The meaning of life? Could it be a Supercharger upgrade?

What's the meaning of life? Why do we want to move forward? Why make good things better? Why go fast?

 

All these relevant philosophical question are nice to discuss and think about.

 

But there's more to it. There's a Fever involved. A Fever that keeps car guys and girls wide awake at night. A fever that make hearts beat hard. There's no cure. Only temporary relief.  Reliefs that comes with a performance upgrade. When your ride moves from really fast to beyond imagination.  

Listen to Mike when he guides you through a Corvette C7 Z06 upgrade

 (to Magnuson TVS 2650)

 

Remark 1: Mikes C7 with Magnuson 2300 was one of the fastes cars I've ever experienced.

 

Remark 2: How Magnuson managed to fit the Eaton TVS 2650 supercharger under the Corvette C7 hood is a mystery. There must be a God of Speed that want bring piece of mind to C7 owners. At least temporary.

 

For the love of Racing! How to crave for hardship.

Racing in general; Exhausting. Expensive. Extreemly time-consuming. Ad the heat of a dry salt desert, blistering sun and uncertain weather conditions that can ruin it all, always. All located in a far away from Everything location. And basically no media coverage. That's Bonneville Speed Week.

So why do it? Why prepare for years to get there? Why withstand it all?

Because it's magic. The desert hardship brings out fighting spirit. Speed is addictive. The Epic salt desert brings poetic peace.

Right now the jetlag from the El Mirage test drive is wearing off while the crave for Speed Week 2019 is building up.

Still don't get it? You're not to blame. But have a look at the pictures below that Hans Lundblom just sent us...from Bonneville Speed Week 2018.

Powerful Swedish Steel under the Califorina sun. 

Anders.. 

...and Magnus while preparing the race car for Speed Week at Erik's & Ruth's Place in Califorina.

Seconds before one of the many races.

Paracute released after the last run 2018.

No remorse and no reverse. The race is over.

Our hero, help and guide to landspeed racing. Erik Hansson.

A man who knows how to burn midnight oil. But never learned how to give up.

Don Ferguson and Erik Hanson mixing nitro. Focus required.  

After race at Salt Flat Café. A good place to celebrate a birthday. Our friend, Rick Palagyi

Test Drive at El Mirage!

There's no guarantee in racing. Whatsoever. Effort can only take you so far. But still, we're engineers and we believe in analysis and testing rather than in faith and destiny. Therefore we've been working with our race car at Erik Hanson's shop in Orange and test driving the car at El Mirage. Purpose; get ready for Bonneville Speed Week 2019.

 

Let's talk about before and after. Let's start with before.

To start with we had to remove remains of 2018 Bonneville Speed Week from the Amazon. Salt and oxide.  Palm trees and the blue California skies served as a frame for our work with the 449 Amazon. The sun tan was for free too. 

To work in the close proximity of other landspeed race cars is inspiring and helpful.

Some need an after-ski drink. Salt Slush are more into after-wrench. We're here looking at Modelo wind down. 

Still in before mode. The 454 Suburban resting after fighting the Barstow hills. The old Burb still handles heat and hills and the combination of the two. 

For those of you that has not offloaded a race car in a totally quite desert where a wild wind is blowing 40degC (104 deg F) air...

...it's a memorable moment everytime. To some extent you get used to it, but still...it's mindblowing.  

 When silence is broken.

Advice: Look and listen at this video a couple of times.

The after; All dust must go. We're relieved and happy. The calibration is good, the car seems really fast. We're back at Erik & Ruth's Place, cleaning the race care, sorting up our race car

 

Next step: 2019 Bonneville Speed Week 

Epic. We're at Pomona Swap meet.

The early bird catches the worm. A saying that's not applicable for swap meets over a certain size. Like Pomona Swap Meet. Because it's not possible to see it all between 05.00am and 02.00pm. It's too big. There are too many impressions. No use to be structured. Just walk around and hope for the baragin/miracle to pop up around the next corner. 
In total 15 miles (24km) of booth after booth is painful and exhausting...but wonderful. If you're in to car and bike culture that is. 

Crap and Jewels all mixed. Stucture, confusing and creativity and one big melting pot. Here's a couple of pictures… 

Huge area. A lot of everything.

Talk. Haggle. Decide. Agree. Shake hands. I'm buying 97's carbs for my Ardun. 

Immaculate Cadillac.  

Gordini with sting. 

No blues. Just an Amazing 1950 Mercury Custom.

 

Some ride in comfort. Others carry the burden without notice.  Exitment and expectation as fuel.

Old style, modern heart. 

There are different ways to get attention. This is one. 

LS, Coyote, Hellcats...take a pick. 

Caballero, Buick Caballero. 

A truck? A Benz? No,a Mercamino! Dare to be different.

No rain. Not Cold. No heat.

Just a nice day at Pomona Swap Meet.

Friday afternoon....providing boooooost and some quality time !

Have we gone completely bonkers now when Håkan, Carina and Magnus are in LA prepping The 449The Amazon Wagon....starting with gardening and beautification of Ringön ?

Well yes, our asphalt jungle outside the workshop is flourishing and looking really healthy. We do focus this because Carina expect us to do that.

Carinas hollyhocks on both side of the Garage door are doing just great, a lot thanks to Ruben (The very Big Block dog across the street) and Chevy (The Small Block Dog across the street).

But what's this ? Some pottery has found it's way in to the jungle too.

Therese a famous pottery artist is in the creative mood, 

But as always we can't help it, there is always time for some boost to happen and today two Magnuson Kits and a turbo was shipped to happy gear heads in Sweden, soon to make some serious power and smiles.

A pickup truck is always nice and handy, especially a sunny soon-to-be-summer day. 

We need to be cautious with the loading ! Everything onboard ? Paper work OK ? 

Aaaahhh a bed of dreams on it's way.

Besides of beautification and boost business, we have time for some dream of our own as well. My (my wife's) LT1 Corvette 94 (for her Camaro 68 Cabrio) soon to be opened and checked. 

Hopefully with out any drama lurking inside. 

Magnus T Drag Coupe waiting for Magnus to come back full of energy...

...and more mad ideas !!

What is this ? Pottery  ? No this is Magnus doing some tricks fo a friend. If you think it's to easy to get some serious power from a modern LS with boost, this could be an alternative; A Dan Price Cylinder head to a Four Banger. For sure cool and some nice technique from another time era. 

Looks nice !

Some of Therese's pottery art, waiting for a happy customers. 

By the way,  Therese is sometimes in to bugs...

...and bugs are usually not a problem in Sweden.

But if these basterds start to move, we better call Pest Control !

For Enthusiast By Enhusiasts...We're at Magnuson Superchargers!

We're in California. And we have a task. The task is to test drive our 449 Amazon landspeed racer at El Mirage and fix whatever needs to be fixed before the full team arrives in August. Before we load up the Amazon on a trailer behind our old Suburban and hit the road. 

 While in California, we always take the opportunity to meet our friends at Magnuson Superchargers in Ventura. It's energizing to meet the guys, because not only do they have new cool products to present, they always have cool private car projects to show as well. These guys are living and breathing superchargers and engines. And it's a good living. Learning by doing…

But let's cut the crap and look at one of the most impressive and coolest aftermarket products I've seen. Ever. The TVS 2650 supercharger unit that fits under the C7 Corvette and Camaro hood without modification.

How is it even possible to package the BIG TVS 2650 Eaton supercharger and a pair of big size water-to air intercooler in the super tight packaging space available under a C7 Corvette hood? 
Mike and his team at Magnuson have not only managed to get the packaging right, they have as well managed to get the flow characteristic right, which is a must if you want BIG Power. Last not least, the unit looks amazing. It's hard to stop looking at it. It looks so good.

The unit fits in all LT1 DI Engines in Corvette and Camaro. Ain't she sweet?

More importantly, they are available, off the shelves!

Would you prefer a Magna Charger type of TVS 2650 for your LT1 Engine? Well, here are four units ready for shipping, still hot after just passing the final superchager mapping. 

BIG power means high flow, optimized air paths is a must.

How it all began...the less sophisticated Camaro with the TVS2650 prototype. Fast as a Shark and Cobra Cool but more suitable to run under 9,5s at the strip then to use as a daily commuter.

Testing and playing around makes perfection….

Private Projects. No.1 The Maverick.

When there's no Magnuson Supercharger kit available, you make an inlet adapter and arrange the belt drive... at least that's what Mike and his son did. The result: A super nice installation in the low weight Ford Maverick. Yes, it's fast.

Interesting combo...modern aftermarket EFI with all bells a whistles and cable throttle. I had almost forgotten how fast a throttle response could be...

Pulling Power and mpg is important too. Dustin, at Magnuson has teared out the old big block V8 and installed iron LS V8 with Magnuson Supercharger.

The result: Stong performance, really good drivability and a significant lower fuel consumption. Looks really nice too.

 Epilogue: Private projects, having fun and racing provides energy and innovations. I guess this is one of the reasons that Magnuson Supercharger are able to bring good high-quality products to the market. Nevertheless, Carina and I left Magnuson today full of impressions, energy and fully supercharged!