New TLR toys, and a Van terrorizing neighbors

Posted by admin Posted on September 29, 2013
Posted in Cool Cars, Fellow Teams, Race Prep/Build Updates, Random, TLR Customers, TLR Projects

And who doesn’t want new toys? That’s always the fun part. We teased everyone on our Facebook page with this photo:

WhatEVER could it be?!
WhatEVER could it be?!

Which turned into THIS lovely, awesome thing when we unwrapped it like a long awaited for package of fresh crimson bacon:

Our long-awaited for media blast cabinet produced by none other than Snap-On.
Our long-awaited for media blast cabinet produced by none other than Snap-On.

I am personally very excited. It will be used with our other awesome toy, the TLR VW powered Air Compressor.

In other news, we are so terribly excited to announce that VANDAMM is back in business! Our friend, the VW Syncro Vanagon, is now back on the road. Our previously discussed VW Corrado Turbo Engine ended up not fitting correctly despite our conversion kit, three different manifolds, and personally fabricated engine mounts (by Larry G himself). Syncros are actually about an inch longer in transmission than two-wheel drive Vanagons, making this not your run-of-the-mill conversion you see with the two wheel drive Vanagons. In the end, we would have had to cut the body, and that’s just not going to happen with this particular van. Our other Vanagon, slated to have a VR6 Jetta engine (oh yes, we just announced that! More to come on THAT in the future when we can actually get to that project), we really couldn’t care less about cutting or making it obnoxiously green like the Booger. But this is Vandamm, a car that gave us 340,000 original miles and is a family member. In short: we love it. So, we contacted Stephan at http://www.stephansautohaus.com/ in Sacramento, CA (super nice people there) and managed to procure a stock 2.1 Vanagon engine from when Stephan did an Audi conversion on a customer’s vehicle. We held our breath when we first went to start it…

And now, we would love to share with our TLR fans our expressed joy at having this beast back on the road:

Vandamm!
Vandamm!
Also now sporting a TLR sticker.
Also now sporting a TLR sticker.

Which also means no more driving the Chevy Suburban Beast as a daily driver anymore in it’s 454 glory! Which is also very fun…but 14 mpg just hurts you in the pocket book. Vandamm is 25 mpg…

The Ghost and the Booger next to the silver Ghia and our brand-new toy. The whole corner was rearranged, which was definitely an improvement. The welder and vacuum have a home next to it now, too.
The Ghost and the Booger next to the silver Ghia and our brand-new toy. The whole corner was rearranged, which was definitely an improvement. The welder and vacuum have a home next to it now, too.

We look forward to seeing Paul Nauleau and Ryan Crook from CBCFS Racing next weekend in their next step in the quest for the 2013 SCORE Baja 1000! They will be working on the Ghost (#1116) here again. So, look for more posts here about THEIR updates and the Ghost coming back together.

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Author: admin