Foxy Brown – ’67 Cal looker

I have to admit I'm a complete fanatic when it comes to a traditional California Look Beetle. I appreciate all styles of VWs and more importantly understand the hard work that goes into restoring one and just simply keeping it on the road, but at a show I always drift towards the Cal Lookers. Why? It's their simplicity, plus the fact that Cal Look was conceived from a desire to go faster and break from the norm, all on a limited budget. Easy, you might think, but look at any movie or photo from California in the 1960s or 1970s and there are literally hundreds of VWs all over the place, so it wasn't an easy task to make your VW stand out. Yet with only a few clever modifications, a Cal Looked Beetle can look almost radical.

Having said all that, you might not think I'm such a traditionalist when it comes to Cal Look if you've read about the 80's style Cal Looker I'm building in the ‘Our Projects' section. But that's just me remembering my teenage years and nothing more. The car featured here, on the other hand, is one that truly floats my boat. It's as traditional as you can get but still manages to attract attention everywhere it goes, which really proves the strength of the style today, years after it was originally conceived.
Maximilen Gadenne, aka maXXX, is the owner and builder of this Beetle. He first got interested in VWs six years ago at the age of 28, when he bought a 1966 Split Bus before moving onto a 1973 Cal Look Beetle. But he always wanted a 1970's style Cal Look Beetle, so with the '73 sold on and money in his pocket, he went looking for the perfect project car and found it in the shape of a 1967 Standard Beetle. He paid under £3,000 for what was an unrestored and unmolested '67. But as we all know, unrestored doesn't mean rust-free, and when you consider the last of this line was produced in 1978, even the youngest and therefore least likely to require bodywork is over 30 years old. Add another decade to that and maXXX's car could easily have been a rot box, but he was lucky: The car required no welding at all apart from two small holes in one of the doors and the welding up of the original tailpipe holes in the rear valance. Having such a solid car to start with meant maXXX could get on with designing his dream ride and this he did, with the help of his friend BlackHands, who I'll hazard a guess is not an accountant!

For the full story on this car make sure you pick up a copy of the Summer 2010 issue of VolksWorld

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