Salt City Air Coolers - The Early Years

Salt City Air Coolers (SCAC) - VW's In Salt Lake City

The club was started in the mid 1980's by just a few members - Ric, Mike, Tom & Rob, I think there was one more, but can't remember exactly who. The club has been around for almost twenty years, and is still going strong today. Here are some photos from those early (some might say hey-day!) times..

UPDATE! - Mark, a former President of SCAC has sent in some more photos! The SCAC Memorial Page is off and running! Send your photos and memories in today! In the past couple of days Galen & "Dougie" have been tracked down, look for some of their pics to arrive soon.

March 2003 Club Meeting - For the first time since 1989, we made the drive down and attended a SCAC club meeting! It was great to see so many old friends again. Ric Birks was kind enough to put me up for the night, so we could stay late and enjoy the activities.

Member Rides

Show Photos - The club went to a lot of shows, many to race, some to show, some for the swap, all to have a good time. The years have faded some timeframes, but the memories live on!

Salt Lake City - SCAC Show - It only happened once to my knowledge, and I can't remember the year, but it was right before the old track closed down for good. The crowd was quite large as a good group of guys from Colorado Springs came. Maybe it's about time to do this again!

Phoenix - Bugorama, sunny and warm while Utah is cold and snowy - like a pilgrimage for most SCAC members. Camping outside the gate on the Indian lands - burning a case in the desert, sunburns, killer swap meet, scoring a set of 45 Dellortos NEW in the box for $270 bucks, the snowstorm in Flagstaff, lot's of memories in Phoenix.

Boise - Tater Bug - The trek to Boise, Pat Fagen's Turbo Bug - It's hot, it's dry, it's a lot of fun!

Las Vegas - The only Vegas Event worth mentioning was the first one! The rain the night before, the street racing...., getting kicked out of the Tropicana, Hopping, and perhaps most memorable of all watching the movie Platoon and sitting in a Denny's watching the sun come up for the event. Or maybe it was the overnight stop in Mesquite... (how many SCAC members will fit in one hotel room?) Some of the cars are now legends - Dave Perkins, Dominic Lupino, the Kawell Bus, Small Car Specialties Puma, Packet's Nitro burning digger, Jack Sachette's Fiat.

Ivan Hodges original "Hot Flash" made it's debut here. It was later sold to Pat Fagan, who removed the chopped top and put an automatic in it. Last time I saw this car was at a race in Boise in 1990 or 91. Take a look!

You never know what you'll see in a swap meet - one of the photos below is a 1952 Porsche built and powered Motorhome! It was for sale at the vegas swap for only $2,400 dollars! It was Cool!

Sacramento - VW Racing's version of "The Big Go" The biggest race, biggest swap... Remember the year the cops came in with helicopters, dogs and everything else they could think of?

Denver - A Mile High, but one of the best events. SCAC has always done well here, whether racing or showing. Cory Mac went on to NHRA Top Fuel fame, here he is in Denver with his Funny Car Ghia.

Baylands - San Francisco's Track. The last event at the track before it was closed was a VW event, and here are some photos from that last race.

European Japanese - Ivan, Marge and the rest of EAP were very supportive of the club. Here are some shots from one of the largest car shows SCAC ever had there. EAP is gone now, if you have more photos of this show, please pass them along. Each year the club would also support EAP at the Auto-rama event in Salt Lake City.

Club Gatherings

VW Tubing & VW-Snow-hooding - Take one old VW hood, a bunch of SCAC members, and Utah's legendary snow, and you have a recipe for only one thing: Lot's of fun! The photo with three guys on the VW hood taking a jump was printed in Hot VW's Magazine in April of 1991.

Sugarhouse Park -

4th of July Parade!

Drag Racing At Bonneville & Misc... - One of the biggest club drag racing events was the Nostalgia Drags at Bonneville in 1990. At that race we had no less than twenty club members, including three sporting big turbo motors. Club member Doug remembers:

"Seeing the photos at Bonneville reminds me of the time when Mike, Rick, and Ken were all out running the turbo cars, 2 maybe all three ran against that Hemi charger and smoked that guy big time. He comes back around, gets out of his car, slams his door and exclaims "I'VE BEEN BEAT BEFORE, BUT NEVER BY A BUNCH OF G.D VOLKSWAGENS!!!!!!)."

If you have SCAC photo's logo's hats, etc - please send them along!