Restoring the "Stuttgart Express"

[bill stipe]

Two weeks ago, Lee Williams was in Houston on some family business and came by our shop. 

The first time he has sat in the car in 31 years.  I can only imagine what he was thinking when I told him to flip the switches and start it up.
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[bill stipe]

We have taken the car to two VW shows, since the Classic, but those days are over.  We have replaced the front tires with some M&H front runners and replaced the 4-puck clutch disc with a Black Magic.  Last Saturday, we took the car to Longs Tire, in Baytown, for some alignment.
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That brings me to Eric's post.  We are going to Prairie Hill Dragway on Saturday.  It is located just a few miles from where Les lives.  It is an eighth mile track located at an old WW2 air force base.  David Crow, who raced against the Stuttgart Express in the 70's, is going to make some shake down runs.

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

I hear that the Stuttgart Express may be blowing off some steam at Prairie Hill Dragway in central Texas this Saturday night...

Test & Tune @ Prairie Hill Dragway - Sat PM 8/5

...That brings me to Eric's post.  We are going to Prairie Hill Dragway on Saturday.  It is located just a few miles from where Les lives.  It is an eighth mile track located at an old WW2 air force base.  David Crow, who raced against the Stuttgart Express in the 70's, is going to make some shake down runs.

Do you think that anyone in Mart, Texas on Saturday night might be able to take a photo or two?

[Russell]

Good luck bill with the race, can't wait to see it in sow track shots.

Russell

[Nico86]

This is great Bill!

[bill stipe]

The Stuttgart Express is a race car again!  We met David Crow at Prairie Hill Dragway yesterday evening, the "we" being myself, Brian, Larry and his son Mike, Lee & his wife....... and Les.  

As I had said earlier, Prairie Hill Dragway is an old WW2 airstrip, located a little southeast of Waco, Texas.  David first took the Express down one of the landing strips, not used, to check out the feel of the car.  Immediately, we knew we had a jetting problem and spent about an hour getting it close.
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David also reported the rear drum brakes were not stopping very well, but were "burning in".  They continued to get better as the night went along.

It was now time for David to strap in and attempt a first pass.
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All total, we made three test runs.  After the first, Brian lowered the wheelie bars, but we eventually raised them back up.  One thing Brain discovered, the old school wheelie bars cause excessive squat when they make contact with the track.  Like I had heard, they actually unload the chassis, when they hit the track.
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Remember, this is old school racing.  No two-step, no line lock, no rev limiter, just "seat of the pants" racing. The first 1/8 mile run was a 7.37, followed with a 7.39 and a 7.38.  Wow, three runs within two hundredths of each other.  David Crow hasn't lost his touch.  That 7.37 converts to about an 11.53 +/- quarter mile.

With the best record run for the Express a 11.29, we're not that far off.  We have a long "wish list" for some revisions to the car, but we won't do anything that takes away from this being an "old school gasser".

FYI, we have some more pictures and a couple of "phone camera" videos.  We will have to figure out how to post the videos.

[Ole]

Hi Bill,

thanks for sharing the pictures. I've been watching this thread from the beginning, all I can say is well done to all of your team!

Guess you had a good birthday party then...

Saludos,
Ole

[speedwell]

congrats bill , it's nice to see the car running again   

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

The Stuttgart Express is a race car again!  We met David Crow at Prairie Hill Dragway yesterday evening, the "we" being myself, Brian, Larry and his son Mike, Lee & his wife....... and Les.  

What about the guy with the cool minibike and real camera?

[bill stipe]

Wow, I'm going to blame it on my old age.  How could I have missed Eric Ellis attending the first runs for the Express, and a round trip of 190 miles to do so.  

Eric I do apologize for the misstep.  Your presence was greatly appreciated and the initial photos look killer.

Here's a couple of photos Eric took.  This one, we're helping Mr. Crow strap in for the first run.
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And making the burnout.  I can't wait to see more of the shots Eric took.
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[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Wow, I'm going to blame it on my old age.  How could I have missed Eric Ellis attending the first runs for the Express, and making a one way trip of 95 miles to do so.  

Eric I do apologize for the misstep.  Your presence was greatly appreciated and the initial photos look killer.

No worries or apology necessary, Bill! I was just kidding - always fun to talk smack among friends.

The trip to Paririe Hill was well worth the drive. It great to hang out with everyone and see Pappy Crow make the (reborn) maiden voyage down the strip.

Your car looks even better in person - you've done a awesome job on the restoration. I could tell that everyone in your pit area was proud, as they should be.

Lots more pics to follow...

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

As promised, here are a bunch of the pics that I took at Prairie Hill Dragway (http://www.prairiehilldragway.com) on Saturday August 4th.

I've heard about Prairie Hill for a number of years, but had never been there, despite the fact that it was only ~1.5 hours from my house. Now I know that I've been missing out, as the track is very cool and laid back, as are the people that I met/saw there.

A few months ago my long time friend, David "Pappy" Crow told me that Bill Stipe had asked him to make shakedown passes of the newly reborn Stuttgart Express at Prairie Hill later in the year. When the guys decided on a date for running the car, I was excited that I was going to be able to make the trip and shoot some photos.

David is 71 years young and I think that he's been building and racing Volkswagens for longer than I've been around. He used to run a VW in the A/Modified Compact class with the AHRA back in the day, with a very cool and record setting black '67 that he still owns and races. He's also got a killer Pro Stock Karmann Ghia that some of you may know (bright yellow with a hood scoop).

On to the pics!

American Hotrod Association (AHRA) K/Gas



Prairie Hill is an old airfield with two long runways that are positioned at ~45 degree angles to each other (I think). One of the runways is used for 1/8 and 1/4 mile drag racing, while the other is used by racers to warm up their cars and make short test passes. The next couple of shots show the Stuttgart Express crew making changes to the car after David did a little testing.





IIRC, this is a 2180cc motor that Les Fryar built with a bunch of period correct go-fast parts. It looks and runs great.



David Crow and Lee Williams. Lee is Glen Williams brother and the original builder of the Stuttgart Express. It was so cool to meet Lee and listen to the stories that he told about the car.

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Pappy and his famous cowboy hat (no, everyone in Texas does not wear these, drive Cadillacs with steer horns on the front, or have oil wells in their back yard )



Getting ready to make another test run down the secondary strip, as Lee watches.



This car is spotless and super detailed, inside and out!

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Gotta' love a chop top gasser!







Getting buckled up to make the first past after rebirth. David had said that he was going to take it easy and see how things felt once he got going a little faster.





The first burnout, with proud papa Bill Stipe in the background



Wheels up! (this doesn't look like an easy pass to me - it was a solid 7.37 eighth mile pass) I hate that I missed this shot - it's my fault for not first checking with the starter and knowing where I could shoot from, and scrambling to move from the return road in front of the car, to a decent spot on track behind it.

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Nose down now, but that's soon to change...



Vroom, vroom!





Pappy - minus the hat and Volkswagen



Cool down and wheelie bar adjustment



A (wrenching) father and son moment

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em!



David and Lee talk about favorite recipies, while Bill gets dirty



Fiddin' to do it again



Wheelie bars adjusted as high as they'd go this time, to prevent the excessive squat that they were causing. I hoped for a sky high launch and an attempt to make up for my earlier missed shot, but that didn't happen this time.



The gang's all here - Stuttgart Express crew

[jamiep_jamiep]

Wow, very cool, great to see it on the strip where it belongs!

[speedwell]

waouww nice pictures Eric , and very cool car

iI find that this photo looks like in one of in the hot vws  report

[speedwell]

 

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Thanks Fabian, and good idea!

Here's a slightly different take, with some aging added to 2012 Stuttgart Express, along with the vintage pic for comparison:

[Rick Meredith]

Thanks Fabian, and good idea!

Here's a slightly different take, with some aging added to 2012 Stuttgart Express, along with the vintage pic for comparison:

That is just all kinds of cool! 

[dyno don]

......WOW...  seeing this really brings back some fond memories for me personally from the early days. Congrats to you for the incredible" massaging" in bringing back an old relic of VW racing..!! Nice shots by that Eric dude/(grin)LOL...  Nice to see some of the old farts get some deserved recognition ...after all, we aint gettin' any younger... Thanks Bill and may you continue with the others to enjoy this finished piece of VW racing history.  Peace out/Dyno Don

[Tom Simon]

Wow Bill! What a history lesson and fantastic build diary of this unique Texas VW gasser. I am only sorry to have not seen this thread until your email this morning. Again... Wow!

[Mangokid]

This thread should be on top, all the time, for everyone to see. Or, on second thought, if there were two or three more threads of this amazing relevance and quality, I'd be out of a job today.

Amazing car! Please let us know more, whenever it hits the strip.

[56BLITZ]

Awesome job on a VERY COOL project!!!

[bill stipe]

As you might have noticed in the preceding pictures, our rear suspension was squatting quite a bit so we replaced our stock rear torsion bars with some 26mm Sway A Way’s.  With my job getting the way of doing much traveling the remainder of last year and, we decided to take the car to the Houston Autorama, a large indoor, annual Thanksgiving car show, just for something to do.  We must say, the car was well received and garnered a bit of attention.

[bill stipe]

In April of 2013, we went to a Nostalgia drag race in Sealy, Texas, a few miles west of Houston.  This was a 1/4 mile event, but we were greeted with a cross wind of about 20 mph.
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After our first time trial, we decided to treat the event as a “test and tune” session.  The car launched nicely, but with the shocks not having any dampening effect, we were getting wheelies in first, second and (sometimes) third gear which made us a hit with the spectators.
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With the wind blowing as it was, and the front shocks not doing their job, we were lifting after every gear shift, to settle the car.  Our 1/8 mile times were in the 7.40’s.
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[bill stipe]

For our next outing, it was decided to go to the Indy VW Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana.  After a 1,030 mile trip (one way), we woke up in Indianapolis with 45 degree temps and a fine mist of rain. 
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As the weather cleared a bit, we decided to start the car to get the engine warm.  That’s when we discovered that the gearbox wouldn’t shift.  We must have broken the hockey stick on our last run at Sealy, although the car was started (and shifted) a few times in the shop, before we left for Indy.
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We found a hockey stick in the swap meet and went about pulling the engine and trans.  We barely made it to the staging lanes as they were closing “time trials”.  The car launched well, went for second gear, and we found that second gear was broken.

Upon getting home, we pulled the gearbox and found that the welds had broken where the dog was welded to the second gear hub.  It was a used gear and we had gotten 10 runs out it, but there’s no telling how many runs it really had been through.

[bill stipe]

With a repaired gearbox, we took a trip back to Prairie Hill to test the gearbox and clutch.  We no sooner did the burnout, and David shut the car off telling of an “engine knock”.  It turned out to be #2 rod bearing.  Upon getting the crank and rods to the machine shop, it was thought that all the bearing clearances had been too tight. 

Another thing of note, we had noticed that after the initial engine build, we had a couple of cylinders that were getting oil on the spark plugs.  We had a Total Seal gapless second ring, but the top and oil rings were Grants so it was decided to replace those with some standard Total Seals. 
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The engine was started at Les’ on a Friday morning and we just had time to sync the Webers, as we had to load up the car for a nostalgia race on Saturday.

[bill stipe]

The nostalgia drag race was in Denton, Texas.   It was an 1/8 mile event.
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Our first time trial netted us a new best of 7.32.  A different set of front shocks were doing a much better job of controlling the car at speed.  The bad thing was, our Black Magic clutch disc was slipping too much.  Our thinking is the new ring package was sealing better against our old NPR cylinders, netting in a horsepower increase, thus the previous setting on the Black Magic clutch disc was too light and there wasn’t enough down time to address the clutch, so we were stuck with what we had.  
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As you may see, the bite was great but our slipping clutch wouldn't even pull the front tires off the ground.  Our second time trial improved to a 7.28, so we were fairly delighted.
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In the first round of eliminations, we hit the tree too aggressively and red lit, but all was not lost as we ran our new personal best of 7.21 @ 93.7 mph, in 98 degree temperatures.