Purchased ~2001. Red leather seats, black carpet, white roll bar and stock R16 with a 5-speed! tranny. Raul quickly installed Comp front springs and bigger sway bar. It was a very tight, comfortable roadster.
One of our first fun runs was up to Mt. Hamilton with a bunch of others from Modesto/Livermore. Raul, Gerardo, and yes, that's your 311s.org founder Steve Allen on the right!
Rockin' the Panasports from my roadster...switching wheels was fun!
Raul loved driving the white car and took really long trips including Yosemite. The car was even featured in a Hemmings Magazine article on vintage import roadsters:
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Raul and I did more cruising together all over the Bay Area:
The white car somehow ended up in my garage from time to time
On my birthday in 2002 we did an epic fun run organized by Steve Allen up near Santa Rosa. I drove my '67.5 SPL/U20 and Raul took the white car, here he is on the Golden Gate:
We drove the piss out of our cars, unfortunately I broke my comp oil pan trying to straddle a rock. Being the good friend that he is Raul drove all the way back to San Jose to bring his trailer up to Santa Rosa, after Steve kindly bailed me out:
This of course led to my SR20 swap but I wanted the U20 to stay in the family so Raul got it:
The U20 was built by Bill Collins of Modesto, hot rodded a bit with a B-cam:
Since my car was down Raul was always kind enough to let me drive one of his roadsters. In 2003 he let me drive the white car to Solvang while he took his RHD '66. We threw my softop on it:
Did the Poker Run in it:
Later in October of '03 I organized a Fun Run to Pescadero Beach and again he let me enjoy the white car. I will never forget this fun run. The 5-speed/R16 combo was so rewarding:
In 2004, Raul treated the white car to a new exhaust system, similar to what I had on my roadster. We proceeded to terrorize the neighborhood:
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I had got my SR20 swap finished and was finally driving my roadster again when I heard from Raul, he was starting to swap the U20 into the white car! I lent him a hand but unfortunately we did not get it running because of electrical issues. I didn't hear from Raul in years, life gets in the way sometimes.
Fast forward to 2012...we got in touch and I suggested that Rob at ZCarGarage take a look at it. It needed some freshening from sitting for years but he nursed it back to health. He popped the cam cover and said the engine looked like it had barely any wear on it and whoever did the build did it properly…whew!
So nearly 10 years after I had this motor in my roadster and I got to go for a spin in the white car and see, hear and feel that glorious U20! Check it out:
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I can't tell you how cool this was for me, and waiting to see the smile on Raul's face once he drove it was going to be priceless.
So here is the U20 in my car 10 years ago:
Here it is in the white car today:
And the best part is that Raul is Enjoying the Ride again, here he is on a recent fun run:
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Good to have you back Raul!
I'm back!!!!!
