Hot Rod Amazon!

We'll soon update you all about our latest and greatest achievements.

 

Here's some info upfront:  The frame and roll cage is being welded at the moment. Tomorrow or on Tuesday we´ll try to understand where to put the driver’s seat. In general we know where it should be positioned, but we’re trying to fix the absolute point in order to get the steering wheel as well as the pedals and eventually the firewall in the right (suitable) position.

Nevertheless, forget about our technical issues, lean back and enjoy these videos, which perhaps can make you understand why Volvo Amazon is an excellent European Hot Rod basis.

An objective video

 

A test comparision.



But why?  How come the Volvo Amazon became such a Rally /Hot Rod car?

Well, already the 1962 commercial gives us a hint.

    The commercial



Maybe not the latest and greatest

But for us this is absolutely something to hang on to.

Its in Swedish and kind of a love song to an old Amazon made by Svenne Rubins.

All of us in the Team have been cruising down the main street listening to some for that time mega big hit on the Radio (Yes without cassette player) in the Amazon. For sure many years before CD and Spotify.

The main Challenge was to keep the windscreen free from ice and mist.

Svenne Rubins I en Gammal Amazon

The driver of the Amazon is the late Christer Glenning who passed away 1998. Glenning was at that time, at least Sweden, a World famous Automotive Journalist. Maybe (or for sure) not on Jeremy Clarkson or Freiburg, Finnegan level....you get the picture.

Anyhow, The Volvo Amazon do have a special place in every Swedes life.

Design, Disappointment and Dedicated work



Sunday again. The SSR team meets with dedication in their eyes. The autumn had begun, the rain was about to stop and almost all of our cars and boats had been put to sleep.  All but one (it turned out) of us had found this autumn piece of mind, when you miss the summer, are depressed about the coming winter, but still can find relief in the slow undemanding period of the year when the sun goes down earlier and the workshop or garage is there for you with open arms!

Lars-Martin is working at the lathe.

Magnus, The blacksmith, makes progress with the transmission mounts. His seriousness is obviously absolute.

 Carina is by some reason really happy to work with the Salt Slush Racing AB webshop, where it soon will be possible to buy really cool race/street turbochargers from BWTS EFR!

  Meanwhile inside the Amazon, the whole team works with removing the transmission again in order to get access for welding and as well enable design of the transmission mount as well as the frame and roll cage structure. We're really trying to think about serviceability as well since, we might need to repair stuff while in a stressful situatiuon in the middle of the dessert... 

As mentioned in the beginning, we've all found piece of mind, except Kalle who is on the verge to a breakdown since he cannot understand why his boat doesn’t really give full power and full speed every time. It’s complicated…

 

The frame structure is getting there, step by step. I’ve welded a lot today. The frame is getting fixed and ridged. The contraption that we call our Landspeed racer, starts to look fast and nice.

Magnus and Anders now have an idea of how the roll cage eventually will look like. We'll soon fix it once and for all.

When we left the workshop the road was dry and the sun was shining. At this point in time is was about time to call it a day, drive home grab a beer and make some food. And recap the nice feeling of getting something done.

Luke 6:31

Treat others the same way you wan't them to treat you.
Or.
Don't poke a welding rod in others face or eye !

Magnus who is an experienced and thinking person took it to the next level today.
Made a bend on the welding rod and avoided poking it in someones face or even eye. 

The Bend  

With the bend Magnus could weld without any worry.

The relaxed friendly welder

Our Logotype and brand -How It All Started.

In one of the earliest post, we told the story about how it all began.   As those of you who've already read it know, it’s a story that involves barbecue, beer and ideas.

Good ideas and big dreams. Dreams about flying low over the salt (hopefully with some grace) with a turbocharged 800hp engine howling under the hood.

But we needed a logo.  A simple and fast one. We discussed and discussed. This mental exercis almost made our brains boil.

Then suddenly, in bar in US… we got a breakthrough.

Carina made a sketch on napkin. We took a picture and celebrated.

Ok, we had an idea, but it was in need of more work.  When we were all back home in Sweden again, Anders, Karl-Johan and Catrine gathered to think...

Afterwards Anders started the artistic work... and we're all proud the result!

Fast and somehwat evil...

Orange and Black...for our soon to open Speed Shop…

Yellow fever ?

...or classic black...

or just clean and simple....



SSR makes a difference and empower Scandinavian Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Challenge

SSR has a long relationship with Mr Ola Gruvesäter both as colleagues at Volvo Car Corp and as a provider of our never ending front end to the SSR Amazon.

Ola has been in to racing for many years struggeling and fighting his way in to the racing community.

In the beginning of the 2014 season he felt it was time to step up and take it to more than the next level. Since no quick and easy fixes where and are available he had to rely on hard and dedicated work in combination with sheer luck.

It was here it became the moment for SSR to step in and put the basic foundation in place for the 2014 season and Ola's debut in the Scandinavian Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Challenge. Further down you will se and fully understand the key contribution from SSR.

Besides of SSR key contribution Ola has been involved in Team Foilex as Race Engineer and Driver Coach. Due to different reasons Ola Suddenly got the opportunity to drive in the finale and managed to reach a honorable 2nd position in the finale.

Two weeks later Ola reached the first place in the Carrera cup finale, Recived Michelin Award, delivered fastest laps etc. the success was total.

Later on he turned down an offer to drive a Porsche 997 GT3 at Nurnburging.

Story continues with his colleagues at Volvo when he jumped in as a driver in there Volvo in the ERCUP - finale. They reached a 3d place

Now Ola is recuperating and slowly gravitating back to reality.

He admits that he sees above as a beginning of a race carrier with a dream of one day as a pinnacle howling down the flats in the SSR Amazon.

Ola in the Porsche fighting his way to the top 

Ola celebrating his victory

Now the interesting part start. What was the key and enabler to this success.

Ahaa OK now we understand, everything becomes crisp and clear.

His victory is not to be reduced but honestly with such a T-shirt anyone could have made this happen.

It's kind of asking Superman to carry your piano. 

Caged in on Sunny Sunday

The late summer golden sun was shining over Gothenburg today. The door to the SSR workshop was wide open and a lot of good ol' friends came to visit our shop to chat and drink some coffee.   

Among them Ivan Hedin, who´s a retired Engine Engineering authority as well as a hobby pilot (and flight instructor) with over 2400 hours in the air!

But did we get something done? Aber natürlich!

One highlight was when Lars-Martin arrived with our roll cage kit.  But more about that further down…

All brackets were now 100% welded to the rear end and hence the assembly could take place. But as we were all were told by our mothers…cleaning is important!

Karl-Johan cleaned the rearend on the outside...

Isn’t beautiful?  

But how to clean it inside?  After a thoughtful moment...

..a solution was found.

There are many ways to skin a cat, but how many ways are there to assemble a Currie rear end? Discussions ongoing.

 

Then some action.

To assemble the rear end was a good exercise, most likely comparable to a Gym. I’ve  heard that these places can be exhausting as well... 

 But how to assemble the driveshafts? Lars-Martin knows...

All joy should be shared in a democratic manor. Therefore Anders pressed on one bearing and one stopper...

...and I did the other one.

And finally, the stuff is in place again.

But how about The Cage?

Well, Magnus who's The Cage Man (yes, it's correctly spelled) didn’t either know to start with..

 Therefore some thinking and calculation was initiated...

...but testing and dreaming is also important!

 

In order to evaluate a taller person we asked Mario to take a seat. He woke up afterwards. 

No, it was not a bullit. It was just a welding burr...but it was aiming for the heart.