July
9 - On the
road again...
Friday morning - What a good feeling it is to pack everything, stop at the
Super Market and supply,
and then hit the road. Every time. New unwritten adventures awaits...
This time we choose to cruise the small roads up north to Moholmsstrippen.
After 2/3 of the distance we arrived in Falköping and stopped at McDonald's
for a coffee break with
icecream. Jeezus engine also liked to cool off, running steady just underneath
of boiling point all the
time; 100° Celsius / 212 ° Fahrenheit.
Cruising in your car - a great way to experience beautiful Sweden!
Friday afternoon - We were first to arrive at the giant Moholmsstrippen and
could choose any pit space!
When we had changed the SS to strip trim ready for drag racing inspection
it was time to leave for
Wassbacken Camping. At this point we had come further than
last years attempt
here at this place!
The pit boss came to say Welcome. Per Gudmundsson was also an inspection official,
but we decided
to make the scrutineering next morning.
Axel was happy to find a new wheel equipped toy at the camping. He asked the
owner of the camping
if he could borrow it and I don't really know if he waited for the answer...
We insisted to get S/S Tell - the same cabin as last year so we could continue
to struggle with our
Blackout SS superstition and ghosts and our possible destiny. However, the
most difficult struggle
was to get any sleep at all in this box without any ventilation! Finally we
had the door wide open.
Axel and Agneta had made many very tasteful skewers on our mobile bbq and
we began to eat just a
couple of minutes before the Crew Chief Jonas Alholt arrived to Wassbacken.
Now we could have a
couple of ice cold Mariestads Export which is a very good local beer that
sells nationwide. The Bud to
the right is a bbq sauce and does not - as the Bud beer - remind of anything
you do in a canoe...
We decided to leave our safe base for a visit at the Wassbacken restaurant
placed next to the canal a
100 meters away. We couldn't bring our own cold Mariestads Export beer, when
arriving to this sign:
"Border to restaurant area with permission to serve. Prohibition
to take in - or take out beverages
with alcohol" Okay, they want to make a buck on their beer,
so be it. So we went inside and Jonas
bought us a couple of beers...and they were 60 SEK each!!! 6 EUR! 7.92 USD!
243.9 THB!
And...these beers were WARM! So, they just lost a couple of customers. Bye
bye!
Jonas and I took a couple of nice photos of the just-turned-poor sailors from
our neighbor countries,
before we head back to S/S Tell for some ice cold Mariestads Export.
July
10 - low on
voltage...
On Saturday morning the pit was full of teams and many were still arriving.
First start at 09.00 AM.
I thought; when I get some time over, I'll go over to nice Ulf "Spenat"
(Spinach) Henrysson and say hello
and look at his awesome Mustang project. However, I never got that minute
over and I guess he was
busy as well. That's typical for a one-day race. But we waved our flags to
each other!
Robert Pothorcki came there in a very comfortable way, in Robert Karström's
Pro Mod trailer. The Pro
Mod Mustang isn't ready yet, he's building it himself! But this Syclone seems
to be ready, wing is gone
but this 4-wheel driver made low 9:s and just under 250 kmh / 155 mph performances.
Let me tell you,
it sounded like an jet plane leaving! However, the transmission axle broke
in the race,
so that trailer there came in handy...
Axel analyzed the situation quickly in the morning, and then targeted the
track preparation boss Marcus
Kjellqvist and made friends with him, so he could go with him in the tractor!
The traction was very good
here already since the first race in may, it was now just to be awakened again.
We were a bit worried
at times that the heat of the sun would make the trackbite to float...
My runs here wasn't any good at all. Blaim me. Except for the fact that we
got confirmed shiftings of
the 4L80E transmission on the pre-decided RPM, the rest of the performance
was awful, giving ET's in
the 11-12 second range. Powerless is a good word for how it both felt and
looked.
What! Again!? I thought we had solved this!? # 5 wire was placed underneath
the headers, beside the
block, but it wasn't the solution. It took the beating of driving from Gothenburg
but no more... So quickly,
now a new wire, with the "original" design going straight up to
the ignition coil. We noted also that
these ceramic spark plug boots are getting very hot as they are absorbing
the heat around them.
That may cause the silicone inside to eventually melt...well it was quickly
changed!
But the problem still remained - powerless burnouts and powerless runs. After
the jump at the launch...
"cough" "poff" Inside I heard
rattle that I thought I had experienced before...? What the?!
I was very confused when I saw that the onboard lap top (FAST-readings) couldn't
be driven on the 12 V
from the car! What!? Seconds later I couldn't even start the car on my battery!!
AHA! Low voltage! Yes
that explains everything! There wasn't enough voltage for the injectors, the
pumps and everything else!
Shame on me! Absolutely. Why hadn't I charged the battery? Why?! Now we had
to do a quick charging
of the battery before the BBB-race! (Because I hadn't brought any of my two
reserve batteries either...)
I certainly had lowered my guard concerning voltage issues since it I got
that solved a couple of
seasons ago when I had to have a spare alternator and was charging batteries
all day all night. Now it
was time again. When my alternators were going down before I heard the same
"rattle" and I don't
know if it's from the poor working injectors or what else that could make
that sound...?
Now my favorite rod ran low 9's! Mechanic KP told me they're now into nitrous...
Always prepared and serviceminded, my lovely wife Agneta not only take care
of food services, lunches,
water, coffee, snacks, candy etc. for our small team - but for all our friends
that say hello. We had a lot
of visits actually which of course this picture doesn''t show...
Good idea, to bring in a 32 car bracket ladder elimination for all test'n'tuners
in the afternoon. And even
if you got eliminated in the ladder you could still line up to continue your
testing and tuning. Very good
thinking of the organizers mk402m.
Chairman Robert Holm (neon clothes in the middle) made the first
matches, choices of his imagination, and the 1st round winners were then put
in a sportsman ladder.
"Bah, shouldn't we go swimming instead...?"
I got this picture sent
from Roger Pettersson who normally race that green 9 second nitrous CSB
Volvo P1800. Waiting for new slicks for it, he instead took his wife Gunilla's
stock Mercedes
SLK
32 AMG '01 with blown V6 and 354 hp and a 5-speed automatic. He only unplugged
the exhaust.
Chromed emblems says "kompressor" which is European for "supercharger".
This model uses an
intercooled Lysholm-type kompressor. Roger said "It's like a little Blackout"
After an hour of battery charging I felt some of the power was back, buit
not all. At least I could make
smoke in the burnout again! I redlighted in 1st round but I could come back
to further test'n'tune.
Jonas helped me back and Patrik
Jacobsson took pictures which also is a help, for
this site!
Beside being smart with engines and drag racing cars this man Jonas Alholt
is a very talented
photographer which you can enjoy when looking at Impalakungen's
films on Youtube.
This was the second best driver of the Big Buck Bracket - Stefan Lindblad
from Uddevalla in his 1971
Plymouth Duster. With a dial in of 11.29 he lost the final with a 11.457 to
Roger's 13.638 on a 13.50
dial in. Two good reactions! 0.050 R-time on
Roger's side and Stefan's 0.057! It was only a meter
beween the cars at the finish line...Congratulations to both of you even if
it was Roger who took
all the money - 10000 SEK = 1000 EUR = 1303.54 USD = 40650.41 THB!
And what happened with all that money? Well, since Roger had an old promise
to his daughter Linnea
that she would get a Nintendo some day, the money went from Robert Holm -
quickly through Roger's
hands - to Linnea who could invest in a DSi with Nintendo Dogs on Monday!
All
facts from this race and many pictures on their site here.
A dirty and tired 12 year old likes to go home...and he wasn't alone...I felt
just like Axel after our four
runs and no one turned out good. At least I could understand what's needed
to fix before next race.
A good hour and a half to change the SS back in street trim. Who needs a gym
when an orginal wheel
with tire weighs 25 kg - 55 lbs!? All four 100 kg - 220 lbs! You need a break
in the shadow after that!
Just look at those poor original Lucheese
boots that I bought in their shop in El Paso, Texas!
I have now weared them out so I guess it's time to change to ballet
shoes...
Multi talented Jonas can also disarm a pit area. We wanted to quickly as possible
hit the road since
it's about three hours to Gothenburg, including the "traditional"
pit stop at McDonald's in Falköping
where also the engine could cool off in the 30° Celsius / 86° Fahrenheit
afternoon!
Jonas took his own car to the race and back. Volvo S80, S = smile.
Going home with your machine after a race is the best feeling of all.
