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.

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.

 

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!

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.

Shooks, Speed and Desert Dreams

We're planning. Planning for the great white open surface at the Bonneville Salt Flats. To be more specific, we're planning for Bonneville Speed Week 2022. What we know; Our Landspeed racer, the 449 Amazon has got the power to go really fast. The boost pressure is there to support our need for Speed. If not confirmed, it's very likely that we can go really fast.  Not so surprising since we so far primarily focused on power, gear ratio and vehicle drag.

But a race car needs a good chassis too. At this point I think it's appropriate to a quote a good friend, who happen to be a chassis engineer: 

- There's a lot of things going on at the rear shook absorbers already at 250km/h...on perfect flat asphalt surface...at +300km/h spring and shooks really need to work perfectly...to say the least.

When Magnus and I test drove our Amazon at El Mirage a couple of month ago we felt a strange rhythm from the rear end already at really low speed like 100mph. 

 

Action required. So we did what we had to do and got in contact with Ohlins. Since we're squeezed in time and in the search for reasonable safety at serious speeds only the best will do.

Yes, the Ohlins rear end shooks are now displayed on our a dinner table. With no objections. Öhlins shooks are like EFR Turbos or Swiss watches. A mechanical piece of art.  

Next step: Contact The Ohlins Guy (Dough Brenner) and let him to tune our shooks to perfection. 

As stated before, we now have a bi weekly radio program. 

It's a radio show (motortimmen) for car guys and girls with hearts that beats for cars, motorbikes and music.

Yes, it's in Swedish. 

Theme for June 27th 19.00 (7pm): Speed!

How to find it?

 https://radio88.se/program

 

In 6 weeks from now, we'll be here again. At Erik's and Ruth's place under blue skies with palm trees softly waving in the warm Californian wind. Just before it all begins.

Can't wait.

 

Broadcasting & Bonneville. We're preparing!

Why try? Why engage yourself? Why not just relax and calm down?  Could it be because it's fun and keeps you awake? We don't know, but here's what; As we're busy planning for Bonneville Speed Week 2022 and all the associated issues like flights, hotels and technical issues like trying to figure out a new rear shock configuration remotely...we got the brilliant idea do some broadcasting too. Oh I forgot, we're providing turbos and superchargers to the car community as well. 

But what about our Radio ambition? When will what happen?  Here's what; we have committed to a radio show (in Sweden, in Swedish) every second week starting tomorrow (Monday) at 19.00 on a station called Radio 88. It's called Motortimmen and it's all about cars, bikes and music. Our ambition is to have a show that deals with all technical, social och cultural sides of the car and bike community. The theme of our first show; Music about Cars.

We're tooling our way to Bonneville Speed Week 2022. Step by step. 

Picture: Test drive at El Mirage this Easter.

Our broadcast inspiration: Car Talk at NPR. 

 

 Stay Tuned!

Bold Bees Buzzing

This is how we like it. To have the honey and have busy racing bees buzzing around our shop in the search of nectar. No, it's not about selling turbos and superchargers for those in need of speed. It's about getting in contact with and take part of other car guys dreams and schemes. It's all about giving and taking energy. 

We can of course advice when it come to turbos and supercharger, but we need energy too and besides we're story junkies. Consequently, we love when car guys & girls come by on any Sunday to tell about their latest possibilities, potentials and problems.

If they arrive is something appropriate, our attention span will expand. A lot.

  

This Sunny Sunday a Super Bee swarmed out side the Salt Slush Shop.

 

A Lock-up-your-daughters kind of vehicle. This Jawn dropping ride made things unclear. Who's represent the sweetness and who's the bee?

Here's what; when a ride such as this arrives, we drop our tools and move toward the energetic sound. 

No matter who arrives in what ride, we're there to talk and support. 

Because we're car guys twenty-four seven.