The last drive with the White Whale…. too many memories…
In 2014 I decided it would be a good idea I had a car and a trailer in the USA to hunt down cars. now we have closed our car sales dept. there is not a real need any more to have a “Big Rig” here in the USA, so last week, after coming back from Oregon, I my last trip with my trusty White Whale .
For this special occasion I hooked up Mark Merrill’s 28ft enclosed trailer to pick up a parts lot of Type 3 parts in the Bay area.
A 28 ft. trailer is a big beast to tow, believe me.
But I had to make the last drive special.
Total I covered over 100.000miles and been in 10 or more different states with my trusty Whale, always pulling my trailer, never let me down..
Some pictures of my last ride in the whale for all of you to enjoy
Bye bye Whale I really hope you will have a nice life with Bob, the new owner, yep, indeed, same name like me…
A special transport… with video!
When a friend here in California asked me to take a big VOLVO military vehicle on my trailer to Grants Pass Oregon I said yes within a blink of an eye, what an adventure to transport such a “BEAST” on my car trailer…
I had to drive to Grants Pass Oregon anyway to visit some friends recently moved there. A 10hr single trip without a trailer that is…
Not so many people see holiday as hauling cars around, but that’s exactly what I like the most to do! Let’s say it’s like going to the beach, but little different… 🙂
I took some pictures down the road for all of us to enjoy…
The video at the bottom shows how we unload this big rig!
Sealed and delivered….
Check out this cool video!
Video not visible? Click HERE
All the leaves are brown and the skyes are grey… California dreamin’….
Some pictures just “down the road” from my trip, for all of you to enjoy and to dreamin’… Califoria dreamin’…. 🙂
Crazy traffic in SoCal… 
Skyline of Los Angeles 
Wide open space on multiple lane freeways
Traffic everywhere
Sunset from freeway118
Downtown Ventura
Heading North, like James Dean did on his last trip…or shall we stop to surf?
Somewhere near Santa Barbara Freeway 101 turns really nice! 
Patina on a parkinglot
Morro Bay 
Highway 41 to 101
101North
Sunset….almost there…:)
Driving at the West Coast is a real cool experinece, You should really do it sometime in your life… especially Hwy 1 and Freeway 101 are very scenic and offer once in a lifetime views…
Ok let’s start the engines again, heading to Grant Pass Oregon today!
What is Bob doing in USA? Visit to Engle camshafts and TriMill exhaust
Last week I visited plenty of suppliers and customers and yes some cool projects are “in the works”. But I save you the boring stuff…
I paid also visit to our supplier So Cal Imports, who make the Engle camshaft and TriMill exhaust…
So Cal Imports is ran by Andy and his wife Candaces. Two of the best people you can meet in your life!
The factory tour was real nice and I learned a lot…
Engle Cams was founded by Joe Engle in the forties as he wanted better cams for his Flat Head engines to race the salt lakes…
It turned into a bussines and an expansion to Volkswagen was just around the corner in the sixties with so many beetles around and too many young blood testerones that want to make their babies faster…
So Joe bought more and more machines and specilised into cams with an experience never seen elsewhere.
When Joe passed away Andy took over the machines and the entire Engle team moved to his premises in Carson, California, where they still grind and treat the Engle cams till today!
This is the treasurie of Engle cams.
All dies to put on the copygrinders,
Every ring you see is a different cam lay out…
…. and there is three cabinets like this…
Copygrinders are very intersting machines…
People who know me definitely understand I spend quite some time there …:)
42year of experinece grinding cams… irreplacable…
Many machines not frequently used been packed in plastic to stay clean and free from dust and moisture… good work starts on a good machine!
What brings us to TriMill,
Started by John Miller many moons ago who had three sons, (hence TRI MILL….)
Some excenter presses to make the side covers for the silencers…
This guy welded more silencers in his life as probably anybody on planet earth, unfortunately he will retire in February…
With this result…
To properly stack away for the next step….:)
So many processes have to go through…
These are the tube benders.
I want to say a BIG BIG Thank you to Andy and his team to show me around and explain me all details, SO-Cal is a beautiful company. They make a genuine product as proven above!
From your local guy here to you, all the best!
BBT Travel report; Bob needs a new jet lag… urgently
After more then two years I set off to California… will Blog my whereabouts when and where I can… far all of you to enjoy…:)
KLM flies me everywhere, this time to San Francisco … don’t worry, I don’t wear flowers in my hair!
Bye bye rainy weather, welcome sun, San Francisco here I come!
Californian dreamin’
From the plane…
Arriving with clear skies is always good!
Golden Gate bridge looked beautiful as ever!
San Francisco…
after landing and immigration I picked up my car and drove to my first adventure, over the San Mateo bridge…
more to come later in the week…:) stay tuned….:)