Miscellaneous Ramblings

In June 1999, while attending the VW Classic, a friend of mine walked up, pulling me by my shirtsleeve towards the Der Kleiner Panzers' club tent, stating, "You've got to see this!" As we approached the tent, a small crowd had gathered around a small television. Over the unmistakable sound of a VW engine at full song, accompanied by brutal tire screeching, I could barely see the television in the unrelenting sun. I could tell by the crowd, however - who were speechless, with jaws dropped - that I needed to see this video. Squinting, I saw a beautiful black Cal-Look Bug being thrashed within an inch of its life. It appeared that the driver was trying to break the car! Little did I know how right I was.

The driver, madman Mark Herbert, has been around the California Look scene for years. In approximately 1996 or 1997, Mark's brother, accomplished transmission builder, Mike, received a call from Dave McFall working at Circle Motors VW. Dave, who sold parts to Auto Tech, the US dealer for Quaife, wanted to know if Mike knew someone with a fast street VW, as they wanted to test a new differential. Mark also remembers that, "Keith Seume had something to do with Quaife building the unit for the swingaxle type 1, but I forget the details."

In any event, since Mike built transmissions for a living, and Mark had a fast street VW, the duo seemed perfect, and Mike installed the Quaife unit into Mark's black '61. Accompanied by Mark's stout 2332 cc engine, Mark's goal was, "to beat the crap out of it and see if it could brake." Mark needed a wide street to test the differential, and knew exactly where to go on a quiet Sunday morning, Argosey Street, located in an industrial park in Huntington Beach, California, where many VWs had street-raced in the past.

Upon arriving at the park, a friend quickly set-up the camera, Mark revved the motor, and simply "dumped" the clutch. The car violently launched as Mark angrily clawed for second, pulling back on the shifter with no remorse. Standing on the brakes, Mark launched the car while turning the wheel, throwing the rear around with reckless abandon. Never letting-up on the throttle, roasting the rear tires during increasingly tight donuts, Mark put on a driving demonstration that would not be forgotten. It was clear that he didn't have a mechanically empathetic bone in his body!

After several minutes, Mark knew it was time to leave, later recounting, "a cop could have come around at any time, and we would have gone to jail. There was art work [tire rubber] all over the street, and you couldn't argue against that." The car had survived, and with no tread left on his tires, Mark left Argosey Street for safer ground.

The Quaife unit was eventually removed, and sent back to the manufacturer. While that may have marked the end of the video, it was not the end of the story. The test proved to Mark that he loved having a limited-slip differential, so he found a used ZF unit, which Mike installed prior to putting the car back on the road. Lurking around the back roads one night with his trusted ZF-equipped '61, Mark found himself on a dark, winding 2-lane road, chasing an Escort GT, "to let him know that he wasn't the fastest guy around." Catching the Escort, Mark flew by him in third gear.

It was at that moment Mark realized he had neglected to adjust his headlights, which were aimed down at the asphalt directly in front of his car. Encountering complete darkness, Mark knew he was in trouble approaching an off-camber turn. He felt the rear of the '61 slide out, hitting a dirt shoulder, causing it to violently flip, "Where things got real quite, and I realized I was airborne." The car repeatedly barrel-rolled, eventually stopping on its side. Mark removed his seat belt, pushed the passenger's door open, and climbed out. The '61 was completely destroyed, and Mark was lucky to escape unhurt.

The Escort GT driver had stopped in the ensuing crash, fearing the worst. With his jaw dropped in disbelief as Mark climbed out of the car, Mark calmly asked the driver, "Hey, do you think you can give me a ride home?" The Escort driver was speechless! Happily finding his glasses in one piece hundreds of yards away from his car, Mark blew the dust off the lenses, and hoped in the Escort.

Returning with a trailer to the crash site, Mark encountered numerous police cars with their lights flashing and spot lights searching the area. Mark approached a police officer, who inquired, "May I help you?" "Yes," was Mark's reply, "That's my car." The officer was in shock, convinced Mark was lying, as he couldn't believe that anyone had survived the wreck, noting, "There is an officer in the bushes looking for a body!"

Mark was eventually able to salvage the engine from his '61, installing it into his VW bus, where he noted, "it would do 110 mph."

While Mark would later find fame as owner and pilot of the equally-infamous "Super Shitbox," the folklore around this crude video - which many consider to be the greatest high performance Beetle video ever recorded - catapulted its star to legendary status!

The Quaife Test can bee seen in the Video Section at http://www.cal-Look.com/forum