1776 Wars circa 1995 (our diet of aluminum shavings)

[Jim Ratto]

not as cool as a story from the 70's or 80's, but still fun memories.
Back to fall 1994....was renting a room with another VW guy, was going to JC, and was going broke making nothing working counter at buggy house. Most of my socializing was through BH, as most of the kids at JC were too smart for me, busy studying computers and math and that crap, while I drank myself silly and changed cams. Anyway, met a lot of good friends selling VW stuff, and a bunch of them were close to my age, so we started hanging out and eventually swept together a VW club. None of us had any money, really, so we'd scheme all kinds of ways to make stuff work and re-use and then re-uses parts....wearing stuff out until it was invisible in some cases. Anyway, over that couple of years in mid 90's all of us had our own projects going on, and two of the guys at the forefront of the club were John Bates (posts here) and Erik Maxfield. Both great guys, both incredibly smart and crafty. Literally opposites as far as personality went...one laid back and reserved, the other tightly wound and expressive. But these two guys engineered what was fondly known as the 1776 Wars. Many a night was spent at the beer stained kitchen table beating the subjects of cam duration and carbs to death. Plans were made and these guys went off to their lairs and started collecting parts. Erik would come by the place I was renting at, stock heads under his arm, and safety goggles perched on his head, then go out to garage, and grind on his heads with a die grinder and dremel tool for hours and hours. I'd walk out once in awhile and he'd be glittering under a dusting of aluminum shavings, and the holes in his cylinder heads would be a little bigger. John worked on his motor too, but there was less publicizing about what he was doing. All done quietly, cleanly and you never really knew what stage he was at. And I was always screwing around with my own junk, so there were parts everywhere. Over time, both John and Erik buttoned their motors up and I think they were made up of these parts:

Erik                                                       John
new case                                               new case
69mm c/w                                             69mm c/w
90.5's                                                    90.5's
VW rods                                                VW rods
old Engle 125 from me                             Engle 120
12lb flywheel                                          12lb flywheel
stock valved heads, ported-                      stock valved heads, ported-
as per Bill Fisher book                               as per Bill Fisher book
1.1:1 rockers                                          1.1:1 rockers
Dual 40IDF                                             Dual 44IDF
1-5/8 merge                                           1-5/8 merge
010 Bosch                                              009 Bosch

As you can see, the motors were about identical, which further fueled the friendly fire....
In the end, I think they street raced a few times, and sometimes Erik was out front, and sometimes John was.....it was all in good fun. Eventually Erik took his Bug to Sears Point and ran a very good time something like a 15.14 or so...and he, like the rest of us, were impressed. And eventually, John took his motor into hiding, deep into the Pine St Bunker, and added some new tricks to it, including a gorgeous pair of 48's.....
Let's have John tell us the rest of the story......

[stealth67vw]

The good ole 1776 wars, great times.  Well Erik was always very inquisitive about what I was doing, almost nosey so I kept information to a minimum. I planned on running a W120 but Jim talked me into runnning a Engle 125, but mine was new along with some Tayco racing lifters. I still have both today. I remember spending what seemed like months on the patio of my apartment on Juction Ave porting the stock valve but already bored heads Jim had laying in his back yard for years. I went a little over board on my porting and had to fill some holes with JB Weld, had 1 intake guide replaced and cut the heads for dual springs. The header I got from Frank and it was a 1 1/2 Phoenix merged and some dual qps from Tim Supriano. I also traded my 36 DRLAs for the 44 IDFs that Tim also had. I got some Berg linkage, power pulley and 1.5 qt sump at swap meets for about $75 total. I used a new Rimco super case after the case I had planned on using was cracked behind #3. I also used a 010 not a 009. I got it at Sacramento for $10. I squirreled all these parts about the time my first son was born so money was ultra tight. I traded some baby dells for some Cima (pre Mahle) 90.5 A's and it was all done. I got it running in the car port at my apartments. Immedeatly I was impressed with how fast it was. Not only was it fast, I had about $900 bucks into including the new case and 44 IDFs.

The first week it was running I blew up my stock 67 4.12 transaxle. Mike Collins built me "near" bullet proof gear box, what he called a "dream gear box" with some extra features as a0 baby shower present. The engine also ran a little on the warm side due to the 8.9:1 cr so I added a Mesa oil cooler. I used it as my dailly commuter from Livermore to Hayward 6 days a week, roughly 75 miles a day getting 26 mpg average and street raced in on weekends. Erik and I raced a few times out on Raymond Rd and Friesman Rd but I think I won most of them. I drove it up to Sears Point once just o what it would run only to break my main shaft. Mike Collins saved the day by installing a 3.78 mainshaft and bus idler gear. I put 40,000 very hard miles on the engine when one of the blobs of JB Weld came loose, cooking a head.

Since this was my daily commuter I was kinda screwed. The wife was bitchen (typical) that I needed a better family car so I bought a 1994 Ford Exploder. Since the 67 wasn't my only car now I yanked the engine, stripped it to the short block, ordered some old style CB 044s, 1 5/8 header, along with a Berg Stinger S4 ignition, 48 IDAs and Scat Traks from Eric Ballard at ERCO. I spent about 2 weeks porting and welding on the heads. The engine went back together without me saying a whole lot about to anyone what I was doing. I had bumped the compression to 9.3:1, added the 044s, 48 IDAs, 1 5/8 header, Stinger Igntion and 1.25:1 rockers on Berg shafts. Jim came by one afternoon and helped me with the tune on these GINORMOUS carbs on this little engine and was up and running again. The first test drive I took it on scared me. The engine now pulled to 7600+ with ease where before it topped out at 7000 with the 44s. This thing was dangerous in the rain.

When Jm lived on Heather Lane every fast street car that drove by would rev up there engine because of his reputation of street racing. So when I knew Jim wouldn't be home and Erik would be I would cruise by and rev my engine to 7000+, then lay into the throttle quickly pulling away with the unmistakeable 48 IDA full throttle under load cackle before anyone (Erik) could come outside. I did this 4 or 5 times until I cruised by and Erik was standing there. I wanted to race him so bad, but I couldn't contain myself and propped the convertible decklid I had just installed. His eyes lit up and all he could say was "Wow guy, those aren't 44s"

I took him for a ride out to Raymond Road and layed into it, hitting all my 7200 rpm shift points with Erik pushed back into the passenger seat. Once I hit 100 mph I backed off and jumped on the 4 wheel discs hard, Erik looked over and said " Wow guy, you got me covered by a bunch".

The lifter bores gave up at 59,000 miles and me wanting to go faster sold most of my bottom end, only to start a never ending barter to build a flanged cranked, 48 x 38 C/E headed 2332 nitrous monster. I had almost everything to finisih it when Silicone Valley took a dump and I lost my job.
I had to sell most of the monster to fund the divorce but I have been slowly squirreling away parts again. I ordered some CB wedgports, rods and rockers today! The 190 hp 2165 long block should be done in 2-3 weeks!!! I should buy some heate boxes this time around, but I did tuff it out in 15 degree weather with a merged header.

I would love to build a copy of that 1776 it ran so well, but I would get used to the power real quick.

[Rune]

Cool story

[autobarnhauler]

cool story, me to i reckon 

[benssp]

That's a cool story, what sort of times were you guys running?

[stealth67vw]

Jim was runing mid 13s with the belt, muffler, stock 4.12 gears and bald street radials and I was about 1 1/2 car lengths behind him when we street raced, however fast that is. I would guess mid to low 14s. Jim later ran mid to high 12s with close gears and slicks.

[benssp]

Jim was runing mid 13s with the belt, muffler, stock 4.12 gears and bald street radials and I was about 1 1/2 car lengths behind him when we street raced, however fast that is. I would guess mid to low 14s. Jim later ran mid to high 12s with close gears and slicks.

thanks.........from an avid 1776 fan

[louisb]

Cool stories.

--louis

[moxama]

didn't Erick try taking venturys out of his webers one time trying to race jims car? I remember that didnt work to well. airspeed baby!!!!!

[nicolas]

very cool!

[Bewitched666]

The story reminds me of my streetracing days in florida and curacao,cool to hear those.

[Jim Ratto]

The funny part of this was when we all moved into the same house, each of us renting a room, and fighting over the engine stand and workbench. I was working full time at a VW speed shop (Buggy House) and I think Bates was building version II of his 1776, which was real top secret stuff. I think Erik had his motor running, but was trying different carb tuning and exhausts. Bates was super secretive about what he was doing, everything was in plain brown boxes and stashed away from "prying eyes", but I knew what Bates was really up to.
I was usually first to get home from work, unless I had college classes at night. John worked nights and Erik got home after his classes, usually around 10pm.

Just to stir the pot and intensify the "rivalry" and twist Erik up some, I used to drag home stuff from Buggy House and just leave the stuff on the kitchen table, with "BATES" written on it with felt tip. Like a set of 45mm IDA venturies. Or a Holley blue pressure regulator (yeah the high pressure one). One night I brought home a pair of Super Flow IDA manifolds, ziptyed together with "BATES" written on them. Or a ziploc bag with 190 size main jets. One particularly funny one was the Vertex mag.
I would just lay the stuff on the table, and go to my room and wait. I'd hear Erik come in, and almost every time... "Hey Jim... those 190 main jets... those are for John?? What's he up to??" I'd just shrug my shoulders and play dumb.

That household was a lot of fun, car parts and beer. Good times.

[Dokke-The Painter/DFL]

awesome stories !

[andrewlandon67]

Man, this gets me super pumped to go do stupid crap with my '67... the only problem is that the only VW people I know have real adult budgets or aren't interested in going fast... what I would give to time travel to the 70's in So Cal with my car...