Have
you clicked your REFRESH button? Do it, I'll wait!
When Tog at eurodragster.com asked about my plans for
European Finals I managed to give laser sharp predictions
and back them up - for once! =) Click it to read it.
The Battle of Britain! We came by air and sea! Some Americans surrounded Santa
Pod and made their
surprising move from Dublin, Ireland. Main attack was from the North Sea where
a tank was put ashore
at Immingham in the dark night, was stopped by the best of Britain for a while,
but could continue at
sunrise. Troop was split in two in order to mislead...ourselves! No one could
ever catch Jonas on his
confusing stealth mission. We had total radio silence because of Jonas' pre-historic
mobile phone...
When camp was secured at target we got back-up by air from Gothenburg. Plan
was completed.
Click map for bigger version! Thanks Google!
MONDAY - SEPT 4
Wonder solvent Rain Off applied onto the windscreen before lift off. Because
wiper motor is more like an
ex-motor after the under hood fire last year! Haven't had the time to fix
that yet. Now more important
things are waiting. Like trying to drive to England, set my records, and drive
back. Same goal every
year...will it work this time? To add some pressure, my fellow Americans Stumpy,
Celeste and Karl
came over to follow us through this adventure.
What a relief it was for me to finally be aboard the ferry! The dock is just
a couple of miles from our
garage, but remember, last year we didn't even make it to the ferry, which
was a terrible experience!
This time we chose to travel with a transport ferry to shorten the drive in
England. At least one way. So
we parked with big trucks and containers. No bars, restaurants, shopping,
casinos or dancing. Perfect.
First part of the journey was smooth. Slept well in a good bed. However, all
aboard woke up around 6
in the morning when our bodies flew up from the bed. Giant waves at North
Sea! I thought of the SS
which wasn't tied to the floor, then I thought of last year's ship going to
Panama...
Then I fell asleep. But Jonas went up to get this picture. A long day at sea
is ahead.
TUESDAY - SEPT 5
We were like 10 dragracers on the way to Santa Pod: Micke Gullqvist Pro Mod
and a 9.50 bike team
from Skåne and two russian truckers. The food was very good and you
could also make your own
sandwiches and drink coffee, tea, lemonades, all you could eat and drink around
the clock. And we
did. In the lounge you could watch satellite TV or the latest films on DVD.
We saw Swedish TV all
the way to Immingham! It's a long trip, around 27 hours, so sometimes you
just went to bed for a nap.
We arrived late, just before midnight and Jonas passed the gate without any
problems but UK Customs
put the car with BOSTIC-plates on hold without any explanation! And their
Customs office was of course
closed hours ago so they had the kind harbour workers at the gate to do the
dirty work! We called Jonas
and said that he should get to a hotel for some sleep. We were furious! We
were supposed to drive for a
couple of hours down the M1 and have a hotel closer to Santa Pod - because
tomorrow Wednesday
is Press Day and besides a lot of test runs I had promised to take both Tog
and Sharkman of
eurodragster.com for a comfy ride down the strip! Now, at this late night,
I saw all of that gone!
We met many friendly dock truckers working night shifts. This guy even gave
Karl a good road map of
Britain which became a dear souvenir for the Maryland adventurer. Time to
sleep in the comfortable
Impala SS seats. It looks like Karl has done this before, doesn't it?
WEDNESDAY - SEPT 6
Hotel SS at sunrise. Not much of sleep actually. It's time to call the UK
Customs office at 07.30 to ask
them what the ****? They wanted to talk to "The American"! Aha,
and then they asked him the same
bloody immigration questions that he already had answered in written three
weeks ago when we bought
the tickets! A 3 minute phone call and then we were released into UK! I personally
like the idea of
checking people nowadays, but ONCE is enough! And have staff working 24 hours
if you stop people
24 hours! I'm still angry! You can't fight terrorism with bureaucracy! However,
I'm glad Karl answered
politely on every question: "Yes, Sir" "No, Sir" "It's
a hobby...a thing you can do, Sir". I suppose
they're not used to see americans coming by sea on transport ferries from
Sweden on vacations?
Basement'n'breakfast! Jonas slept here in the laundry room in the basement
of a hotel which didn't have
any rooms left. The owner felt sorry for Jonas since he didn't find any vacancies
in Immingham in the
middle of the night. And he also got wake up service and breakfast. All for
free! Thanks
Mr Unknown Hotel Owner! One day we'll make a reservation, if only Jonas remembers
where it was...
Now we're in a great hurry down the M1. If lucky we may have a chance to have
at least one run today!?
SS runs like 90 - 120 kmh on 2000 - 2500 RPM, 40-50 PSI oil pressure, 2,8
- 3,2 BAR of fuel pressure
and water temp at steady 100° C with both Meziere and Stewart pumps running.
Sounds like GRRRR!
"We have ECIRS t-shirts, half a pack of cigarettes, full tank
and a mission from all SS-lovers!"
Good to have Senior Chief Controller Karl Ellwein from the Impala
SS Dynamic ET List in the passenger
seat, not only to read the souvenir map, check water temp and see
that Blackout SS really is a road car,
but he's a also a very nice person and friend! I wish he always was around.
That ET List, by the way,
is what I've been racing on for years. It's extremely well built where you
- with a click - can list all these
B-bodies after ET, speed, 60 foot, tranny, heads, gears and so on. Please
visit.
(This
is what the list looked like after this Santa Pod race in September 2006 -
Note: not active)
A dominant part of our lives today is the phone messaging. It's both good
and bad. I sent Tog and Sharky
SMS that told them that I'll be too late to be able to take them for a ride.
Tog answered as usual with a
line from Fawlty Towers so we could laugh! Sharkman sent the secret code for
Ardbeg whiskey. Friends
that have been involved for a long time were asking about the trip. And good
info from My Wife when she
said the new Gates belts have arrived from USA. Tommy will bring them tomorrow
Thursday eve.
But Jonas' old phone' account went out early and he also took another route
with the Dodge so we had
no contact with him at all. Hope he finds his way...?
Finally at the gates of Santa Pod! Jonas was already here!? Now we had about
an hour to get the SS
ready and line up to get a run before Wednesday's Press Day was called off!
Find a spot, unload, jack
the car up, off with street wheels, on with race wheels. Mount the Gates GT2
supercharger belt and
crank support, change the connection for the fuel lines and fuel pumps. More?
Eh...where is my
race clothes and helmet?
The Last Battlefield, Santa Pod. Most important here was to manoeuver through
the many many enemy
camps that were loaded with the biggest guns you ever saw, and set up the
Blackout camp right in the
middle amongst them. Just look like them, talk like them and you probably
will get by! We did.
Click map for a more interesting version! Thanks Google!
Totally stressed, tired, hungry and still angry at UK Customs we managed to
enter the line up just in time
to make one run! Then it hits me that we - in the great hallabaloo - have
forgotten to adjust the computer
box for the 4L80E trans! It still thinks we have 26" rear tires while
we now have 29"! And the lockup will
go into action already at 50 MPH instead of 120 MPH! We quickly connected
the lap top to the box to
change it, but found out that the cable was broken!! Can't log either then.
We decided to run anyway.
Burnout was just like home, outside the garage. Gears 1-2-3 in a second, rear
tires spinning
at 140 MPH...of course they smoke! Fun!
First real launch with the new 4-link rear end was terrific! 10" slicks
had 1.2 Bars of pressure and all
was set like we had tested at home. First 60 foot was 1.48 seconds! We didn't
touch things all race.
I felt it was quick. I knew that it was the best ever, even though the lockup
came in ridiculously early!
I felt SOOO GOOD during braking and driving on the return road...where I got
to know the time in my
phone! What a relief after all these years! Now we can work to get into the
nines!
First scrutineering on wednesday evening, I rolled in directly after my pass!
This English gentleman who
has seen so many cars gave the Blackout SS the OK! Especially the well designed
roll cage! =)
And when I could mess my friends and tell them that I had reached No 4 on
the Dynamic Impala SS
List on my first run,
the phone just went crazy! Here are some of the comments... Cheers! =)
Prior to this Karl Ellwein was No 4 on the list with 10.136 so I passed him
with 2 thousand's of a
second! But he was still happy, because also he knew it wouldn't stop here.
Camp could finally be built. Pit neighbours and Sharky helped out. Then a
drink to salute Rob Roy!
It was time to open Sharky's Ardbeg bottle - "The Good Shit" Thanks
Sharky!
Paul Somerville, Master Mechanic on the Super Comp # 1 car of Chris Johnson,
as well as one
of the
very best drag racing strategists in England, came by and took our broken
cable and went to solder it.
Thanks Paul! Also note that little finger of a beer drinking professional.
That bottle will not slip away.
Paul is also Lauren's daddy, both Lauren and Axel go to school during weekdays
but will meet here
again at Santa pod over the weekend.
THURSDAY
- SEPT 7
Now we have adjusted the values in the tranny
computer box. No other changes from
the 10.13 sec run
yesterday. We were confident that it should give a 9 second run. And
we're logging the run by the FAST.
This is 1st Qualification Round for Pro ET
HEYBABERIBA! First 9-second run for Blackout SS!
It
was so lovely to recieve this time slip and to mess my friends another round
of good news. Some
already knew because they had read Hawkeye's quick up-dates on Pit Lane and
the on-line coverage at
eurodragster.com of course! But, running under your Dial-In (9.91 to 10.05)
doesn't get you in the races.
Karl and Jonas wrote new Dial-In at 9.88. I erased and said why not 9.84 then,
since that's one of my
goals anyway - to be quicker than my 9.85 second Whiplash Camaro which I raced
back in 1985.
It's time for 2nd Qualification Round for Pro ET
"OK you bastids! It's me again! Now I'll kill
this track!!!"
Ouff! Gahh! 60 foot: 1.41!!!
Track is getting better and better!
1. Quickest street Impala SS in The World! A goal.
2. Quicker than my Whiplash Camaro! A goal.
3. Only 0.004 over my Dial-In! 2nd Qualifier at this moment! A bonus.
What we always said we were going for...CHEERS!
With
shaky hands I tried to read the timeslip...and then mess the facts.
Fonzie thinks "Perfect!" Karl thinks
"We'll cut and rework your Einstein hair style any minute"
Give me an S, another S - what's that? SS! What? SS! Can't here you! SS!
Seeing is believing!
Right Click - "Save Target As"
3rd
Qualification Round for ProET (our 4th run including that one on Press Day).
Mr Al Holt and Mr Paul
monitor the burnout and show me the best track to stage. Mr Ellwein is filming.
Mr Bolero just plays
with his 1000 hp toy! Not much sleep between rounds when there are 4 a day!
(All Thursday is Sports-
man classes only). We haven't done any major adjustments this far, we just
wanted to know where all
this finally would land - and then go from there, compare all FAST logs, watch
the videos and things.
 |
10.12
@ 135 mph |
At
last, Celeste and Stumpy joined our team again Thursday afternoon after a
short vacation in Ireland!
But I think Stumpy was angry that he just missed the 9.84 run, and he didn't
get much happier when
we said we were going to skip last run of the day too! Sorry Stumpy! Please
click on them to see their
Irish adventure in two pictures! Jonas was often reading the
NGK TR6 spark plugs for signs of over
heating or detonations but it looked good. We never changed to colder spark
plugs.
That beer cooler came to good use every day.
Top Fuel Thore's Slack Rollers in Nylon. Made just before we drove here! Reduces
belt slack when I'm
off the pedal. At idle it's a 6 mm clearance between belt and roller. But
as you can see it has been
working hard. The GT2 belt has even got some nylon melted to its outer surface!
Now we also have
got these new Gates belts (that don't exist on the market yet) to test for
Gates Corporation USA.
Whatever happens to them during the races I've promised to send them back
to their lab with full
story. But we'll drive one more run with the existing belt since the rollers
seem to work so good.
Karl had already in 2004 - when he and Stumpy came over the first time - found
the favourite stand for
good fast food. So we took a stroll down closer to the start area and had
a Cornish Pasty, and yes
it was very good! But still I was longing for Friday eve when Agneta and Axel
should arrive, because I
knew Agneta would take care of us with good food around the clock and good
service! She's like that!
Certainly we had to walk to all our friends and tell the good 9-second news.
Jöran Persåker was happy
to hear about it, but he already knew. Everybody already knew. =) Jöran
wasn't racing his Top Fueler
at this race but was up to better his European record in his twin turbo Super
Pro ET Trans Am.
Sorry, but he ballooned the oil tray later...
Already here on the evening of September 7th we understood that something
was wrong with Mother
Earth, giving us these summer evenings! We can worry, but never complain.
It was nice to see Jonas calm down a little during the evening. Prior
to this race we've talked about these
ET's and speeds in the TBDGIT for a couple of months (with a lot of laughter)
and finally both his and my
goals were achieved. It was a wonderful evening because I now knew he could
deliver and he also knew
I could. And also Lennart "Bagarn" at Autoshop Racing Engines had
delivered what he once promised,
1000+ hp. Everyone delivered on the same day! And a giant pallet of bricks
fell off our chests. Cheers!
Our rented 6 bed caravan was more comfy to sleep in than the SS. Karl Ellwein
is a dream member in
any team. He fixes everything everywhere. Solves problems before they even
become problems. He
jacked up that SS after every run, even if we didn't need to get under it.
"No problem, it's my gym!"
FRIDAY
- SEPT 8
Good
Morning you beautiful, sunny and warm English Friday morning! Let's play a
little!
5th Qualification Round!
Haha! I'm the King of power! LOOK at all my smoke! No?
What?! What the hell are you waving about and what the hell do you mean with
"back off"!? I just came!
Aha, the old belt broke, OK sorry...#@£&[€%...
The New "secret" Gates belt mounted in a hurry! HA! Now let's see
what happens!? Santa Pod had a
WW2 historical birthday and we saw a lot of well known airplanes doing fly
by's.
With
our .004 over Dial-In we first qualified
# 2 in Pro ET - the largest and toughest class in UK and of
the European Finals with some 46 participants. However, we dropped on the
list as qualifications went
on. On this end-of-Thursday list above we stopped at 7th spot. Then came our
friend Carla Pittau (with
Rick) in their red Heaven & Hell Camaro and made some adjustments on the
list on Friday with a .003
and bumped us to # 8! Even more impressing if you know that they just had
a bit of Hell when they had
to go home to London and change motors since their first choice broke on Wednesday!
Now they came
back to get a slice of Heaven as well. We bowed, and smiled as we got bumped
by Carla. Click list
to read the details. Note that bump spot is .069 from Dial-in
already after first day of Qualifying!
(And when Qualifications were over on Saturday the bump was .03 something!
How tight is that?)
We could update the Impala
SS Dynamic ET List from our pit. I was able to connect to the internet
via
my mobile phone and Karl is one of the webmasters of that site.
(Note: shown list is from this afternoon!)
We
had one more chance on Friday afternoon -
6th Qualification Round. There are only two runs on
Fridays since all the Pro-classes are beginning to qualify as well. New belt
worked just fine and didn't
even look used after this run which was 9.98 @ 136 mph. Another nine, just
barely. A nine to look
sad about =) We're still working on the uneven fuel pressure readings and
experimenting with different
shift points in the TCI 4L80E trans. Maybe there is a connection between the
two issues?
Santa Pod has always been good in T-shirt sales and even better now when the
9's are coming. They're
actually soon out of stock, some sizes already are! Lars-Inge Johansson and
Ann-Sofie visited us.
Lars-Inge was puzzled by the electronic systems we use today in cars. Almost
as puzzled as ourselves...
Jonas compares the runs in the FAST logs since we now got a couple of look-a-likes.
We see the RPM
dive a little in 1:st gear and we're going too long in 1:st gear, more than
4 seconds, while only 2
seconds in 2:nd gear. We'll turn up the fuel pressure regulator and set a
lower RPM shift point for shift
to second gear. A luxury for me, to actually be at the track again but also
to begin tuning!
It was especially interesting when Sweden's most experienced
drag racing driver, Top Fuel pilot Susanne
Callin, visited our pit and I could explain to her how important it is to
carefully watch the PSI-gauge!
She was very interested I think.
We had a good pit atmosphere. Many friends and fans showed
up to say congratulations and to have a
share of our happiness. The Callin Top Fuel Team with Susanne, Gordon and
Linda was all smiles.
Karl and Stumpy loved to be around and we loved to have
them around. And we loved to meet sweet
Lauren again and she came over because she knew her Swedish boyfriend Axel
had arrived late Friday,
and they gave each other small gifts. We were also very glad that Agneta finally
was here to get some
order in the pit with beds, food and everything. Karl was actually so happy
for that, he bought flowers
and of course he got treated well after that. All of us were.
Basicly this is what drag racing is all about - Friends,
Smiles, Love, Food, Drinks and Flowers. Isn't it?
And cakes!
Paul surprised us with a Blackout picture cake! "In The Nines" it
said! Hahahaa! What an idea! Thanks!
We decided to save that cake to Saturday evening and our final party! Agneta
also brought (as
a hand
luggage on the Ryan Air plane) a Princess cake from Nöjds
Konditori in Gothenburg so we could
celebrate. Princess cake is a Swedish specialty, and can also be found at
the Swedish Food Market
in IKEA stores around the world.
SATURDAY - SEPT 9
Good
Morning at 0700 hours! Ahh, hot coffee, cold orange juice and cheese sandwiches!
What a good
start of the day! And a big improvement in our team at this point, even though
Karl so far had been
saving our spirits by running down to the coffee shop and deliver good coffee.
But this is breakfast.
First
run Saturday, one Qualifying round to go - 6th
Qualification Round! Our experimenting in shortening
the time in first gear went too good, it shifted to second gear in less than
a second! It also resulted in
our worst ET of the meet: 10.38 @ 130 mph. Keith Herbert to the left was much
closer to his Dial-In.
Keith
from
Uxbridge in UK was one of our pit neighbors, this
is his groovy 440 ci Plymouth Sport Fury
from 1964 (1965?) named "Mr Furyous" His Dial-In was in the 11.40's.
Keith lasted 1st round.
Sharkman was hiding in the grass at the top end - to gather some Top End Tales!
Also used his Canon
EOS 20D to take paparazzi shots like this one of me on the return road checking
temperatures.
After this, no more time for experimenting. Next run will be Elimination Round
No 1 so back to basics
with all adjustments, back to where it was at the 9.84.
Make no mistake about it! Antony Wilkins from Bedfordshire UK hit a 0.000
on his 11.05 Dial-In with
his 468-powered 55 Chevy. And 118 MPH. But he didn't survive 1st round.
Both our closest pit neighbours had the misfortune of not managing to qualify!
Who can blame them with
the bump at 0.03 in a 32 car ladder with 46 contenders! You always want your
closest neigbours to
succeed as far as possible ('til they meet you). The atmosphere is better
then. Hope to see us all well
qualified next year, Nigel Green in his 11.4 second beetle (an
Axel's favourite) powered by a juiced
2165 cc and Jason Weir in his cool Chevy Suburban going 9.4's with a 540 ci.
Both these teams had
their big families here so we were like an Italian community far up there
in the Pro ET pit.
Look what Sharkman from eurodragster.com brought to you Axel! "Wow! Where
is he?" He's working...
It's warm up procedure before Elimination Round 1, Karl monitors everything.
Sounds good.
It is very important that you check that all your safety equipment is in a
flawless condition and in the
right place before the race. Like the neck collar.
Eliminations
Round No 1
Ey! Wait a minute! Am I gonna race that...that...Funny Car with the name "Rampage"!?
Give me a break!
Pro ET is a fantastic class with many types of cars, dragsters too! A bracket
of 9.00 - 11.99 seconds.
Qual. 24 - Dave Ward, Banbury UK. Monza Funny Car 500
ci. Running 9,4's steady. Dial In: 9.38
vs.
Qual. 8 - Anders Envall, Gothenburg Swe. Streetdriven Impala SS 396 ci. Unsteady
9's. Dial In: 9.90
Last minute change of Dial-In. It was 9.79 rolling in here, but we quickly
erased that 7 so it became
9.90 (Thanks Paul!) Both Mr Al Holt and Paul assisting. Both said "Please
make a normal burnout
now!" But I was more thinking like: "Yea, but look at all these
people! Wow! And Bilsport's photo-
journalist Stefan Boman too! And over there's Sharkman! Must give them some
extra smoke! There
are many Swedish drag race fans out there now, and this may be my last run
here...so here comes"
.
.
Karl has started the FAST data logger on the back seat floor and gives the
GO to Mr Al Holt. I now have
59 second to reach the finish line to get it all logged, then the logging
stops. Mr Al Holt shows me it's
time to Pre Stage. OK, now take it very slow and easy...very shallow stage...and
no red light! NO RED!
BAAH! The worst start of my life! 0.147 in reaction time! And Dave was bad
too, but better: 0.109, so
congratulations
Dave! I lost it right here even if it was only .0551
separating us at the finish! Very
strange, I had a feeling right at the start that I was redlighting, I really
thought I made a super start!?
Well, we had "planned" long time ago not to expect to last 1st round
anyway, if we would Qualify at all!
Click it to see a biggie!
The 7th and last timeslip at least gave us the highest Blackout SS trap speed
of the race: 138.02 MPH.
And interested people were still gathering around us. I think Karl really
enjoyed being the guide for
everyone and answering all Impala SS-questions and he's good at it as well.
Driver got a cold beer!
Filmed by Dutch fan "j-stingray" at the 1/8 mile light. Right Click
- "Save Target As" to watch it!
At
least I now had some extra time to be with my son Axel and he really wanted
to take a tour through
the pits at Santa Pod and do things that HE thought was interesting. We didn't
get close to Sharky,
Tog or Simon at eurodragster.com to thank them for the remote controlled gift,
but we saw a lot of
Junior Dragsters and talked about them and we visited Axel's All Time Favourite
Jöran Persåker whom
Axel has met at different drag strips almost his whole life. And Jöran
let Axel sit in it and he explained
all things inside his Trans Am. Jöran truly remembers how it was being
a kid. Thanks!
And look here! Brian Patemans 1968 Firebird! A flashback from Doorslammer
Nationals in 1984 when he
was here racing me in Whiplash in this same car! It was nice to have a small
chat with Brian and he
said he
has been racing this car for 25 years, more or less every year! Of course
the Pontiac has been
developed over the years and he is now racing in Super Comp. But it also says
Super Gas in the rear
window...hmm...is that a trick to get more test runs over the day? Smart.
I'll do SG next year too!
So it was time to cut the cake and to celebrate the whole adventure! The Somerville
family who gave the
cake were late visitors but at least 4 year old Scot got a piece. He's as
sweet as his older sister Lauren!
Karl's last picture. It's late and the Americans need to go to bed because
they must wake up soon to
go to the airport for their flight to Rome and Capri. Yes their vacation continues!
And there were
fireworks and there were Firestormers! "Jet Girl" Helen and her
pilot Roger Goring came over to say
hello in nice t-shirts and with lots of cookies. It was also Roger's 25'th
birthday! Congratulations!
Congratulations also to Firestormer's new personal best ET of 6.212 @ 254.28
MPH! Even though their
speed record is 258.96 MPH set at Shakespear County Raceway in June. It won't
stop here, I know...
SUNDAY
- SEPT 10
Good
morning again! This time fried potatoes! Mmm! Then came the Callins again
and gave me a hat
they had custom ordered to me that says "I am Bostic" which the
lady in the background always has
to hear from me lovingly when I'm out of arguments in any discussion. =) Fun!
Thanks!
When
time to convert the SS for road driving again Axel was first in line to help!
(No, it's not me telling
him, it's him BEGGING for it!) He's really good to unscrew the crank support
and the wheels. Then he
and Agneta had to drive back to Stansted to catch the flight back to Gothenburg.
Kisses and hugs to
both of you for all the help! Now take a look at some other drag racing at
the European Finals!
One
of the wildest and best engineered rides we've seen! Andy
Frost's Vauxhall with twin turbo blown
572"! Look at that intercooler! With more than 2000 HP he was running
7,8's @ 183's through mufflers
and on street tires! Andy competed in Competition Eliminator (which strangely
is a very small class here
with only a handful competitors). But it's really built for Street
Eliminator UK which is Europe's premier
street legal drag racing class. Click on Mr Al Holt's pic of engine to see
a biggie! And what would I
do without Sharkman's action pictures when doing a report like this?? Thanks
Sharky!
Click
banner below to go straight into image heaven! Don't miss School of Excellence!
Haha!
A Special Collection follows
here:
Al O'Connor lives in Bozeat
nearby. Races Super Gas with the classical "Al's Gasser" Ford Anglia
362"
My hero! This is a man that NEVER surrenders, just goes faster! Leif Helander
from Matfors in the middle
of Sweden has raced for 30 years! See "StarkOtter" (from local legend
Viking War Chief "Strong-Otter").
It has changed over the years but has mostly been Top Methanol Funny Cars
with SAAB bodies! Now
he's stepped up to Nitro Funny Car in recent years and is now shooting low
5's! "This is the REAL
THING, these alcohol floppers are just like mopeds" Leif has said. Numbers:
.965 at 60 ft 2.46 at
330 ft 3.37 at 594 ft. 3.57 @ 229.5 MPH at 1/8 th 4.47 at 990 ft. Quartermile:
5.35 @ 243.2 mph
Story continues next year... Happy Goings Leif! The
war chief's excellent website.
Roger Johansson still tried to straighten up his ride, the beautiful Mustang
in Pro Mod, now with support
from USA. Still it was tire shakes and hard turns. Ran its nitrous 738 ci
"only" to 6.40's after a season
with strings of 6.30's, and the aim was 6.10's. We'll wait to next year Roger!
Chris Johnson's Woftan Racing's Rover MG ZS is powered by a 431 ci. Paul Somerville's
work place!
Qualified 5th in Super Comp with 8.908. Didn't survive 2nd Round but won the
2006 cup! Congratulations!
Ian Atkinson drove his 440 ci Plymouth Belvedere to 10.99 on a 10.91 Dial-In
in the Final Round and had
an automatic win over redlighting Dutch Paul Vrind's 427 ci Chevette "Little
Mean Chickie" (10.01).
Dave Ward survived 2nd Round and Carla Pittau lasted to Semi-Finals. Fun racing,
see you next year!
What a wonderful week! I had a lot of fun things to think over and over again
on the ride north on M1.
Click picture to ride with me and check instruments!
Also an environment for an Impala SS.
After sleeping in a basement and in the Impala and in a crowded caravan for
so many days we're really
dying to get a shower, go out for a dinner, drink beer, sing karaoke and hit
a BED in York. A BED!
MONDAY - SEPT 11
The
9 second Mile Eater going the last stretch to the ferry in Newcastle in the
north of England.
The messages are really entertaining and the mobile phone is a good friend
on a long trip.
After a 300 mile drive we're at the Newcastle ferry docks, at last! Mission
accomplished, from now on we
could push it to my garage in Gothenburg. But if Jeezus is my engine...who
is this then då?
Just turn your engine off and blend in. Avoid eye contact. Look like you've
been in Scotland...
"Have size-legal flight cabin bag - will travel". Mr Al Holt had
his whole life in that cabin bag for 10 days!
We got the medical room on the DFDS ferry, no probs. But now for the most
difficult decisions of the
whole trip...are you taking a shower now...I go to the bar...or take a nap...no...we
both go to bar for a
nap...I mean beer...and then get back for a shower before dinner...one by
one...he!...should we reserve
a table or what... and in which restaurant...what do we want to eat...hot
dog or real food or take a nap...
hot dogs we can have with the beer in the nap...eh, bar...but we still need
to go back here to take a
shower and a quick nap... what do you think? Nap first? No? Shower? No? Hot
dog? Not hungry?.
Beer? OK, lez go! Eh...are we going to the Tax Free Shop too? When do you
think? Now or...?
Bye bye England and thanks for this time! Now this ferry line will disappear
so no more Newcastle.
"No...first Jörgen took a shower while I got a beer and then we
met in the bar for another beer for me and
his first beer...and after this beer...I will go for a drink or something..."
"No Roger, I had a beer in my
cabin while my wife was taking a shower" "Yea, but let's meet in
the bar after the dinner...so we can
have a ridiculous amount of drinks together?!" "Yes, we can do that...after
the shower!" "And after Tax
Free, or do you think we can do the Tax Free tomorrow?" "Yes, I
think so!" "OK, so let's meet later!"
Blackout SS - Snort Shot!
Blue drinks
for evrybody to
drink to Rogers
Pro Mod
Mustang! Black drinks
to allbody
for to Blackout!
Red dinks for Jörgens
Pro Mod Mastang. HAHAHA!!!!!!
Irish coffees just
for the hell of ith. Aha, you are Norweigians
abourd =
some more manny dinks!
Z. Shiat, paraschouts!
TUESDAY
- SEPT 12
An dinks agan.
Z. An den sam däncing
beforeh same moore
dinks. I wil go mach fasterh
dan datt!!!!!!!! Yeas.
Ha!
Ha! Zzzz. Theres
NO tomorow. Z. h! Den
sam dinks. Z
zz. A! An showwer. Z. An ber!
Aj kan realy handel
diz! Jast anodder one! Goodjer
tajk mi home!
Zzzzzzzzz!
Klonk!
Where am I?
A boat?
Who am I?
Who are you?
Shower.
Breakfast.
Sleep.
Lunch.
Sleep.
Tax Free.
Shower.
The Älvsborgsbron gate!
Home.
Ah!
You are Jonas!
Thank you, thank you...
...it's almost too much! Thank you! Yes, yes, Thank you! Now please go home!
Eight days later. Phew!
When we had parked the Blackout SS in TBDGIT, ze Americanos were still in
Adventure mode! A couple
of days in wonderful Italy! Capri, Florence, Roma... What an active and versatile
journey in Europe!
Stumpy, Celeste and Karl, Thanks and Welcome back!
Tack och Välkommen tillbaka!
Since we thought that The Eliminations interrupted
our interesting experimenting with gear shift points
on the 4L80E transmission we decided to drive to
Malmö following weekend and continue our tuning
at the last race of the year in Sweden - Winter
Nationals. Short track but long list of participants!