Stop it! No more bouncing around

Are you destined to carry a heavy load? Are you in an eternal loop looking for various stuff? Or do you just want to be prepared? 

If your answer is yes to any of the questions above, you need an old pick up truck as a complement to your vehicle portfolio.

A C20 Chevy square body 1979 long bed is a good alternative since it's robust like hell and and has a roomy bed. But there are drawbacks. I'm talking about the bumpy ride that comes with the C20 when occasionally driving around with an empty truck bed. While we're on the subject of disadvantages, the standard brakes are able to provide some kind of retardation. Which is good. But critical people with crave for stopping power might be disappointed. 

But there's a solution and it's all about reducing weight. Here's what I'm talking about:

The truck. A standard C20 with ZZ4 crate engine, 14 bolt rear end and Wilwood calipers at the front wheels.

The standard rear end brakes are nothing for the weak and faint hearted. 

Weight: 32kg (70 lbs) each.

Luckily loosing weight has never been easier. The super solution comes from Lugnut 4x4 who has developed a disc break kit for the heavy duty 8 lug, 14 bolt GM rear end that comes with the Chevy C20.

 

 Working with GM 14 bolt rear ends brings other advantages too. All parts serves as workout weights. Which means you can avoid the gym, go the workshop instead, eat protein and drink beer and still feel good about it.

Stopping power improved and 16kg (35lbs) less weight per side. Which means a massive reduction of 32kg (70lbs) unsprung mass! Without reducing any torque or load capacity.
A substantial difference in driving experience as a result. Smooth modern brakes and no more pothole bouncing around. Success!

 

The brake calipers are equipped with emergency brakes (parking brakes) too, but wire system changes for these took more time than all the other modifications together. 

But eventually all fabrication was done (pictured parking brake wire extention)...

...and where to go first if not to the gas station? 

Yes, they are shining like diamond in a goat's ass.

The Circle Sector Dilemma

Eternal Life. To not have that is a problem. A real problem. Because there's so much to do and so little time.  No, I'm not talking about the every day puzzle or a too short weekend. Nope. I'm talking about inquiring minds and their constant crave to create and the limited time to learn.

Example; I know a lot about engine boosting and that's all good. I've learned that over decades of daily business. I'm a pretty good machinist too. But how about my sheet metal skills? Mediocre. What would it take for me to be a really good sheet metal shaper. Another 10000 hours? How about painting? Wouldn't that be good to know too? 
How to manage?

At birth there's a lot of hours available. Let's assume that you're the sleepy type and need 8 hours of sleep and as well the ambitious and work/study 8 hours per day while spending 3 hours per day, 7 Days a week on eating, drinking, sex, etc. etc.

You will still have +90000 hour over an active life span of 50 years. Which means that you can fool around the first 20 years and die comfortably at early age of 70 and still be amazing in 9 different areas. Not too bad.

If you find this way of thinking stressful, then lower the ambition and accept the you'll never be a judge, a jeweler and jockey in one life.

Now to the advice, instead of painful personal development programs...Peek. Be curious. Take small bite of many cakes. And not the least, have fun!

Here's some Salt Slush examples

Team work is fun. So we spent some years on building a race car and take it to Bonneville Speed Week.

When you need a stack for your bass and your band, do it the Magnus way. Build one.

If you feel the urge go mechatronic, after a long Supercharged El Camino project, follow Anders example and make you own CNC machine. When it's ready you can mill with it too.

Perhaps you just want to make an complicated Engine. Then use our example and build and Ardun V8 based on a French Flathead Ford.

It keeps you away from other investments too.

Ohh. I forgott! We have Speed Shop too. 

Full of Turbos

And Superchargers.

.

  

El Mirage Oct 2019

We weren't there. Because we're here, in Gothenburg Sweden. But we we're there, mentally. We can feel how the early morning sun warms up the cold desert. The drivers meeting instructions and the psychological interaction between the cool relaxed surface and the deep, anxious race feeling. A magic motor moment.

 

No need to be wordy, just absorb the feeling.

October race at El Mirage (1,3 miles) 2019. After 3,12 min Rick race the 132 Scandinavian Street Rod Lakester for the first time with the first (?) Twin Turbo Ardun V8 Engine. [Turbos Borg Warner EFR7670] 

How Rome was made, Elephants are eaten and race Cars are built.

I admit, there's a difference. If we're talking about building a new capital or race/street car, a dream is a really good trigger. If you're more into eating big animals, a clear time plan with milestones is most likely more applicable.

The combination of the two, dream and time plan is one hell of a combination. But there are a couple of other ingredients needed to create a shockwave of success when you kick up the garage door in the painful white spring sun.

No, it's not beer and coffee. It something that requires other parts of the brain. What is needed is to fight the basic instinct and comfortably enter the bear pit and start the winter rest. And instead go to the workshop/garage. To start early and go the garage/workshop every evening. To do something small or big ever day leads to finished project and happiness.

Last but not least allow yourself to make mistakes, learn from them and move on. Being too cautions is a pace killer.  

But who are we to make these arrogant statements? Well, besides a zillion private car project and our professionell life, we're still on a journey towards +200mhp and we're not there yet, but we learned something along the way and we're happy to share.

Here we are August 2019 at Bonneville Speed Week for the second time. 

In the end of 2014, almost exactly 3 years before the first race at El Mirage in California, the Salt Slush Bonneville project was driven by a dream only. And some mocked up parts.  

Early 2015 we got more into time planning and at least two persons worked everyday with the car, order stuff and to finance the project. 

And yes, we made mistakes. We corrected them and moved on.

Yes, the EFR 9180 turbo was better alternative than this attempt.

In a summary, it might be hard to get going and fight the sofa, but when everything works and bright sun is back it's extremely rewarding! 

Report from the hideout.

Work hard, provide turbo and superchargers to our customers and get stuff going is our daily business. That's what we do and that's what we like to do. Tricky questions regarding turbo and supercharger matching is fun and encouraging, but we need to relax too. Blow our minds and cool down.

When some people are chilling they do nothing. When some other guys and girls want to ease they get active and creative.

To celebrate a successful rebirth feels really good and that was what Carina and I did this Sunday. It was good to confirm that all work we put in to the Olds -38 Coupe (that we bought unseen in US last winter) was successful. The car has transformed from a limping half dismantled vehicle to a runner with grace that has passed inspection.

That ArtDeco nose...

...the nice ass....

...that cozy interior...

...and the nice silhouette. Love it. I can watch it for hours. Knowing that is equipped with piston oil cooling and an open prop shaft makes it feel even better.

Within the Salt Slush Team there are other hobby activities as well. 

Like Anders advanced CNC router project. Which will soon produce...all kinds of stuff.

Or Magnus loudspeaker project, which temporarily makes our workshop smells like a carpentry.

Conclusion: In a proper winter hideout there're all kinds of work going on, work that helps to relax from other types of work and as well to scheme next race season.

Autumn Automotive Activities.

All good things must come to an end. Warm creative winds has already tuned cold, gloomy clouds are now covering blue skies and November rain will soon freeze our faces. Good times are over and it's time to find other paths and get ready to move new destinations. In other words, it's time to seek shelter from the storm.

 

We've found our space and place. We've moved to our workshop hideout, where dreams becomes reality and the hostile cold autumn and wild winter can't reach us. A comfortable place to be active while waiting for spring, bright light and a new morning.

The beginning of the end. A late night cruise with the -46 Coupe. The Ford -46 Coupe.

An outdoor design study and as well a painful farewell to the Chevy -36

(right) which has moved to its new owner.

When the cold wind howls outside your door, you better walk inside to find comfort. But remember that the path that leads from thunder to a clear sky is being paved with devils that are comfortably sitting in the details. The Ardun V8 is coming together step by step.

Inside our warm workshop, Anders Magnuson Supercharged El Camino is waiting for warm weather and a cool intercooler.

Even during the coldest of winters, Santa is coming.

But he needs a hint and if you're out of ideas, but still feel the urge to find supercharged happiness and an out-of-gym and-yoga-activity-scheme we can help. Thrust me. Because we're prepared.

 

That's all. For now. 

 

The Bonneville Speed Week 2019 Aftermath

Learning by doing is a good thing because it moves you forward. Knowledge can be acquired in various ways, but one of them is definitely; practice. So even if we only got one chance to race this year (and a couple of test races down the rookie race lane) we got a deeper understanding about Landspeed racing in general and Speed Week in particular.

We had the time to get to know other races, while we all waited for the racetrack to dry up and we experienced how slushy the salt can be when the weather gods is against you.

People who really knew, explained how the Bonneville Salt Flats dry up every spring, how it differs between the years and how the flats gets a hard raceable salt surface. Finally, we got a little bit humbler. At least when it comes to reaching +200mph on the Salt.

To reach our goal, a lot of stars needs to be in their right position. The race car must work perfectly. The tow truck must be perky and all drivers needs to be cool, focused and happy and in addition, the race track needs to be better than good. Then…

Nevertheless, at some point in time we pulled up the 449 Amazon on our trailer...

...and headed out in the Wild West. As usually, new places was found.  Places like Ely where hotels like Hotel Nevada, provided a nice atmosphere.

After a couple of days in epic landscapes, we were back at Erik and Ruth's Place in California. We met Nisse The Camtwister and his team and we all had the same task. Wash, clean and fix technical problems and pack.

Cleaning strategy after Bonneville Speed Week:

Clean rigorously. Crawl under the vehicle. Start all over again. Repeat the proceedure five times, minimum. Spray the anti-corrosion fluid of your likings in all cavities. 

When the race car and our Suburban finally were nice and shiny, we cleaned up the electical system as well to avoid future race disturbance.

Eventually everthing came to a happy end.

The Salt Slush Racing Team got more experianced. The 449 Amazon is better than ever and Anders, Eriks and Ruth's son got a Salt Slush Tee.

And yes, there was a really nice after race party too!