Austrian Muscle

The great Franz Albert racing his Camaro at the airfield Langenlebarn in 1970 and 71. After his career as racer Albert opened an engine shop and became famous for turboed and supercharged engines powering Koenig Ferraris and Mercedes of the 80s.
The Camaro was later used in hillclimb trials and ended in the yard of my friend Michael K. The aluminum small block chevy was apart for service, the chassis suffered some rust damage. In the early 90s Michael offered me the Camaro but I couldnt afford the prize of 50k austrian schillings. The last trace of the car so far, its owned by a famous austrian rally driver and will be restored to former glory.



courtesy of Arthur Fenzlau/Technisches Museum

courtesy of Arthur Fenzlau/Technisches Museum

courtesy of Arthur Fenzlau/Technisches Museum

GS110X headwork

Recently I did some cylinderheadwork for my friend Martin from www.twostroke500.com. The 4-valvehead had some heatcracks but with proper welding and new seats the problem should be fixed. The head will work on a 1260cc engine which powers his new Suzuki XR69 project.

heatcracks

repair work

trialfit

 

XR69 sample

Got Colors?

Yes the Mexxspeed Ghia paintjob is already done. After 250hrs hard work by ToxicTom and Mexx the finished result is just amazing. ToxicToms artworks and paintjobs are one of the best in whole Europe.



The finished product

Slideshow direct link

Time goes by

Whilst kids, family and work keep me off writing news, my old friend Mexx put another 2500hours work in his Ghia Racer. The hell knows who gave him the energy to move forward on the project this fast. You may say other racers are built in one year. Thats right but they are built from shopped parts. This one is built from 100% Mexx parts. Still the maxim is “how to modify dam everything…” which was overruled the last years by “how to fabricate dam everything…”

Pictorial overview ( take your time, about 400pics)

Slideshow direct link



First rollout this summer? Hopefully there is a lot of work left.

If you want to read some comments from Mexx go to http://www.cedrag.com/ and scroll down the news to March 8th and 3rd. To contact Mexx use info@mexxspeed.com

Prince Valiant

Everyone know Hal Fosters stories about Prince Valiant. Would he have used our new purchase as workhorse nowadays? Of course, nice red interior with fancy mopar mats, airconditioning, auto trans and v8.


1966 Plymouth Valiant V100


1966 interior

1969 Shelby GT500

The first warm days of 2008 I did some tuneup work on a friend's 1969 Shelby GT500. The car was fired up after 20 years of storage and 2 years of restoration. The untouched 428 Super Cobra Jet did run well but had no idle. After some fiddling the problenm was localized, a wrong gasket did hinder the fuel flow to the idleslots. So far I remember this Shelby was in Austria from the beginning. It has a unique steel oilpan with cooling tubes and fins this style was also used on some other 428CJ cars delivered in Europe.


Austrian GT500 4speed


'69 Shelby 428CJ oilpan


'70 Mach1 428CJ oilpan

New resident ...

...in the V8 Garage. Couldnt resist to buy an old Suzuki T500 Titan. Its a '72 model with Pearl Orange and White paint scheme on the tank. These are really rare here in Austria beside the Triple RamAir Suzis. These T500 were big two-strokes that worked more reliable than many four-strokes of the time, required less maintenance and featured oil-injection direct into the crankcases along with massive and durable main roller bearings. Quite fast for its capacity it put many contemporary 500cc and 650cc four-stroke twins to shame.


Need some TLC


Titan ad 1970


Titan ad 1972

Balancing Rig

To build a crankshaft balancing rig is more difficult than you will think. We were aware of problems but as usual further ones expose during the building process.

Currently fighting these problems

-weight of the table and base
-rigidity of the table and base
-induced noise of roller bearings
-design, rigidity of crank holders
-usability of drilling fixture
...

The next weeks....

...I will not get bored. Fact is, I am running out of engine stands. In the waiting queue 350 SBC, 403 Olds, 383 and 440 Mopar. Further we built a balancing rig for V8 cranks, the necessary Schenk Ind. measuring equipment is already there and used by Jakadofsky Jet Engines to balance their turbines which turn up to 120k rpms. The rig has provisions to run shafts and cranks on either roller bearings or teflon prism.


Balancing rig


Vibration control

Hot Rod Hangar

Knud Tiroch and his son Dominic will run a Reality Soap called "Hot Rod Hangar" from on 7th of January 2008 on SAT1 channel. Main content will be driving not wrenching. No easy task with old cars :-) BTW " Hey dude, yes Knud I mean you, there is still a new 440engine waiting in my garage to burn rubber of your Challengers rims off. Pick it up"



Teaser

67' Barracuda

67 Barracuda Formula S package, 273 Commando V8, column shift, Torqueflite tranny, this car I owned in the early 90s, selling it later to my friend Ali who restored it to high standard. It got a nice color, dogdishcaps and a healthy exhaustsound too. Watch the Vid or take a look at Alis Blog. http://schwarzlackenau.blogspot.com/

Future Jensen

Keith Anderson of the Jensen Owners Club has done a nice sketch of how a Jensen Interceptor could look in 2009.


Interceptor 2009

Interceptor S at NEC Show

Pictures Courtesy of Jensen Owners Club



Interceptor S


400hp LS2 GM engine


Luxury Interior


Shifter GM tranny

Superrare...

...carbon Mopar W8 intake auctioned DownUnder goes for about 1000Euros. Built for a handful of Chrysler LeMans engines used in the Dallara SP1, which competed successfully 4th place overall in the 2001 LeMans Endurance Race. There is not much known about this engines rather than they were similar to detuned USAC Silver Crown engines.

Engine
Engine Builder: JOHN CALDWELL CDI
Manufacturer: MOPAR
Type: LEMANS
Displacement: 365
Horsepower: 650+
Torque: 500+
Induction: CARBON FIBER INTAKE MANIFOLD WITH EFI
Heads: CUSTOM RAISED PORT W8 HEADS FOR LEMANS ONLY
Block: MOPAR ALUMINUM MADE FOR LEMANS
Main Caps: PROGRAMS BILLET CROSS BOLTED
Crankshaft: LA ENTERPRISES BILLET 3.37 STROKE
Connecting Rods: CARRILLO
Pistons: CP CUSTOM
Camshaft: LSM
Valves: 2.18 1.625 DELWEST TITANIUM
Valve Train: JESEL AND T&D
Races: 1


Ebay auction


Mopar Lemans engine


Dallara SP1

Professional Motorsport World Expo

Last week we visited the PMW Expo in Cologne a trade show exclusively open to qualified visitors who are specifically involved in motorsport. There is no entry to the general public, so this tradefair is not crowded and there is a lot of time to talk to your favorite exhibitors. At evenings of the Expo the Professional MotorSport World Expo Awards and the Race Engine Technology Awards will be presented. For the winners go to PMW Winners. There were also the possibility to attend forums covering performance technologies and business issues. We had the chance to test some chassis dynos by our own, gather infos about all kind of electronic equipement, coating technologies and so on.


Audi V12 TDI Lemans winner


Rods by Arrow Precision


Performance Friction Brakes


Torqueline kevlar driveshafts

The Interceptor S

The first 'new' Jensen Interceptor for a very long time....
V Eight at Cropredy Bridge is building the first of a new generation
of Jensen Interceptor Limited Edition of 50, the INTERCEPTOR S.

The Interceptor S offers classic Jensen Interceptor styling and luxury, augmented by the reliability, power and control of a modern car :
414 BHP General Motors 6 Litre LS2 V8 Engine
4-speed Automatic Transmission
Jaguar XKR suspension front and rear
AP brakes 330X32mm behind 17 inch version of the MK3 alloy wheel.

The car will retail at £74,960(about 165.000USD). Mr David Duerden, Technical Director said "This car is a complete rebuild with significant upgrades in performance, quality, and luxury. It stands comparison with other vehicles in this sector and we believe it represents excellent value for money for a unique hand-built vehicle"

For a full technical specification go to http://www.veight.web.com/


Courtesy of V Eight

Mexxspeed

I have done a new blog for my friend Martin F. aka Mexx. Bringing you information about his fast Karmann Convertible, his new radical Karmann dragracer and everything aircooled. Check it out. Mexxspeed

Start from scratch

Something is growing in Styria, its made of metal, built from scratch and has the shape of a '32 Roadster. We have to be patient some more month til we can see this beauty on austrian roads. Watch out, more infos will follow.

Gordian Knot

Yeahh the BeaMini exhaust tubes are ready to feed the hungry turbine.

Exh primaries

Firestream Foundation

My good friend Christian Sch. has lunched a new website Firestream Foundation where he tells us about his passion. Check it out.