What is your definition of the Germanlook style?

[trevorbrady]

Chris, unless I missed something here, the whole thrust of this discussion is Germanlook/Eurolook is whatever you want it to be. You don't HAVE to start with a '75 super beetle, or a '53 oval, it doesn't matter. There's even German/Euro bay window busses out there.

It's more a state of mind: you (the owner/builder/driver) strives to improve the breed, by adding on components that will enhance the performance and driveability of your VW.

As it happens, a lot of these components can be borrowed from modern cars (and not just Porsches!). The 'looks' end of things will probably follow on naturally, like if you put on a set of light alloy wheels to improve the cars handling, they generally look better than the steel wheels they replace. Also when you lower your car, it generally looks better.

As with a lot of things "Form Follows Function" kind of by accident!

Don't be rail-roaded into thinking you've got to find a '72 standard model beetle or something to start your project on, or that you've got to have these wheels or those brakes to make your car "Germanlook". Keep it loose, and keep the idea of improving what VW gave you in mind...

[Supa Ninja]

I spent Thanksgiving with one of good Cal Look friends in SoCal. Anyways he's a old school cal look guy from the 70's and I was very curious what he thought German Look was so I asked him and he simply said "It's the way Porsche would build a Bug".

[regis101]

My understanding is that the later model beetles were upgraded with beefier engines and suspension parts so as not to get run over on the Autobahn. Cosmetics are a personal evolution that morphed into the "look". But it remains the fact that it's based on performance. Ask a German.

[kdanie]

Regis101,
That's exactly how my project got started..... I almost got run over by a tour bus at 72mph on Hy 101 here in NorCal.
My trash bug (daily driver) can run 75mph but it's working pretty hard, 80mph is downright scarry! Why did VW put the nose on '68s so high in the air anyway? It just catches air under the nose and give you one wild ride!
Anyway, I started looking at type 4 power, then a 5 speed came into the picture. If you can go fast you better be able to stop fast too so the 944 brakes got installed and you might as well be comfortable at those speeds so 911 seats are in order and with the $$$ in the engine a 914 tack with 912 speedo to match with VDO ****pit gages to monitor vitals. Poof! I've got a GL! (well 2/3ds anyway, this spring I hope!) Damn, this mission creep is killing me!!
ken

[Jim Andritsakos]

German look originally started from Germany from people who put as much as possible Porsche parts to their VWs.If a car does not have at least Porsche brakes & wheels and a huge type IV engine with 911 cooling kit it is not real German look for me.

Modern alloys and CB brakes are modern/euro look not real German Look.



:tisktisk:

[oasis]

Hi,

I am fairly new to all of this. Nevertheless, I have done a lot of reading because the 1303 (most likely) I will buy and modify will be my first owned air-cooled VW.

From what I have read, the German Look came from people who wanted to emulate the cars driven in the Kafer Cup races. Interestingly, very few of those cars have Porsche wheels from the photos I have seen. (I don't know about the brakes since I can't read German.)

I surely hope the GL -- or as some would have it, the "real," "true," "genuine," <whatever> GL -- doesn't evolve into a pigeon-holed standard like the American Kennel Club does for breeds of canines, or the Cal Look scene for that matter.

The sameness of the Cal Look is boring. (Yes, this is my opinion only. Then again, this is my post.) The only thing that sets most apart from each other is the extent and cleanliness of each owner's car. It is no wonder so many of the winners at shows and featured cars in the US mags are trailered in/trailered out.

Zzzzzzzzzz.

I personally don't want another auto manufacturer's emblem on my future project. That's my preference. That's not to say I don't appreciate a GLer with Porsche wheels. Indeed, I do.

More importantly, I want a product that will improve the car's performance on the highways and byways. That seems to me to be more the essence of the GL than a brand name.

Perhaps, it is the semantics of this whole thing: German Look.

Does "German" mean everything has to be German? Does "Look" mean everything has to be made to a specific standard?

I hope not.

Because I will still make my car the way I want. And I will avoid the high-and-mighties with their clipboard full of preconceptions like a rash.

MOO,
René

[vujade]

exactly Oasis..

I think that the GermanLook evolved the way it did because of the desire to make the cars more modern.

The only reason Porsche stuff is so prevelent is because of the ease of adaptation to a VW (They are very close cousins )

I dont think anyone is trying to be a Porsche for that matter.
It would just be eaiser to buy a Porsche, then try to make one.

I think most of us, & especially myself included are not trying to transform my BUG into a Porsche, but are just trying to make the best handling, fastest accelerating VW to come off the assembly line.

Which is more fun too you?
Beating someone while driving a Porsche?
Or whooping up on someone while driving a fast VW?

just a though to ponder:

Leather Driving Gloves $49
180 HP Type 4 Motor $6000
Seeing the look on their face when you beat them in your VW... PRICELESS!

[Michael Ghia]

To me the car doesn't have to look different from a Cal-look car but it has to have a different purpose.

Cal-look came about because of the Drag racing scene.
German-look came about because of track racing. A completely different idea.
If it's meant to handle, stop and accelerate like a track car... it's a German Look car to me.

It's all in the performance. Anything goes so far as I'm concerned in looks

Mike Ghia

[Vyper]

Here's my 10 pence/cents worth:


I own a 72 GT Beetle

porsche 944 interior
carbon fibre dash panels, running boards (new ones from Joe v soon to replace my CSP ones). fire wall, more on the way...
VDO dials
New Beetle (concept 6 spoke alloys)
Memo import lights front, rear, and bumper indicators
type 1 engine (being rebuilt to 1776 twin dells currently)
Modern mirrors with home installed m3 side repeaters

What style is it? MY style!


I thank you
:silly:

Vyper

[mabus013]

personally, I found out what the german look was after I'd already figured out what I wanted to do with the beetle (that I'd bought a Super Beetle unknowingly definately helped). I basically wanted to combine my loves for Street/Hot Rods with import cars. I wanted to build a car with street rod-esque touches (pretty much impossible to get from modern cars, unless you want a muscle car aura) that would go, handle, and be compact and light weight, and that had a good aftermarket following so I wouldn't have to one-off everything. The beetle is capable of all this and more if done right. On top of this, it's one of the cheapest cars to modify, even more so than classic Chevys.

That said, I'm grateful to find others out their with similiar goals, whatever the movement is called. I'd hate to have to go this alone.

One man's opinion,
M13

[chigger]

I got started back in the bug scene about 7 years ago. The first thing I wanted to do after I bought a bug was to upgrade it to make it more drivable. Better brakes, better tires, HEAT, etc. As my designs progressed it came apparent that I wanted to upgrade my bug to the 21st century and maintain the external look of the classic bug. Basically I wanted to upgrade the mechanicals, but since I am not very good with body work keep the stock or near stock exterior and interior. All that has changed due to evolution.
The chassis was the first to be upgraded. I used alot of porsche parts, because they were cheap and worked. While I like other wheels alot better a set of 7x16 Phonedials with tires for $150 is hard to argue with. Alot of choices were also made due to availability. When I got started there were only a few choices for brakes, lowering the suspension, sway bars, etc. The choices we have now are alot more available.
I bought a 70 body because it has the tail lights I like and it doesn't have the rear fresh air vents which seem to like to rust out the rear quarter panels. And it was cheap and available.
Overall I looked at all the different years of cars and the different aftermarket parts and decided on what I liked and what would work and started collecting parts. Then along came the euro or german look forums and the people on the forums were doing similar things to their cars. I have been in heaven ever since.
This is what I am doing. It is what I like. If it fits into a certain style fine, if not so what! I like it and I have to drive the car.

1970 standard with 70 rear tail lites maybe frenched
1961 front fenders with shaved signal lites
Oval tube bumpers bent to match the curve of the early cars
A front air dam of my own design
A small rear wing of my own design
Body chrome , but none on the windows
Stock lightly tinted window glass (factory option)
H4 headlights, round yellow fogs and round driving lights
(I will be driving this car daily)
Level lowered stance about 2 /12 inch
7x 16 Porsche Phonedials polished with 205 55 tires
BMW sport seats (I think they are Recarro, got them cheap)
914 guages (they fit are big, they will work and they were cheap)
HEAT
Aluminum door panels, dash, and glove box
Roll cage with four way harness
To many chassis mods to discuss them all

My vision is a comfortable car that will cruise fast, stick to the road, and brake hard, yet be able to be driven reliabilely on a daily basis. Is it a GL? I don't know. I just know I will like it.
How about a grey hammertone spray can paint job. I have spent all my money on the engine.

A guy I work with, who is from Brazil, and doesn't speak perfect English, after a few seconds of word searching said this about my car, which isn't even GL all the way yet, "I likes because, well, *shrug*, it is old car, but it looks like new one."
I kinda smiled to myself, knowing what he meant(he has no idea about the German Look). Its the most general definition I have heard, but yet oh so accurate.

[super vw]

To me the so called "German look" is what you make it to be, it could just be the style you put into your car such as wheels and other parts, all the way to the extreme of upgrading and modifying things like porsche gear boxes, chassis, bodies and engines and suspention "mods". i also think there are guide lines to this style or look, i have seen a few people on the net saying they have a germanlooker or Euro looker but in reality they dont, stock bodies, engine and runing gear and such shoudent be counted as a GL car.
Also i do question why we call it German look, i mean hey... all our cars are german made so wouldent all german made cars be considered a GL?
Personly im going for a GL looker in a way, i do have Porsche wheels (16" Fuchs), and other Porsche goodies inside such as 911 seats, steering wheel and a 911 style dashboard (soon to be carbon fiber). but i dont like to clasify my car as just a GL, but rather MY style of GL... and thats what it should be about, not totaly copying or going with a trend of what some one else is doing... but going with what you want and need out of your car.
:silly:

[Axl R]

I am quite new to the German- or Euro-look . I find this look a refreshing new idea compared to the aging and boring "Cal-look". As said in other posts , the Cal-look is becoming very much a cookie-cutter look , and there doesn't seem to be anything new coming down the pipe in the near future to keep my interest up . Occaisionally , a car will come along that stands out , but it is usually few and far between . I like how the German-look takes some of the better parts of the Cal-look(I know that I am going to get an arguement on this point) and incorporates it into something newer and more exciting . To me , this is the next evolution of the Cal-look . I am excited about where this look is heading . Axl

[Axl R]

Hey !

I'm going to piss off alot of people with this post , but I've never been one to play it safe . I just went through the section on member's rides , and I have to say that it appears to me that most of these so called "german-lookers" are actually "cal-look" cars . When I look at alot of these pictures , I don't see anything that would qualify these cars as Euro-styling . They are still running on empi-style 15" rims with old fashioned dual carbed type 1 engines and drum brakes(I'm a mechanic , I look for the mechanical details) . Don't get me wrong , they are still nice cars , but last time I looked , the site was called the GermanLook Forum , not CalLook Forums . I did see some very good examples of a german-look cars , but they were few and far between .
I know that I am going to get some dirty looks my way , and I definately look forward to any constructive critisism . Axl :takethat: