302 BACK IN BUSINESS !

The 302 emblem is a promise and a statement.

As I told you before the 302 in the Z28 got serious toothache combined with strange noises which made me take out the engine and give it full treatment. Which means balance and assemble with love and attention to details. This was all good and fun to do between all our plans and work with the SSR Amazon.
It pays off to allow things to take time. To check things over and over again to avoid mistakes.

Since the -69 has a very nice paint job I tried to protect it with double blankets, sheets and tape on all corners and edges just to make it all worked out well.

The engine was in the 80's restored by the late Bagarn who, together with Birgitta, moved to Florida 1985 and started Autoshop http://www.autoshopracingengines.com.
When I bought the car 15 years ago I got a lot of receipts from Autoshop / Bagarn in Umeå and numerous good stories from the owner which own the car at that time, Robin L in Gargnäs

New clutch, Centerforce dual friction will secure a good hook up. Earlier I've had some problems with this. 

Waiting restlessly to get back 

Just landed in the engine bay after I and my friend Stephan D put it back in to car. Two extra hands and a cool friend (mind) makes it successful. Although frustration was on max level when we wriggled the drivers side header back in to the Car. The T-shirt on top of the motor was the extra safety measurement to protect for nuts and bolts finding its way in to the motor and cause bad suprises.

Details getting together and in my head the -what have I forgotten- question  repeats itself over and over again.

Later on, or at least until now, everything seems to be OK.

69's old friend the 32 Roadster is happy following the 69 getting back on track. The 32 is OK and not jealous since it got a new clutch earlier this spring (Centerforce Dual friction) and I can tell you that it has marked territories and given me the burn out face a number of times which a mix between the "oh shit" fear and "this is fun" joy.

Not a dry eye and only smiling, happy faces when the Camaro was ready to rumble.  All gauges are working the gears are shifting nicely, the clutch feels great, the oil pressure makes you happy, stable temp and most of all, a nice grunt and a smooth operation in the machine.
Now I need to run it in, tune it etc. I welded lambda bungs to the headers and will use a lambda sensor when tuning.

The 69 has is putting on a big wide open smile showing it's new jaws, but no worries it will not bite you only give you a lot of smiles per mile. 

Deep in the garage, in front of the 69 the 28 Model A is impatiently following the love and care I put in to the 69. It's getting closer and closer for some model A work. Of course we have the SSR Amazon who need attention but you know life is good when you know what to do with it. We could all been stuck by the TV waiting for a miracle instead of being busy making it happen.

Speed Tour Cont.

In absence of Salt and Speed, we took the opportunity to visit people in California that really could provide positive energy and cheer us up!

Since all of us, especially Anders, are interested in the art of forming sheet metal, we visited Lazze Jansson in Pleasanton, CA.

After talking about cars, hot rods and Land Speed racing, Lazze showed his facilities and gave us a quick how-to form sheet metal demonstration.

When his experienced hands beautifully formed the metal, the inspiration was flowing and I saw myself surrounded by all Lazzes machines, creating a Bugatti 57sc body, just because I could… but Pling! Back to reality.

We looked at all sheet metal forming machines that Lazze develop and produce in his workshop and he did not only show us how to form sheet metal, but gave us as well the advise to follow our dreams. Which is most likely the best advise you can get if it comes from someone who has been there, done that!

We walked out the door energized by enthusiasm.

http://www.lazzemetalshaping.com/

Carina, Anders and Lazze in Lazze's Workshop/School/Factory 

 

As we drove south on highway one towards L.A, we realized that we were still in need of a Land Speed Racing inspiration and information, which is why we contacted another source of knowledge, experience and inspiration. We called Erik Hansson, a person who’s really competing in Land Speed Racing (both at El Mirage and Bonneville). http://www.scandinavianstreetrod.com/

We spent hours in his garage discussing technical do’s and don’ts, how this racing form really works and to study his Bonneville racers, both his Bomb tank (which we’ve shown before) and is next racer, which is currently being built.

Erik has really designed and built every part of his the racers himself and it's fair to say that he has not necessarily chosen to start by taking the easiest way.

We now know a lot more about what matters in terms of security, tires, how to get the license, parachutes, cooling, front end, rear end, ground clearance and lead.

 

Thanks a lot Erik!

 

When Erik offered me to make a dry test of his soon-to-be-ready racer I took the opportunity, since I learned that it's always good to exercise.



In the beginning it was a little bit difficult… but eventually I got there. I started to think about eating sallad and drinking water by some mysterious reason. 

Carina and myself left Erik's place full of inspration and information, happy and tired after nice long day. 

Better safe than sorry - Safety Delivered!

Massive torque & power are a serious things.

How to transferee liquid energy to usable force is easy to explain, but it's still magic and amazing! 

To feel the force transformed into acceleration and speed, which is daily experience for most of us, might be a common thing and not very exiting.

But at a certain point, at a certain level, in a certain vehicle it's not anymore a question of transportation. It's something else... 

The acceleration and speed frightens, excites and provides an experience which awake all senses.

A beast needs, however, to be framed and tamed, which is why The Salt Slush Racing Team was happy when the SFI approved transfer case arrived.  

Yes, we'll have to make an adapter...but we have milling machine (-s), so we're good!

The Clutch has arrived

As well as we have sweet dreams about a lot of horse powers we have nightmares about  how to transfer them to to the gearbox.  A clutch is the answer. But what kind of clutch will take it and still fit our slightly tiny Volvo flywheel.    We thought that some of the aftermarket clutches for american muscle must surely be able to take torque. But how big are they?

To shoot that man you must go to Reno. Because what can you find in Reno?  A fortune at the casinos?  No, no.  What brings mankind to Reno is Summit Racings fabulous warehouse outlet (and possibly the National Automobile Museum, which contains a collection that approaches the The Insane Schlumpf).

 Summit is actually just a large building with a shop in one corner. You go into the shop. You are baffled about what is on display.Then you proceed to ask for parts. They check if they have them in stock.   Then you wait a few minutes, and poof, what ever you asked for will appear at an other desk.  In fact, the first fully working implementation of Heaven ™.

We did that, and asked for a racing clutch we thought should make it. They had it in stock. We got it. And we could measure its diameter.  Sad thing is that those single disc clutches all are to big in diameter, we can not really fit them in our application. I guess it comes down to the laws of physics that governs that V8s are bigger and stronger and can take larger clutches.

Now, Summit has of course more alternatives.  Multi disc clutches. Small i diameter. Used in Nascar and Formula 1.  A tad more expensive.  And yes, you can buy them, but this was actually to stretch even Summit, they do not keep them in stock. Special order only. But the friendly Summit engineer looked it up in his system and checked the manufacturers stock.  "Yes sir, they are in stock at Tilton engineering in Buellton". Dang, where the hell is Buellton?  Just north of LA it turns out!  We call them up and got to speak with Mr Kirk. Very friendly and knowledgeable on clutches. And against normal procedures we where allowed come by and pick up a 3 disc clutch that should take 850 Nm.  850 Nm is perhaps a bit on the low side.  Anyway, I swung by on my route back to LA. Got a full tour of Tilton engineering, and a clutch.

And here it is, home in all its beauty, with throwout bearing and 3 sinter discs that fits straight to our T56 Magnum gearbox:

And, after reading the manual a little bit more carefully it turns out that we got it wrong on the phone with Kirk. This clutch takes 1850 Nm!

Remains to fit it to the flywheel.

Perfect Speed Tour with Major problems

I'm not sure if you remember...if you don't, Salt Slush Racing Team is currently in US.

For vacation? No way.

We're only here to understand the high speed racing. No amusement. Just to study and understand.

Initially everything seems to turn out as planned.

We've picked up our rental car.

 After a good nights sleep we went to Moon to buy some stuff and to...

...look at a real Bonneville racer, which was being prepared for Bonneville Speed Week. We really appreciate the good discussion and the generous openness at Moon!

Before leaving Seal Beach we drove over to Huntington Beach to have a look in Chip Foose Shop in order to get some inspriation from The Hot Rod Picasso.

Maybe not a winner on the Salt, but a piece of art!
To experiance the creativity at Foose workshop is really amazing. A workshop in which big dreams are being materialized into steel with simple tools and and mindblowing commitment to art and cars.
 
Finally, we left Seal Beach and took off for San Dimas.
 

At SoCal Speed Shop in Pomona, we had the possibility to look at a Bonneville racer with amazing attention to details. I would like to take the opportunity to thank SoCal for the good and enthusiastic discussion!

Waiting to perform on the Salt.

 

After breakfast on Saturday morning we got the bad news. We read SCTA website and were in contact with a friend on site. Bonneville Speedweek 2014 was cancelled due to bad weather and a flooded track. A very sad moment....especially since this is the second time I travel to US in vain to take part in a Speed Event. 

 

When we tried to get over our sorrow we were advised to go to the NHRA museum, which was really rewarding. Numerous iconic race cars distracted our minds from Speedweek 2014. 

After a beer or two, then we were ready to go to sleep for an early start.

The Pomona Swap meet...a strong reason to be an early bird.

In order to get some Feel for Speed, we rounded off the Swap meet with a visit at El Mirage, The Mother of Land Speed Racing. A contemplative, dry, and very warm place which makes you wants to go fast...

  El Mirage's hard and dusty surface...which seems very attractive,  in some odd way.

We need to prepare and to get back on track.

Yesterday on Swedish televission there were a program by Anne Lundberg called "Anne på väg" in which different people were interviewed.  They visited their roots and starting point for their Journey in life.
If you want to see the program go to SVT play http://www.svtplay.se/anne-pa-vag.

In the second episode 2 Tina Thörner was interviewed meanwhile visiting her roots from Säffle,Värmland, Sweden. It really moved and touched me and most of all made me start to think. You should know that Tina is big and famous within the Rally and Motor world. In Sweden she's even bigger and most of all you get the impression that she's a very true and fantastic person.

Anyhow it made me go to her web site http://blogg.tinathorner.se were there's a lot of interesting stuff. One of the pictures kind of captured what we in SSR strive to be and what we have to focus.
All in all, we need to get the 3 forces below to match even better, and most of all, be the people we enjoy working with.