Some Old-timer Photos

[Scratchy]

Hey HansK do you recognize any of these ?

[KOOL-AID MAN]

those pics are sweet, where are they racing?

[Scratchy]

This was a Slalom in the upper parking lot at Whistler waaa.....aaaaaayyy back in 1983.
I took these slides with a telephoto lens, so it looks like they are driving off a cliff.
The T3 FB is Han's old VW.

Here's a picture of Wudy's Wabbit lifting the inside rear wheel (He spent thousands on this Rabbit,
but I could still beat him off the line through 2nd gear with my lowly 1641 with Kadrons and a header)  



And here's one of Sylvester's 76x88 slip-in kit beetle. This thing went really good for low bucks,
but I don't recall how long the motor actually survived.

[Hansk]

Awesome pix art !! Man those were the days, every thing was low budget for me ...............wait a minute , still is..... If only I could have bought some property up there at the time...........damn!

Ya I recognize some of the guys at that party. Would that be you Art?
Looks like Greg Hoing at the back and some goof next to him.
 

[OUTKAST]

the name wuddy the wabbit sounds familiar , but didn't join thunderbugs until 86 ,was he still around wasn't therer a guy that cameron was always with named Marcus . I believe he also had a fast car.
Cool pictures

[Cameron]

Hi Guys!
Marcus's car was a 75 Super Beetle. It had a super duper Gene Berg 2 Lt motor, but never went that fast, because it was a pig of a car, with stock gearing. He had bought a standard 67 VW Beetle, and all the parts for a turbo water boxer motor. I did a lot of machine work for him, to make it all fit together. He had sent the heads to Bergs for porting.  But something happened, and he dropped everything related to VWs.

Marcus sold all his VW stuff years ago, bought a Mercedes, and moved to Vancouver Island. I ran into him at the WaterFront Park show and shine in North Van (Mother's Day) 2002. Marcus gave me a business card, and every time I have gone to Vancouver Island, I tried to get hold of him. But no luck. Seems he doesn't want anything to do with us anymore.  

[Hansk]

Hey Art! How about some pics of your car from those days.

[Scratchy]

the name wuddy the wabbit sounds familiar , but didn't join thunderbugs until 86 ,was he still around wasn't therer a guy that cameron was always with named Marcus . I believe he also had a fast car.
Cool pictures

His real name is Rudy Langer, and he worked(s) at Canadian Cash and Carry Tire.
I think he had a bug at one time long ago, but then he got smitten by the Rabbit.
For some reason we let him stay in the \"Bug\" club......  

Since Mission Raceway was closed, the only legal outlet for racing was the Slaloms (auto-cross)
There was a race every third Sunday of the month out at UBC parking lot B, as well as some series
held in local parking lots - Sears (now Metro Town), Coquitlam Center, Westwood - Easter Omelette
Slalom, and the hill climb/slalom out at Whistler. Those are about all I can think of right now.

Here's my second VW - 70 beetle started as an IRS 1600 SP. went all the way to 82x90 Engle W140, Headflow
Performance 40x35.5, 1.5\" 4tuned merge from Steve Stanbridge, dual 44IDF's - 13.77@96 MPH with Formula V
racing slicks. (almost made the 100MPH club!)

This is a rather cranky me after driving 16 hours straight to Sacramento - left Saturday 3PM arrived Sunday 6AM.
This is the only time I actually fell asleep at the wheel on the I-5 - very scary stuff.



Note, the paint is already getting chalky here - the beginning of the end.....
I had the suspension setup for handling - lowered front and rear, heavy sway bars front and rear, front discs, decambered front ( -2

[Cameron]

Hey grumpy Art!
What year were the Sacramento photos taken? Who took the picture of you being so grumpy?

Didn't you sell your old IRS pan to Roy Hansen? I think he still has it in his backyard, along with all the other cars. Roy has slowly been gathering parts for a VW project, but ended up buy Dave Cosgraves old pro-sedan. All Roy needs now is a transmission.

Sylvester sold the motor out of his car, to Stuart Sprague. I helped Stuart rebuild that motor, but upon reassembly, we found that the cast crank was cracked. Badly. I guess Stuart bought it just before a catastrophic failure. I saw Stuart at last years GCVWS, he is now into 4x4s.

Rudy Lagner now works for Tekam Automotive. He became a licensed mechanic, and specialises in Mazda rotary motors now. I talked to Rudy last year, he married with children, lives in Burnaby.

[Geoff]

Hey Cam, Scratchy,
That pan that was in Roy's back yard may be under my 59 beetle(was it a 70 pan). I bought it off Roy back in 91-92 and it had that same HD swaybar on the front. By the time i got it there was rust in the pans and a little in the pan head. It is now Powdercoated black w/4 wheel disc brakes, narrowed beam and rear trailing arms. Small world?

[CHEECH]

Hey Art,

Are thoes the same mags on that blue bug as the ones on your pickup?

shawn

[Shashimo]

Hay Cameron , enjoyed looking at these photos talk about memory lane. What ever happend to Art ? Do you ever her from Doug Fitzpatric ? Let me know when the next pizza night is at Me @ Eds. We should all get together some time, Al Blanchett, Doug Fitzpatric, Rene and Carol etc......          



By the way, this is Wish (Mark Wisheart). Talk to you soon i am using Shawns computer.

[Cameron]

Geoff!
I glad to hear that pan is under your car, and not rusting away somewhere.

Mark!
What is your story? I haven't seen you driving a VW in years. I ran into Al Blanchette over the summer. He lives near Me N Ed's, in Burnaby. Saw Doug Fitzpatrick, and Doug Geisbrecht at the 2003 GCVWS. (Holy crap! I can't believe how many old timers I ran into at last years GCVW Show) Al, Doug, Rene and Carol all have family lives now, and can't commit as much time to their old hobbies as much as they would like.  Art and Scratchy are the same person, ask for yourself.

Anyone remember Bruce Peet? I ran into him at the City Square Mall, 12th and Cambie. Bruce works for the City of Vancouver. Same story though, likes cars, but a busy family life.  

[Shashimo]

Hi Cam,
So when is the next get together at Me& Eds Pizza?
Shawn

[red snapper]

Since we are throwing around names has anyone  know where Lonn & Kathy Cripps dissapeared to? Those photos are pretty sweet. I think a Thunderbugs reuinion should be in order.

[mikeT]

I work with Rene & Carol, I'll have to direct their attention to this site! we talk vw quite a bit!

[Cameron]

By the way, that's Carol Lord sitting in Kawell's race bus.


Some of the old TBC members still meet at Me N Ed's Pizza, Burnaby, first Tuesday of every month.  

[red snapper]

Cool pictures Cam, I have some cool pictures around here somewhere. Ill try and post them.

[Glenn]

Here's 2 from the East Coast. These pics are from a 1983 feature in VW Trends. This car has been around since the late 60's and is still on the strip.

[Scratchy]

Hey Cam, Scratchy,
That pan that was in Roy's back yard may be under my 59 beetle(was it a 70 pan). I bought it off Roy back in 91-92 and it had that same HD swaybar on the front. By the time i got it there was rust in the pans and a little in the pan head. It is now Powdercoated black w/4 wheel disc brakes, narrowed beam and rear trailing arms. Small world?

Hey Geoff, glad to see my old beetle is still alive in one form or another.
The body was totally shot but the floor pan was still solid when I sold it to Roy.

I had decambered the front end by drilling and tapping new torsion bar set screws in the lower
trailing arms on the opposite side of the stock ones. I then flipped the lower torsion bar so
the lower trailing arms were moved out by 1/4\" on each side.
This gave me 2 degrees negative camber up front for much improved handling in the slalom courses.
I still have the heavy sway bar from the rear suspension sitting here in my garage.....
ready to go on the ghia at a moments notice. j/k


Hey Shawn,
Cale did not make it home last weekend, and no the mags on my Toyota truck are from a Chrysler
Cordoba, the mags on my beetle are Riveria VW mags with the beetle 4 bolt pattern.
These too are sitting in my garage ready to bolt onto the Ghia at any time  

Cameron, the Sacramento pics are from 1983. The photographer shall remain un-named.

I've got a few pics to post from the Thunderbugs camping trip to Nairn falls in 1983.

Unfortunately I don't have any from the Northwest Bug-in camping trips.
I'd love to post the one where Cory and I are dumping a cooler full  of water on the toasty hot
VW case burning in the campfire. Man what an explosion!!!      
 

[Cameron]

Scratchy!
I remember the Nairn Falls camping weekend. Post those pics! We had a mag fire, and the rangers thought it was cool. The campground rangers hung out at our campsite, and partied with us. When other campers were complaining about how bright our campfire was, the rangers told them we had \"special wood\".

I also remember the pictures of you and Corey Doell dumping a cooler of water on a mag fire. Boom! Looked like a small nuclear explosion.  Barry Collins has some really cool photos. He works near me, I'll see if I can get him to scan them. That was very scarey, because when you look at the photos, there was a can of gas near the campfire. HansK, do you remember any of this? And by the way. that was my old engine case.

The photographer shall remain un-named? Hmmmmm...
Cameron

[Scratchy]

Yeah, the \"special firewood\" did burn very hot! That was quite funny.

Do you remember who's 57 or 59 beetle we crammed 11 people into, to drive back to the campsite from the falls ?

Here's a few pics from Nairn Falls Provincial campsite:



THE MORNING AFTER!

[Hansk]

OHH MANNN !!!!!! I remember that!  How no one got hurt , I'll never know.
 I sure hope my kids don't try stuped stuff like I did........Ya right  

[OUTKAST]

Snapper I just posted a similiar Idea on another post How about all hooking up the weekend at the great canadian.Should talk about trying to get hold of as many guys as possible.

Hey Hans I don't know about you but I still have the odd sunday feeling like that photo It just takes a lot less alcohol nowadays

GOOD MORNING GLENN I see you reading up this morning I 'm about to hit the sack

[Stephan Schmidt]

Interesting guys!  keep the pictures and stories coming!

Stephan

[silas]

guy in yellow jacket - \"if i have one more frikkin can of beans for breakfast on this trip, i'm gonna haaaarrrfff\"

guy in purple - \"i bet if we make stevie eat one more can of beans, he'll haaaaaarrrfff......hehe...\"

 

[James Buchan]

Love the hair!

[Hansk]

Don't forget , the 70's only just ended when this was taken.

[Stephan Schmidt]

Don't forget , the 70's only just ended when this was taken.

those hair styles were awesome!

and you also have to respect the: :mullet:  :mullet:  :mullet:  :mullet:

a guy in my office has a mullet!  

Stephan

[Shane]

bump