New topic # 1: Berg Catalog

[Jim Ratto]

What about the Berg Catalog?

I think that GBE did a pretty impressive job educating the VW-minded public with their versions of what works and what doesn't. Maybe today, some of the info has been deemed outdated and some of the parts/services are NLA, but a lot of the technical info written out in the old Berg catalogs is really "gospel" still today when it comes to making a fast VW live. I can't think of another aftermarket VW parts vendor that spent the time putting a catalog, technical books and newsletters like Berg did. Much of what the catalogs preached was common sense to the mechanically-inclined, but to those just getting into the hobby, a lot of the info was priceless. Still is.

I remember back in 1990, working @ Buggy House, and finding an old 1982 GBE catalog...a yellow one with the famous drawing of the Berg drag sedan, wheels in air. Lots of neat old stuff, I snuck it home and read it until the poor thing was dog eared and worn out. I lent it to sheep at some point to read and his rabbit pissed on the old thing and so much for that. I had a 1990 blue catalog and it was cool too, more products by far than the '82 catalog, but a lot of tech was the same. Lent that one to Rick Zavala and never got it back.  Yellow 1991-2 was next...even more stuff, like Haltech injection....but no more welded strokers, I think the Super Flow cover kit was in there....coupla new cams....and other stuff.
Anyway, if you don't have an old Berg catalog, try to find one, if not for the technical info, at least for some of the cool old pics like the Sonic Muffin or the Doug Berg sand buggy or maybe just to order a GBE frisbee or a bengal tiger video.

[louisb]

I have the '92 (?) and '96 issue. (I think the '96 was the last one.) I also have the blue books. Lots of good info in there too. Last time I ordered some parts from them I asked if they were ever going to be doing one again. Didn't sound promising as most of their sales are through the web now I guess. Still good folks to deal with on the phone. I just wish they actually carried the stuff they advertise. A lot of the good stuff seems to be NLA.

edit: these days it seems catalogs are going out of style. But I know a lot of the companies SCAT, EMPI, Berg etc used to put out some great catalogs. What other companies were know for their catalogs? Any of our old timers have specific catalogs that they really liked? (Or would droll over parts in?)

--louis

[Jim Ratto]

I have the '92 (?) and '96 issue. (I think the '96 was the last one.) I also have the blue books. Lots of good info in there too. Last time I ordered some parts from them I asked if they were ever going to be doing one again. Didn't sound promising as most of their sales are through the web now I guess. Still good folks to deal with on the phone. I just wish they actually carried the stuff they advertise. A lot of the good stuff seems to be NLA.

edit: these days it seems catalogs are going out of style. But I know a lot of the companies SCAT, EMPI, Berg etc used to put out some great catalogs. What other companies were know for their catalogs? Any of our old timers have specific catalogs that they really liked? (Or would droll over parts in?)

--louis

Yeah, they have always been good people to deal with. Tim has always been cool. I even bought a few things from Gene...he was a character.

[Lids]

I've had all those catalogs, and tech manuals.  Still have some.  They were my first read when it came to building big engines.

[Donny B.]

You mean these?  The one on the far left is old newsprint and from 1977.  I got that one from Mike Fischer, the rest I got personally each time they issued a new one.  If you look inside the cover of the red one you will find my '66.  Gene took that picture personally at the '95 Classic.  The cover photo on the red one is from that same weekend.

[Jim Ratto]

Living in North Calif for most of my life, going to GBE was kind of an event. Few times Sheep and I would get on road early and go down I-5 and get there early afternoon and buy a crank pulley and some zotz. One time a girl I was seeing and I drove down one day to buy a shifter for my car. I ran the crap out of a Fiat X19 going back and forth to Berg's.

[John Rayburn]

My favorite catalogs that I look through frequently are my EMPI catalogs. I do enjoy the Berg catalogs , though. I used to get Gene and Delores in to Disneyland on occasion, and the next time I would go into Bergs, Gene would hang up on whoever he was roasting on the phone and have a battery of questions of things that he saw. One of the things he flipped over was on the old skyway backup power source. It was a VW industial engine complete with factory mag. He dug it.

[ugly duckling]

gotta have some of them there ZOTS UD.

[nicolas]

What about the Berg Catalog?

I think that GBE did a pretty impressive job educating the VW-minded public with their versions of what works and what doesn't. Maybe today, some of the info has been deemed outdated and some of the parts/services are NLA, but a lot of the technical info written out in the old Berg catalogs is really "gospel" still today when it comes to making a fast VW live. I can't think of another aftermarket VW parts vendor that spent the time putting a catalog, technical books and newsletters like Berg did. Much of what the catalogs preached was common sense to the mechanically-inclined, but to those just getting into the hobby, a lot of the info was priceless. Still is.

I remember back in 1990, working @ Buggy House, and finding an old 1982 GBE catalog...a yellow one with the famous drawing of the Berg drag sedan, wheels in air. Lots of neat old stuff, I snuck it home and read it until the poor thing was dog eared and worn out. I lent it to sheep at some point to read and his rabbit pissed on the old thing and so much for that. I had a 1990 blue catalog and it was cool too, more products by far than the '82 catalog, but a lot of tech was the same. Lent that one to Rick Zavala and never got it back.  Yellow 1991-2 was next...even more stuff, like Haltech injection....but no more welded strokers, I think the Super Flow cover kit was in there....coupla new cams....and other stuff.
Anyway, if you don't have an old Berg catalog, try to find one, if not for the technical info, at least for some of the cool old pics like the Sonic Muffin or the Doug Berg sand buggy or maybe just to order a GBE frisbee or a bengal tiger video.

never layed eyes on one, but their website has also a lot of priceless info!

so i guess the books are no different. good to see them give advice to ALL

and jim... thanks you just made the price of those books go up by 150%