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.



Times are a changing

Not too long ago mankind prepared for the winter by securing heat and storing food.

Nowadays it's about dealing with the summer.

Taking care of the boat and the summer cars, has two important purposes.

1. To enable plenty of undisturbed quality time in the garage during dark period of the year.

2.  To prepare for the next light part of the year which means enjoying boats, cars and bikes.

Point 2 includes building our Land speed racing Amazon which will give us a reason to go to California and Utah and enjoy a longer summer…

Common for point 1 and 2 are that you enjoy them with family and friends.

We are all very well aware of that we are privileged to enjoy a work which pay our bills and give some space for extra boats, cars and bikes. On top of this we are so far (!) rather healthy and very happy with life, family and friends.

We are not complaining ( too much) over the seasons either, I means that the winter can be used for creative garage therapy while the autumn gives time for … OK, cut the crap. We admit would be able to survive in a less Nordic climate. A longer summer would be fine as well…

Today I have been running around buying necessary parts to deal with the boat oil filter and hardware to cover the boat in order to keep it dry and in good shape for upcoming spring. Besides of giving the motor a service I needed to deal with a turbo issue and some strange electrical phenomena.

I will continue with the boat next weekend, meanwhile I took the time to spoil the Camaro.

New oil and filter and best of all no traces of harmful disorder in the old oil. Puuh.

Had to repair a brooken tread for one of the thermostat house bolts, at the same time I changed thermostat since the old one gone sick.

Put in an insert tread

Kind of the same feeling as waiting at the dentist

Camaro a little bit closer. Happy and back on track.

Since we have a long winter coming I couldn't help myself and started with the model A.

It need some TLC with Cooling, Engine and front end. 

Me and my father restored it when I was 15 years old and it's at least 35 years ago

The idea is to get it in good driving condition to the spring.

Cooler out took away old leaking hoses, water pump which will be modified to a modern sealing type and fresh bearings. Will also change oil and update ignition etc…..

Took out the radiator as well and cleaned it. Now there’s at least a flow through it which wasn’t there when I started…

Meanwhile, in another part of south Sweden, Håkan & Carina are working with their usual autumn / winter car nursing. All the old cars that has enjoyed warm summer winds and road trips now has now got their service and needs to get back in to various garages and barns to get shelter from the storm.

 The W136 170 SV…

 ...the W124 400E…

...and the W116 350SE.. 

 

...as well as 454 Bad Ass Burb and the W123 300D Lang all needs to sleep for a while while the Land Speed Racer (and the C20 and the Chevy -36 and the Corvette gets som more attention....) 

The wind is howling in the darkness outside...but when I close my eyes I see light and hear a familiar humming sound. Could it be a weld torch?

Another day in Paradise at Ringön

And Anders made a a trip to the future !

Saturday we as usual spent some time in the garage.
Besides of working we have a lot to discuss and evaluate which we do during the fika.

We are rather confident for the future, autumn is here allthough we still need to handle a number of private matters before the winter, preparing the boat for the winter, Parking summer cars in extra garages , some garden work … but soon we are ready to focus even more.

We have now come to a point where we dare to start final welding of at least some parts and systems.

Me started to weld the plates for the 4 link  to the rear axle, rather tight and hard to reach all spots. But it will work out in the end.

Anders gives a hand and some needed advice. My welds where evaluated as OK but all could see and told me that I hadn't spent the last years at Chip Foose as a welder.

We still have some issues with the adapter from KL racing but to not slow us down and to enable the build of rear transmission mount we made some temporary arrangements. Carina is giving some final touches to the set up.

Anders just couldn't help him self. He closed his eyes and felt the cold and crisp desert air, the smell of adventure and the silence before all engines are started when only the wind and desert can be heard. 

He reported back after his visit to the future that it's just amazing and much more exiting then you can imagine and we were doing some serious speed.

You know we want that T-shirt.

A Flywheel is born!



We managed eventually to get all cavities milled, all holes drilled and all treads treaded.  Therefore it was time for the flywheel to be released from the milling table.  We looked at each other, without speaking a word. We grabbed the spanner and did what was needed to be done.

 Removed!

 Both Anders and I knew what the next step would be. To try to fit our new born one-of-a-kind, Volvo-to-Tilton-to-Tremec T56 Magnum flywheel to the crank.  Anders had milled the crankshaft hole a couple of hundreds of a millimeter over…but would it be ok???



The answer was YES! It did fit absolutely perfect. All 10 bold and slight press fit was ok! Success! It looks really good, feels like I can watch it for hours!

What remains now are som final adjustments before the Engine and Transmission assembly is complete. Currently we struggle with the Volvo to GM rear face of block adapter...to be cont.

A staggering beauty, almost born....

We're tooling our way towards the perfect torque transfer. Anders milled away unnecessary material from the old flexpate and voilá, we've got a starter motor feature on our flywheel.

 

Within a couple of days from now we'll be able to see how it all bolts together with the engine and transmission. We eagerly await this exiting moment...don't you?

The complicated birth of A Flywheel

Relaxed, with fresh Sunday morning minds, we continued to transform a piece of metal and an old flexplate from an Volvo 960 doner powertrain to what will become a super strong and beautiful piece of race eqippment.

 

We followed the usual procedure. The brain trust gathered. Engineering began. 

 Oily fingers tapped on calculators. Drawings were made. Tool magazines was checked. The concentration could be felt in the workshop.

 

Thinking and rethinking.

But there comes a time when holes must drilled. We needed to make ten holes for the crankshaft connection, six for the Tilton clutch and six to fixate the Newborn flywheel to the remains of the old flexplate, which from now on only will serve the starter motor, all on different radius while not drilling in the Lars Martins fixture…

Good things in life. Cold garage beer and race clutch.

 Our good looking Offspring to be is now ready for next step in the machining process.