Visited a heap of vw shops here in LA yesterday and today including Heads Up Performance. Roger Crawford took time to show me around his shop and let me sit in on some dyno tuning which was extremely grateful for.
Roger asked me if I knew Dave Butler and after noting he thought Dave was a good bloke, I admitted I did in fact know him 😉
Anyway Dave, I thought you might consider this type of thing the closest thing to porn in vw terms? Not sure, but thought I'd post the pics up anyway.
Roger's record setting super street ghia - saw this run 9's at Sacramento, and looking forward to seeing it run tomorrow night at Irwindale 1/8th mile (maybe with nitrous on tap?)...so stay tuned.
Not sure why my camera went blurry on some of these pics.
Thanks again to Roger for showing me around and allowing me to take pics/vids of the dyno pull. Heads Up are having an open house on friday so I may head back to chat some more!
AL
You tube vid - this engine was originally built back in the 80s and hasn't gone through many changes. Still vw heads, 82 x 88 old school combo, IDAs etc. I think it was around 168hp (of course relative to dyno as they are all different).
Also visited FAT performance today - didn't get a chance to meet Ron or Greg, but had a quick chat to Mark and checked out his car (original style cal looker with 2276cc) - will post a few pics at some stage. They were pretty busy so no pics etc.
Stopped by JayCee and had a chat to those guys as well - everyone seems to be pretty nice to a nosy Aussie!
Met Chip Foose at his shop today and went to a heap of other shops for resto stuff (not that interesting to drag folk).
Spoke to Shawn Geers on the phone and will stop by to say g'day to him tomorrow......busy week this week, and an even busier weekend with the shows. I'll update the drag stuff in this section, but will put the other show stuff in the general section.
Just got back from visiting Shawn Geers at his home workshop - here is a teaser of a few bits I managed to drool over.
Alan Fore's pro stock car
The engine out of the hayley's comet drag new beetle
Shawn's own engine project
Shawn's street car (ran mid 10s N/A).
More pics later maybe, just about to jump in the car to head to Irwindale - sorry to rub it in. Well worth the trip if anyone is considering doing this at some stage. Its taken me 10 years to get here (been wanting to do it for a long time), but very happy we made it!
Awesome stuff Al, you are having a ball. I spoke to Jake Raby yesterday about my trip to work for him, i'm off to Road Atlanta for a race meet, got three boxster/996 engines to build, 4 type 4 engines and i have been told i gotta drive Jakes new 911 a race prepped 996.
This is my Volkswagen, there are many like it, but this one is mine. Without me my Volkswagen is useless, without my Volkswagen, I am useless.
61 Karmann Ghia 2110cc type1 w Los Panchito's
66 Deluxe Beetle 2270 type 4
10 Subaru WRX Impreza
Well after a massive four days I've finally got a bit of time before flying back to Oz to upload some pics, I'll put the shop visit pics in this thread and then the Nick's diner meet, classic etc in the general section as they are non-drag specific.
Hope you like the pics, I had an absolute ball.
I am going to have to save some pennies (since I have spent them all here) for one of these JCL shifter setups, very very nice smooth bit of gear.
Shawn working away
This was the case and heads that Shawn had in his blue street car when it ran 10.50s (on the cover of hot vws) but since they since changed the class rules and limited piston size to 94, and outlawed vacuum pumps....so he is working on a new combination (pictured above previously).
JayCee had an open house on Saturday - some cool race cars there and again and nice shop setup. Jack was a pretty quiet guy and said he is not racing for now (his son and brother race still) - however still busy with the prep and tuning etc of other race cars.
All parts were on display on the work benches and photos were okay to take (I always check first!)
CNC machine
All the pics I took can be found here (don't want to upload every pic I took!)
Love it AL !! the yanks have been keeping Alan Fore's new pro stock car top secret , mate , so you have let cat out of the bag ( car is parked out front for full view to everyone ! ! ) Glad you had a ripper time over there , this will keep you going strong for couple years ( did for me ) Nick's burgers show looked like it had huge turn out too , with cars coming from as far as Canada.
GOOD ONE ALAN !!
Yeah Pete, I ensured I asked Shawn if I could take some pictures and he was happy for me to do so. I wasn't going to post them on the US forums out of respect though. He even put the engine out of the Hailey's Comet car onto the engine stand so I could take pics so he was a really friendly guy.
Nick's was huge - so many highlights, including Richie Webb's departure out of the driveway when he lit up the rears in his 9 second cab and whipped it around a little too quick (to face the gutter), then back on it to whip it around the other way before straightening up and doing a good skid up the street. Unfortunately cops showed up a little later which put an end to the burnouts for the rest of the night!
Bugger, sorry Dave, no luck. That was the one day that I accidentally changed a setting on my camera and most images were blurry so I didn't take too many pics. Unfortunately I didn't get any of the inlet side of the heads.
