So to the story:
I had decided to get the car out to the tracks for the weekend 11-13 August.
Thats when the Scandinavian Drag racing Championship had its race on my local Raceway in Tullinge.
The week before the race the team had vacation from work to be able to get things going.
The team is owned by Me Bjorn. Then it contains two persons. Elmer and Fille.
I will try to present them better later on.
Anyway.
Wensday the week before the race we still had'nt fixed the cluch,
and the engine was still not started in the car.
It showed up that the master cluch cylinder I had chose to use didnt work at all with the slave cylinder that came with the Volvo 850 gearbox.
Since it was so close to race I went the easy way and got me a used master cylinder from the wreckers.
Too bad Volvo seemed to have a very hard time deciding which way was the best for the time being
'cos they had four different versions of both master and slave cylinders.
I got one that I was told to be the correct one for my slave...
...but I couldn't test it until thursday.
That was because the master cylinder had a very unique connection of the fluid hose,
so we had to get one by express from Volvo.
(it was not possible to get one from the wreckers)
In the mean while I built a perfectly working holder for the master cylinder.
Thursday morning came, and as soon as we got the line from Volvo we tested it.
Anyone who would have thought that the so called correct parts from the wreckers would be the correct ones?
I had my believes, but it did not do the job at all.
By now all in the team and all others involved started to worry a bit...
...I mean, here we are.
We managed to build an engine with 915BHP,
we managed to build a chassis and get it approved for 7,5sec passes on the tracks,
but we cant get a simple little tiny thing as a cluch to work?
Fille got an idea which involved using a master brake cylinder from a spare N12 I have,
and after some odd fiddling with it he proved the master brake cylinder worthy for the task.
After we had built a third set of fasterners, the clock had passed 18:00 which meant no more ability to get parts until the day after.
Luckily the master brake cylinder had force enough to make the cluch set the gearbox free.
Only problem was that the pedal was so hard to press down I thought Id brake my foot pressing it down.
Never mind that, now we wanted to start the engine in the car!
I quickly put in the new Autronic trigger wheel in the dizzy (since the old one got destroyed in the dyno).
Now we couldn't get it to fire, ignition sequence was wrong and we were too tired to understand half of what we were doing.
Thats when Johan from Madtech called and could make his rout to the race via our garage.
Thank heaven for that!
He came by around 22:00 thursday and after four hours it started up.
It went really bad with lots of misfiring, but we didnt really care.
I took the car for its first test drive around 02:00. It went from my garage to the garage next door (5-10m)
It was great exciting! =)
Then we had to adjust the wheel alignment until we could drive the car more.
Around 04:00 the wheel alignment was fixed and we went to a large scale for trucks a couple of Km's from the garage.
It weighted 1040Kg
On our way from the scale (05:00) we met the police but they must have ben on their way off their shift or something,
'cos I cant imagine they had seen a less legal vehicle for a long time... =)
They didnt even bother to stop us, so we could get home and get some sleep.
I went back to the garage to 12:00 friday,
but Fille who slept on my couch didnt fancy its comfort so he went to the garage at 10:00.
When I showed up he had rebuilt the cluch pedal and made it the largest cluch pedal I've ever seen.
Now I could use my whole foot to force the pedal to the floor and if I was to brake anything pressing it down it had to be my leg...
...and my leg felt a lot stronger than my foot. =)
Except for the cluch we had to install a window net, shout-wire, make the engine run smooth,
fasten the fire extinguisher pipes, etc.
The electrical system for ECU, ignition and alternator found out to be too weak,
so that had to be taken care of too.
After installing some car audio gadgets that was solved.
At 20:00 friday evening we found out the reason for the rough idle and misfiring.
It turned out to be the fuel pressure regulator from AEM. It let fuel out to the vacuum line,
so we had to get a new one.
We had already missed the qualifying rounds on friday but the race offered qualifying on Saturday too.
Sundays race was eliminations only, so we HAD to get to the race on saturday.
A friend of mine managed to talk Claus at Turbocenter (a really large speed shop in Sweden)
into the task of getting me a new FPR.
We loaded the car and all tools we could possible need and went to Turbocenter.
We met Claus around midnight at his firm. He came straight from the movies with his girlfriend
and he was very helpful. He offered a HKS FPR that "should do the job",
or a super-bling-mega-FPR called Kinsler PRO that would seriously do the job with ease.
The only problem with the mega-one was that it costed a fortune plus tax.
For the time being, less than 6 hours to race money was really not an object.
Even if it was so mega good it still had AN6 male connections.
My old AEM FPR had female AN6 connections so he gave me a hand full of adaptors to make it work.
My fuel system is based on AN8 hoses and connections.
Funny this years season should start with FPR-issues just like back in 2004:
Read about that here
At 01:30 towards saturday we finally arrived to the tracks locked gates.
Half an hour later a guard arrived to let us in...
...or at least all regular cars but since my car obviously was a race car he wouldn't let me in.
He wanted me to park a couple of Km's from the gates on an unattended parking lot.
I explained to him in the nicest possible way that what ever he had to say except for "welcome in" was to be left out of the protocol.
After he had talked to the guards chief for ten minutes he say ed that if I maby...
...so I entered. =)
We unloaded the car and wen to sleep in the trailer rather fast.
As soon as we wake up I reported the team present, and then we started changing the FPR.
Our class called "Sport Compact Sport" had the first run in the morning so obviously we missed that
but we made it to the viechle check right after that.
While waiting for our class next round Filles girlfriend made us breakfast,
my mother and sister showed up to witness what my passion was all about...
...Im not sure they truly understood what could be so cool with sitting in the grass like a tramp,
dirty and tired trying to open a banana. =)
Eventually our class got another qualifying round.
I was too tired to even bother being nervous, I just did it by routine.
The burnout went perfect. So perfect even I got surprised. She felt strong.
I staged in with my launc-controle like I used to back in 2004 but the engine wouldn't rev past 3400rpm.
I didnt noticed, I just pressed the launc which was set to 6000rpm. therefor the engine stalled when I try ed to leave the line.
I restarted the engine and try ed to complete the round, but it would not rev past 3400rpm in any gear.
I was so angry on my way down the strip finishing a 30sec run it was past angry.
Back to the pit to check the log and see what was the cause.
In the burnout I rev ed 9000rpm without hassle, so why not in the run?
Could it have something to do with the launch?
We didnt have time to figure it out until it was our turn to hit the track again.
The only thing we could think of was "Do not use the launch"
I did not use the launch and when she took me for a 1,51s 60ft-pass I couldn't believe it.
I can not with sensed words describe the feeling I got. The acceleration was so unreal!
If it was me being absent from the tracks for two years or if it really was that good will show next time I hit the tracks.
Anyway, since I got so suprised (almost scared actually) by how massive she accelerated from the line
I shifted to second gear nice and slow.
I mean what if she would brake away on second gear as she did on first?
Then I wasnt to sure of being able to control it. -It was that extreme on first gear!
Since I shifted nice and slow into second I lost all boost and the power was well controllable.
I only rev ed to 7500rpm until I put in third gear, and sure it was increasing in speed but in third gear
it wasnt that fun at all. I shifted into forth gear just to let the revs go down a bit until I stopped the engine after passing goal.
When Elmer came an picked me up after finnish I couldn't believe him when he told me I ran 10,89.
1,51 in 60ft I could imagine, and next time I will know better whats comming to me when I leave the line.
10,89 made me No 1 in the qualifyings since the two faster cars had left the track with different problems.
The eliminations that should have taken place in Sunday rained away,
so unfortunately no victory for anyone that day.
I cant say the season could have started out in any better way, even though a bit late.
There are only two fairly large races left of our season...
-atleast I now know why the engine refused to rev past 3400rpm in the first round.
It was the new FPR being too linear compared to my old one.
The old one couldn't regulate the pressure 100% correctly for low revs/powers which gave the engine more fuel than it was supposed to get in low revs.
The new one is a bit too accurate and therefor the engine leans on low revs so bat it wont pass 3400rpm.
We will fix the low rev maps until next race which will take place the 26/8-2006.
Here are some photos that I took in our pit area,
and on my wheelie-bars wheels after my only run (that I can see it)
Seems like they were made for a different purpose than being attached to the track all the way down.
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