Welcome John Lazenby

[Sarge]

A huge Lounge welcome to John Lazenby, guys...our newest member!    I'll drink to that!!!

[speedwell]

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this place is the best ever   
john you're welcome to this magic cal look place , hope you will enjoy and your BUTTERNUT car ROCKS
regard
fabs

[Rick Meredith]

Welcome John!

[jholmes]

Very Cool...Welcome John!  Great seeing you again at the party! Enjoy the lounge, I certainly have since Sarge turned me on to it. Great guys, stories and pictures to enjoy.

Jim

[Carlos De Alba]

Welcome John......!!   

[Jim Ratto]

Welcome John, it was a pleasure to meet you Saturday. 

[johnl]

Not exactly sure how all of this works, so please bear with me.  I was surprised to see my old '63 Butternutt shown.  That photo seems like only yesterday and as I recall Greg Aronson took the shot.  The car was not completely finished at that shoot, but I sure do miss it. 

Recently while watching Barrett Jackson on TV I spied a '71 Vette in Warbonnet Yellow, which was a one year color.  Loved the color then, but don't know about now.

I wish Brad (Don Bradford) was still in the area to do interiors for me.  He was the best!!

John Lazenby   

[Dave Galassi]

John, as you can see, you've got quite the following, myself included. 
For those of you who liked his VW, ask John about what occupies the rest of his stable.............

Talk to you soon.

[speedwell]

one of my favoryte old cal look , your car played a part in my step for the purchase of my rims torquer are repop of american racing torq trust   
nice one more stories about the car ???i just know 2 or 3 pictures of your car , do you have another one ??
rgd
fabs

[Rick Meredith]

<taking his cue from Dave G>

So tell me John what else ya got??? 

[Lee.C]

  , , , , , , , ,

I can't believe it - WELCOME TO THE LOUNGE JOHN your 63 is MY all time favourite Cal Looker - its just PERFECT.

I can't wait to hear some old skool stories about this ride and some more pic's would be AWSOME - as you have seen we only have 3

Just one question though - is this the colour of the 63 -'"71 Vette in Warbonnet Yellow"

[johnl]

Yes it is me and I'm still alive !!  There are probably more photos, but I'll have to dig.  Also probably some way before this as Kodak was making film in those days.

The color was the '71 Vette Warbonnett Yellow.

John Lazenby

[Jim Ratto]

John, welcome again...

When you have time, could you share some details about some of your cars, including the Judson car and of course, Butternut. Which engine combo did Butternut run? Any pictures of the engine from it? Nice E39 M5, by the way.....

Jim

[louisb]

Welcome to the lounge!

--louis

[johnl]

I purchased the car new on July 31, 1963 from Econo Motors (EMPI) and owned it for 10.5 years.  Originally it was ruby red.  In 1964 I installed a Judson supercharger and Joe Schneider of Schneider Motors installed the very first set of Fourtuned Headers for fresh air heater boxes ever built.  I remember it well as Bob Sanches (Fourtuned) was there and there was some cutting, torching and swearing going on.  Immediately I had "Fourtuned Headers" painted on the back fenders.  Thought my parents were going to kill me!!

In 1965 the car was painted Firemist Green ('65 Caddy) and it remained that until the '71 Vette Warbonnett Yellow was applied.  1969 I think we built a 69x88 motor with a Holley Bug Spray and an Engle 110 cam.  Ron Fleming actually built the engine while employeed at Gene Berg.  He always refered to it as the "Tits two barrel".  By then I was running S&S headers and as I recall the car ran mid 15's at OCIR.

Then I built a 78.4 Okrasa with 88's.  I think the cam was an Engel FK someithing with 1.4 or 1.5 rockers.  Empi tall manifolds with 48's, a Joe Hunt Vertex Mag and S&S comp headers with a merge collector.  Ron Fleming of then F&A Performance (before it became "FAT" did the heads.  Also I think we put Berg short 3rd and 4th in it.  It ran low 14's if memory serves me and that was on 165x15 radials.

The last mod was to take out the gears and replace with normal ratios, replace the 48's with 42DCNF9 Webers on Berg Manifolds and put heater boxes back on it.  Honestly I  liked it much better that way.

What no one talks about is the interior.  Everyone was doing black buckets and I had seen the limo that VW of America had built.  It had a very rich grey cloth interior so I got the idea of leaving the stock seats in.  Don Bradford of Brad's did the entire interior, trunk, sunroof and even made a full bra for it. 

We used a dark brown leather with a material done in biscuts that looked like felt.  The headliner was also done in this and the dash panels were done the same way.  The carpet was a dark brown carried into the trunk with a special tool storage area.  The sunroof and bra were made of a similar brown vynil to match the leather.  What I wanted was plush like a limo and I think we achieved it.

VDO gauges with a Dino shifter and last was one of my favorties.  A wood steering wheel made by Butler which I think came from England.  At the time I was working for Auto Haus and we got a few and I think the wheel cost me about $50 back in '71.

In 1974 I sold the car as my wife and I had just purchased our first home.  We actually sold our '50 split for the downpayment of the home.  Within 6 months the car was rolled and destroyed.  At one point Dyno Don Chamberlin ended up with the Americans and I have no idea what became of the rest.

To this day I still have the original hood badge, owners manual and DKP badge that was on the hood.  Jim Edmiston drilled the holes to install that is I didn't have the nerve.

Wonderful memories of that car is it is how I met Jim Edmiston, many others and probably the most important my wife Christie of 36.5 years.  We still own a black '63 sedan that I've had since 1981.  I'm the second owner of that car and no it's not for sale.

John Lazenby

[Carlos De Alba]

     

Thanks for sharing John.......  awesome story.

[louisb]

Do you have any pics of the interior?

Thanks,

--louis

[dyno don]

HIYA JOHN....cool to see you and the wife...and i also had the love for your car(as you already know)...when i first saw it in anaheim in the early days it just lit my face with the biggest smile...good times for sure...you could probably fit a few vws into your chrysler thunderbuckets...LOL  american racing wheels?? the kind wheels..!!//>>and people use to think my fingers were black from polishing my brms...peace brutha..

[Fastbrit]

Welcome brother John! Good to see another greybeard here on the lounge!

So you gonna let onto these guys about your Chrysler 300 passion...

[Fritter]

Welcome!

I for one am very grateful that Sarge has prompted some of the cal look innovators onto this board.   I look forward to every new story that they are willing to share.  It gives me the same feeling as I had when I originally read Keith's Cal Look bible for the first time.

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Welcome John Lazenby From One Of The Old Auto Haus Empolyees LOL I Worked with your Friend Mike For years at the Buena Park Store

[lawrence]

Welcome aboard, John. Your old 63 is one of my all time favorites and I thank you for sharing the great details of the interior that most of us have probably never heard. Did you actually call it "butternut" or was that a term that came later??

It sure is great having all of these seasoned california look guys on the website teaching us about the early days. Good stuff...

[speedwell]

cool stories john 

[Lee.C]

cool stories john 

Agreed but let have some about "Butternut" Street Racing 

[roland]

This is really a great story and a perfect car, as monkiboy said! :d

Color is a big inspiration for my car...

Welcome on the lounge!

[johnl]

Welcome brother John! Good to see another greybeard here on the lounge!

So you gonna let onto these guys about your Chrysler 300 passion...

Okay, if I got this working correctly here is some info on the other cars:

Below are photos of our collection of Chryslers:
 
http://public.fotki.com/wackydave/muscle_cars/chrysler/  Page 1 through photo # 53 on page 4 our four Letter Cars.  They are a 1955 C300 Tango Red, 1956 300B in Cloud White, 1957 300C coupe in Black and a 1960 300F coupe in Alaskan White. 
 
The '55 was featured at the Petersen Museum when it first opened and then asked back for a later visit.  It has probably spent 2 years there.  Our '56 300B was an 8.5 year body off restoration and is consider by some to be the best example in the world with just over 5k on kit now.  If you've ever seen the Maisto model I can tell you it was done from our car.  Check out the Historical plate on the model and then our real plate.  The '57 was asked to the Petersen for the Motor Trend 50th year event.  It was one of 3 or 4 cars invited.  Our '60 was transported to Florida for a major Chrysler Ex event.  All of these cars were used in the TV commercials introducing the Chrysler 300M a few years back.  Over the past 20 years the cars have been  featured in many publications and more still in the works. 
 
http://public.fotki.com/wackydave/cars_-_various_themes/station_wagons-2/mopar/  Page 1 starting with photo # 5 through photo # 3 on page 2 is our 1955 New Yorker Deluxe Town & Country wagon.  We have strong thoughts that this car was originally owned by Cecil B. DeMille when new.  Currently is shows about 52K.  There were 1036 built and a hand full exist today.  This is one of the better examples known to survive and it drives better than it looks.
 
http://public.fotki.com/wackydave/cars_-_various_themes/55-imperial/  Last, our 1955 Imperial Newport on pages 1 & 2.  This was a parts car when I purchased it and was a 5.5 year project.  This was the last restoration completed a few years ago.  I really enjoy driving this car as the comfort is hard to beat.
 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/xBGSxqkS0sg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/xBGSxqkS0sg</a>  I added this because I though you would find it somewhat informative.  This was a complete show on all (6) cars I did with Lance Lambert last May http://www.vintagevehicletv.com/.  He told me afterwards that it was the most informative and detailed show they have ever done.  I was also informed by Lance that his show is the second oldest Automotive show on TV only surpassed by Motorweek.  Please note the shirt I wore for the shoot.  There was a hidden meaning there!!
 
I've had the love for the Chryslers all of my life and the VW and BMW things came along in 1963 & 1966.  Over the years what Christie and I have learned is the cars are simply the tools to meet the people and they are what is really valuable.  I think our meeting proves this.

John Lazenby

[Rocket-Racing]

First of all, welcome to the Lounge John! Nice to have you here.

Those 300's are not just awesome cars, but your collection is incredible! The '55 C300 is one of the most beautiful cars ever made!
I'm into Forwardlook Mopars myself and have a '55 Plymouth Savoy 4d sdn and a '57 Belvedere 2d ht. Humble cars compared to yours, but at least the '57 has 413 crossram engine from a '61 Chrysler 

[johnl]

First of all, welcome to the Lounge John! Nice to have you here.

Those 300's are not just awesome cars, but your collection is incredible! The '55 C300 is one of the most beautiful cars ever made!
I'm into Forwardlook Mopars myself and have a '55 Plymouth Savoy 4d sdn and a '57 Belvedere 2d ht. Humble cars compared to yours, but at least the '57 has 413 crossram engine from a '61 Chrysler 

Thanks for the kind words regarding the collection.  I've worked long and hard to achieve it, but far more important along the way met some wonderful folks from all over the world.  Bottom line is the people are what become important in ones life.

A Forwardlooker huh, just goes to show you how small the car world really is.

John Lazenby

[Rocket-Racing]

You're right about the people John. I've met some of my best friends through the car hobby and beeing able to enjoy the cars with good friends is what it's all about.
Here in Scandinavia the Forwardlook Mopars have a large following, both here in Norway and specially in Sweden. Combining them with old VW's isn't ordinary though..

Anders