The Outlaw

[david58]

Does anyone remember this car? I sold it last summer back to Richard Hoffman who built and drove the car . I have been thinking of calling Len Hoffman his son and see if it is coming back to life again. That was the plan I had for the car, until I called Richard and was asking about the car. He asked me if I would sell him his car back. So that ended my plans.

[Leatherneck]

Would be cool to have it brought back, tough looking thing. Bet ole Timmy be jumping all over that you know how he likes little things!

[MNAirHead]

Would be cool to have it brought back, tough looking thing. Bet ole Timmy be jumping all over that you know how he likes little things!

So does my bride..

There's a VERY cool one somewhere in the North East.. baja shortened and narrrowed.. they called it the tick..

Now that's metalworking single seater

T.

[vw505]

Last i knew of Len was going to rebuild it

[Steve Arndt]

PM HAM INC and show him this post.

[david58]

This was posted on the other site last summer.

Look out the window what do you see? I recently bought THE OUTLAW car that was in the April of 81 Hot VW's I called the Builder owner driver that sold it to the guy I got it from. I was trying to find out when it was in Hot VW's I was thinking about restoring it. To make a long story short I am selling it back after 20 years the guy wants his car back. I hate to see it go but how could I turn the guy down. It doesn't look like much now but I'm sure he will restore it back to health. They banned it from running at Oglethorpe Speedway here in Savannah Ga. It has set up for years. I talked to a couple of people and they said they are letting bugs run again at Oglethore. How lucky could I be.


Oh I cleaned up my room Mom.

so, how much $$$ did you make on the deal?

we have a asphalt 3/8 track in town, i can remember a bad ass beetle coming to town and spanking the pinto boys in the 4 cylinder class.
the locals were outraged and thought he was cheating....

Does anyone have copies of the pictures from the original article in Hot VW's they could post? It would be cool to see what the car looked like in it's heyday...

I'll be posting pics today

Here is the cover it was on more pics on the way

It was cool selling this car and not making any money I think the friendship is well worth it. This wasn't the pix I wanted to post here but it is the car let me find the one I thought i was posting.

When you pour a lot of sweat and blood into building a car there is a part of you in it. When you part with them, sometimes you wish you never had. Getting the car back to it's original owner like that is very commendable... well done! Sounds like you made they guy very happy.

I thought I could scan his pics out of his scap book and post them but you know how it is I guess I am too out dated for this computer. And Julie a friend of mine scanned most of the pics while Richard and I mounted tires and replaced bearing for the ride home this jewel had sat for years. He drove a S-10 well the trailer tongue had been altered so Richard after a trip to uptown trying to buy a offset hitch which neither parts store had said why don't we put the ball in the bumper, so off to my shop we went I had 2 1 7/8 balls no nuts on them. So Richard bought a ball. Well I can tell you one thing Skidmark I had a lump in my throat when he asked if I would sell him the car back 2 days ago. I know I did the right thing, he couldn't believe he got the car back and the trailer he built 20 some odd years ago. I gave him everything I got when I purchased it like 2 brand new Mcleary ties and some neat stuff he fabed up. This will be a day I remember for a long time. Richard is a very talented person and I know I made a friend.

Outstanding David, You'll get a ton of good Karma out of this. Tell Richard to register here and share some knowledge.

Cool, thats really nice of you to do such a thing.

That was in the HAYDAY

Here is another pic I'm going to make Richard Famous once again.

If you are wondering why this bug is so small the bottom was cut off about 8 inches how that for slamming a bug

This is the car with Richard yesterday right before he left I bet him and his son are going to have a blast rebuilding this car.

Look at that grin on his face.

bajaherbie I didn't make any money on the deal I bought it for 700 a friend off mine was buying the tranny that was in it for 200. So after selling the tranny for 200 I had 500 in it including the trailer that Richard built 25 or so years ago. I put used tires on the trailer replaced the bearings on one spindle and repacked the other side. Richard paid for the bearings he wouldn't let me we couldn't get new seals but he said he would handle that when he got home. I gave him 3 extra rims 2 brand new Mcleary dirt track tires and every thing I got with it. Richard was amazed to see stuff he fabbed up over 20 years ago. This wasn't one of those deals I could make money on, if it was anyone else I would have. I also put a 66 tranny in it. I did get to keep the rear cage bumper but only because it wasn't part of the car and didn't fit.

tell richard you want to drive it when he has it running again

I called Richard to see if he made it home he said he did. He said he parked the car in the yard and sat there a while just in awe of the memories coming back to life.

funky ride!

that is a really cool story, good job...

Wow! David I want to thank you for reuniting my family with one of our old race cars. My dad (Rich Hoffman) and I have talked for years about trying to find our old cars, so when he told me you had called him and agreed to sell the Outlaw back to him I was very excited by the news.

My dad won well over 100 races in that car and I won quite a few in it too. We built that car in 1978 to replace his first circle track bug which he built and drove to around 50 wins. I inherited the first car and we raced against each other.

The Outlaw got it's name because one of our competitors saw it as we were building it and called a secret rules meeting whereupon the car was banned before it was even finished. There were no rules that the car was breaking, so they created some. We made the required changes but the car won it's first race none-the-less, despite starting last. After winning the first time out a group of competitors protested the engine. Of course it was legal.

As wild as that car is you should see the one we built after that. It weighed a 1000lbs!

All told my dad's won somewhere in the neighborhood of 200+ races. (and he's not done yet!) Most of the wins came on dirt, though he started in FormulaVees which he raced for a year and a half winning all but 3 races. Next he switched to circle track asphalt where he won 35 races in one season at Columbia Speedway in S.C. Once Columbia speedway shut down in 76 he switched to dirt.

It should be noted that my father built every car, and engine he raced, along with most of his exhaust system. The car was discovered by the HotVw's author when he spotted a photo of it at Reed cams, one of our sponsors and for whom my dad did dyno development.

Thanks again David for returning a treasured family relic to its original home!

HamInc, please post some photos of the outlaw as you restore it. we would love to see pictures of the build.....

The Outlaw got it's name because one of our competitors saw it as we were building it and called a secret rules meeting whereupon the car was banned before it was even finished.

What was the controversial advantage that prompted the secret rules meeting? Were all the other competitors cars VW based platforms?

Richard told me that after being in a wreck in the previous car with broken ribs and I think he said a pelvis he was building the car so he would be in the center of the cage. Nothing in the rule book said you couldn't

This is AWESOME, Len!

I'm glad to see your dad got the car back and that he has intentions of making it the way it used to be again!

I still have the first VW I ever bought (at the age of and believe it or not I have thought about restoring it, no matter how bad it may be. (it's pretty damn bad)

This is a story that Hot Vws needs to get a hold of, for sure.

Thanks Jake! I'm definitely excited about this restoration. That car was very fast and fun to drive. I'm looking forward to running some vintage dirt track races with it. I have driven my share of race cars over the years and nothing compares to a rear engine car on dirt. The closest I've experienced is a sprint car, but that's a whole 'nother world!

It would be neat to see the thing restored and back in HotVW's 25 years later!

Time for a Massive 3.0L test engine to fill out the engine bay!


Geoff

This is AWESOME, Len!

I'm glad to see your dad got the car back and that he has intentions of making it the way it used to be again!

I still have the first VW I ever bought (at the age of and believe it or not I have thought about restoring it, no matter how bad it may be. (it's pretty damn bad)

This is a story that Hot Vws needs to get a hold of, for sure.

Yes it would be nice to read SOMETHING of interest.

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=99105
More OUTLAW news

In the Texas Pro Sedan series we have two aircooled beetles racing against mustangs, rabbits, and the new beetles. The aircooled beetles run in the top five usually

I talked with Len Hoffam, Richards son from what I got out of our conversation there will be a OUTLAW coming back for sure and I saw pics of other cars they built. So be on the look out for their build it should make it back into Hot VW's 25 plus years later.

Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 1:08 pm

[david58]

Here is a link to what LEN posted on the STF.
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=99105

[david58]

Rich Hoffman called me today and said he has restored The Outlaw. He is Len Hoffman's Dad. I had been wondering about the car in the last couple of years and it was just amazing that he called me today to talk to me he still had my business card and I still have the same phone number he's going to send me pictures of the car completed he said he got to drive it on the track a couple of weeks ago he can't race it because there's no bracket to race it in but they did let him have a little fun on the track for the spectators and he said in a couple weeks Len Hoffman going to get to play with it on the track a little bit too

[doc]

11 years later!

[david58]

I am having a hard time uploading pictures I have saved them every no way I know how. There's no way for me to drag them into the message box because I can't even see the message box

[bajaherbie]

Do you have Tapatalk on your cell phone?



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[david58]

No

[david58]

I do now

No

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[david58]

Ok Harrison pictures of the restored Outlaw

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[Volksmeister]

That's really cool!