Looking in the mirror this morning at my sunburned neck and forehead, I started thinking about how long it had been since Bug-In 31 was held in Southern California prior to Bug-In 32 held April 10th. I was also thinking about all the changes that have taken place since then.

Wow, Bug-In 31 was held in October, 1983 at OCIR. It seems so long ago, but it really wasn’t. I attended Bug-In 28 and 29, but I missed 30. By that time, the Datsun 510 was my car of choice, but I still remember the VW days very well.

There were the Bug-Ins, rallies around Orange County, and lots of street racing in L.A. These were the reasons I got a Bug in the first place. There is nothing like the deep sound, of a pair of 48 IDA Weber’s sucking air. Toss in a close-geared trans, and it was heaven. But, heaven had a price! Trying to keep the whole thing together, man!

Trying to keep the motor together was like trying to keep the pin in the hand grenade. If the motor came un-glued, the only thing you might have walked away with would have been a set of carbs and a distributor! That is what kept me from building another Bug. But after this weekend, I don’t know. I may take a step back in time and look around for a nice white ’67 VW sedan…hmmm.

Anyway, I started thinking about some VW stories. I thought about the times we cruised around the Valley, up and down Van Nuys Blvd. on Wednesday and Friday nights. One Friday night, we saw Gary Berg in his light-blue, 1967 sedan cruising around. We knew not to fool around with that particular Bug. It had a big motor and a prototype 5-speed trans, plus all the other Gene Berg stuff.

Gary’s dad, Gene, was one of the pioneers of VW Hi-Performance in Orange County since the 1960’s. His cars were straight-forward, no-nonsense machines with a very subtle and even plain look, with a wheel-standing attitude! In those days, the most hard-charging VW was a beast to drive. We didn’t know anyone who could drive a really fast VW street car every day without something falling off or the thing just over-heating. But there was Gary, 40 or 50 miles from home, cruising around and kicking some serious ass all night long. We could not believe it, not a tow car in sight!

After winning for the umpteenth time, blowing off the small block, Chevy-powered 914 (from a roll, because the 914 guy was scared that he would blow his trans), Gary pulled into a gas station and topped-off his tank. He said "I heading home fellows", and hopped on the freeway and drove back to Orange County. We were shocked to see a car with that type of performance running on pump gas and driving 40 – 50 miles on the freeway.

About five years ago, I was walking into a grocery store and this young guy stopped me and asked if I had a VW bug a few years ago? I looked at him and said it was way before your time and asked how old he was. He said he was "twenty-five". I told him I had a VW about twenty years ago. He said that he knew. He told me he was at the street races with his big brother. He saw me race a guy that I gave ten cars and beat by ten cars. Right then I knew I had to have a Volkswagen! He pointed outside the window and said, "That’s my car right there!" And there sat a blue, cal-look, late-model sedan with alloys. It was looking very right! Then he told me about his car. I was as proud as a father.

How could something as small and insignificant as a street race, set that youngster on his way? But it did, so take your little kids to the track. They all may not like it, but you never know. Someone could walk up to you in twenty years and say thanks.

Racing is life.......everything else is just waiting.