GuruX
A2OC Donor
Hey!
A month ago or so, a friend of mine asked me to join "Skrotbilsrejset" (the scrap car race in english) at the race course Mantorp Park in Sweden. I accepted.
It's a race with quite simple rules. Most laps during 24 hours wins. The car has to be worth less than 10k SEK or £845, otherwise you'll get laps deducted from your total. Buying a crashed car for less than 10k SEK is not an option. The value is counted on the car beeing in decent shape. The car HAS to be scrapped after the race, you're only allowed to take your safety equipment, if you put any in.
The team had already bought a Renault 5 GTE from 88, 94BHP. Not a bad buy, even though I would never have chosen a French car... It took us a week to figure out how to turn on the main beam. Before the race we didn't do much more than replace some dry fuel hose and the fuel pump relay. Then we ripped most of the interior out, but we kept the nice red mat. Bought eight used wheels quite cheap, one of them had a puncture. And then of course, added some aux lights and nice decals. This is what it looked like:
Our team was my friend Mike, two of his Greek colleagues and me. The three of them went from Göteborg to Mantorp on Friday night, while I had to work late and arrived Saturday, just before race start. They had run a few laps of qualifying and we started as something like fifth from the end. A total of 60 cars started the race. So many cars that all of them didn't have enough space on the start and goal straight. We started just before a corner and couldn't even see the lights. But hey, it's a 24 hour race.
Mike started driving and since we kept the passenger seat, I rode along for a while. After trouble with the transponders, the race was restarted. Some stupid guy had lended someone half of the proper transponders. Our car, together with 29 other cars had go cart transponders, instead of the real thing. So they all had to be moved from inside the car to underneath the car.
Now it was my turn to take our Renault round the track. It was scary as hell in the beginning. All the other cars seemed to be a lot faster and I was passed a lot. Speeds were much higher than I expected. Top speed for us was about 150 kph (93 mph) on the drag straight. A bit before the end of the straight was a chicane built from old truck tires. Really tight. Really scary. No room for error, as almost everywhere else on the track. But after tenty or so laps, I got the hang of it and became a little more cocky.
Evening and darkness was next on the schedule. The Greek guys had done some driving during the day, but was a little afraid to drive in the dark. I drove some and Mike drove some. Even though we had added four aux lights to the front lights was nowhere near enough. Discouraged, the Greek guys wanted to quit. I wanted to drive. Mike was like 50/50. After some discussion, the Greek guys took my lovely A2 home to Göteborg and Mike and I stayed. It was tough work to only be two drivers. When we were in the pit talking about whether we should drive or sleep during the night, a guy came up to us and started talking, just as many others did. We explained to him that we were only two drivers, then asked about his team. They had been driving an Alfa, but busted a CV joint on the curbs in a fight with a Mercedes 190. We asked them to come and drive with us. They said that they would love to! Great, we got to sleep and they got a new car to drive. I also mentioned that our lights was a bit bad. He instantly replied, come along! In three minutes, two guys were standing, bolting a roof bar with giant Bosch lights to our car. Mike and I were just watching. They were so quick that we just tried to get out of their way.
Here's our new teammates (a picture from another race):
I went to bed in the boot and back seat of Mikes Saab 9-3. Mike went racing together with one of the others. That's when this happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KImA2LWFsZU
Our new teammates kept the car running during the night and Mike and I got some sleep. I have never slept so well in a car. Track racing is exhausting!
Morning came, we went to get some breakfast and more fuel for the car and then it was racing all the way to the end. The car had been pretty butchered during the night. Both Mike and I was quite quick on moving out of the way when we had faster cars behind us, whilst our new teammates was a bit more uncompromising. I hopped in the drivers seat again and had some great driving whilst the sun was rising. The track was a bit less crowded now also. Some cars had broken down during the night.
At 13:00 I went in the pit, picked up Mike and moved myself to the passenger seat. At 13:30 we drove by the checkered flag. What a feeling! We had done about 450 laps. Went through about eight tires (with a lot of flat spots) and about 200 liters (52 gallons) of petrol. All the time without the air filter which fell off lap 5 or so. We didn't have to change brake pads even once. Our pit neighbors used something like three sets for the front, on their Clio. They even bought one of our spare sets. We beat them by five laps. 38 cars made it the 24 hours, but some of them weren't running all the time. People looked at our car lined up after the finish, and said, "I never thought this car would make it round the whole race". We were also a bit amazed.
This is what it looked like after the race. Still running, and still close to legal to drive on the road.
This was a great experience! I hope there is something similar in your country. If not, perhaps you should arrange it? This race is very popular here in Sweden, as soon as the booking opens, the 60 spots is filled within hours. It's also an excellent way to get junk cars away from the roads
I hope you enjoyed the reading. I'll post some more pics later and a greatest crashes video as soon as we get it all sorted out.
Cheers!
A month ago or so, a friend of mine asked me to join "Skrotbilsrejset" (the scrap car race in english) at the race course Mantorp Park in Sweden. I accepted.
It's a race with quite simple rules. Most laps during 24 hours wins. The car has to be worth less than 10k SEK or £845, otherwise you'll get laps deducted from your total. Buying a crashed car for less than 10k SEK is not an option. The value is counted on the car beeing in decent shape. The car HAS to be scrapped after the race, you're only allowed to take your safety equipment, if you put any in.
The team had already bought a Renault 5 GTE from 88, 94BHP. Not a bad buy, even though I would never have chosen a French car... It took us a week to figure out how to turn on the main beam. Before the race we didn't do much more than replace some dry fuel hose and the fuel pump relay. Then we ripped most of the interior out, but we kept the nice red mat. Bought eight used wheels quite cheap, one of them had a puncture. And then of course, added some aux lights and nice decals. This is what it looked like:
Our team was my friend Mike, two of his Greek colleagues and me. The three of them went from Göteborg to Mantorp on Friday night, while I had to work late and arrived Saturday, just before race start. They had run a few laps of qualifying and we started as something like fifth from the end. A total of 60 cars started the race. So many cars that all of them didn't have enough space on the start and goal straight. We started just before a corner and couldn't even see the lights. But hey, it's a 24 hour race.
Mike started driving and since we kept the passenger seat, I rode along for a while. After trouble with the transponders, the race was restarted. Some stupid guy had lended someone half of the proper transponders. Our car, together with 29 other cars had go cart transponders, instead of the real thing. So they all had to be moved from inside the car to underneath the car.
Now it was my turn to take our Renault round the track. It was scary as hell in the beginning. All the other cars seemed to be a lot faster and I was passed a lot. Speeds were much higher than I expected. Top speed for us was about 150 kph (93 mph) on the drag straight. A bit before the end of the straight was a chicane built from old truck tires. Really tight. Really scary. No room for error, as almost everywhere else on the track. But after tenty or so laps, I got the hang of it and became a little more cocky.
Evening and darkness was next on the schedule. The Greek guys had done some driving during the day, but was a little afraid to drive in the dark. I drove some and Mike drove some. Even though we had added four aux lights to the front lights was nowhere near enough. Discouraged, the Greek guys wanted to quit. I wanted to drive. Mike was like 50/50. After some discussion, the Greek guys took my lovely A2 home to Göteborg and Mike and I stayed. It was tough work to only be two drivers. When we were in the pit talking about whether we should drive or sleep during the night, a guy came up to us and started talking, just as many others did. We explained to him that we were only two drivers, then asked about his team. They had been driving an Alfa, but busted a CV joint on the curbs in a fight with a Mercedes 190. We asked them to come and drive with us. They said that they would love to! Great, we got to sleep and they got a new car to drive. I also mentioned that our lights was a bit bad. He instantly replied, come along! In three minutes, two guys were standing, bolting a roof bar with giant Bosch lights to our car. Mike and I were just watching. They were so quick that we just tried to get out of their way.
Here's our new teammates (a picture from another race):
I went to bed in the boot and back seat of Mikes Saab 9-3. Mike went racing together with one of the others. That's when this happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KImA2LWFsZU
Our new teammates kept the car running during the night and Mike and I got some sleep. I have never slept so well in a car. Track racing is exhausting!
Morning came, we went to get some breakfast and more fuel for the car and then it was racing all the way to the end. The car had been pretty butchered during the night. Both Mike and I was quite quick on moving out of the way when we had faster cars behind us, whilst our new teammates was a bit more uncompromising. I hopped in the drivers seat again and had some great driving whilst the sun was rising. The track was a bit less crowded now also. Some cars had broken down during the night.
At 13:00 I went in the pit, picked up Mike and moved myself to the passenger seat. At 13:30 we drove by the checkered flag. What a feeling! We had done about 450 laps. Went through about eight tires (with a lot of flat spots) and about 200 liters (52 gallons) of petrol. All the time without the air filter which fell off lap 5 or so. We didn't have to change brake pads even once. Our pit neighbors used something like three sets for the front, on their Clio. They even bought one of our spare sets. We beat them by five laps. 38 cars made it the 24 hours, but some of them weren't running all the time. People looked at our car lined up after the finish, and said, "I never thought this car would make it round the whole race". We were also a bit amazed.
This is what it looked like after the race. Still running, and still close to legal to drive on the road.
This was a great experience! I hope there is something similar in your country. If not, perhaps you should arrange it? This race is very popular here in Sweden, as soon as the booking opens, the 60 spots is filled within hours. It's also an excellent way to get junk cars away from the roads
I hope you enjoyed the reading. I'll post some more pics later and a greatest crashes video as soon as we get it all sorted out.
Cheers!
