About the RAT team

I will start by telling you that there is nothing appealing to me about a “New car”! For years the newest car that I owned was my 1976 912E and I depended on VWs and Porsches for both getting from point A to point B as well as for recreation, and entertainment! Until we began development of the Porsche Boxster engine and I bought a '98 for a test car none of my cars had a radiator. None of them are “show cars” unless you consider a nasty burnout a show, and then I might fit right in!

I depend on aircooled vehicles everyday. Each of these vehicles has a history, and each has a purpose and intention in life other than just being a vehicle. These vehicles illustrate what we do, and what I believe in through their function and my theory that a 30 year old vehicle is better than one that rolled off the assembly line 30 days ago created with recycled beer cans and coke bottles! I drive these vehicles in any weather, including the heat of summer with no air conditioning (except in the 912E) of in the middle of winter. I have made the needed upgrades to these cars and engines to allow this even though the vehicles are 30 years old+.

Being an enthusiast in the business that I run here helps me understand more clearly the expectations of the customer while coupling that with my limitations that I have found with my own cars. Please read about my small fleet of VWs and Porsches and understand that these cars go way back in time to my childhood with the exception of the Porsche’s..

Have fun reading about my cars and sorry for the long download (there are lots of pics)!

After a 10 year search I finally found a perfect vehicle, VIN 912600985 was exactly what I was looking for! It was one of 500 limited edition 912s that came from the factory with a sunroof, tinted windows and air conditioning. I actually traded a few bucks and one of my custom 2270cc Type 4 engines for the car in 2002 and the seller and I both got a great deal!

When I took possession of the car it needed engine work, but was in pristine condition body wise and interior wise. The car had never been restored, was kept indoors and basically was flawless. I could have cared less if it needed an engine, as I refuse to drive a car that I haven’t built an engine for myself.

Shortly after I received the 912 I ripped the engine out and found a cylinder head to be melted from a serious combustion leak that the previous owner had mistaken as an exhaust leak. I ripped the engine apart and performed a bit of mechanical magic. It is my nature to attempt the most with the least so I ended up building my personal engine with all used parts except cam, lifters, gaskets and valves! It always amazes me that even with an inventory of all new parts at my disposal I tend to pick through parts that have failed in other engines and make them work in my own!

This engine turned out exceptionally and was used as a test bed for a new camshaft profile and matched compression ratio for my daily driver series of engines. It was named the 2056”E” and dynoed at just over 120BHP (stock was 76BHP)with flat torque curves. The car is very easy to drive and performs great in traffic or on the highway at 85 MPH for hours on end.

The 912, being such an awesome driver is hard to stay out of, and soon I found my bus, and beetle parked for weeks while miles racked up on the 912! I drove the 912 for 59,000 miles with just one carburetor adjustment, 3 valve adjustments and 6 oil changes! The car never required a single bit of unscheduled maintenance or a single repair during these 59,000 miles! This is a true testament to the Type 4 engine, its reliability and the 912 in general.

So, in general this car is my favorite possession! It performs great, all the time. It never breaks. It has gotten 38MPG on many occasions, even at 80 MPH! I have used the car for track/ drivers’ ed events and logged 210 track miles at Roebling Road Raceway and never needed the decklid opened. Even with the limited, mild HP engine myself and my instructor stayed right on the tails of many higher HP cars all weekend. Heck the drive to Roebling road is 5 hours each way and I averaged 85MPH going to and returning from the track! I have driven this car to speeds up to 125 MPH, and purposely abused the engine. In one instance I even went 23,500 miles without an oil change! (I religiously run synthetics) I figure that putting my engines through neglect is a good way of testing our capabilities! The engine was built “old school” and was only well balanced, and was NOT blueprinted. I just slapped it together and fired it up!

This car is not for sale, and never will be! Plans for the 912E is to gain another 20,000 miles and then tear it down, measure wear and make it a 2270 “Roller” engine with our newest developments. As of today I have driven the car and engine 136,000 miles and could not be more pleased. I just get in, fire up and drive!

Jake not only makes performance engines for customers, he also makes a few specials for himself !!! Proof truly is in the advertising, as the Bug described below shows. This is the "Bluebonic Plague"

I traded for the car a few years back after a good customer had a hard time keeping engines together in it. The car had the deck lid modified with reverse louvers for the "cool look". I informed the customer that they were creating a vacuum effect within the engine bay and would not allow sufficient air into the fan. He finally gave up and sold the car to me, with a melted 1600 installed in it. I took out the old engine and threw it into my collection of 262 pound "paperweights".

I pulled my 198,000 mile 1600 single port engine from my 15 window microbus and slapped it into the '66. I made the louvers non-existent with heat tape and I drove it for 30 - 40,000 trouble free miles before I decided to pull it and retire it, after almost 250,000 miles. I built this engine at the age of 11 and never had the heads removed, only maintenance and frequent valve adjustments were performed.

There has been extensive upgrading done to the drivetrain/undercarriage of this car to hold the awesome torque made by the engine combination. These upgrades include 12 additional rubber trans mounts, frame horn gusseting, dual traction bars, and a bulletproof gear box with SWAY AWAY AXLES.

My goal with this car was to have the stock 66 beetle appearance, be very quiet, and perform like a 914 on steroids. I reached my goal !!! I placed all instrumentation in the kick panel at the passenger floor, to retain the stock dash and hide my weapons out of site of the competition.

I installed several items from my original EMPI collection; it sports my GT steering wheel and eliminator shifter. The car has been a blast to build and even more fun way to apply my aircooled talents.

Since the last website update, the "Bluebonic Plague" has been retired to a full time test vehicle. Late in 2001 we pulled out the 2613cc beast out and since have been using the car to provide a test bed for our latest cooling system testing, to back up our dyno data.. Since 2001 the plague has housed 15 different test engines and has made impressive results at the local drag strip.

Actually for the last 7 years this vehicle has housed at least 30 different engine combinations and is great for showing off the protoypes that we make, as well as putting them to the ultimate test. I'm not known for a light foot, I beat my cars very hard and try my best to place 80,000 miles of wear on an engine in less than 10,000 miles, then pull it out and keep trying till the engine is optimized.....In short, the Plague is our "Rolling Dyno" and it backs up what the dyno illustrates on paper.

The Plague is not a show car; it is a pure daily driver and street terror that has made a definite impact on the performance crowd. I love it when they say "How did you do that?"

Most recemtly we have fitted a 2165cc Type I engine (187BHP at the flywheel) used for our Type I DTM test work, and also upgraded that engines to a 2332 that was used to test “Squish enhanced” piston technology, as well as doing comparative testing for LN Engineering with their Type I Nickies against cast iron cylinders. The Bug also has recently housed several Type IV test engines and completed amazing feats at burnout contests all over the Southeast with its MassIVe torque. In one instance I won a burn out contest in FOURTH gear, and another instance we were able to dig 3” deep ruts in some asphalt from a 9,000 RPM burnout!

We have added a few pages here from some of our test engines. Some of the data is from the late 90s, but its still interesting! Read through it and see how the Plague has become the vehicle that has almost always been the proving ground for all our great engine combinations.

In 2006 the plague was used as the vehicle to test the "Hot VWs 2270 Type 4 Torquer" engine and was driven 3,450 mles cross country then drag raced on the other side of the country. Read more here

This engine was built by one of my employees that at the time was only 15!!! He is a very talented youg master mind and he did the entire design, assembly, machining, balancing and dyno testing himself!

The engine made 153BHP on my dyno and was tested for nearly 40 hours at 4,800 RPM sustained with a 10 and 13 dyno pound load! John did an excellent job and the engine was then installed into the blue bug and used for our Bug Me Video “Upright conversion video” as well as a serious burnout competition at “Circle yer wagens 18” In Sevierville Tennessee where it claimed the title of best burnout from a 48IDA equipped, 2275 Type I engine!

This engine was pulled and has since been torn down again and is currently being outfitted with Roller lifters and a special camshaft in hopes of testing and proving this arrangement for future customers engines. This engine will be installed into the Plague with our Carbon Fiber DTM system, air conditioning, our new header system and will be running heater boxes! It will be the most modern test engine yet.

These engines used many of the same parts and that why I combined them. The 2165cc engine was the first that we tested and it made 187BHP while the detuned 2332 was a configuration failure with the pistons we tested and only made 1HP more than the 2165 did!

The 2165 engine suffered an early tear down when its “New aluminum case” cracked on the dyno and destroyed the hopes for further testing. That engine was torn down, built on a new Magnesium case and tested with Squish enhanced pistons, Nikisil cylinders, Cast iron cylinders and Flat top pistons at 11:1 static compression ratio. You can read more about these tests here.

The 2165 and 2332 were also being used for comparative testing with our Type I DTM cooling system, both on the dyno and in this vehicle. You can read more about that here. This engine saw 34 hours at 3500 and 4800 RPM and was literally able to destroy my dyno during the grueling tests! Even after serious overheating to over 500 degrees the 2165cc engine still won the SE dyno day in March 2004 with a measley 132BHP at the rear wheels. That seemed pretty good for an engine that was built from used parts and had been beat on for so long.

For now all type I testing is completed and I seriously doubt that another Type I engine will ever be installed into the Plague!

Being a VW enthusiast and owning an engine business that thrives on more modern engines gave me the ultimate reason to build this 1974 Bus. I bought the bus for 50 Dollars in 1995 and it sat in the backyard for about 5 years filled with VW engine parts. It had a very good body and very little rust but was a mechanical basket case. This bus keeps with the standard that all my vehicles are test cars, and it has been since day#1 of its birth. This bus has perfected two different engine/transaxle packages for us so far and will be finally getting an upgrade to a Turbo sometime in late 2008-2009 as a few other R&D projects are completed.

In 1999 I decided to use the bus to drive around town so I got the original 1800cc Type IV engine running again. I basically gave it some new fuel and a hot battery and fired it up! It had been sitting since around 1992, three years before I bought it and I had never even tried to fire it up. We used the Bus around the shop for a few weeks and literally tried to blow the engine up, since the transaxle was missing 3rd gear. Of course due to 3rd gear being non existent it made for some very interesting driving, for example revving the engine till the valves floated in second, and then shifting to fourth, right past third! I can vividly remember Brent and I throwing a brake drum on the throttle pedal and letting the engine run at wide open throttle for 30 minutes and it still never blew!

In 2000 I decided to get the old bus back up and running in tip top shape and Brent and I did an ENTIRE restoration on the bus in just THREE WEEKS! This included interior, paint, all mechanicals and that even included a new 2165 “Powerstroke” engine that we had just completed and needed to get some road test miles on before offering it to the public. The bus was by no means a show vehicle, and was being built to be abused, neglected and overloaded. It was a work horse that would see scratches and dents through its life time. After a coat of Mouse Grey the bus looked great and I commenced to tint the windows and add vinyl graphics to it.

The 2165 Type IV engine was Installed along with a new “002” stock transaxle. The goal for this bus was to be able to be filled with engines and still climb the steep grades of the Smokey mountains to car shows, as well as have the capability to keep up with modern traffic running 75-80 MPH. The first time we loaded the bus down with engines I was amazed as it barely even felt the load! The engine had so much torque that it literally would climb hills loaded down in fourth gear. After one season I could tell that the engine and transaxle combination needed more work so I ripped the engine down and destroked it to a 76mm crankshaft from the 78mm. I did this due to too much torque being made at too low of an RPM, as well as some crankcase pressurization problems that I didn’t fancy. While I was inside the engine it was measured and literally showed no wear after 10,000 miles. Other than the crank there were no other internal changes made to the engine at this time.

I had been doing some test work with the Bosch K Jetronic Fuel injection system (CIS) and ended up installing a system from an early VW Rabbit on the new 2109cc engine in hopes of gaining down low power, fuel economy and drivability over the Weber 44mm Carburetors. The CIS system was installed when I reinstalled the engine and the results have been amazing! I matched the new power band with a later model, stronger, better geared “091” transaxle and it really made use of the engines torque better than the 002, especially on the freeway.

This bus has also been the test bed for a lot of my synthetic Vs. Conventional oil comparative testing and as of this writing the bus has a 9:1 static compression ratio and gets by without even having an external oil cooler installed to attain hottest oil temps of just 210 degrees on a 90 degree summer day on the freeway at 80MPH for hours. The Synthetic oil dropped the oil temps drastically and enabled the external cooler previously used to be removed 100%, while running cooler than the same engine did, with it!

Being my bus, I had to add some neatness to it, so I got rid of the stock heater boxes and opted for a full 20,000 BTU heater that I scored military surplus. The heater follows my heritage and was originally made for use in UH1N Huey Helicopters. I made some changes to it to be compatible with raw fuel and installed it under the rear seat of my bus and ducted it into the stock ducts for defrost and etc. I made the system a recirculation system and the heat is simply amazing! No more cold fingers and frozen toes! This bus can get hot enough to melt the ductwork and get the bus to 100 degrees easily. Like most things I do its total overkill!

As of this writing the bus has logged 62,000 miles. All of these miles have been while being loaded or while towing my beetle to car shows. This bus climbs hills while towing the beetle with ease and head and oil temperatures remain the same as, or lower than we see with stock 2.0 engines in busses. This bus has gone as much as 12,000 miles without an oil change, and as we speak has not had a valve adjustment in two years! The bus engine was also a guinea pig for our cryogenic enhancement processes and went its first 15,000 miles without valve adjustments as well! This can be attributed to the engine running cool temperatures and the cryogenic enhancement diminishing expansion and contraction processes and their negative effects on engine torques and components. I have literally neglected this engine to see just how tough the engine is, as well as to gain an understanding of what causes adjustments to be required, and the best intervals for adjustments to be made.

The company bus is just that! I have accomplished second gear burnouts with it, and at the same time have weighed it in at almost 8,000 pounds with a full load of ready mixed concrete in the cargo bay. On one occasion I have hauled 8 Type IV engines in partial assembly inside the cargo bay, while towing a beetle behind me- And still had power to spare.

Future plans for the bus include adding a small Turbo Charger to the engine in hopes of creating yet another engine combination and then later on to upgrade the engine to a higher displacement while retaining the Turbo. Right now plans for the Turbo addition are aimed at late 2008.

The bus is a good old work horse, and it doesn’t break. As of this writing (October 2004) I can literally state that I have not made a single adjustment to this engine since 2002. It has been an unbelievably cool running, smooth driving, reliable machine that has taken me all over the east coast and never let me down. The bus will continue to serve as a test bed, and daily driver- just like all our personal cars! It’s not made to be a race car, but its also not made to be passed either! Being able to slam the throttle in first gear and bounce the front wheels in a bus is definitely a huge plus!