LeMons Volvo project

Discussion about automotive projects
MX5 Driver
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Re: LeMons Volvo project

Post by MX5 Driver »

Great job guys!

Keep it up and you may have to start signing autographs at the club meetings.
Tim W.
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brownMINI
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Re: LeMons Volvo project

Post by brownMINI »

So... we're headed off again today. The car has been hot-rodded a bit. Paul Dudley donated another 240 for us to strip parts off of in exchange for the scrap value of what was left. So, we wound up with a second motor. We did some stuff to it and dropped it in the Cow and finally got it firing correctly last night after 6 long days of working on it. Hopefully it survives its break in period - which will be about 10 hours straight of full throttle racing.

We also changed up the exhaust. We used to have no muffler and a cat. Now we have no cat and a glass-pack. I think it sounds better this way.

We're going for the Class A win this time, and we have a keg of Switchback Roasted Red heading down with us. :drinkers:
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brownMINI
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It's over

Post by brownMINI »

Well, we tried to win classes C, B, and A all in the same car. But it didn't work out.

Our Volvo 240 wagon started life hovering between classes C and B. Often BS inspection / classing came down to pretty much a coin flip: "your car is horrible, so it should be class C, but all the other Volvos are class B".

We managed to get a class C win in New Jersey this year. So, it then didn't make sense to run in class C anymore, so Class B it was. We lucked into the class B win this year at Loudon, NH when one of the other Volvo 240 wagons had electrical issues towards the end of the race. At Capitol Offense (Summit Point), Judge Phil asked us to run in A, but we remarked that we'd prefer to do that at the Stafford Springs race, so we stayed in B for Capitol Offense (and won IOE for out top 10 finish in a 100+ car field).

That brings us to Stafford Springs. We actually used our residual from the Summit Point race to put a cam in the engine and few other things to try to get a little more power out of the non-turbo 4 cylinder. Of course, that meant that we didn't have a working engine until the Thursday evening before the race, and we had no miles on the modified engine before the race start since there's no practice day at Stafford.

The engine blew out tons of oil when coming on to the front straight for most of the start of the race, until our driver started short-shifting... we haven't figured out if there was really a problem there, or if we just over filled the oil too much. Other than that, the modified engine made just that little extra bit of power we had been looking for, and things looked as promising as they can when you're behind the wheel of a horrible Volvo. I believe we were in first overall about 2 hours into the race when we wound up in the wall.

From that point on, it was a long couple of days of trying to keep a broken front subframe and broken front control arms together enough to keep the car on the track. We had an absolutely horrible alignment on the car for most of Saturday, but managed to tame it a little bit for Sunday. Of course, that just meant we broke another control arm on Sunday, taking out a brake line with it as I tried to keep driving with a completely sheared control arm.

Everything did get welded up enough to head back out with three brakes for the last half hour or so, and we walked away with Organizer's Choice and the $500 check that comes with it to buy our replacement race car!

Now the debate is wether to pick up another 240 wagon so we can reuse our cage, or pick up a 262 Bertone coupe - because it's possibly the ugliest car ever - but would likely require a new cage...
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sachilles
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Re: LeMons Volvo project

Post by sachilles »

Does the parts donor Volvo have an acceptable body? Maybe combine the two?


Sorry to hear about the wreck. However, that Volvo has had a great life with you guys. It has earned it's retirement.

I'm not sure that any other car will ever compare.
Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza sedan made from spare parts (Scrappy)
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sachilles
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Re: LeMons Volvo project

Post by sachilles »

Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza sedan made from spare parts (Scrappy)
05 Subaru Legacy GT (Rosie)
02 Subaru impreza Wagon (Mr. the King)
96 Chevy Conversion van (Vango)
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sachilles
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Re: LeMons Volvo project

Post by sachilles »

How about an A-Team replica van?

http://burlington.craigslist.org/cto/2459466135.html

V8, rear wheel drive. Plenty of room to bring parts to the track.
Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza sedan made from spare parts (Scrappy)
05 Subaru Legacy GT (Rosie)
02 Subaru impreza Wagon (Mr. the King)
96 Chevy Conversion van (Vango)
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gtivr4
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Re: LeMons Volvo project

Post by gtivr4 »

The donor Volvo was Paul Dudley's old field racer and is scrap steel headed to China by now. We are either doing a new wagon or a 262 coupe. Not sure anything else will make us happy at this stage! Although we always have fun looking!
Nathan Dana
1990 Miata, 1992 Volvo Cow, 1997 Sonoma, 2012 Locost 7
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8valvegrowl
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Re: LeMons Volvo project

Post by 8valvegrowl »

sachilles wrote:These rear wheel drive?
http://burlington.craigslist.org/cto/2510353112.html
FWD.

A Volvo 740 or 940/960 might make a good bet. Especially the inline-6 models.
'99 9.3 - Torquey noodle-mobile.
'08 9.3 SportCombi - Family Wagon.
'87 900 - 8 valves of pure fury.
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sachilles
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Re: LeMons Volvo project

Post by sachilles »

Sachilles
02 Subaru impreza sedan made from spare parts (Scrappy)
05 Subaru Legacy GT (Rosie)
02 Subaru impreza Wagon (Mr. the King)
96 Chevy Conversion van (Vango)
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brownMINI
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Re: LeMons Volvo project

Post by brownMINI »

We're probably going to pick up the next car from someplace without rust. The rust issues had a lot to do with things failing at the race. Well, the wall helped too, I guess. :lol:

We need to compression test the motor we built up for the last race - if it's still good, we are going to use it as it had that extra oomph we have been wanting. Of course, having run it with the temp gauge in the red for most of the race (well, the parts of it we were on the track), there could be some damage.

The radiator and fan broke in the crash, and when we swapped in a backup radiator and new fan, we didn't spend the time to seal up the air gaps around the radiator - so the radiator was basically useless for most of Saturday. On Sunday, we had foamed up around the radiator and the temp gauge stayed in the middle.
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