Race 1
Bilsport Street Car Challenge, Säve, Gothenburg June 27-29
Sunny start for BLACKOUT FULL SIZE RACING!
Great premiere interest for the Jesus motor...Entry: 1996 BBB Impala SS
Autoshop, Ortlando, Florida-built 396 stroker. Callies crank. Oliver rods. JE pistons. 8.5 compression ratio. AFR 190 heads. ProCharger F1-R supercharger mounted on driver side frame.
Custom camshaft. BBK 58 throttle body. FAST system 72 injectors.
Custom fuel systems (street and strip) Aeromotive 100 psi race pump, Walbro in tank street pump. Fuel 108 RON.
Clear Image Quad 1 headers. 3" stainless exhaust crossover system. Apple mufflers.
4L60E built by Robert "Mr Syclone" Pothorcki, controlled by TCI/FAST unit.
Weld Dragstar XP wheels with 28 x 12,5 x 15 MT Street DOT tires. 3.73 gears.This was a race for true legal street cars which was held at a Major Dragracing event with good prepared track all the way to the finish line.
At last! One minute before midnight we entered the local track. We where in. Before that we had some real hectic hours of starting the car, going out on test drives, making it legal by connecting headlights and so on. We changed the wheels to the Weld's with Street ET's at the track during the night and could roll thru inspection in the morning.
First run gave me a personal record of 11.98 so we knew we had something cooking. No problems whatsoever.
Cooling and everything was just OK. My friend Robert "SycloneRobban" - "Mr Syclone" Pothorcki is helping
me with the tuning of the FAST-system. He has used that system for seven years in his unbeatable Syclone.
"Guys, please tell me what I have missed!? See you!" Axel is always occupied and happy in the pits. Especially if you take your time and sit and watch him play with his cars, like Blackout Child Support Åza Rydberg.
Good morning! Notice our family tent! Agneta and especially Axel liked to sleep in it anyway...but
daddy had to chase the $30 team tent which blew away and was all over the pit. Had to kill it.
Robert Johansson has a damn quick Volvo 850 Turbo cruising the low 12's! But the Impala SS is the
damndest of them all...yes yes...
Slowly moving along the race we noted that we only had 10 psi of boost while we're after 20 psi. It was impossible to tune the motor under 2000 rpm as well, which makes it difficult in the start since the Neal Chance converter is picking up at around that 2000 rpm. And I can't stall it well either since this motor/camshaft is giving only a couple of hg's of vacuum. Hm...something to think about while waiting for the new converter...Car still under mapping of FAST system.
Best timeslip said 11.68 @ 119 mph. I was a bit lucky and arrived in the Finals but there I met Robert in his 10.2-second
4WD Syclone..."Mapping pågår" means "Under mapping/tuning" There I had my very best run of the weekend,
but both lanes got Le Error Grande! Didn't show any time or speed due to computer malfunction!
Of course Robert was ahead of me, he even slowed down before the finish line just playing with me...*€>&*@'£+!
...but as I wrote on the car for him "You just wait!"
Winner and Runner Up. Both equal happy.
Not bad for first time out, but...
Race 2
Bilsport Action Meet, Mantorp August 2 (one day race)
Second race was not that sunny or funny...but we got there and we got back home!
Entry: The hardware changes that was made after the first race were larger 95 lbs injectors because the 72 lbs injectors tended to max out at high RPM sometimes. And for the reason of fuel delivery I installed a even larger 11102 Aeromotive fuel pump and a matching regulator.
The big thing this time was that we made the car streetable on 98 octane pump gas so I could drive it to the race that was some 170 miles away in Mantorp. The cooling was no problem either while at 1700 to 2000 RPM and 55-60 mph. Coolant temperature was between 180 to 205 F. Outside temp was 27 degrees celsius. Cockpit was loud and it was just a beautiful experience to cruise the highway in the countryside of Sweden.
Next morning it started to rain and it rained until afternoon. It was more than 300 streetcars at this race! This Bilsport Magazine sponsored event is based on timeslips only. No elimination ladder. Cars are competing in 7 different classes from "Front Wheel Drive Without Forced Induction" to "Max Street". We entered the "V8" Class. But mostly we sat under our new party tent and watched the rain while drinking coffee and eating food served by Agneta and Annsofie. That beautiful redhead is Polina who just recently moved from St Petersburg in Russia to Orust in Sweden to marry my good old friend Sören "Fixar'n" Fjällstedt. That beautiful blonde is my wife Agneta who didn't had to move that far.
Finally we got us two (2) runs before they closed this one day event. Best was 11.744 @ 119.32 mph (192.059 kmh) which wasn't any improvement. I won't even tell you the 60 foot times!
And we didn't get any more runs to work on the improvements either...so that was it.
Shades or no shades? I think they're a lot better when it's dark and the headlamps is on...
Well, got me a small 2 inch left wheel jump and a 3:rd Prize in the 24-car field.
And we could drive home...so we were happy after all!Result lists and details in the fine old language Swedish:
Bilsport Action Meet 2003 - results
Race 3
Blackrace, Arken, Gothenburg, Aug. 8 - Streetrace 1/8 Mile (201 meter)
Pretty good results on a non prepared street...
Photo: Johan " Trafikfarlig"
Blackrace for street cars over a 1/8 mile (201,16 m) is a tremendous success, just like StreetLegal in
the USA. Instead of chasing the streetracers everywhere every night the police now block off a piece
of a industrial road and say "OK, race!" Everybody is a winner and it is a lot safer because of the mild
regulations that enforce helmet, gloves and safetybelts. The Gothenburg commuity office did their part
and invested in a complete state-of-the-art timing equipment and the streetracers built an unique
starting tree of two traffic lights!
And there's a Break Out-rule set at 7.50 seconds to make sure that no real race cars will enter, as to
keep trap speeds at a safe level. Hm...I ran 7.49 last night...and 95.86 mph (154.24 kmh)...safe.
Photo by Hast
Long time bracket racer Styrbjörn Gustavsson is always difficult to meet. And fun. His daily driven full weight family
Caprice has a 454 on nitrous. Going 8.00's on the 1/8 mile leaves almost everyone behind at a streetrace. The new generation racers can't believe how quick and fast it is and that it can beat all the Japanese what-have-you.
Photo by Hawkeye
The ProCharged 396 was very loud.
There are about 10-12 Blackraces between April and October (!) and the Blackrace concept is now spreading
to other cities all over Sweden on the initiative from the Federal Police! The common community problem
of Streetracing may have come to a stop in Sweden?
Visit to see it grow: Blackrace Sweden
Oil's okay!Top 20 out of a total 120 entries at this Blackrace Arken. (Speed calculation: kmh divided with 1.609 = mph) Break out: 7,50 seconds
Result - Driver - Car - ET - Speed (kmh) 1 Robert Pothorcki GMC Syclone 7,151 XXX,XX 2 Anders Envall Chevrolet Impala SS 7,491 154,24 3 Jesper Carlsson Chevrolet Camaro ´69 7,624 157,94 4 Mikael Persson Chevrolet Corvette '72 7,999 144,54 5 Styrbjörn Gustafsson Chevrolet Caprice wagon 8,007 143,24 6 Ticco Ojurovic BMW 318is 8,129 154,02 7 Michael Wahlqvist Ford Escort Cossworth 8,149 139,18 8 Sylve Nilsson Porsche 928 8,339 138,32 9 Ola Gruvesäter Mercedes Benz 190 SLR 8,386 146,70 10 Krister Lood Opel Kadett ´75 8,419 140,73 11 Erik Szanto Subaru Impreza GT 8,424 137,51 12 Daniel Liimatainen BMW 320t 8,429 151,35 13 Jaska Siirilä Nissan 200SX 8,457 144,00 14 Robert Holmberg AC Cobra 8,568 134,00 15 Mikael Ledin Mitsubishi 3000GT 8,643 129,40 16 Jonas Larsson Porsche 951 8,646 140,30 17 Daniel Hiert Opel Comodore Cupé 8,677 134,87 18 Niklas Bengtsson Toyota MR2 8,742 134,87 19 Glenn Johnsson Saab 9-3 Viggen 8,743 142,44 20 Dejan Colic Fiat Uno Turbo 8,776 135,03Race 4
Landskrona, August 22-24 - SDC, Dragracing 1/4 Mile (402 meter)
Climbing to the Top Five SS-racers in the world!
This time I unhooked the blower belt and had a smooth ride to
the south of Sweden with a N/A 8.5:1 compression engine.
The Vigilante 2400 converter from Precision Industries really made an improvement on the performance!
11.206 @ 120 mph placed the BLACKOUT SS on No 5 spot at the Impala SS World ET List!
And that was still with the 44 tooth gear on the supercharger - 10 psi of boost.
Then, with just a few tooths less...
For sunday we changed to the 38 tooth gear but the increased boost of 17+ psi just fried the tires! At least
for a second - then the motor choked!!! And I had to pick it up again almost at idle 1000 RPM. Hm???
This set up became an issue. The engine just choked on high RPM. Like dead. Over and over again.
Had no idea why. We tried EVERYTHING. Friend AA Competition driver Kenneth Feldthusen said it could
be cavatiation of air so we deleted the Gale Banks Cobra neck and put the funnel direct onto the
ProCharger opening and - voilá!! Still, the Cobra neck works just fine as one integrated part of the induction
system when the street set up is mounted.
Reluctantly I did like the new generation racers, I removed the front headlamp to let cold air into the engine
department to get caught by the supercharger. It sure looks like hell and it scares away all the
photographers but it lowered the intake temperture by more than 50 degrees Fahrenheit /10 degrees Celsius!
That's GOOD OLD POWER folks!
You see that I have even cut a larger hole than the original. But I'll try to get the cold air from underneath
next year. Can't go around one eyed...
"Bostic! Come in now! It's DINNEEEEEEEER!" Sören "Fixar'n" was like a mother all weekend. Actually we had two
mothers in the caravan, Polina as well. We had coffee, beer, breakfast, lunch and dinner whenever we had a chance.
And note that they even provided the real "Bostic" cucumber to the hot dogs!
The chopped cucumber that has followed
me since 1972.
Still lucky to get to the final in the Bilsport Street Car Challange where I got an Runner up trophy behind Alf Hansson's street driven, street legal, beautiful and hilarious 1967 GTO which exploded to 9.0 ET's!! I was a sitting duck.
More about his projects: www.osterlen.com
Still, the World's 5th quickest Impala SS! And more to come!
A can of Bullens Pilsnerkorv and a Jenkins cigar. What more can you ask for?
Summer night. Going home again, with my friends next to me - the FAST-dashboard and the Runner Up trophy...
Race 5
Santa Pod, England, August 20-September 7 - FIA European Finals 1/4 Mile
Hitting the 10's still without full boost!
Your'e in England now! Drive on the left side, don't stop and watch out for the bowmen...
Dirty SS opened with a 10.88 straight in from the M1 after a 650 miles drive from the ferry in Newcastle.
Just the change of wheels, adjusting the four HAL shocks, turn on the valves for the race fuel system
and hook on the blower belt...which was totally shaved of tooths before the finish line!! Then what to do?
The belt destructions really ruined our racing at Santa Pod, even if we were really happy for being there
and meeting all the lovely english teams and getting the first 10's.
I wasn't at all prepared for that belt problem because one (1) singel belt lasted all summer on the 10 psi
set up. However, the resistance of making the 20 psi boost was a lot tougher than expected!
In one run I even did a soft and short burnout to save the belt a little - but it didn't help.
Hometown Blackrace officials blackened the Santa Pod pit area.
Nice guys and girls.
The 10.802 launch at Time trials, Wednesday. The preparation and hook at Santa Pod is just awesome!
But then I was losing power all the way. The tooths on the supercharger belt was again totally shaved off
by the finish line. FAST computer logged 20 psi in the burnout, 17 psi at the start and only 7 psi
at the top end! This uneven boost was of course giving the FAST a hard time and you can
both see and hear the problem in this 4,4 MB video:
The video of the 10.802 second run (and eurodragster.com photographer Sharkman in action as well!).
We tried everything to get them to last. Hard tension, harder. Soft, softer. The tensioner pulley on the inside or on the outside. No way. The race was over for us when all the belts were gone...with the Wind.
Lauren Sommerville and Axel Envall found each other at Santa Pod.
And Agneta and I found the 10's at last! But the long awaited #@&+¤// 9's...?
We promise to find them in 2004.
Please join The HUNT!
On the way home the 4L60E transmission suddenly slipped badly in 3rd gear! Had to call a tow truck!
Only one was excited for that...
Robert "Mr Syclone" Pothorcki show what happened. It wasn't the 1-3rd gear package that slipped as we
first thought, it was these knuckles at the rear of the drum that hold the ring and the package that just
let go!! Robert has never seen or heard about it before. Typical! Everything just has to come down on me!
Online from England!
We had an daily update from our testing and racing at Santa Pod Raceway in England.
You can find it at "PITLANE" - the guestbook/forum.
SORRY, BUT NO MORE RACES THIS YEAR!
I guess...maybe the last BLACKRACE of the year?
I wish...
Atlanta Dragway, Commerce, Georgia, USA Nov 8
Southern Super Heavy Shootout 3, Dragracing 1/4 mile
Then...
