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Welcome to the
new look Stateside Tuning VW + Porsche Performance Website!
Our company specialises
in the machining, parts supply and assembly of VW and early Porsche air
cooled engines. We were founded back in the late 70s as a supplier of
performance parts to help support our own rally team. Over the years we
expanded and invested in the air cooled industry to supply a wide range
of services, including the first air cooled dedicated rolling road chassis
dyno, the first UK one-stop shop for in house engine machining/assembly/high
performance parts supply and fitting/tuning centre.
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Our grass roots
lie in rallying using a 1390cc bug back in 1978. This remained with
us for many years, utilising a variety of different engine combinations
from 1390cc, 1641cc, 1776cc, 1835cc, and finally 1850cc. After years
of use and abuse on the rally stages we retired the car in 1983, having
decided English rallying was fast becoming problematic due to the
demise of proper pre-plot 90+ car road events, and the closure of
many special stage venues. |
| Following this
we purchased an ex rally cross 1303 as a rolling shell. The car was
solid, light and had competition suspension ideal for our use. After
a complete strip down and refurbishment the car came out on the 1983
tour of Cumbria national rally sporting a loaned 1776cc motor (no
time to build one) with a close ratio gearbox. It soon became evident
the car was ideally suited to tarmac, and the event was completed
without too much grief and for our troubles we were awarded man of
the meeting. We competed on many stage events with various type 1
engines but really did not have enough power or long term reliability
for multi venue stage events, so it was decided we would use a Type
4 engine. After gathering parts we came up with a 66x100, using Oettinger
barrels/pistons, 914 Porsche heads, 48IDF Webers, a Eurorace camshaft,
911 Porsche cooling and full dry sump system, the overall result was
amazing. We finally had some power to compete with the Escorts and
Talbots! The first event was the European Dieppe rally, they decided
to seed the English cars by using a hill climb stage, in which we
managed to qualify half way up the field. The next event was the Dutch
Limburgia rally, having a strange car didn’t help with starting
numbers, we were well down the field for the Friday night start, but
by midday on Saturday we were up to 47th o/a… not bad for an
old dinosaur. Unfortunately a slight off finished us a few stages
later. We competed on many European events, Koln Ahrweiler 86 + 87,
and many Belgium tarmac rallys, by this time the car was hopelessly
outclassed so we bowed out gracefully. |
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The early 90s
saw a change in focus, with us competing a 102” wheel base bug
in drag race events. Running on pump petrol we achieved a best of
11.57 ¼ mile and managed a semi final spot at a major Santa
Pod event running in the super ET class. |
| However, we decided
that we needed corners and heads up competition so in the mid 90s
we started on our race circuit programme with a 914/4. This has proven
to be our most successful car taking outright wins and endless 1st
class positions with class lap records at many UK circuits, the only
914/4 competing in the UK historic circuit racing (and possibly in
Europe!). The first motor was a 71x103 which we campaigned for 3 years;
this was a quick car with finishes always in the top 10 o/a. As the
rules changed for historic racing we down sized to 2000cc. Not quite
as much fun but with numerous class wins and even a 3rd overall at
Castle Coombe, in the rain we are always a top runner in our class.
The car is still being raced today. |
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As motorsport is very
expensive we have always supported and will continue to support the privateer.
Rob Judge is campaigning a 1303 in hill climb sprints using our spare
2.0ltr historic race engine. Rikki James, the mad type 2 split guru and
the man responsible for getting the type 2 scene off the ground runs a
large type 4 with parts and machining donated by Stateside for demo sprint
runs in a 23 window Samba. Ian Davis campaigns a buggy special with a
1776cc Stateside motor in production trials, a very successful car. Neil
"Dude" Ellis currently runs a bug drag car with a Stateside
1914cc type 1 nitrous injected motor, in a mild state of tune and with
he’s managed 11.82 at 115mph! Who's next for some Stateside support????
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Rob
Judge
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Rikki
James
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Ian
Davies
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Neil
'Dude' Ellis
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As time has marched
on Stateside decided to close down the workshop facilities and concentrate
on the engine assembly and machining side of the business. With our large
parts store we believe we are one of the best equipped set-ups in the
country able to offer services ranging from in house dyno testing to crank
shaft balancing.
We continue to strive
for better products and offer the piece of mind that, if a part is sold
by us, it has been properly researched and probably tested by ourselves.
James Calvert
& Gary Philip
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