Remote Tuning of 449 Amazon The Movie

We're living in visual times. In which a picture is mandatory if you want to tell a story. Add a short film and it all becomes true. 

We're not too different, even if we still can read. Here's what I'm talking about; we talked with Nisse (The Camtwister, at Instagram) and Erik Hansson (at Scandinavian Street Rods) and as well Westech Performance over phone and afterwards we celebrated our tuning/calibration success.

 

But it wasn't until we got these videos, that we realized how smooth our wild 449 Amazon is running after the Westech Performance treatment.

 

You've heard it before and it's still valid. Seeing is believing. So read, look and listen.

Not full load, but instead a smooth calibration at part load. This is what we've been looking for ever since the first El Mirage race.

Ismail at Westech Performance called me Saturday night (CET) and asked following question:

-We've now got 696 rwhp (which equals to 750hp on the crank with our transmission and rear end set up) with a conservative ignition of 15 deg (race fuel) and no knock, do you want us to advance the ignition further and squeeze out more power at this point in time?

Very tempting, but I said no. Because we don't need an engine failure to handle remotely from Sweden and we've got more races to run before we can go flat out and reach for the record. Until then we need a super duper durable engine.

We're not Kilroy....but the 449 Amazon was there.

 

 

Old School Service -A Tribute to Rogers Custom in Gothenburg!

You're hands are dirty. You're somewhat stressed. Because you're in search for a replacement part. A part that fits your broken favorite custom street car. At this point your wish to google, search and compare is limited. You need someone to talk to. Someone who knows your stuff. Someone who doesn't start with asking for the VIN / registration number.

In US these old school shops exist still, but in Sweden they're all gone.

All of them? Really?

No. There's still hope for a part searching soul. At least in Gothenburg.

We're talking about Rogers Custom, a part/speed shop for US cars that opened up the doors in 1965 and still going strong. Hasse, the current owner of Rogers Custom, has no web shop (like Salt Slush…), instead he has a lot of worn catalogues, a solid network of suppliers and a loooong hands-on experience of cars.

A typical no-nonsense call to Rogers Custom:

Customer: Hi, do you have a lower cooling hose for a C20 -79?

Hasse: Small block?

Customer: Yes!

Hasse: The hose will be available tomorrow. I'll call you in advance.

Carina is picking up her part.

The logo. Seen it since I was a kid. Always liked it.



Remote Control Cailbration! A success!

Calibration, Tuning, Optimization, Mapping. Those words have an even deeper meaning to us now. We've learned as well that even in a general success there's room for annoyances. But we also know that mind-bogging issues can be resolved during a Saturday night dinner.

What?

Here's what. Back in late spring 2017, there was a race date at El Mirage, a shipping date for the Amazon and flight tickets booked for us and as a consequence, a sweating team. So, we made a base calibration on the laptop, a drivability check at Ringön and finally, a full load calibration in a chassi dyno in Gothenburg.

When the race car sailed away it was running ok at low humid Gothenburg temperatures and tap fuel. It was running good, not great.

Fast forward to Bonneville Speed Week 2018. Same desktop calibration, but 35-40degC (95-104 F) ambient temperature, a super dry dessert and a new race fuel. During early mornings it was running ok but not good. We still managed to run 150-175mph (240-280km/h) several times and really feel the great potential...

...but we were getting more and more engaged in try and error calibration after analyzing individual cylinder temperatures. In short terms; We suffered misfire.

So we changed spark plugs, and spark wires and various other parameters. Didn't help.

So we went to the Salt Flats Café to think about it. Didn't help either but it was relieving.

The solution. We called Westech Performance in Mira Loma, (greater Los Angles) and booked a time for a mapping session. To get a good speed-load calibration from low part load to full load with correct race fuel. Finally we got a time slot. Last Saturday. The Salt Slush team were in Sweden, but Erik Hansson went up early morning and towed our 449 Amazon racer to Westech Performance.

The team have faith both in Westech Performance and Erik Hansson, but still...the Salt Slush team were nervous. Was there a hardware issue? Would the engine blow up?

It all turned in to a success! The engine is now running really smooth, the exhaust gas is reported to be below 950degC and the peak power at 750hp.  Yes, we decided to stay at this performance level with a conservative ignition timing, because we want the car to go fast and be durable!

What a warm feeling! We raised our glassed called each other and cheered!

The only drawback. The Salt Fever is getting worse...

Muscle Cars vitality. Now, then and in The Future.

Let's get one thing straight. There's no logic associated with buying, owning and driving a Muscle car. No sane brain can make a muscle car reasonable. Ever.

But there're other non rational values. Listening to opinionated guys and girls on the Muscle Cars topic, they'll tell you everything you already know about fuel consumption, bad attitude appearance, suspect handling...etc. All these prejudices.

But as they speak you can hear it, feel it and see it in their face. We're here talking about The Hidden Envy. Because there's one small detail to add. Muscle cars are cool. Really cool.  

Plymouth Roadrunner 1971 with pistol grip shifter. If you have self esteem enough, buy one and use it as daily driver. From that moment you don't have to worry about getting attention of some kind.

Yes, there's an eternal bad ass appearance associated with rides like this.

Anders is making big progress with the Supercharged LS equipped El Camino.  Will the Magnuson Supercharger fit under the hood? Nobody knew for sure. Excitement was in the air.

Yes! No hood scoop needed. Just minor adjustment, then all good.

Modern Muscle Car. Dodge Challenger 2018 SRT 6.4. Which means more muscles than ever. Vibrant.

Besides, it seams like the best muscle car area is now!

If you need a daily drive, buy one!

Gran Turismo

Early moring. Alarm bells rings. While you flip up the curtain blinds your mind gets wide awake. It's not any day. It's that day. The driving day, The Freedom day. In other words, the day when your body will go fast while you mind will be at ease and you'll be winding down. Your supercharged V8 will be working hard while you'll be thinking, talking and enjoying life.

Meanwhile you wake up your loved one with a kiss. Outside the supercharged coupe is waiting.The coffee smells good, even great. Not much is said. There's no need to talk right now. Because the dream is shared and it runs through your veins like gasoline.

Open the outside door, walk down the stairs. You feel that it's early summer and you notice that only the spring birds are singing songs. Everything else is quite. Really quite.

You enter your machine, the machine that soon will eat up the road. Now it's time. Time to push the button. The button that will give you goosebumps when pushed. A second of electric spool up then real power.  

After high speed 1200km driving a cold beer is waiting. Carina knows what's coming.

Good to great. Carina is in Supercharger mounting mode.

Summary, Conclusion, Fast forward. 

Our Supercharged Corvette C6 are making our GT dreams come true in the past, currently and in the future. Which really feels good.