Sunday, February 26, 2023

In need of a particular place (to go to)!

Car guys who's in need for speed need a particular place to go to.  To test the vehicle prior to race day. To understand if the contraption is race ready or not. For this type of mechanical debugging asphalt or any concrete surface is preferred since it's reliable. 

The Salt Slush Race team is no exception. Since we are in Sweden and our Amazon is in California, we tend to fly over to Los Angles during Easter to work with it to get it in shape for Bonneville Speed Week in August. 

And we want to test drive it. So we normally take the vehicle to El Mirage. Which is good. If the facility is open and available for a test drive that is. If it is not open, we fly home to Sweden again, only to find ourselves unprepared for Bonneville Speed Week 2023.

So we're now looking for an reliable alternative. A place where we can test drive our race car to understand that everything is ok. We don't have to drive fast. It would be good to test the vehicle only at +120mph (190km/h) to understand how our chassis improvement (Ohlin shocks and new rear end geometry) has influenced the vehicle behaviour. The chassis would be our primary focus since we're rather confident with the powertrain (engine, turbo (EFR) and transmission (Tremec))

El Mirage. A nice test place...if it's open and not flooded.
What we would prefer. A reliable test track. With a surface the dry up after rain. Like this old desert air field...

If you know a place like this in Southern California where we can run a few test laps in our race car, please contact us: hakan@saltslush.se








Sunday, February 19, 2023

To own or not to own. That is the question!

I had once a friend that got stressed when there was one thing in his wardrobe that he didn’t use daily. When I left a rear door for an old Mercedes in his empty basement storage for some weeks he got totally stressed out. Would this guy be feng shui today? Or feel endless emptiness?

On the contrary, the vast majority of passionate car guys and girls that circulate around Salt Slush Racing workshop have the opposite problem. The have a lot of stuff and if it wasn't for space and money they would have had more stuff. Because they thrive when they're surrounded with things.

Each car, bike or part have a story to tell or it represent a dream or opportunity. Sometimes it soothes their soul to just look at a machine for a couple of minutes. It makes the heart slow down and while you find peace of mind.

But life ain't easy for car collectors, motorcycle maniacs and part hoarders. Nope. The have to battle the angry landlords, barn rats, rust and rain. 

They are however rather resilient and their passion for parts normally balance the barking people with blank look that surrounds them.

  
Tools, toys and lack of space in Salt Slush Shop.
Always.

 
When for once the weather is fine you can always take your ride and shine for a little while. If you're the owner...



Sunday, February 5, 2023

It feels soooo good..

I've only done it twice before. We've talked about it a lot. I dream about it from time to time. But still, we rarely do it. There are reasons for not doing it. It's exhausting. It's dirty. It's expensive.
 
But when you've been waiting for a long time, it feels so good to get it done.
 
As you've understood by now, I'm talking about a paint job.

Our Olds, the 1949 Rocket 88 that we bought in Wendover 2019 as we were at Bonneville Speed Week was finally ready to get painted.
So we drove over to Universalteknik, a company that we've trusted before (they painted our 449 Amazon land speed race car) and spoke to Lars...

...and after some rearrangement, we finally parked "Olds Bertha". She's now in the preparation area. The massage and surface treatment can now begin.