Have you clicked your
REFRESH button? Ever?
April 30
Kent Edin is All In
His new bus and the look of it all shows that this is serious stuff!
It is a Volvo B-58 from 1978.
This is how the bus looked on the other side, "Moped" something...
Kent has finally got his ProCharger back from the manufacturer
after repairing the internals - via connection Birgitta at Autoshop.
Earlier this winter Kent found these teeth coming out with the oil.
ProCharger suggested that it broke due to over-revving by Kent but
then Kent showed his black belt from his Kyokushinkai karate
which actually means "the society of the ultimate truth".
Also it helped that Birgitta gave Kent The Formula:
Diameter of crank pulley divided with diameter of blower pulley
X
Gear Ratio of
F2 blower 5.40
X
Engine RPM
=
Blower RPM
Max RPM F2 Blower is 65000
Kent got to a conclusion that he never revved more than 56160 RPM
@ 6500 engine RPM. So it was well under the max RPM 65000.
As a sugary token ProCharger mounted a cone on his F2!
A thing
that I have tried to get for some ten years...
Kent have also mounted a hitch so it will be easier to get towed...
"It can't hold together forever..."
Finally Kent have changed from the too quick 4.11 gears to the more
right 3.71
(Not only because I use it). The 4.11 forced Kent to
shift to overdrive before the finishline!
Kent will race in class ET Pro in Piteå, Fällfors, Sundsvall and just
maybe we'll meet each other in June or August at Tierp Arena?
April 28
Agneta recognized
Left the lab -
for fermented super food
Congratulations my dear wife!
Now the local morning paper Göteborgs-Posten have made a big
article about Agneta and her work with fermented vegetables!
She has always been struggling slowly but surely forward to make
this
profitable. This very positive recognition is not just fair, maybe
it is also
what she
need to boost sales even more?
See the whole article here Göteborgs-Posten
Visit her own site here Undermat
April 26
Heavy duty work!
Cherry tree is gone and we can build our "Friggebod" at last.
Neighbors said
OK and signed the paper for it (before we even cut
down the tree).
A Friggebod is what you can build on your property
without asking
the local government. A maximum of 161 square
feet is allowed, (15 square meters). We buy the Friggebod as a kit.
But I need to get rid of rock in that corner first!
I rented the whole rock drilling kit at Cramo. You get a kompressor
on wheels and a 20 meter hose to begin with.
The jackhammer weighs like 60 lbs (27 kg) and it's that weight that
is making the drilling to happen, you don't press anything yourself,
you just hold it and it'll do the work. I choose to work with both
40 cm and 80 cm drills.
Diameter 34 mm.
Here's the problem. You see where the Friggebod corner will be.
A good deal of the rock has to go, as well as the cherry tree stub.
I haven't done anything of this before so it was
exciting,
especially since I updated it live at Facebook for the
cheering crowd.
.
It was rather easy when getting started. Also Axel thought so.
However, since it's only On or Off on this jackhammer
it can take
some
wrestling before it has begun doing a hole
to stay in.
It easily slips away.
Seen from above from neighbors fence, some of the holes
that was
drilled.
Phew! It was nice to have that dirty heavy part done so all the
protective things can be taken off - visors, breathing filter, glasses,
ear muffs and souvenir Chinese communist hat (for real work only).
Now it's time to blend the dynamite...
It is called "snail dynamite" in Swedish. An expansive mortar
used when you can't use real dynamite. You must use a drilling
machine with a blender prop to be able to blend that dry powder
in time, because time is tight. You have only minutes to blend
and fill the holes.
All holes were filled in a hurry.
Next morning...magic! They say it can take at least 10 hours, but
often more. Shouldn't be too cold or too warm. I believe we
hit the
perfect conditions. It produces an extreme pressure
of 40-100 MPa
(4000-10000 t/m²).
Axel bending out the cracked pieces.
A couple of iron-bar levers are useful. And a sledge-hammer
just for fun.
The most tiresome part in the process was to move away those rocks
with a wheelbarrow - upwards! One person at the handles and two by
the
rope (except for this time when I had to take a picture). To the far
right you see our first wheelbarrow which broke under this load...
It happened that the heavy rocks got the wheelbarrow to tip
over.
Even more sweat awaits then! We'll build a small wall up
there
with these new
rocks just to get rid of them.
Now we're just waiting for the Friggebod kit to be delivered so we
can
start to build it, after some ground prep first.
Well, now you see that I'm involved in many other things
than the Impala SS...
April 23
E-intake
Winter hasn't been filled with energy for working on the SS engine.
Mainly because of lack of time due to much work both at
home and
at
work.
I can't go out to the garage for an hour at a time,
I need
days
in a row. So I took
some days off from work to get started!
What's up? Well, the heads are going off to repair broken valve
(maybe more than one?) and a general overhaul.
Head gasket is
blewn on driver's side.
A lot happened that last run on
Night of Fire at Tierp Arena!
And this time is the right time to change to this Victor "E" intake
which I already have announced earlier on this page. It will take
some time. I'm glad that Kenneth Feldthusen has promised to
help me with this,
a lot of welding and machine work is
needed to get it done.
Since I'm late into this season anyway, it doesn't matter
if I will get
even more late.
Maybe a start in August, September, October?
Above is the first time I mocked that intake up with engine in car.
Hood clearance report: Touching, not pressing.
Freshing it up
Agneta started to paint our glass veranda because she wanted it to
be fresh when opening her Undermat home shop in it. But she
couldn't
stop, she continued to paint on the outside, more and more.
Suddenly she found herself painting the whole front of the house!
See the difference! From 33 year old weather-beaten and treated
natural wood - to this!
And grey to all the rest, matching the grey doors and
garage port.
Think what a little paint and a wife can do!
April 22
Bonfire
Exciting day is when neighbour Helge decides it's time to have the
bonfire of the spring. For us it isn't really the tradition of the spring
bonfires -
"majbrasa" -
we
just want to burn our collected scrap.
Like our newly cut down cherry tree (scroll down to April 1-3)
Axel likes to be with the aldermen of the street and discuss things.
And drinking coffee from a Snowball coffee mug.
April 21
Pleasing a sponsor
Kenneth Feldthusen is as close to a drag racing pro as you can get.
He travels around the country with parts of his team to different
resailers of his
sponsor Nilfisk ALTO to show his car and products
of the manufacturer. Like here when
we found them outside
Bauhaus in Gothenburg.
His A/AA Altered always get people curious and at some events they
even start up the monster! Of course everyone see the
connection
between his car and the brand Nilfisk ALTO when the
resailer put
up special bargains of the day. Kenneth's daily work
is actually at
Nilfisk ALTO in Gothenburg so he can also sell the products
by
heart. You can't come closer to a pro situation than that.
Ingemar "Gomez" Johansson always answers every question with
a
smile
and
a bit of passion. Team Northrace / Nilfisk ALTO
have
a
schedule for every promotion year and racing season here.
April 9 - 12
Archive Dive
I found more black/white negatives and photos from my early
promotion years
than I could remember
that I had! The reason I had
to take this dive was that journalist Christina Bodén was writing a
book and
needed pictures
to illustrate a chapter about late
Lennart "Bagarn" Bergqvist
and
yours truly!
"The Swedish History on The World's Fastest Motorsport"
This was the first book she wrote in 2007 with 240 color pages.
Now soon book No 2
will be released. Of course I will inform
you where to find it but normally they sell at the races.
This was the find I was most happy with. I had totally forgot that
I had taken a series of photos of "Bagarn" in his first cold garage (no
heating). It was underneath his dad Nils Bergqvist's thinbread factory
in Röbäck south of Umeå. It was because of his dad's work this
youngster was called "Baker". I just held these BW negatives in the
window
and snapped a couple of shots with my new camera and
inverted them in Photoshop. Nice proper touch I think.
The story begins with streetracer "Bagarn" who loudly curses in
this garage because
he had
to weld
a rollbar into his Nova due to
the normal rules of drag racing.
And the only tubes he found and
could afford
was
too thick and too heavy - hence the
cursing.
Next race he
crashed his Nova and rolled it good in Piteå in 1979.
See, 1st race at Piteå Dragway in 1976. Golden negatives!
A streetrace story in Colorod #10 1978. One of the first written in
Sweden about the racing itself.
I believe this one page
article started
up thousands of pages
about streetracers in many nordic magazines
in the years to follow...
Click it to be able to read it. Only in Swedish.
Whiplash 1983
Archive Special
First start of the new Whiplash 355" engine built by "Bagarn".
I will never forget the stress!
Because it was a
nervous moment when starting a mechanical
camshaft for
the first
time to break it in. It was an Isky
Z85
NASCAR camshaft, drained in
STP. The oil channels was
primed
with the "drill special" until oil
pressure was noted, then we put
back
the distributor in the back.
When started we held it at 2000-2500 RPM for 20 minutes
before it
was done, and it was easily heard with open headers if I may say so.
The premiere start was a success. Phew! We didn't need to take out
engine and take it apart to change to another Z85...
When the 355 was cold again we
changed the oil filter and drained
the mineral oil to put in our racing
oil which was synthetic Mobil oil.
Back in the days, to use synthetic
oil
was considered stupid by many experts. We used mineral oil for the
break in since it was cheaper and should be trashed afterwards.
First run with the new Whiplash engine built by "Bagarn" 1983.
A jump at the start and
also this small wheelie at 2nd gear
promised a lot! And indeed,
a lot
we got. Click it.
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Archive Special
What a good picture! Taken by "Bagarn" from the backseat of the
Hot Vapor car. I'm on the left
driving, can you see who's on the right?
This Hot Vapor V2-driven Dodge Omni shot like a rocket on North
Beach Street in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. So Smokey Yunick,
here in a
driver's window pose that was seen by Fireball Roberts,
Curtis Turner
and other
famous Stock Car drivers,
told
me to take it
easy because "the police is around the corner".
And
not long
after
the sirens was heard and Smokey reacted in a
way that looked rehearsed - took the wheel and drove it into "The
Best Damn Garage In Town" and just left a cloud of smoke...
"Bagarn" and I discussed it and laughed and thought that the
police
must have
warned Smokey many times over the decades
when
he was testing all
his race cars...
A very well working V2 Hot Vapor which Smokey Yunick made out
of a Chrysler V6. My God it pushed power!
"Bagarn" met his only idol and helped me in trying to reveal the
secrets of Hot Vapor when I was writing an article for Bilsport
Magazine. Why no detonations? This was a carburator solution
and became obsolete when fuel injection came and dominated
the market. Anyway, GM bought it from their long time partner
Henry "Smokey" Yunick to end the story. Or?
Who's that girl?
Archive Special
Total blank. This picture was taken at Bilsport Summer Meet,
Mantorp Park in 1985, probably by myself. I found it when I was
swimming
around in my archive. And this pretty lady, standing
there
as a
real
Trailer Queen,
was
wearing my special t-shirt!
Only 10 was
made of those!
It says "I'm
proud to be one of Bostic
Bolero's
girlfriends"
(I had a matching t-shirt saying "I'm Bostic Bolero")
But I can't really remember her, so please, if you know contact me
and
fill in the blanks.
Click for a BIG size version!
April 8
Street legal into 6's!
Congratulations Andy Frost who finally entered the 6's
in his
infamous twin turbo 1972 Vauxhall "Red Victor" which he built
to
compete
in
Pro Mod! It has passed the inspection at the MVI in
the
UK
which
means it is street legal with functioning wipers, power
windows, lights, indicators, horn and all the rest that is needed!
And it wasn't long ago Andy released the film when he was out
cruising this crazy Vauxhall in traffic! Then he uses Shell 100 octane.
On the dragstrip he changes to methanol.
Nice timeslip! 6.9995 seconds!
Visit Andy's website to read about this project which
is his
fastest Vauxhall so far and the fastest street legal car in Europe!
And watch all the films: redvictor1racing.co.uk
On Facebook: facebook.com/Red_Victor
April 6 - 8
Easter at the cottage
Agneta and her dad have made this wood-fired oven to be able to
make GOOD bread every day.
The secret is the heat. When the fire have done its work you
shovel it out and bring in the unbaked bread.
Baguettes made in that oven. Warm, melting butter...mmmm!
Another benefit with that wood-fired oven is that Axel can practice
as a blacksmith and learn about different metals.
Late dinner. Again, amazing camera. Handheld, no flash.
Axel put up his new bird house which he designed when in
Stockholm. It's a skyscraper.
Hey Axel, your sign "Hotel Axel" was misspelled!
-Birds can't read, answered Axel. Point.
A project on the to-do list, a homemade dirt gocart with a broken
Sachs 50 cc moped engine. Agneta wanted to throw it away but I
said -No way! I'll fix it and paint it!
(ooops what did I promise?)
April 5
Bilsport 50 years party!
Again!
I had to buy a new camera before leaving for the party evening in
Jönköping,
so I went to Scandinavian Photo
for a
discussion
about
"whassup today regarding compacts". The
choice
was a
Canon
Power Shot S100. More expensive than some
big
system
cameras
due to its new sensor technique and more. I was so glad
even
before
I
learned that I had bought the best camera in the world...
Camera facts: preview.com/reviews/Canon_S100
At the Elite Stora Hotellet in downtown Jönköping I first met up with
Lars-Inge Johansson and his daughter Jenny for "a milk in the bar"
before going
to the party. Bilsport Magazine treated all their guests
with the hotel
rooms and
a round in the bar! Normally Lars-Inge
could
order a milk but now splashed out for a cranberry juice because
"it's partytime!" He is almost an abstainer but very nice even so. :-)
Welcome to Bilsport 50 years! The party was held at Elmia which
also is the giant exhibition facility for the yearly Bilsport Custom
Show
which is the largest show of its kind in Northern Europe.
The party was held on the evening before opening this show.
A long steady stream of guests shook hands with the publisher
Stig L Sjöberg.
Mingling was fun. Celebrities meet celebrites.
Stig proudly welcomed everybody.
And that meant over 400 guests!
Only the first hall of cars was open this evening. It was Bilsport's
own
50 year collection, showing
cars that has been
published
over the
years and became readers favorites, like Lars-Inge's
"Skåpet"
(The Station Wagon) which was
a built-for-business
Chevy
Bigblock
streetracer in the
early 80's and the first
street legal car into
the 9's.
With this car he set the bar high.
2012 meets 1984. 28 years between the Bostic pictures and I can
hardly
see any differences! Can you? Maybe the glasses have
moved up a bit...?
The sign read: "The Best of Bostic - In the beginning of the 80's
were the readers of Bilsport entertained by Anders 'Bostic' Envall
and
his standing companion Christer 'Condor' Ljungaeus with
many
wild and funny articles. Presented here are a few quotes
and
pictures"
Our article about "Linkan" was considered a "classic"
Göran Ambell and Sture Torngren are the former editors of another
Swedish magazine, the monthly
published Wheels. But they were
invited and awarded a special award for their eager work to get the
Swedish government to change the rules so it became legal to build
your own car, and the SFRO rules
were introduced in 1982!
They did the impossible. Cheers!
The seating for all these specially invited guests was
interesting.
What an evening Bilsport treated us with! It was a fantastic dinner
and awards presentations and
great
entertainment in the theme
of Elvis Presley - since the theme for the Custom Show also was
Elvis.
Thank you Bilsport!
One of very few flash exposes shows author and journalist Sten
Berglind
(right) & Co at our table.
One of Sweden's earliest rock'n'roll stars of the 50's was
Little
Gerhard. Today he's 80 years and still a good singer and a fun
entertainer, said "I must be back before 10 when they close the door
at the home for the elderly". The audience just loved him! Here I'm
still experimenting with the camera and no flash.
And I recorded a bit from his biggest hit "Bona Sera" with my
iPhone and you can have a short look HERE!
(I have no idea why I didn't test to film with my new Canon S100
which is recording in full HD 1080...)
Joe Esposito was the closest friend of Elvis and worked in his staff
all the way
back from the military days in Germany. He told some
good stories for us...
Reggie Young is one of the top studio guitarist in USA and have
played with most stars, including Elvis. He played this very acoustic
guitar when they recorded "In The Ghetto" and before this trip he
managed to borrow back the guitar from the museum in Nashville
just to play it on this small tour. He hadn't played it in 25 years!
youtube.com/watchReggieYoung-Bilsport50years-2012april5
Watch this clip which is recorded by SycloneRobban
who also
must have a hell of a camera!
Congratulations Lars-Inge Johansson for a Trend Setter Award!
Just look at this camera's performance! The only light is that candle
and camera chooses ISO 1600, aperture 2 and 1/10 of second!
I begged the people to sit tight at 3 and did a count down, but hey
this is really amazing! Click to get the picture in its real size of
4000 x 3000 in 180 dpi, untouched. Warning, that's big!
I was sitting on this distance and taking shots without flashes...
Here is with the standard 24 mm wide angle.
Used the 5x optical zoom.
ISO 800 f/5.9 1/60
Then the last 4x digital zoom (totally 20x!) Still fabulous quality!
ISO 800 f/5.9 1/60
There were a lot of Elvises in Jönköping during the Custom Show
and there were a couple of them entertaining this evening as well.
This is Denni W from USA who sang Elvis from a stage for the
first time!
It was great!
Another magic exposure! Åse Kinnemar and Micke Gullqvist from
Speedgroup
lit only
by candle light. This camera can turn in to as
much
as ISO 6400 but here it only needed ISO 1600!
My hero was there - Leif Helander from Matfors! Discussions were
about if he could run his new nitro Funny Car at Tierp Arena even
if the class Funny Car isn't present in Sweden? As I understood
Micke Gullqvist, it looks like we're going to enjoy Hero Helander
this
summer at Tierp Arena which is a track that can handle a
nitro FC!
That alone is worth going to Tierp Arena for. Thank you.
20 years ago they were deadly enimies in Pro Stock, now they laugh
and give advices. Per-Kristian Skinne and Jari Konola found in the
Men's room. Nowadays Per-Kristian in Norway build marine engines
and Jari in Stockholm also build customer engines and is running
a dyno business, besides playing ice hockey in a veteran team
called "Golden
Camels" (!) and he also was involved in winning
a tournament
recently in
Canada,
something like that...
Skinne, Kent Redmo, Konola and I were very happy for this party
and are looking forward to the next 50 Year's
Party. I mean, I have
now only
been to two,
the one in Stockholm on January 28
(scroll down)
and this one. And all good things are three.
Bilsport recorded four songs with Danny W this evening, made CD's
overnight and gave to every guest...
Thanks Bilsport!
However, I didn't visit the big Custom Show since I had promised
the family to go to our cottage. I know it was fantastic as usual
and you can read a little about it here (in Swedish):
bilsport.se/CustomShow
Or even better, buy the Bilsport Magazine and all other automotive
magazines in the North of Europe.
April 4
Undermat home shop
Agneta has worked a lot to get her home shop running in our house.
She began
with cleaning, then painting and then fixing the interior.
She sells both her own products and now also choosen high quality
products that matches well with hers. Honey, Goat Cheese, farm
butter and delicacy like that.
On the 5th she opened the doors. Just in the beginning of Easter.
More about this at her own website here!
April 1 and 3
He's a Lumberjack...
It was time to obviate the old cherry tree in our backyard. First it got
some well deserved hugs for all the years it had been with us.
The
neighbours in that white house have been hinted their wishes
for a non-tree view, of course. And Agneta hasn't liked that old tree
too much either. I
just wanted
Axel and friends
to
experience to
build
a
tree house first, and now
that was done.
So it was time.
Standing on a ladder with a chainsaw isn't optimal, it's even stupid,
professionals never do that. But I'm no professional and had to do it.
It began with First lesson of handling a chainsaw by Axel's grand
dad
Thore.
It was a lesson both for Axel and me. Funny, it actually
didn't say
anything about climbing ladders with running chainsaws!
Keep the women away from the danger!
Solly neighbours! Nothing broke!
Anyway, after chopping the branches one by one we could bring
down the trunk and it showed to be hollow all the way up! And a
home
for millions of black ants! So it was really time to take it down!
Maybe you know the feeling...
Suddenly the backyard was filled with cherry tree parts in all
sizes.
We had to refill a couple of times. Our own blend of VP Motorsports
109 octane and Pennzoil...it both smelled good and ran like hell!
Axel was a quick learner and was doing all the chopping after a while.
Yes, he knows
about having the saw body to contact the tree, even
if
the
blade is halfways out here, I guess he were searching
for the
slot
or something here? Anyway, you don't need to email about it. :-)
So sweet it is when your mother comes out with fika in the middle of
all the hard work! And the sun is warming. Life is wonderful.
This is what it ended up like, a pile of firewood for next winter.
Before - After
However, I'm really sad that this view is gone for ever. First week of
May
every year we were treated with this wonderful cherry tree
blooming, like this view from the garage.
Over 3 million people can't be wrong, enjoy:
youtube.com/Lumberjack_Monty_Python
Please sing along:
BARBER:
I wanted to be... a lumberjack!
Leaping from tree to tree, as they float down the mighty
rivers of British Columbia. The Giant Redwood. The Larch.
The Fir! The mighty Scots Pine! The lofty flowering
Cherry! The plucky little Apsen! The limping Roo tree of Nigeria.
The towering Wattle of Aldershot! The Maidenhead Weeping
Water Plant! The naughty Leicestershire Flashing Oak!
The flatulent Elm of West Ruislip! The Quercus Maximus
Bamber Gascoigni! The Epigillus! The Barter Hughius Greenus!
With my best buddy by my side, we'd sing! Sing! Sing!
[singing]
I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay.
I sleep all night and I work all day.
MOUNTIES:
He's a lumberjack, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
BARBER:
I cut down trees. I eat my lunch.
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin'
And have buttered scones for tea.
MOUNTIES:
He cuts down trees. He eats his lunch.
He goes to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he goes shopping
And has buttered scones for tea.
He's a lumberjack, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
BARBER:
I cut down trees. I skip and jump.
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing
And hang around in bars.
MOUNTIES:
He cuts down trees. He skips and jumps.
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing
And hangs around in bars?!
He's a lumberjack, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
BARBER:
I cut down trees. I wear high heels,
Suspendies, and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie,
Just like my dear Papa.
MOUNTIES:
He cuts down trees. He wears high heels,
Suspendies, and a bra?!
[talking]
What's this? Wants to be a girlie?! Oh, My!
And I thought you were so rugged! Poofter!...
[singing]
He's a lumberjack, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
He's a lumberjack, and he's okaaaaay.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
March 29
The last grump
The legend Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins died this day March 29.
His legacy is so big, but
for me
he was mostly the Chevy small block
wizard.
The Smokey
Yunick of drag racing maybe? Even if Smokey
was on
a factory R&D
level, engine design - Grumpy for sure put
some
serious
R&D years into the Chevy engines too, for drag racing
purpose
only!
And had a whole life of winning success to show for it!
I would say he was more the Don Garlits of Pro Stock.
I met him once briefly in a restaurant in Gainesville Florida, but too
short for a personal description. Yes, he had a lot of grumpy sounds
and I guess that was what was expected in his role as himself?
"His continual search for improved performance left little
time for idle chatter with his racing colleagues."
There are lot of descriptions and stories about the legend Bill
"Grumpy" Jenkins everywhere on the net, Google him! Here is one:
wikipedia.org/Bill_Jenkins
Ten years ago Bill Jenkins came over and read the plugs in the
World record holder and event winning Autoshop Oldsmobile! That
certainly made Lennart "Bagarn" Bergqvist's day since it was well
known that
nobody could read plugs like Grumpy!
Good write up at NHRA why Grumpy was among drag racing's Top 10:
nhra.net/Bill_Jenkins
March 29
TBDGIT report
It was some time ago since I visited The Best Damn Garage In
Town
so I went there to see what was going on. And it was full of cars and
action! Patrick's Pro Mod Camaro looked ready to race but had been
pushed into a corner and replaced by a tank on wheels that Tommy
worked on, but not today, no, now everyone worked with these cars!
Aha! Sören "Fixarn" Fjällstedt was found under the 1961 Impala!
He was inspecting the welding work done by Tommy Aga (in red).
Filip Fjällstedt is learning every minute he is with daddy.
A 348 beautyfies the engine bay. Little sister to the 409. See, once
Chevy also had easy spark plug access like the Chrysler Hemi...
Sören do a lot of things helping people out in their business around
american cars, even import them. Now and then he hire good skilled
folks
like Tommy Aga and Patrick Wikström to overhaul the projects,
making them better and more prepared for the
critical
first
registration inspection in the new country.
The former owner of this 1961 Impala wanted to have that look of
an ol' drag car, even though it never ran the quartermile. Yet.
The Jenkins Competiton sticker in the earlier note above about
"Grumpy"
is from this Impala's front fender.
We like that Hurst shifter.
Clarksburg West Virginia. Do you know where it is?
The most beautiful part of the 1961 Impala is of course its rear deck!
Impala Rear Design School - Light version
The first Chevrolet Impala didn't have the greatest wings. Sören
"Fixarn"
Fjällstedt
and daughter Alice showed in June 2010 this
beautiful 1958 Impala they
just had imported from USA.
Here is where it all started, the classical 1959 Impala with the tailfins
that had a grip on the space dreams. "We gave it wings
and it
flew". This is from the release in London in 1958 where they
had matching glasses! More here
1960 came with the bent wings and separate tail lights.
See what I mean?
Next year 1962 it was more moderate and the wings were gone.
Straight and beautiful, like this specimen that is owned by the
infamous swedish criminals - The The Jönsson Gang!
In my opinion the rear of the 1965 is the most beautiful of all Impalas!
And on our 1996 Impala SS - the last of the real Impalas - you can
still see that feature that has
been there since the start - three
lights on both sides!
March 15
Recycling gone bad!
Shocking "Recycling" where
you'll find some of the most
exclusive
vehicles in the history of man,
just stacked upon each other in a
car dump! Shocking...and popular! Because it is the latest 3D art
made by my brother Sune, and you can buy it as a wall poster.
A detail.
The Photowall company have a page at Facebook and it got very
active when they released this poster "Recycling"...
www.facebook.com/photowall/SuneEnvall
This is how you can use the poster according to Photowall. You
can
order this poster and many another via their website:
www.photowall.se/designers/sune-envall
Also in Sune's hometown Västerås: www.grafobild.se
Signed edition in USA: Cruisin Goods, Longmont Colorado.
March 13
Planets aligning
Planets Jupiter and Venus almost in line! A wondrous experience.
No matter what we people are involved in, when the universe talks
to us, we listen. At least I did. And I can now better understand that
mankind always has read the sky for omens and I think this
must mean that it's time for the Blackout SS to
prevail!
March 9-10
Cool and cold record!
It was the classical contest on the flying kilometre – but on ice!
Michael Hernvall from Gothenburg surprised us all to show up on
the ice with his monster Buick Roadmaster with stroker 396!
Michael's story: "“A path of 3.2 km had been ploughed on the Orsa
Lake. One acceleration kilometer up to the 1 km
measurement
distance and then 1.2 km braking distance".
"My best average speed
was 203.5 km. The best entrance
speed
was
194 kmh and best end
speed 214.5 km
but it's the average
that counts. There was only one natural aspirated car that was faster
than my Roadmaster, who beat me with just 1.2 kmh! Annoying!
Best average speed
this year was
set
with a supercharged
4-wheel
driven Audi at 251 kmh".
TJOFF!
"It was wet and mushy, so it was pretty exciting to drive!
During the first run I had no control at all of RPM's or anything else!
All focus was on trying to keep the car from spin and slide. But it
was remarkable steady after all. The chatter of ice and water
blasting underneat
the car was dominating! And I felt quite
strong
braking when running into the ponds!"
"People were very impressed by the fact that such a large station
wagon could move as it did. I ran rallye tires, 205/15 back and 145/16
front full with spikes! It turned out to work pretty well. I also had a set
of real ice racing tires, but I never got the time to test those, which
I believe had bettered the performance. Next year!"
"Best performance so far at the Orsa Lake is clocked in 2010 by a
Suzuki
Hayabusa turbo with an average of 286.5 kmh! The final
velocity was 340 kmh with 425 hp on the rear wheel!
Kind of
masculine thing to do, to ride a bike on ice at over 300 kmh!
Nothing I'm looking for, I'm sitting comfortable in the Roadmaster!"
I think this was the third success year in a row? Check it out:
www.landracing.se/
March 1
Back to the Future!
At last! The full TV-hour from Drag Festival 1991 is re-mastered and
put
on DVD - by public demand from people who once saw it and
recorded it on VHS - which today is out of work. It still get a lot of
praise which of course makes me happy as the director for it! :-)
Send your order and address to dragster@vingaland.se and you'll
get the DVD in you mailbox with an invoice of 200 SEK.
February 11 - 17
Time for Stockholm
We went to Stockholm for a vacation. Our captial city,
and
the most
beautiful city in all of Sweden. Even in the winter. It was a week of
Swedish history, music, museums, restaurants, relatives, legends...
We said that we should approach Stockholm as any other big city
like Copenhagen, Rome and London. And not rely on people we
know,
not staying with relatives, just discover it like tourists.
Axel and Agneta had not even been inside Stockholm before.
It was a lot of laughters! We visited "a-museum-a-day" and we
began
at the Vasa Museum which alone was worth the trip across
Sweden.
I would like to spend at least one more day there!
New restaurants everyday. That is real vacationing. This was at
the
Ulla Winbladh Inn in
Djurgården.
Ulla was a tavern prostitute in
Carl-Micael Bellman songs.
It was nice with a round of relatives that we usually do not meet
too often, like the twins Hugo and Albin Envall in Täby! Their parents
are
Erik and
Jossan Envall and Erik is a cousin to Axel.
We got a little time over to visit the legend Raymond Blixt in his
workshop Alexandra Engineering in the Alexandra garaget on the
southside of Stockholm. He was the last magician working on my
4L80E transmission in the Impala SS. We saw many of his
machines in this clean and orderly shop and he also showed this
special "thing"
for drag racing Powerglides
which
he and "Tucken"
from Danielssons Bil has constructed.
More of all this when the Stockholm adventure finally is done
on the Vacation page so keep you eyes open.
February 7
Busy busy busy...
But it's fun fun fun! We're producing a lot of films
at Vingaland
Film
nowadays.
More than ever. All of us are very busy.
For a brief moment I was
involved in seven projects in different stages!
Luckily I came
out of it
unhurt. And it should explain why the activity
was
low in updating
this
site during this period.
And it should explain the low activity in the
garage...poor SS!
Above Fobbe is filming with a DSLR camera
which is what you use
today, with best "bang for the buck" with exceptional picture quality.
Gone are the betacam design
systems, even those recording
on cards and discs.
Recording on tape disappeared 3-4 years ago.
All shootings are special and have their own problems and solutions.
Like
hiding the microphone on actors in IKEA uniforms.
To hide the bug behind the name badge was a new one.
Malena Alfgården helped Tina Glenvik to put on the badge by
puncture a hole for the microphone cable.
With a sender and a receiver the trick was complete.
Malena is a professional make up artist who brings her wagon
and
always makes
everyone look good in our productions. Malena
is often involved in big TV-shows like the recent
Melodifestivalen
and the most famous face she has worked
with was Al Gore's.
February 6
Axel 14
Axel invited the whole tribe to his 14th birthday party. And promised
to
help out with everything that needed to get fixed.
Axel also made his own wishing of the party menu - hot dogs and
pommes
frites.
And it should be home made pommes so he had to
peel a lot of potatoes. I helped him with this "punishment"...
...and we talked about potato peeling as a classic punishment in
films.
This must the first example from 1928? But we have seen
Chaplin,
Buster Keaton,
Laurel &
Hardy, Marx Brothers and the
swedish
actor Nils Poppe and other unfortune souls doing this
purnishment
on boats or in the military.
This is a much more fun step in the process - the pommes cutter!
Years ago Axel's uncle Sune came up with this idea of pommes
frites! Stars'n'strips - which would need a special cutter which was
where the design really
took place, and it is also why it needed to be
a six-point star instead of a five-point, it was a question of symmetry
in fabricating the tool. For you who read all this way should know
that this design, beside being fun, is also a way of fritter the strips
quicker since the fry area of the strip is far greater. Ask McDonald's
what they think about
Time? Sune never did, he have a constant
stream of ideas and no time to market them, so he just went on.
Sune is a full time designer and illustrator in his own company but
sometimes he just needs to play like with the picture above, which
is his idea of how Ignatius J Reilly's hot dog wagon looked
like in
our common
favourite book A Confederacy of Dunces
The frier was working overtime! But the pommes frites were the best
we've ever had!
It was not so much of a winter on the February 6th but it was cold
enough to kill a tulip.
Some of the Envall and Rooth families gathered, like Italians.
And everyone enjoyed the freshly made pommes frites and all the
fancy
kinds
of hot dogs handpicked by Axel and his mom Agneta.
Cheers to Axel! And congratulations!
Also on his wishing list - the icecream dessert. And those rasberries
definately tasted summer!
February 4
News from the North
Kent have started to work on his Gentle Giant SS for the season '12.
Oil cooler was moved from the place in between the intercooler and
the radiator, to this
place
behind the fender, to get full cooling area
on the intercooler and radiator. Because
too hot intake air and hot
water
is a greater problem than too hot automatic oil.
The new Cheetah shifter in the SS had Kent to
fabricate a new cover
plate that was covered with this carbon fiber tape... And where do
you think you can buy it? www.Hot Rod Heaven
...and it turned out to look this great!
There were more scratchy places that got the tape.
BTW, this is how Kent made room for that long, bending shifter cable.
Took away a little out the plastic walls in the middle glove
department between
the seats.
January 28
Bilsport 50 years party!
It was a giant party for 500 people that were invited to Älvsjömässan
to celebrate this magazine. It started in 1962 but got into bad sales
until Stig Sjöberg and Anders Albinsson bought it in 1975. And I was
aboard from 1980 to 1988 with photographer Chris Condor before we
started our own career in commercial filming with Broadcasters AB,
an idea which indeed was initiated by Stig Sjöberg! But neither
he or we could foresee
that film would demand all our working time!
The 80's was the hottest decade for Bilsport said Stig. We agree.
One of the motorsports legends that came to celebrate Stig & Co was
the
Formula 1 driver Reine Wisell who flew in from Thailand where
he lives during winters. When Reine's old F1 friend Ronnie Peterson
died in the
crash in 1978 the public interest for motorsport and
the
Bilsport magazine
just went downhill.
Stig and Anders saved the magazine by doing
articles about
the
readers and their cars instead. It became an unsurpassed success!
Bilsport said "Will such a great group of Swedish motorsport legends
and celebrities ever meet in one place again? Probably not"
The funniest woman in Sweden - Sissela Kyle - was the co-presenter
together
with Bilsport's Mikael Johansson who also was very
professional on stage.
She was funny all evening, on the theme that she couldn't care less
about cars and motorsport.
When Pro Stock driver Jimmy Ålund was
receiving the Senior Driver of the Year-award she said to
him
"...and the rumour saying that all dragracers wear ladies
underwear
isn't at all correct...right?!"
LaGaylia Frazier sang beautifully! This evening was complete. You
could wrap it together and sell the concept to a TV station. We have
already popular The Sports Gala and The Football Gala in Swedish
national
TV. Well here is The Motorsports Gala! Pack it, sell it!
Standning ovations for World famous Erik "Karlsson på Taket"
Carlsson who made SAAB wellknown internationally thanks to
fantastic performances in foreign rallyes in the 60's! He recieved
Bilsport Special
Award from Stig and was touched.
When mingling with Erik he said he remembered me from when we
met
in
Anderstorp 1978 at the Formula 1 Grand Prix race where
I was
working together with my brothers Sune and Björn doing
some SAAB marketing
work around Ronnie Peterson
and the
race itself.
Erik know Björn better
since they both worked for SAAB.
I got to meet more world famous
racers at this party, like Stig
Blomqvist who
also is a SAAB person but
a World Rally
Champ in
1984 in a Audi Quattro. This Stig
must've
also been the
igniting idea
for Top Gear's "The Stig"!
I also met Reine Wisell and
many others. It was too little mingling
time
because I also saw over there Kenny Bräck, Per
Eklund...
and also
many, many colleagues of course.
Oh what a party! It should have been two days!
I also saw these famous people, Lena Perés and her man Mats
Eriksson who was the first into 5's in European Pro Mod and also the
European
Champion in Pro Mod in 2009. And still at the front in
his Crown Victoria "Green Goblin"!
There were a lot of drag racers here of course!
Former colleaugue Bo Porshed, photographer for Bilsport in a deep
discussion with wellknown drag racing event speaker Björn Sundqvist.
Entertainer together with LaGaylia Frazier. And straight from "Ladies
night"
came Marcus Stenmarck who every
woman likes in Sweden.
When he
finally presented an Elvis Presley special at
the end of the
show...also every man liked him! It was a good groove!
Another great cheer came when surprised Åsa Kinnemar (right) had
to climb the stage to recieve the award for The Autosports Woman
of The Year! Of course because of the extensive work she do for
European drag racing
as the
only employed at Speedgroup, and
often with much help from some friends, like Aila Striem.
January 29
On my way home I saw this speciality from a Germany! A trailer that
are legal for 100 kmh (in Germany) and could at least take two
Mercedes like this one from 1962 that obviously had been
here for
a paintjob. This is a trailer worthy the 2 tonnes Impala SS!
BTW,
I've also owned a 1962 Mercedes but the other
model,
the one with fins.
January 21
Jack Frost says Hello
A perfect winter until this date. With little or no snow and temperature
above 0 degrees centigrade! But this day it all
broke loose!
It's fun to save on this website all these dates so we always can
come
back to see the when it happened - the
year's first snow,
first crash, first spring flower etc.
I went out for a spin (literally) in the middle of the day. I shouldn't
have because no one in Gothenburg is ever prepared for a
weather
like this! And that includes even me nowadays - the original
Northlander from Umeå grown up in a igloo eating snow (white!) and
all that!
There's too little training on
slippery surface here
in the
south,
it's only the runs with
the Impala
SS.
The above situation was on the top of a slope where a commuter bus
couldn't climb all the way over to the downward slope so he got stuck
sideways on the top! The two cars on the left have just done an U-turn
and I did too after this picture. It was summer surface the day before!
Couldn't get home for hours, so I
had to wait at a Burger King.
So this weather makes you fat too!
January 13
Kim and Åsa's treasury
Kim Svensson, shot here in a hard-to-get picture between his wife
Åsa's 1955
Thunderbird and
his own 1967 Corvette which makes a
fantastic duo
in his
garage in Halland! Kim is working for IKEA
as a
project leader
(and
a designer on the side!) and
that
is
how we
met,
since Vingaland
is making films
for IKEA. And on my way
home to
Gothenburg
after a meeting
he promised to show
his
treasury...
The '23 bathtub is aimed for street driving! Wheelie
bars
can come in handy...
It says 427 and is from the Corvette, but a 540 is on it's way... :-)
Two Harleys...Åsa's to the left is a (nearly) 2 Liter S&S 111" and
Kim's is a S&S 124" with more than 2 Litre.
In another garage of his I found two more on-going projects. Åsa's
Ford '41 pick up has a
Mickey Mouse-headed Chevy 350.
The 5-window Ford '31 is Kim's.
Widening of the fenders.
And some good sectioning.
I opened another door and there were even more garage! And cars!
I want a garage like this where
I could do 60-foot test runs indoors!
Thanks for the drool visit Kim!
January 12
Watch Super 8 history
Look what I found! The Super-8 film Kent Edin and I made from
the streetrace in Umeå in 1981.
Whiplash vs. Tore's Valiant with 327 Chevy. Real, legal streetcars.
The race wasn't legal of course as we were always chased by
the
law even if we never did disturb the general public. We wanted to
have our yearly competion done with as little friction as possible.
And we always managed to finalize our ladder, on different
locations
if necessary
but on the same night.
- If they confiscate that camera the sheriff will say
"I recognize
that mug all right!"
Birgitta and late Lennart "Bagarn" Bergqvist were always around and
these were the years when they founded their companies Verkstan
and Autoshop - which in Orlando became Autoshop Racing Engines.
Always serious 16-car ladders. Drivers back then put in 50 SEK
(300
today?)
and their names were drawn in a hat. This film follows
it
thoroughly. Today I also put music to the film, tunes which are
from 1981 or earlier, just to increase the nostalgic feeling.
Winner takes it all.
When this film was released on Facebook and Youtube, Chris Condor
saw this on the internet tabloid Aftonbladet! This bad language
makes it
very believeable...
"Like a wildfire on the net - insane duels in horror
speed the shock"
"Bagarn" won the first race of the T-shirt back in 1978!
More from this period of Whiplash racing here >WHIPLASH
The film from 1981? Well it is here Blackout Channel on Youtube Enjoy!
January 2
The Third Dimension
Remember the GoPro 3D camera rig I had mounted during the
Sweden Internationals at Tierp Arena? Well, now it's time to
have a look since we bought a 3D TV a couple of days ago...
(December 30, 2011)
Yes it a bit blurry on the screen when you haven't the 3D-glasses on.
The same
glasses you use at the cinemas. Fun for the family in the
sofa
to follow me
here in the Blackout SS in a round at Tierp Arena,
from pit to pit. Yes, the sound IS
terrible! Wonderfully terrible!
I also filmed a lot at the cottage where Axel took the boat to the lake
with the fourwheeler. Yes, of course I made sure that the rig would
go wide, close
into the trees. :-)
Filmed in the boat as well. No fish was landed but other fun stuff
happened. I dropped the oarlock into the water... (June 25, 2011)
December 31
We wish you All a
Happy New Year!
The last day of 2011 started out as a silent beautiful day
and
changed
to the opposite at midnight! Quite a spectacle! Every year.
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