to the coast, the sky began to turn to gloom. Fog banks were just beyond the beach and the air took on a definite chill. This wasn't what I wanted. My trip all alone to So Cal was supposed to be sunny and celebratory. This overcast crap was the pits. Hours of headlights on, poking around in fogged in coast highway just spelled boredom and frustration. In Carmel I made a decision. I would change my route, and take CA 152 back inland, all the way back very deep into the armpit of the San Joaquin Valley and catch Interstate 5 south. I was somewhat familiar with 5, only in that if you stayed on it long enough, and your car didn't fry, you'd eventually end up near Disneyland. Which had to be near this VW show...
As I headed east, past the yellowed grassland hills near Mission San Juan Bautista, the weather did, of course, warm to my liking, and beyond. Summiting Pacheco Pass, the Fiat was being buffeted by waves of hot wind from the east. Descending into the bowels of Santa Nella, the heat seemed to double upon itself. I kept one eye on the road, one on the map sprawled out on the passenger seat, and one on the coolant gauge (which was edging to the trouble end of the scale.... a true Fiat trait). In the distance I could see the mirage like image of I5 and the silhouettes of diesel trailer trucks heading north and south. By now it was 1pm. I was running way behind some imaginary schedule. I met I-5 and got on, southbound.
If you traveled I-5 in this area 25 years ago, you'll know that there was little in the way of anything for what seemed like hours. No road signs or exits with any type of means to rescue an overheating Italian junk sports car with 58,000 miles on it. Or a kid with just cash and a change of underwear, but no water or food. As I headed south, I grew silently afraid of the what-if's, what if I run out of gas. What if the car boils over. What if a wheel falls off. What if I get lost. What if there are no merged headers in the swap. To hell with the what if's. I stuck a cassette in the deck and turned it way up. Rolling Stones Hot Rocks, (like a best of) with all the songs that made the band famous. Songs like "Ruby Tuesday", "19th Nervous Breakdown", "Gimme Shelter" came and went, as I thought I was getting closer to Costa Mesa. The lack of road signs did that. As the tape came close to finishing side two ("You Can't Always Get What You Want" {ain't that the god@m truth I thought to myself}), a faded green road sign came into view: Bakersfield 149 miles, and Los Angeles 251 miles. I was pushing 66 miles per hour. You do the math. This was way before the days of Siri, GPS, sat nav or cell phones. I glanced over at the wind-blown road map. I had no idea where I was. It seemed it was about every hour or more, I'd see some kind of sign, but they didn't say much, just "Kamm Ave" or "145 North", never mentioning any city names. Maybe because there were none. There was nothing but heat, and this weird aroma of cattle and hot Fiat. The landscape wasn't reassuring either. To my left was nothing but flat. Ahead of me, flat. To my right, west of me, wrinkled hills of this strange yellow-grey dust crawled by. Huge insects were splattering all over the windshield. It grew hotter and hotter. From trips as a child with my parents, I knew I-5 was a long, straight, boring drive, and that the "halfway marker" between the Bay Area and Los Angeles was a place called "Coalinga." All I remembered about Coalinga was some gas stations and when I was a kid there was a bad earthquake there. So as I pressed on, I kept on the watch for this Coaling place. And the temperature gauge continued to creep in the wrong direction.
Maybe this was a mistake.
By the time I reached the Coalinga exit, I was on side-two on the Stones tape for the second time. And I froze as I remembered something: I was supposed to be somewhere at that time. I had met a girl through the pizza place where I was previously employed. We had gotten to know one another, maybe for a month or so. On the day I was now driving to Orange County (alone), I was supposed to be at a family picnic with her and her mom, etc. Oh crap. Now what? I know, just don't think about it. Just think about your motor-to-be, that header, your Bus and the engine it needs, the sound of merged dual mufflers, practice knowing part numbers, early 200mm pressure plate is 311 141 031.. something. Gasket kit, 111 198 007A... holy crap now look at the temp gauge. I slowed my pace down to about 61 or 62 mph and it began to fall. Next sign was for a place called Avenal, and a prison. Los Angeles was still 190 miles in the hot distance....

More later.

[Martin S.]

Great story! Brings me back to those trips we did heading south down the I5 from Vancouver. I remember we always freaked each other out with stories about the I5 Killer (who killed 44 people along the route) and played songs from the Pacific Northwest early 90's was quite the era. Here's a taste - I-5 Killers, Vol. 3
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/i5killers3

[Jim Ratto]

As Night Falls, on Interstate 5, Orange County Bound (Summer 1990)

I maintained a balance of pace and engine temp, slowly, in a southerly direction. In another hour or so, I came upon the dusty, lonely exit for CA 46, Lost Hills. Unlike this exit in today's terms, in 1990 it was little more than a few gas stations, and a Jack in the Box. I needed fuel and I needed a break. A quick fill up and a large Dr Pepper and I was back headed south. As I got back on the 5 freeway I thought about the weird names all these gritty little towns had. Who settled in a patch of dirt and tumbleweeds and decided to "spruce up" the area with a cheery name like Lost Hills?
Within 15 minutes, the coolant gauge had my attention again. By now it was after 5pm and the valley was being baked. In another half hour, I decided to try something, and exited at Highway 58, Buttonwillow. This was much like the stop at Lost Hills, nothing but flatland, a few fast food places and the smell of heat and diesel. I pulled into one of the truck-stop refilling stations and looked for the water hose (which was free to use in those days, no need to pay). After seeing the pink hose laying across the corner of the lot, I parked the X19 near it and proceeded to soak the radiator, through the small grill under the front bumper. I flooded the entire front fascia of the car for a good 10-15 minutes. A sun-hammered half-bake, with a big brim hat and no shirt approached me and just stared down at me. I ignored him at first, figuring he was gonna ask me for money or a ride. After an awkward minute or so, he growled out "That ain't gonna work." I turned and glared at him. He stood over me, blocking out the piercing sunlight. "Huh?", I asked.
"You worried 'bout Grapevine? You goin to LA?"
"Car's running warm, I'm just trying this to cool it off, but yeah I'm going to LA"
"That ain't gonna work. You got 50 miles before you even get to Grapevine."
And with that he limped off into the weeds.
Well, I had a car and clothes on, so I figured I was the brighter of the two of us, and kept watering the grill, while the car idled. I checked the temp gauge and it had fallen a measurable amount. Mr sunstroke didn't know. I was right, as most 19 years old always are. Or assume that they are. Back on I-5....
And of course, within a song or two from Doors' "Strange Days" the gauge was mocking me too. Needle had to prove me wrong and sunburn guy right. More juggling speed and temperature and more bad smells, and exits off the freeway for nothing. And in the heat haze, off in the distance I could see a faint line of glowing lights, the headlights of northbound cars, on I-5, coming down the Grapevine. Oh man.
As you approach the incline, the 300 previous miles of flatland begins to angle upwards, pretty abruptly. You don't see it at first, but in a small-engine car, you feel it. If you were able to maintain 75mph, soon you'd be struggling at 55mph. And the real climb was still a good couple of miles south. Big diesel trucks all hugged the right shoulder and seemed to be really laboring, like a line of oxen trying to drag plows through wet cement. I brought the gearshift back into 4th, and gave the motor some leverage. Up I went. Foot down hard, now down to third. Amazingly the temp gauge didn't climb. The extra rpm's must have given the car enough leverage or something. I didn't care. The truth of it is, the ambient air grew much cooler, as I was now up around 4000'. Frazier Park and Gorman exits came and went. I knew there'd be a lake on my right sometime soon. It was getting dark now, the sky turning an eggplant skin color. Now able to keep 70mph on the clock no prob. Through some gaps in the mountains south of me I could see the urban glow of Southern CA. It was 8:00pm. Time to find some grub and somewhere to sleep.

[Jim Ratto]

Nowhere to Stay in L.A. (Summer 1990)

The cool of night was a welcome change after hours in an X19 with no roof, midsummer in the heat of Central CA. Soon the traffic thickened on I5 and the freeway exits became more worthwhile. Passing Magic Mountain, I saw a sign for In N Out Burger. Having never had one, I decided it would be dinner. The place was packed. While waiting I noticed they sold T shirts, with palm trees, shiny Corvette Stingrays, all crowded around an In N Out restaurant. Well that looked pretty "L A" to me I guess, even though it didn't look very hot-rod VW. I bought one anyway. As it was I was wearing a red Mallory Ignition T shirt, and that wasn't very VW-like either. The burger tasted amazing, much closer to something you'd have your mom make, than anything from Carl's Jr. This long, hot trip was beginning to shape up. Back in the car and back on the road. Before I took off I checked the AAA map, just making sure I5 got me to Costa Mesa. Looked close enough, I'd look for "55" in a few hours. I'd need to find a cheap room somewhere soon.
The next few hours are a blur of streetlights, traffic and being lost. I don't remember where now, 26 years later, but I got off the freeway somewhere in Los Angeles. I remember going in circles, and a street I do remember now is "Flower Street." I also remember seeing nothing as far as a cheap, but trustworthy place to get some winks. Around the blocks and around the clock I went. It was nearing 10pm and this wasn't working. Back on the 5, south. I knew if I could get to the area around Disneyland, I'd find something. I had been a few times as a kid and my parents always had a room.
Difference was, they also had reservations.
In Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Garden Grove, everybody was blinking their "NO VACANCY" signs. Again, this was 1990. No iPhone to log into to dial up the nearest hotel with WiFi and nearby vape bar. Nope, I stopped at a phone booth and started flipping through yellow pages. Waste of time. Back in the car, now heading south on 5 in Santa Ana, then Irvine, then San Juan Capistrano, then things went black. I had passed San Onofre and was deep into Camp Pendleton. I pulled over to navigate by dome light, and discovered I was way past Costa Mesa. In Oceanside, I changed directions on 5, now going north. It was midnight. Back through San Clemente, and San Juan Capistrano. I never saw any Motel 6 signs. Kept going. Somehow I ended up, off the freeway in Laguna Niguel. I was falling asleep, cooked, hungry and dehydrated. I drove around aimlessly until I found a Spanish style lodge, pretty swank looking, with tile roof, and adobe-looking walls. The cars parked outside the place were a few levels above my Fiat. But I parked and asked at the lobby if they had a room. They did, for $70, for a single with in room coffee machine. Cool I wouldn't have to find a 7-11 for coffee the next morning. I asked the clerk how far Costa Mesa was, "Oh not far maybe a half hour. What are your plans there?"
"There's a VW show I am going to at the fairgrounds"
Got my key, clicked the targa top back on the X19, grabbed my change of clothes and junk and was asleep in no time.

I cannot tell you all, in this writing, how unprepared I was to come across the cars I saw firsthand, the next morning. I had no idea how the next day would affect my life for the next quarter century, plus.

We'll take a trip into VW Jamboree, 1990 from my eyes, tomorrow.

[karl h]

i was there in 1990, flying in from Europe with my first wife. i somewhere have a pack of pics i took, maybe i can find them.

[Olaf A./DFL]

Like others said before -this is great reading! Thank you so much!

[peejke]

not only a great taste of cars , but great taste of music as well.

[Jim Ratto]

i was there in 1990, flying in from Europe with my first wife. i somewhere have a pack of pics i took, maybe i can find them.

That would be awesome. I've got a few big boxes up in rafters in my garage, full of old VW show pictures, but unfortunately, many of the pictures from this weekend are lost. I have a few of Gary Berg's car and some of cylinder heads that were on display at Fred Simpson's booth, but many others seem to be missing. I had some great ones of Mason's and Dave Rhoads' cars. I would love if you could share your pics here!

In the meantime I'll keep digging too. Thanks 

[Jim Ratto]

If anybody else has pictures from Jamboree 1990 please post them if you'd like. Thanks !

[Martin S.]

Keep in mind people with shoe boxes full of old prints negs and slides that you can send them away for digitizing and easily upload them. One of these days I will go thru mine.. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2000199/the-best-and-worst-services-for-digitizing-your-photos.html

[Jim Ratto]

I'll start with this clipping from an old Hot VW's as this was basically the line up of cars that weekend.

[Bill Schwimmer]

Hey I know those dudes,  I saw most of them this past weekend.

[baz]

Great stories and great pics too. I got into vws around 1990 but it was through volksworld rather than attending shows in california. The cars pictured above are the very same cars that drew me in to the hobby. 25 years later I'm still hooked, and the look and vibes of proper cal look has never and will never get old.

[Jim Ratto]

VW Jamboree, Costa Mesa CA, Summer 1990

The following morning I made full use of that in room coffee. Up the freeway and found my way into Costa Mesa area, and the OC Fairgrounds. It wasn't hard, as there were throngs of VW's of all sorts descending upon the area. Brightly colored Type 2's with polished 911 alloys tend to stand out in traffic. And there was no shortage of them.
The line wasn't long to park or get into the event. I made sure I had my pocket Nikon 35mm and my swap meet cash (which had been eaten up by fast food and the plush room in Laguna). I think I had about $100 left on me. All I wanted to leave with was a sedan merged header. Mufflers would be nice, but I didn't want to get greedy.
As I walked from parking area, I took a picture of the early arriving crowds. Now that I look at this, the picture doesn't really show much going on, does it? Maybe I was there late, but I seem to remember arriving maybe around 8:30am? The sky was still pretty overcast.

[Jim Ratto]

VW Jamboree, Costa Mesa CA, Summer 1990

First stop I made once I got in was at the WCM booth, as I had recently been given the responsibility of maintaining the WCM line at Buggy House. I think the guy that went back to boot camp was supposed to maintain it, prior to me starting. In any case, I had made new bin boxes and labels for everything from the 111 to the 311 section, we seriously stocked probably 90% of everything in their catalog. Every two weeks, I'd manually count onhand and compare it to what computer thought we had and fax them an order. Sometimes I'd talk to some guy named Steve, so I thought I'd ask if he was working and introduce myself. Sure enough, the guy was there and we talked shop for 5 minutes, probably less, since I had no idea what I was talking about, and was scared to death to be found out. The "I'm from out of town and need to get back on the road" would get me out of a conversation quickly, before I looked like a moron. Next stop was Fred Simpson's booth, where he had all kinds of neat cylinder heads on display. I really liked the heads that only had one half that was done up, the other half was still stock, to emphasize the amount of work that went into making these heads. I think they were called V5, V6 etc. There were also HO and Super Flow heads, with huge valves, ports and all kinds of softly shaped shiny ports and chambers. I couldn't resist sticking my finger in some holes. I remember thinking the heads I had slated for my 94 x 74 looked like junk at the bottom of the ocean compared to this high caliber stuff. I was careful not to say much, as I could really expose how stupid I was and this guy Fred was being super cool. He even said he knew my boss Jerry from sandrailing. Wow small world.

[Jim Ratto]

VW Jamboree, Costa Mesa CA, Summer 1990

After thanking Fred and grabbing a card, I came upon the Neuspeed booth they had a brand new Corrado G60 done up with all the hip water cooled stuff. I never got into this stuff, but we sold all the Neuspeed springs and short shifters and 5th gear conversions for the early GTI's so I thought I better act interested.

I also saw lots of turbo cars, which we only had one of in Northern CA. Here's a few

[Jim Ratto]

VW Jamboree, Costa Mesa CA, Summer 1990, Merged Header and Gary Berg's '67 Up Close

I also found the GBE booth, where Dee and another lady were selling T shirts, sweatshirts, decals etc. The other lady may have been Kathie, but I can't say for sure. In any case, I bought a bright yellow GBE T shirt that I had for years. I wore it all the time probably for the next 5 years until I ruined it. I remember Jerry used to kid me and say "I bet that kid sleeps in that damn shirt."

With all the stops and chit chatting I had almost forgotten about finding an exhaust. But, as I walked around wide-eyed and overwhelmed, I found a guy with a swap spot and a bunch of merged headers all tangled up and stacked up. I started talking to the guy, about "safe topics" so as not to look like an idiot, and asked about some of the headers he was selling. Off to one side of his swap spot, he had a brand new Phoenix 1-5/8" merged system, with dual cans bolted to it, and except for the chromed tailpipes, the whole thing was painted glossy navy blue. Man did it look good. Except he wanted $150 for it, and I was now down to under $100. But being a nice guy, he asked me "What are you putting it on?" So I explained the pile of parts I had and he said "You know, I have this Four Tuned inch and a half, with a stinger, but no mufflers. How's $25?" (!!) It was a nice, almost new, full merged competition setup, long collector, small flange with "4T" in weld bead on each side of the merge. I was all over it. And I learned the guy selling it....    it was my salesman at Scat Enterprises at the time, Pat. (BH stocked lots of Scat back then too, all the seats, adapter rails, shifter, their ratio rockers, gland nuts, etc). So that made the deal even sweeter.

But now the real reason I drove all day and night the day before, contending with crop duster spray, 105F heat, and sunburn. I was hoping Gary Berg's car would be there. I kept walking around, now carrying a merged header with a stinger bolted to it, trying not to trip people, or scratch show cars. I saw a lot of flashes of metallic blue, but then as I got close the car would be a Super Beetle, or it would have white 8 spokes. Or it was a Baja. But then I remember this, very well:
I was walking south, near some big assembly halls, and through a crowd of people, I saw the glint of light off a BRM wheel and a ray of very bright blue metallic.
His car was here. I walked up and there was the car I had read about maybe 100-200 times in the last 8-9 months. It was below a blue tent, which was tied down to 4 black lightened flywheels. The doors, front hood and engine lid were all open. I set my header down near the wall behind where the car was parked. The pictures I had seen in Hot VW's really, didn't capture this car. Everything was perfect. Again, you have to remember, I was into VW's for maybe 3 years or so. My car was kind of a rag tag mess, new paint, but old bumpers, run of the mill chrome wheels and an engine which was still just a daydream. This car had mile deep, perfect blue paint, a very simple interior, sat just right, and it had BRM wheels (there were no repop's then, so unless you owned them, you NEVER saw them). And then I started to look over the engine and its detail. Honestly, I had no real idea what I was looking at. But I appreciated that it looked to me like real VW parts were used where they'd work. I came from a shop where we sold cheap, flimsy chrome engine tin and dumb chrome fan shrouds that forced you to get rid of the oil cooler. We sold transparent blue caps for 009's and plastic quick shift kits. This car had all original VW engine tin, all in gloss black. It wore all the original rubber air seals, like the pictures of engines in the Bentley repair books. It had fresh air heaters, but they fed into a big piped header. Also under the car was an oil sump that looked as big as another case. And everything was dirt free. Every nut, wire, brake hose, fuel line, underside of fenders, everything was surgically clean.
I only have a few pics left from that day, over the years I've lost many. But here's what I have

[Jim Ratto]

VW Jamboree, Costa Mesa CA, Summer 1990, DKP III Cars, BRM's, Slicks and Nitrous

But it wasn't just Berg's car. Lined up next to his car was a row of cars like I hadn't seen before. These cars, lined up, as complete under the radar, outcasts, really did more for me in a few hours than I can really say, write, whatever. I'm not embellishing. It was real powerful. Like I had said, I was kind of lost in the hobby, to some extent. The cars and guys that had them, for the most part, in my hometown, were lame. None of them were fast and to me they looked dumb. I never got why these guys I knew of were even into VW's if they were only going to make them look dumb, but not work to make them fast. To me, the ultimate was something that looked tame and slow, but would drop kick any of the local V8 guys into the next county. Now in front of me were a whole row of cars, that in the context of the era, looked very, very unassuming. None of them were the typical for the time. Some even had stock seats, stock side moldings, and Berg's car and another black car had full bumpers, like only the vintage nerds still ran! There was a dark maroon '67, with polished BRM's and just euroblade bumpers, and no moldings. It had Kadrons, so it didn't strike me as a serious performance car. There was a squeakly clean pearl white oval window, again with BRM's (but grey spokes), and what looked like a huge engine. It had the same 48 carbs as Berg's car. OK it must be fast. There was an unbelievably simple black oval window, with BRM's as well. It had a motor like Bergs, and the white oval, all black tin, and 48IDAs (How did these guys get those carbs to run right? My 36 DRLAs were a big pain in the ass!). There was a super clean salmon-red ragtop with BRMs and another nice looking motor, but it had these short, smaller carbs, with air filters. Most of these cars ran weird rube-Goldberg linkage that I hadn't seen before. Then there was a bright green sedan, with BRM's. For some reason, this car stood out. It wore no bumpers, no moldings and it didn't have a black engine. All of the cooling tin was painted the same cool green as the rest of the car. It had Weber 48's and it looked like it had very few wires in the engine compartment. It just looked simple. I assumed because it was so simple, this car was just a show car (in a few months' time I'd learn I was wrong, in person). And then there was the real misfit. A black ragtop sedan, with its full bumpers, side moldings, stock dash, and stock interior (at least the front half). But the same car had BRM's, treaded drag slicks on the rear, a cage inside, as well as a blue nitrous tank. Under the RH running board was a huge 3" pipe. At the back of the car, a 3" pipe came off the merged header and made a U turn towards the 1&2 valve cover under the car. I peeked under the car and there was a big sump like Berg's, and a rowdy looking little muffler tied into that 3" pipe. Then engine bay was stuffed with 48 Webers and a big funny looking distributor. The bottom pulley was different than everybody else's too. Obviously this car was meant to go fast, but overall, aside from the rear tires, and that pipe, most would never know. But to me it looked like the 65 year old lady that had owned this car from new had been mugged and had her car taken away by some nutjob. I loved it.

[Jim Ratto]

I found this online today on YouTube. Unfortunately, it doesn't have hardly any footage of the California Look cars present that day, but it gives you an account of the trends in vogue at this show. Yes this is the same show I was at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDS38Ypsr4c

[Rick Meredith]

Great story Jim... really well written

  Somehow I ended up, off the freeway in Laguna Niguel. I was falling asleep, cooked, hungry and dehydrated. I drove around aimlessly until I found a Spanish style lodge, pretty swank looking, with tile roof, and adobe-looking walls. The cars parked outside the place were a few levels above my Fiat. But I parked and asked at the lobby if they had a room.

I wonder if this is the Laguna Hills Lodge? It matches the description. It's about 3 miles from me. on El Toro Rd.

[brotherbob]

I just want to say I have really enjoyed reading this thread and remembering when I was young and stupid. I got into VW's in 1981 and NO-ONE in my north central Texas high school was into VWs but I was and and I bought every dune buggie and bug magazine I could afford. These cars documented in this thread were HUGE in cultivating my VW ethos. I did really dumb things to my first bug trying to be like the Cal Look guys on a super tight budget! LOL , thanks for the walk down memory lane.

Anyhow Thanks for this and please keep this thread going!

BB