Darrell Vittone, son of Joe Vittone, founder of Empi. We learned to know each other a couple of years ago and stay in contact ever since.

Darrell used to own his own shop (the Race shop) after sold to Filter Dynamics. Found out that it was real hard to make money in a race shop he relocated to Sheridan Oregon, where he dedicated most of his time in making special and tuning parts for water-cooled VW’s… a whole other thing then he ever did…

In the show room there is things from the past… like these cool license plate frames…

and a schwimmwagen… I guided Darrell when he acquired this one…

The original supercharged engine from 1966, once he tried to sell this for 500USD at a Bug In, no takers…. what would this be worth today?????

The warehouse and shop are very extreme well organised, Darrell retired a couple of years ago and his “like a son” Collin took over, as dedicated as Darrell himself always led this company!

Darrell current race car, a 1966 Ghia was acquired last year… this is the car he try to beat land records in the 36hp class (that’s 30DIN HP for us Europeans) … what he does big time, two weeks ago he eneterd this car in Palmdale, where he raised the track record  from a  mere 104 to a big 141Mph in his class!

nice huh?

Darrell and yours truly before the car Darrell has “on loan” from famous Scottish collector Russell Ritchie.

This was a highlight of my trip for sure! Thanks for lunch Darrell, this was super cool!

Darrell will be visit BBT HQ on our next open house, bookmark your calendar and talk to this Vintage VW heroe in person on BBT’s open house! June 18….

Ok heading south, in two more days I fly home and still have a couple of things to do and many miles to cover!

My friends Eric and Brian in Spokane are always cool to visit…  I had to pick up some “left overs” from last visit in October, so why not hang out for a while!

Eric just had this other “toy” picked up… a little tractor with a  “pancake” type three engine… so weird!

Yours truly would have tried it out but one carb was giving a problem currently…

Looking at the drive train…. crazy stuff!

After all the fun, it was time for some serious food… this place was cool!

Being a bikers pub with inside, yes inside!, parking for bikes this was a cool set up… VW bus do serve drinks in the weekends…

In the corner was sitting this cab of a 1954 truck… they converted in a BBQ! Left and right front hood each had a grill and the cabin was a real smoke house!

Inside was a cozy little bar,

 with a splitty ft panel on the ceiling!

Well time to leave in the morning after spending the night in Ritsville only 60 miles south of Spokane…… hey look what I do have on my trailer now?

1957 Porsche 356 A coupe (T1 body) very extreme solid, right side Ft fender and left rear have been clipped light years ago, but nothing bad… still original floors in decent condition…… and yes, I do have doors, glass, seats, ft hood and a bunch of other parts for it….:)

Driving west, direction of Portland Oregon… another 600 mile trek… spotted this vanagon (T25 or T3 in europe) down the road… after Tri Cities (Richland, Pasco and Kennewick) the whole drive is almost on the side of this crazy big  Columbia river… another day of driving with beautiful views…

Beautiful mountain top,  driving west on I 84 just past Hwy 97…

Endless roads with more full size trucks…

Driving through being on a schedule this was the best of my “skyline” views of Portland, sorry I could not get it completely, but it looks like a great city!

Driving more West we enter what is called, the Oregon Coast, a very beautiful area, with sleepy towns… This is my destination for today… Sheridan Oregon, who lives in Sheridan?

Stay tuned and find out tomorrow! I will pay a visit to one of the largest names in our hobby of aircooled VW history !

Right after the Kelley Park show, I left for my trip Up North… I always do enjoy these road trips very much, so want to share some impressions with you from this northern party of the West Coast USA “down the road”

Once leaving the Bay area (or any other big city or agglomeration) roads become stretched and seemingly endless, a good feeling…

North California (very far up North in this case) is very beautiful, and very green, Mount Shasta is prominent! Mostly covered in clouds, I was lucky this time I could see completely… first time I could take a decent shot from this landscape monument that’s worth to show on the Blog…

Americana is never that far away in smaller towns… this shot is taken in Weed California, close to the Oregon border…

Driving into Oregon landscapes, views and nature are beautiful!

Hey a split on the road!

Big “18 wheelers” are a prominent view while traveling here….

Bend Oregon being my first target …. 200 miles, a mere 300 kilometers to go… Hwy 97 is not very busy today…

Endless stretches of road ahead of me…

Here Highways do drive through towns, so no “go around” for full size trucks…

Sunset was beautiful… light and surrounding made it into some unique…

Early monday morning when sun was not completely out yet, I was already left when it was still dark, it’s always nice to see the little towns “awake” from behind the steering wheel…

Driving into Oregon…

Bend was no success, so continue “up North”… after a day of driving I got another beautiful sunset close to Washington state border…

Well I would almost state these as “art pictures”… damn, who I got that name from again?

After a good night of rest in a road side motel the trip goes on, before dawn… life is hard for a driver!

You get used to these big trucks, at least they do give  You a sign of life… You’re not alone on the road….

Well I do know my brother like these pics of the “long stretches” very much, so this one is especially for you bro’!

Hey I saw these two guys sitting here before… they look so cute, like they say… “take me away”…

Another small town to cross, better watch speed limits in this kind a sleepy old small towns, as most of their Police officers are kind of very awake and don’t like “plates from other states” speeding through their towns! I managed to do this entire trip without a ticket again… ah!

cool huh?

And so I did arrive in Spokane, Washington state… more tomorrow!