It is that time of year again....

From all of us to all of you.... See you at SCC 2010!

Barnfind of the century? Denzel!!

Finding ourselves in the Bay area a few weeks ago, we dropped by one of our Screwdriver-friends - Mark. Mark is a down-to-earth electronics engineer with a huge passion for VWs and a huge collection of VWs. One of the largest in the world, as a matter of fact.

When one has got "everything"...most collections are missing a Denzel. The littel race-engine-company that learned Porsche how to make 550 Spyders and that built some of the fastest engines and cars in the early 1950ies Germany. Less than 20 are known to excist in the world - rarer than rare...in other words.

Numerous "wanted" ads for Denzel -cars and -engines can be found all over the Internet and in virtually every magazine on both sides of the Atlantic... you might think wanted-ads never work, but in this case they did!

An old farmer/car collector in Virginia was cleaning out his barn and guess what he found in the back?.....untouched, original engine Denzel Spyder!!!!!

Via-via-via....this unbeleivable find ended up in Mark's good hands. Some wallets were "thickened" on the way...but who cares in the end; Mark has crossed out yet another "impossible-to-find" car for his fantastic collection - congratulations!

We started on the "preservation rather than restoration"-speech....and if you ever come across Mark we urge you to keep hammering the same arguments into his head... How many patinated Denzels will you ever see in your lifetime?

T-1908

some of us, use a lot of money when building our cars.. this guy told us he spent 1500 dollar on the whole project... because the tires were so expensive..

we just love it....

Roadside Relics...

On our way to a local store here in the sticks of eastern Norway...we had to slam our brakes when this "ride" was parked outside a ... potato-warehouse..

Qute little Bedford truck...on plates...and a rare-in-Norway forrest-find Plymouth Coupe strapped on top. Very cool to see - wonder if it was dragged out of the woods or out of a shipping container?

AND FINALLY WE GOT THEM!!

Screwdrivers' visit to Hot Rods by Brizio

About two weeks ago we found ourselves with some spare hours in South San Francisco and made sure to use them wisely. Roy Brizio is a blue-blooded hot rod celebrity in the California car scene, but despite running a huge commercial operation and numerous bread-n-butter Street Rods...Roy has never forgotten the true hot rodder inside him...



The "shop truck" reflects where it all came from....a "hopped up Model T". The "25HP vintage speed" counterpart to the VW-hobby..

Keeping track of about 25 employees and at least that many customer projects demand "ordnung"... Roy keeps the "to do"-lists on the wall updated every evening...


We very quickly developed a "weak spot" for this old untouched Sprint Car with totally oxidised mag wheels and a seized Flathead...is it for sale? - Nope...my dad used to race it in the fifties, says Roy.... no wonder.

We love "cars on walls".... and we adore front motor dragsters.... best of both worlds, in other words..

The right wheels for for the right car....

Happy Birthday #3 !!

Screwdriver #3, aka "Alien", is just 19 minutes into the first day of his life as a 3x-year old.... He is devoting this winter to making his AlienBug go even faster, his '60 Karmann Convertible a little less rusty....and a whole lot of bench racing with new projects that he can not get out of his head... Congratulations our good friend - "love all, serve all" should be your new slogan!

Norwegian Hammerworks

Our good friends at NHW have their new website up and running. Check it out folks!

We Love Amazon.com!

Winter-time is also time to fill up your bedside table with good literature... We are not sure why, but the recent years we have seen some obscure, yet fantastic automotive titles being published. The market for some of these niche books can not be great, or greater than before...so we assume it is the publishing/printing costs that have decreased to enable all this great literature to be published.

Some of our current favorites on our next-to-our-bed table are:

"Autodrome" - the lost race tracks of Europe (fantastic!)

"Baron of Speed - Huschke Von Hanstein" - if you love 1940-1955 VW-Specials and Porsches (and of course you do!)

"Die Edel Kafer" - we wore out our "VW Kabriolets & Coachbuilts" many many years ago...and this book that came a few years back is just a fantatstic follow up.

Log on and get them for YOUR bedside table....

Speaking of garage-time...

#4 goes "super size me"... his constant strive for more power based on simple, yet creative solutions has now taken him to the pistons - and here bigger is better! BTW: That is a "big" 94mm on the .... left. Here we go -2010.

Winter-time is Garage-time...

The snowy season is the creative season in Norway's hobby-garages... such is also the case for at least half of the Screwdriver's membaz... #6 has put a lot of thought and effort into an old Norwegian classic and this winter he is ready for the final stretch - we can't wait to see it out in the open in 2010!

Period motivation...

Pure old school engine bay of same car..

"Berm me up, Scotty!"

Timeless shot of Ron Flemming's oval from back in the old days

Now...

Wish that a few more of the old gas stations would have been preserved better.. This one in the city of Hamar is almost intact, but still looking a bit sorry for itself.

Before

Alien and some buddies from sweeden heading for SCC 2008

Finally: Good old fashioned SKOGSVRAK-HENTING...

Fetching abandoned relics from the Norwegian forests is one of our absolute favorite activities... After "growing up", it just happens way to seldom. This weekend we finally completed a journey we have been waiting for.... This old NSU is beat up, smashed and too far gone.... but has had one owner since new. The only thing we will keep from this pile is the rear mounted, 4cyl, air cooled engine.... 1200 ccm and with the sought after TS marks. Very nice and perfect for a Screwdriver-friend's mystery project.... Stay tuned.

A new favorite: MEILENWERK, Dusseldorf

Very few automotive happenings cause physical disturbance in a positive way.... But there are some. Revealing a fantastic barnfind, first start up of a high performance engine.... the feeling of a great great deal, an unbeleivable swap meet find.. We have been fortunate to have experienced a few over the years; standing in the middle of the Daytona trioval when a total of 6 - six - Porsche 917s put the pedal to the metal...was strong - very strong.

Last week we visited "MEILENWERKE" in Dusseldorf - a museum for "fahrkultur"...."automotive culture". We very much got the same feeling - almost lost our breath. Unbeleivable - a monument to our hobby that really make you proud of what you are doing. Check it out:

http://www.meilenwerk.de/Meilenwerk_Duesseldorf_index.php

A gigantic old steam locomotive garage has been super-nicely restored and converted into a .... monument for automotive culture.. A shitload of oldtimers was stored two stories high behind glass doors, a whole soccerfield full of classics for sale, and a alley of specialised vintage automotive repairshops... in the middle of it all: Cafe Hebmuller. I am not joking! Not to be missed on your next trip to Das Vaterland - no matter what type of car hobby you fancy.

We really liked the Fcael Vega HK500 - but that would be cheating on your wife, right? We totally fell in love with this one, and are already planning our return-visit...

http://www.mo-vendi.de/angebot02.htm

Best patina oval in Norway??

Putting on that happy face

Test fitting the nose clip, coming from a newer car there are still some small things left to do on it before it can go on for a final time. Really pleased with the progress this weekend.

Flooring it

Well, had some spare time this weekend. Pulled the barndoor back into the workshop, and felt we made some great progress. Front floors, heater tube and headlamp support welded in

Solid as a rock(er)

Cargo door rocker welded in, cargo floor test fitted.

SweetSwapMeet-find: ITALMECCANICA supercharger

#2 scored big time at the legendary "Ekeberg" swap meet 2 weeks ago... This is where VW-voultures and junk mix two times a year - and every now and then a real gem shows up. This very rare, very nice ITALMECCANICA compressor / supercharger / blower made between 1951-53 for the 25HP VW-engine was this year's big prize.

Much more about it over at TheSamba:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=379501

Do you know more about this thing? Pictures, survivors, old reports...anything will be greatly appreciated.

Now .... what car to put it on?

500 MILES AWAY FROM HOME....TWO BEST BUDDIES

SCREWDRIVERS BACKYARD BBQ 2009....the 2 guys driving for hours....the 2 best cars....2 most freezing guys....see ya next time!!

A long way to go, and a short time to get there..

#7 in hot pursuit of #6, two oval window bugs on their long way back home after spending the weekend in "trivelige trøndelag"

Quite a few stayed on for more socialising and beers into the late evening.

Thanks everyone for making it such a nice little event. The Screwdrivers salute you all.

When everybody had had enough burgers...

we wandered down to the Alien basement where Leif aka #1 had prepared some slides and treasure hunting stories.

While Alien kept the BBQ warm, people were hanging out having a good time.

The BBQ navigation-rally awards are ready

Silence before the storm....

SCC SCC SCC SCC SCC SCC SCC SCC SCC SCC SCC

Another photo from the first scc.....
photo from www.cal-look.no

OLD BUS

ANSEN`S fit on everything.. also old type-2`s

OLD BUS

but i did not like the interior..
photo`s from www.thesamba.com