Monday, July 25, 2022

From Darkness to Hope. From Show to Go!

Problems like Covid, Pilot strikes and UPS Mölndal, Sweden has tried to stop us. Darkness.

But now things are getting better. We found FedEx at Landvetter, Sweden. Pilots are back in business and our Covid as found new victims. New hope arrives.

But we've been working a bit too hard to get things done. So we were in need of some show before the Go at Bonneville Speed Week 2022!

Perhaps a car meet would offer a stress relief solution?  Car meets with some action could serve as a bridge between workshop and racing. Not the real deal, but cool, cloudy and crowed. 

Nice -32 roadster with grace and some pace. 
At Gasoline Revival in Grägnesberg,

A nice Ford based racer. Love these cars. I'll build something like this soon. If you’re in doubt, we have complete Ford -47 chassis and a running Ardun engine...only design, hard work and late nights remains.
 
Carina pictured in the art section of this car show. 

Opposite attracts. Die hard long fork freedom vs. hard mining work. 

Next blog will be posted from Speed Week. Stay tuned.
Speaking of staying tuned....Our apologies for the cancelled radio program today (Motortimmen) Reason: we did not want to risk racing at the flats due the Covid that's bouncing around.

Sunday, July 17, 2022

Boring

A close friend from Germany once said to me;

-Remember that the main purpose of any summer vacation is to get bored. 

Since I didn't understand what he meant, I asked for clarification. 

Then he stated that engagement equals stress and mentioned as an example that any typical Svensson/Müller/Smith will go to places of no particular interest, where they neither can or want to do anything special. 

- And when all your friends are busy populating these places, where all tourists go, there's no obvious reason to set up parties either. So you can get bored at home too.

So, are we now bored?

Yes, even more so because on top of all of the above Carina and I has both got Covid some days ago. So we're isolated. Totally.

So what can we do? 

We can test and hope for the best. We can stroll around in the neighborhood and look at other who are bored while getting even more bored.

 Is that what we're intending to do? Of course not. Instead our agenda for the coming week looks like this;

1. Get rid of Omicron.Completly. Now.

2. Ship over stuff to US of A that we cannot carry as luggage. Tomorrow.

3. Book what needs to be booked to enable our participation at Bonneville Speed Week.

Ref action no.1 above. Antigen test collection. 
 
Summary: We're bored now, but what ever happens this boredom will come to an end soon. Bonneville Speed Week can be tough, warm, wet, fun, exiting, dangerous and expensive but ever ever boring. Of that we can be sure. 
 
We will miss out on the main purpose of any vacation, but for that we're prepared.
 

Sunday, July 10, 2022

It's summertime

The sun is occasionally shining. A mild wind is blowing. It's Sunday and summer vacation is approaching. Things are slowing down everywhere. Everywhere? Nope. Salt Slush are still busy searching for Speed, Salt and Sun. 

We're preparing what we can prepare from Sweden. We're shipping the stuff  we've made to make our Amazon fast and Bonneville ready.

Not only engine and transmission needs attention when you're about to go fast at Bonneville Speed Week. The chassis needs to work too. Hence these bicycle pumps needs to be replaced...
...with these magic Ohlins shocks. We've made new attachments to make these mechanical masterpieces fit. They are now on their way to Brenner Shocks in Simi Valley, CA for final tuning.
 Hopefully this fast faithful friend will stop wagging its tail.
 If you're in need of power and speed, while summer vacation is slowing things down, we're open and ready to supply BorgWarner AirWerks and EFR from our shelves in Gothenburg, Sweden. We just want you to know in case of emergency.
Other than that, it was a normal Salt Slush Sunday today. New projects (like Anders Ford -34) in start-up phase...
...are mixed with project's that are in a late shake down phase and in search for sun. Like our 1949 Rocket 88 that's got a Holley Sniper and new ignition and now runs very smooth.

Other than that? Well we're mentally preparing for our next radio show which will take place tomorrow (Monday) evening 19.00 CET. After 20.00 you´ll find the result here: https://radio88.se/program/motortimmen

Tomorrow's topic is: Picking up a Project!


Sunday, July 3, 2022

I Convert...

The headline might suggest that we've changed church, joined a new dogmatic political -ism or gone intellectually astray. 
 
That's not the case. We're still providing turbos and superchargers for those in need of speed, and we're on our way to Bonneville Speed Week at the end of July.
 
So what is it all about then? Here's what; a gear head friend, let's call him Johan because that's his name, invited us to his and friends garage in Gothenburg. It happened a Sunday some weeks ago. At this point in time, no miracles was expected. No temptation land. Nothing for sale. Just a Fika. I felt safe.
 
Then suddenly something happened. Johan showed something I've never seen or heard of before. It was a motorcycle. An Italian motorcycle. A motorcycle with automatic transmission. 
 
 -Do you want to test drive the bike?
 -Hell yeah, I might as well while waiting for the coffee to be ready....
 
I got some useful instructions to which I paid limited attention, jumped up on the bike and drove a way. After 10meters I was in love. I was in love with this very strange contraption. Driving this bike was for sure a new kind of experience. No need to use to clutch, limited need to change between the two existing gears that after all is available. A perfect vehicle for city driving especially if you want to smoke a cigarette when red turn green at the red light.

 
 Before I was converted. Johan is warming up the Moto Guzzi iConverter.
Long story short; I drove the pictured bike and fell in love. I needed one. Why? Can't explain. I just felt a strong need. Later that evening I scanned internet and I found one of few existing. In Germany. 

 
Fast forward two weeks. Now Converted with Guzzi on my mind. It's Midsummer Day. Our old Chevy Van is ready to run. It's early in the morning and we're on our way to Germany together with a lot of tools.

10 hours later and 1000km behind us, we're in calm place in Germany. The 40 year old Chevy Van? Reliable as a door stop. Didn't even sip some oil.
 One Schnitzel, one Hotel and one Beer.

The shivering moment, when you see the vehicle that you've partly paid for the first time. Was there unconditional love? Yes.
Like newborn. Converted to iConvert.

The understanding sellers who stood us by, while we learned that cash is still king and digital money transfer is still slow and painful.

Yes, the Guzzi fit's like glove in our Chevy Van. How we got it in place? We drove it. I mean, it's an iConvert. That's all you need to know.

Meanwhile it was Sunday at Salt Slush Speed Shop too. Anders has just bought a Ford 1934 project and Magnus is telling him all he needs to know. And a lot more.
 
To be continued.