To be able to gain a thorough understanding of who I am, please read the pages about my early years before these pages, otherwise you’ll  be missing a lot…

Well now that you have read all about me in my early years I’ll pick up where I left off.

The same day that I graduated from High school, I went on a different senior trip than most of my classmates. My Dad had told me that I would either be a full time student paying his way through college or that I would be a full time employee somewhere footing my own bills and paying to live at home. I soon found out that perhaps the best route was to choose a task that seemed to be almost impossible to accomplish, so I joined the US Marines and found myself on a Bus bound for Parris Island South Carolina. This island is better known as “The land God forgot” and it’s accurately named.
Jake is pictured below with an M16A2 service Rifle while training at Camp Lejeune NC in 1994

From the time that you arrive at Parris Island and see the swarms of sand fleas and Mosquito’s you know that this is unlike any place on earth. I went into the Marines with a contract to be a Helicopter mechanic and I soon learned that every Marine is a rifleman and that my job didn’t get me out of any training- Thats why I joined the Marines and not the Air Force! From that first night at Parris Island which no recruit will ever forget the Marines picked up where my Dad left off with discipline and structure. That was the scariest time of my entire life, as well as the most challenging. Claiming the title “Marine” is not for the faint of heart of the weak minded, every minute that you are on that Island you must give 110% else you simply won’t make it. Parris Island was a huge stepping stone in my life, after I conquered it I felt literally like I could accomplish anything!
A true devil Dog with KA-BAR in mouth and M16 in hand...

The day I graduated from Parris Island I had to trade dress shoes with another recruit with bigger feet so my feet would fit into them to march across the parade deck and claim the title. This was the ultimate in team work as the other recruit walked in shoes 1-1/2 sizes too small for him just so I could graduate! My feet had serious stress fractures from hauling an 80 pound pack and another recruit’s weapon and war gear after he had fallen out on a 15 mile forced march the week before. I knew if I went to sick call that I would be placed in a physical conditioning platoon and would not graduate. My fellow recruits helped me get through that and that’s where I learned about working as a team and that no individual gets anywhere in life, or in combat.

After boot camp I went on to my special schools for Basic Helicopter and then on to Jet engine school. The classes were not difficult at all and I aced many of the tests. In some ways a Jet engine is much simpler than a 4 stroke VW! I went on through more training and ended up spending time in Okinawa Japan, did two Western Pacific six month tours onboard the USS Belleau Wood and the USS Pelileu.

My last trip on the ship found me as a crew member of the aircraft and soon found me indirectly claiming the title “Crewchief”… Though I never saw combat action I did have a few in air emergencies and saw the devastation that a rotary wing aircraft can create first hand when things go wrong.. I then ended up with orders back to the states and relocated to Southern California! Almost immediately I got big into the VW scene and went to all the VW shops. I was stationed at MCAS Tustin and was only 2 miles from Rimco, and many other VW shops. This was like heaven! I started assembling engines in my barracks room and selling them at the Pomona swap meet and made good money picking up junk from other people and making it live again. I worked 3 different jobs at the same time and saved all the money that I could so I could start my shop when I got home. I built over 300 engines from my barracks room while at Tustin and to date I don’t really know of any of them that grendaded! Still to this day the network that I created in California aids with my business here.

Jake with Air Force One while on a Presidental escort with HMX-1 in Yakota Japan in February of 1996

Upon the end of my term with the Marines I traveled home and brought back 19,000 pounds of VW parts with me. I landed a job very early at Lockheed in Atlanta working on C 130s but after I worked there for just 3 weeks I knew that my heart belonged with VWs and that I needed to take a huge pay cut and do what I loved. My Dads health was not good and I belonged at home taking care of him, the same way he had taken care of me. We had a small 3 bedroom house right next to my shop so I moved my things into it and that’s where I lived, working on engines night and day non stop. I decided to go full bore into the VW world again and a lot of my customers I had as a kid came straight to me. With 1000.00 of my money in a business checking account and the help of my friends we got the shop back up and running. That first year was a rough one as I dumped all my money into tools and equipment and ended up driving a 1962 Microbus with no heat and no back window all winter long. I also lived off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for 3 very tight weeks BUT was bound and determined to make this all work. I worked by myself for the first three years and maybe had one or two days off the entire time. This included Christmas, New Years and etc. Most of my work days were 12+ hours and I was doing anything VW related to keep afloat. I had a couple of school kids help me and one of them was very quick at learning. He did small work and I did assembly and machining.                                                Pictured below is Brent Winman, he has worked at Aircooled Technology since the year 2000 and has been an integral part of the success of the company.

After that first winter I have been wide open here! I soon found myself bombarded and started developing engine combos left and right. Now we have over 150 proven engine combos and well over 1000 engines on roads all over the world. I went from begging for work to an 8 month backlog in less than one year when the customers saw my quality and attention to detail. In 2000 Brent was hired on here full time and that really helped me a lot. Brent is a boss’ dream come true and he is the best assembler on the planet. Brent has helped me by keeping things going here while my Dads health has slowly went down hill each year thus taking more of my time away from being the boss.

The time of my life that I have shared with you in these paragraphs was filled with change and hard times. These hard times have not been forgotten and I am very thankful that the man upstairs answered my prayers and helped me to live my dream. Over these years I have accomplished things that I only had dreamed up. I think the day that hit me is when I had a pristine 1959 Speedster Carrera in my shop with the famed Fuhrmann 4 cam Carrera engine installed. When I saw it sitting there I knew that I had accomplished my dreams and was working on a piece of history as the car was raced at the 1960 Lemans. It was worth a tad over 450,000.00 and I was trusted enough to pull the engine and repair it. The day that Excellence Magazine showed up, it verified that we were here to stay and had been recognized by the best.

Not many people less than 35 years old have accomplished all their goals, but I have. Heck I have set two more sets of goals and have accomplished those as well! If you recall from my writings of the early years of my life you will remember that I had problems with school work and making friends. In 2002 I found out finally why this was and with some help from an individual that had a 10 year old son with the same issues I was able to take a preliminary test and be diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. This is sometimes thought to be a disability, but it’s really not. I consider this challenging part of my life to actually be an ability that gives me extraordinary focus and ability in my area of expertise. Since Asperger’s syndrome has been identified some of the world’s greatest inventors, and philosopher’s have been diagnosed with traits of the condition. This includes Sir Isaac Newton, Einstein, Thomas Edison and even Napoleon. This condition provides me with extreme abilities to do my job but sometimes gets in my way of communication. I don’t get a lot of sleep and my mind constantly works overtime to get the job done. These days I have learned to control it much better and it hardly effects me as an adult .If anyone wants to learn more about this condition do a search on google, or email me.

If you want to read about the present day at my shop, and our plans for the future, just follow the link and lets go!