Wednesday - July 27
A rental trailer perhaps? Yes, it's a "2 tonnes" car transport trailer. And it will blend in smoothly behind
Kenneth Feldthusen's
giant Northrace bus! I don't have the required "BE" in my drivers
license,
for
trailer weight above 3.5 tonnes. And our Dodge mini van can only take 1.6 tonnes on the hitch
anyway, so this is a solution that Kenneth kindly offered us!
"B" is for car, "E" for trailer.
Thursday - July 28
"No" said the Highway Patrol Weight Control with their scales rigged in Hol, an hour from Gothenburg.
"This trailer can only take 1960 kg and you are 200 kg too much" they said to Kenneth who never
had been stopped by the police
before the Blackout involvement. Trailer was good for 4321 lb and it was
440 lb over. The nice Policemen
gave Kenneth a fine of 2000 SEK which of course I took care of.
So we unloaded the SS of all things and possibly this was 200 kg? Spare battery, hardware boxes,
oil, planks, tent walls, jackstands, chairs, gas oil, gas stove...bricks! (tool for loading the SS
on ramps).
All this was put in
Kenneth's bus,
minus the bricks. Kenneth politely looked at the bricks then at me
and
said very distinct into my eyes: "Throw
away,
throw away" and pointed into the wood. So I did.
After this weekend I think that the Police are the bad guys, who every day bother and hassle people and
demand money from us. Not only by this incident where they harassed a dozen well behaving people
and
stole our time and
money - for a minor thing really!! We also see it around Tierp Arena where they
shamelessly
stops cars and motorcycles both outside and inside the arena to hassle and drain money
from
the racing
families! So I now absolutely think the Police is the mob! They sure behave like
that!
Police, please aim your force elsewhere, we are the good guys, your employers!
The small trailer which I had behind our Dodge minivan was going to its normal position behind
Kenneth's race bus. And off they went for Tierp.
Trailer tired. Now Axel and I had to wait for a couple of hours for Plan B to arrive. That was to go back to
Kenneth's place and borrow his work car. Agneta drove Kenneth's mechanic "Gomez" there. He have
an "BE" in his drivers license. I will get an "BE" too or maybe I quit this self-torture before that...?
There were of course other kind people that helped to collect money to the mob.
The Nissan Navara is allowed to haul 3000 kg / 6613 lb but you still need the "BE" in your drivers licens
for a total weight above 3500 kg / 7716 lb no matter in what combination. Legal cruising speed 80 kmh
which is barely 50 mph. The distance to Tierp is 523 kilometer / 325 miles...go figure.
Cool hitch camera. And cool guy who thought the trip was long, which it of course was in 80 kmh.
Why does
it always take
nine hours for us to go to Tierp from Gothenburg?
Our goal was of course to get inside, unload and in line for scrutineering before it closed at 10 PM
which we
managed in a hurry even with an unloaded trailer on its way to Kenneth's pit! This was a
2-day event,
one qualification day and one Elimination day so it was important to do the scrutineering
this evening instead
of the next day and lose one of the four qualification rounds.
Fredde Fagerström wanted to swap his Pickup for the Blackout SS but I told him that the SS is a much
newer car so it wouldn't be a fair deal if I didn't get some gold too!
Passed. It's time to clear the window of some of the inspection stickers so it doesn't look to
much like
a race car! The Santa Pod Racers Club stickers will always be there! And hopefully I will have more
of those added.
Our 9 x 3 meter tent bought at Rusta is still with us and doing a good work! Kjelle "Ståkkhålm" Ahl and
Agneta
are working the straps, as you can see. Our ol' worn Chevrolet racing flag is up and
waving,
just
like when we were out with the Whiplash Camaro, soon 30 years ago...and back then we had no tent.
That flag was once waving at Holmströms Bilaffär on Tegsborg in Umeå who was the local Chevrolet
dealer.
When they closed down their
business, Autoshop was offered to buy their stock of parts for a
fair price,
and the flag was in there!
Cheers Ståkkhålm! At a race again!
Friday - July 29
Morning glory. The smell of the VP Motorsports 109 octane makes it hard to breathe! It must be really
good
as bad
as
it feels?!
Tvi vale! Last drops from the big drum are conveyed to the car's race cell
via this plastic jug. I try to protect the fuel in the metal barrels as long as possible for freshness.
Agneta has attached my proud colors to the driver's jacket, all the good guys in one place! And now I
was
dressed and ready to go out and hit a mid-9 - again! Last try was aborted, stopped by a burnt fuse
last time here at Tierp!
Now nothing can stop me! The world's first manufactured lap top is still with me, strapped
good as a
co-driver in the passenger seat! It's only for logging but that's important! But why doesn't it
start? Hello!
Slam slam! Hit hit! Why doesn't it start?! Hit! Slam! What the hell! ¤#&//$]*}@ THERE! PHEW!
First time I met Gideon Liljegren from Linköping was on our trip to The Street Finals at Santa Pod in
1985 and he looked exactly the same then! And his 1966 Chevelle was exactly the same with the
exact
same paint which he once put on himself! But it's faster today as he competes in 9.90 Super Gas!
OMPH!! A terrific launch which made me happy instantly. My first reflection was: "It" was back!
The 60 foot time is back to the performance of the 9's at Santa Pod in 2006!
But it was just a 6.42 seconds run according to the log (further below), before I let off the throttle
when
the
acceleration just ended! (Input shaft in the 4L80E transmission snapped, we've learned
afterwards!)
I could only steer into
the side as much as possible
just in case some oil was coming
out?
And you
also looks anxiously in the rear view mirror for oil smoke, but this
time was OK.
Of course
I was angry
and sad
but
the launch compensated for it, so I couldn't cry.
I just
saw
the
light - like
behind a
small
ajar door in
the great black emptiness...
Now I want to go inside that illuminated room. Soon!
I didn't even roll to the far end, I made an early exit and Axel came on his bike faster than the SS
and asked me about everything. He is so disappointed every time I have a failure of some sort. Well,
that's
at every race for some time now! Axel is one of the persons I want to follow me behind that
ajar door,
into
that illuminated room! I want him to be proud of our racing. Again.
Ståkkhålm came and towed me in his Volvo.
Safety staff Mikael "Dykarn" (The Diver) Bengtsson from Gothenburg thought my outing was so-so.
Well, the 60 foot was the ONLY good note on this start. The Safetygroup heroes is not dressed for
their comfort in the scorching sun, rather for diving into fires to get drivers out. That feels good!
The FAST log shows our next problem. At 6400 RPM (in a not asked for bump in the middle of 1st gear)
the injectors
were working overtime at 109.9 %, the correction was
on at max 24.2 % (set 25).
Target
Air/Fuel mix
was
set at 11.5 but was at too lean 14.38 OUCH!!!!
Blower delivered
25 psi as it should at that RPM so it's time for larger injectors, these 96 lb are not
enough!
Yellow Chinese tjing-tjong battery is super and readings don't go below 12.7 V Hurray!
The intake air is still too hot
though, going
at close to 100° Celsius at the end in a full run,
losing power big time!
A lot to do here! External nitrogen cooling of IC during the run...?
Kenneth Feldthusen was really looking forward to test at concrete, and now it was also one of the races
for the Swedish
Championship for Competition Eliminator! He got a personal best second time out
-
6.53 @
332 kmh /
206 mph and was No 1
qualifyer on his 7.34 index! We just had to drive into the
Tierp
village
to get a special
cake and
when we
came to the Nilfisk ALTO team, Kenneth
just
shook
his head and
waved his hands and said "No no, we will go quicker!"
OK, if so, we can change the figures, put the cake into the fridge!
The concrete was also one of the reasons we saw Dave Wilson here from UK in his injected nitro
Top Alcohol Dragster!
Just testing, because
his class wasn't even competing here! Dave set the new
FIA
European record in
the class here at the Sweden Internationals with
a 5.298! Since Dave have
announced that this is
his last year racing I believe he wanted to feel the concrete once again.
No new ET records this time but a strong 5.3033 and an even stronger 438.31 kmh / 272.35 mph
which had been a new European speed record if it had been on a FIA race and backed up!
Thanks Dave for all these good racing years!
Speaking of Sweden Internationals, on that event - in the middle of the day - we had a sudden cyclone
going
diagonally through the pit,
thowing up
tents and things and
left chaos in its path! We sat under
Robert
Karström's giant 2-car tent
that was connected
to his bus and the tent went up and down and
slapped
like the quickest you can
do with the lid to the lavatory! It was dangerous with all these
aluminium
legs that hit up and down
quickly like giant fangs! The tent had been in Stockholm if it
hadn't
been attached to the bus!
It was over in five
seconds.
Now it happened again!! As you see people was trying to fix their tent in above picture!
I have
an own
theory
that these giant stands force the wind to create an air vortex...?
So we tied down our tent in everything heavy we could find. Think about it before going here with your
tent!
Axel is still away from our own pit for the
most of the time and when Albin Frank isn't here
with his
Super Comp dragster, Axel is often with other
friends like Tony and Anita Åberg from
Kramfors and he
loves to sit in their Super Street Corvette!
Is Kramfors overcrowded of Super Street Corvettes?!
Tomas Hägg is also from Kramfors!
Hey! Tony was Number 1 qualifier with a nearly perfect 10.9072! Besides that he had the highest speed
in Super Street at 208.33 kmh / 129.45 mph during qualification and even got a 210.5 kmh when losing
to the
eventual winner young Simon Gustafsson
in the quarter. Simon 10.97 vs. Tony 10.91!
You must win
the tree also in Super Street!
WOW! Niclas Andersson 6.02 in Ol' 51 Chevy Business coupe! This is a team that have merged over to
Pro Mod from Top Doorslammer
"almost unnoticed", a bit quicker and faster every year. We see them
race in both classes on different
events.
This time Q13 with a "stealth" 6.75, then
in first round 6.026 with lots of cheering from the
stands!
Then 6.039 @ 376.8 kmh / 234.1 mph to put away Micke Lindahl, then lost to Johan Lindberg
in the
Semi. Can't lower your guard
to this team no more, especially since Niclas is known to be
a quick
and constant driver! Their home:
www.old51.com
I think Mercedes 300 SL is one of the most beautiful cars ever made on this planet!
Luckily this
1956
Gullwing
is not one of the 1400 originally made, it's a
copy in fiberglass and lexan! But it's built by
Love during three years by Stefan Winter
from
Switzerland. In
Competition Eliminator he was
Q18
with a 8.16 on a 8.32 index and a trap speed of 259,49 kmh /161.24 mph.
Engine is something 422
that
ace builder Jari Konola is involved in? Winter family also had two junior dragsters with them!
Kenneth Feldthusen and Team Nilfisk ALTO did what they promised - lowered to a new Swedish and
European Record for AB/A with 6.4799 and a speed of 331,29 kmh /
205.85 mph! Congratulations!
A bit cloggy but finally I got it right! Kenneth was Q1 until last round when he was put down to 2nd by
Mattias Stenström's Volvo C90 going
6.80 (on a 7.70 index). All of them was so cheerful
anyway.
Kenneth said "The track is
fantastic, it responds to your changes and you can just feed it more"
Back at our camp. Starting to slowly unscrew the things around the transmission.
Earlier Ståkkhålm
ran into
the converter man Tony Jönsson from
Danielssons Bil, he reworked my Vigilante too.
He was here just
to
watch racing from the stands and we asked him if we could leave the 4L80E
and the converter
with him to take it to his work so they could check and repair. - Sure, said Tony.
Weekend Warrior - Tage Avander, Skellefteå (She-Left-You). He was standing here and grinding his
clutch with a wet emery cloth, slowly but surely, while the neighbours were having party and bbq.
It was a beautiful and warm Friday evening in Sweden.
I wish I had a construction like Tage's, a crane to hook up into the rollcage and then just swing the
transmission out of the car!!! And a Liberty trans had of course been nice to own. Well, these are
possible dreams for race cars, not for 4444 lb street legal
Impalas. Tage also remembers the days
when we had "Bagarn" to talk to and have a laugh. This sticker is actually made by "Bagarn's"
son Austin and is distributed by Birgitta at Autohop.
Saturday - July 30
Saturday was the day to take out the 4L80E transmission, reluctantly. But better here and now than
in the wardrobe garage at home. All the tools are here, Ståkkhålm can give a hand, but it had to be
done
between rounds and coffee breaks, so it took all day.
Eliminations in this 32-car ladder (25 cars) was rather easy this time for Kenneth and the
Nilfisk ALTO
team. After the first round
they had two bye
runs and could save material after the 60 foot.
The Nilfisk-ALTO dressed team of Gomez, Joakim and Pelle seemed to jump like kids to the timeslip
machine after every run
Kenneth Feldthusen made!
Totte's blown Fiat Topolino had the coolest idle
and you could hear it across
the pit!
His girlfriend Jenny
Ålund had bought a new plastic carpet for their
kitchen but
Totte thought
it was perfect for the pit! Click
picture to se a big picture of that plastic carpet.
Agneta always serves us so fine! Now Bullens pilsnerkorv when it was only time for a quick break.
Childish expressions are everywhere at a dragrace! Isn't it wonderful how drag racing allows you to
be
a
kid as long as
you want?
Build funny things and do funny things! A small shadow play? Or going
around
in
a mini
F100!
Everybody loves it!
Kids too!
And Axel was driving his own dragster in his own
fantasy races.
Drag racing is a wonderful
and free world for all our sences.
Finland's Antti Kivinummi in a 1948 Anglia in Super Gas calms down a little at the top end.
It's a good quiet place for
some
relaxing and breathing,
you may want to just stay for
a minute to cool
yourself
and
your vehicle.
Thinking it over...what really happened during the run? What will be my
next
move?
It can be smart to
let the boiling adrenalin disappear a little before going back to the busy pit.
Antti lost to our Mats "Masken" Karlsson in the quarterfinal.
"Here lives Super Gas 4. Leave mail and messages at Super Street 2"
This is where "Masken" is living at the races, in Thomas Hägg's Corvette trailer! A cosy, roomy place.
A new trend seems to be to bring your old trophies to the races? Here "Maskens" mechanic Nicke
Nordgren showed the runner-up trophy from Borlänge Street Open last weekend.
Ol' friend from Umeå PA Lindström carries around an old trophy too, in his race car! He said what it was
for, but I forgot to
listen because I was so distracted of how his helmet changed the form of his head!
PA is
really good at this, even if he qualified 15th in this 32-car ladder with a 10.619 on his 11.00 index
and 185.19 kmh / 115 mph in speed and redlighted in the quarter
final he ended up 3rd in the Swedish
Championship which indicates skills over season! Congratulations! Your helmet is OK!
Finally! 4L80E transmission was out! It must be half the weight of the car! I asked Ståkkhålm what he
thought of it compared to other transmissions and he said: "I've never worked with such things"
(Aha...I thought he was an expert on all things since he both is from Stockholm and is on all
races!
Well, now he's at least an expert on demounting 4L80E in Impala SS!) Agneta was sealing the
holes in the parts with towels before we could take it away.
Tony Jönsson said to us to leave the things in his bus at the camping which we did, Ståkkhålm and I.
But he
didn't say that his bus and my bus had exactly the same colors! Dodge Cherry Red Metallic!
Tony told
us that he's building a Chevy '55 Gasser which he will transport between nostalgic races
in this bus.
I can take that bus otherwise... Thanks Tony for your help!
"Totte" is getting more and more out of that little Fiat Topolino with the big blown engine. He came from
carburation so blower and mapping injectors takes a little time. And now he had to sandbag to not
breakout
at Super Comp index 8.90 and managed to qualify 6th with 8.941 and a
both-feets-on-the-brake-if-it-was-possible-slow 175 kmh / 108 mph!
Unfortuneately he had a
8.88
breakout in first round, but Jenny did all her things right.
Kenneth in semi final and his clutch was slipping too much, performing a 6.82 and you can't have that
when going
up
against
a man like 4th qualifyer Mika Eloranta from Finland in his 4-banger Toyota Celica
going 7.14 (index 7.70)!
This is a shot from the Teams Stand No 11 when they had reached 1000 foot.
The problem. Axel was controlling the winch but the SS was still too heavy for an easy loading.
Then I shouted "Anyone who wants to know what it feels like to push a real Impala SS please
come
forward!!" and I succeded to gather some Super Gas hotshot.
Per Fagerström knows how to be successful with pushings!
Per became The Swedish Champion in Stock/Super Stock and I'm not surprised with that back up!
Not recommended...
Not recommended either...
Tage Avander's "Weekend Warrior" is not just another nice Camaro.
It's a killer Camaro and for being
old school it's deadly
in Competition Eliminator among turbos and blowers and what have you!
Running 7.46 on 8.09 index. And 298.51 kmh / 298.51 mph. All the way to The Final! Heja heja!
But there he redlighted to Eloranta's fantastic 4-banger Toyota Celica! The Fin qualified 4th with 7.00
(7.70 index). It's 2011 and you
must
be prepared for sometimes seeing your favourite american
cars
get
smacked by smaller, quicker things from Asia...
Yes, it hurts all the way into the bone marrow.
But you still like to cheer quick times and high speeds no matter what kind of vehicle! It's the
awesome
engineering
we like! Onnea Eloranta!
Cool building! How is it going with my hotel room, booked for ten years at the time?
We haven't seen much of Bertans's own car in a while. I guess he has been so busy building race cars
for others. Now he came out in a free run and hit a 60 at 1.00, 1/8 at 4.00 @ 292.84 kmh /
182 mph
and a slowing 6.51 @ 263 kmh / 163 mph! Hm? Bert-Ove Olofsson's Impala can hit!
I told you! This Twin Turbo Camaro with Martin Lundqvist is a rocket! 6.1459 @ 385.44 kmh / 239.5 mph
in a free run
shows where it's going! Martin said "We now know some about the last 1/8 mile so we'll
only race at Malmö the rest of the season to tune in to be quicker at the first 1/8 mile". The
60 was
1.050
and the first 1/8 was 4.0703 @ 301 kmh / 187 mph.
Looking forward to see the development!
Top Final of the race, Swedish Championship in Pro Mod. Everyone was excited and was sitting
on the stands,
also my wife Agneta!
It was down to these guys Micke "Gullan" Gullqvist in the red '68 Camaro and Johan Lindberg in the
black '68 Firebird. 1968 must have been an extraordinary year!
Quickest ever Final and side-by-side by Pro Mod in Europe! "Gullan" was first and became the 2011
Swedish
Champ by a "nothing" at the finishline! It was a real adrenaline kicker!! Congrats "Gullan"!
And Congrats Johan Lindberg too who with this 5.94 backed up his No1 qualification run of 5.9223
to
an
official Swedish ET Record! It's an European best too but the stupid rules (who is responsible
for those anyway?) says that you can't make an European record on a non-FIA race!!
It's always fun when people can come down and get stuck on the starting area preparation, like now
when
they had the
price giving ceremony which Axel covered for Blackout.nu.
Winner in Super Gas!!! "Masken" Karlsson! Hey hey! Runner up Bosse Hall! Hey! (only one "hey" for
runner ups! Congratulations! Then "Masken" had a lewd easy loading! 1-2-3 Done!
Lars-Göran in the "Green Goblin" Pro Mod team
is carrying in some original Impala SS parts
to bring
it to Dalarna for me, even if he first suggested that I should go to the dump with it!!!
I sold these fine
SS
parts to Bengt in Mora before the race, but he couldn't come to Tierp so "Green Goblin" could
take
it to
their headquarters in neighbouring Borlänge for Bengt to pick up. Thanks team!
Last night in the big pit. SS is loaded and the tent is secured to the trailer. When packing it all down
we will
get the rest of the ratchet tied downs to secure the SS on the trailer. Hotel? Yes, the Dodge
Plaza for our family and Ståkkhålm had booked the Volvo Inn.
BBQ is always good!
Super Street racer Ulf Skytte and team from Umeå came visiting. There where more racers here
from
Norrland's largest city Umeå, than from Sweden's second city Gothenburg, that was represented
only
by Kenneth Feldthusen and
myself. And Kenneth is really from Landvetter outside Gothenburg
so it
was me from Gothenburg, and I'm from Umeå, too, so...
Ulf called another Umeåbo who hadn't been here all season, the one and only Linkan who is driving
Ulf's altered with his own engine. Linkan was fully occupied sorting his giant stock of historic engine
parts
that
he have got from an engine machining and renovation company! Tons of pistons, piston rings,
bearings
etc. make a Treasure!!
Ulf's Plymouth Roadrunner was Q3 in Super Street with 10.9216.
In the second
round / quarter
finals
he got beaten even though a 10.91 run!
Sunday - July 31
All Sunday was "Run What You Brung" with 10.00 seconds as the lowest bracket. This was the last
thing we saw on our way home, multi-FIA European Pro Stock Champion Jimmy Ålund (grey hat)
stopped at a guy with a Volvo PV with V8 and had a starter motor discussion.
Hours later. It was a little bit melancholic to pass Mantorp Park on my way home. All good memories
came
back and
painted a
nice picture of the legendary racetrack. When you were little you longed
to go here and all
strong memories and drag racing milestones are from Mantorp's history.
But all bad memories also came back. But hey Mantorp...nobody want you to die, just learn a little from
Tierp
Arena which is what you had become if things had been right. Instead you stayed in the 70's
and was pleased with that, while the people wasn't. Now, we hope you'll come back ASAP and
present to
us a track in constant evolution, worthy a big audience and FIA races and make a run for
the
money with
Tierp
Arena. The people want both Mantorp Park and Tierp Arena. I know.
Before you click! Here's a tricky riddle for you, from when we came home.
How did we get that heavy SS up on this upslope?
It was only Kenneth and me!
No transmission in car. No winch. No pushing help from the neighbours?
Hm...?
Thanks to Patrik Jacobsson www.racebilder.nu for lending me your pictures!
All qualification data and ladders at this super nice site:
Nitroz_TimeTree_Results_NatsII
The list is growing! These are just a few examples of what has been made
since
the 9's in 2006
to
make the Blackout SS a much better car!
And
to make it
easier for it to
go
much
quicker than those 9.84 seconds!
V .Renovation of fuel pump (broken during 9.84!)
V .Anti Roll bar
V .New CK Super Comp racing drum and sprag
V .Transbrake
V .New 2" headers, new ceramic spark plug hats
V .ProCharger repair (had manufacturing flaw in all these years!)
V .Further stabilization of ProCharger
V .100 amp battery
V .Relocation of lambda sond
V .And now I have even put in a new fuse and connected the ground cable...
V .Change of injectors from 96's to 160's.
V .Change to race prepared TH400 and Cheetah shifter
So please can I have back my 9's now?
I need to see what's behind that little ajar door!
First ever race held at Tierp Arena here!
First ever Blackout SS race at Tierp Arena here!
Thanks for reading! ;-)