A car I built earlier this year is in La Carrera Panamericana. Brief video from Steve Berry, who's down there supporting the team:
I know they made it to Oaxaca -- haven't heard anything beyond that yet. So far, so good. Fingers crossed... 
A car I built earlier this year is in La Carrera Panamericana. Brief video from Steve Berry, who's down there supporting the team:
I know they made it to Oaxaca -- haven't heard anything beyond that yet. So far, so good. Fingers crossed...
Gil Stuart of Namaimo, B.C. had a top 5 finish in the La Carrera Panamericana driving his '58 Volvo PV444 back in the mid-90's. He's a regular entry in our SOVREN vintage <a href="
">events.
The car sounds great! Good luck to them! 
Dougie, I built Gil Stuart an engine last year -- a pretty modest one, though... I think he only uses it when he has to be 100% legal in SOVREN.
More La Carrera stuff here:
Awesome pics and vids!
Are there any good classic Volvo forums? I am looking for info on 122s. Thanks!
Steve,
I believe your right. Gil's a great driver and he really flogs that Volvo around. We're had some good dices.
Dougie <a href="
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KaptKaos,
Long-time Volvo forum here (quality of advice varies, so user beware):
Less traffic, better consistency:
Mailing list nominally for 1800 models, but we're happy to discuss other older Volvos. Some pretty savvy folks here:
My very outdated website:
Feel free to e-mail me anytime. I don't mind answering questions.
Great stuff!
We get a pretty good showing of classic Volvos at our VRG events here on the east coast. We had four last weekend at Watkins Glen; an Amazon, a PV and two P1800s (first two pics below are from last weekend.....the third and fourth are from PVGP at BeaveRun).
~CLICK HERE~ to see a PV pulling past my ailing Spridget last weekend (around the 6:20 minute mark on this video).
[edit-fixed the last picture]
Aeronca, don't think I know that particular PV. I do know John Hamilton and his all-red PV who races in your area. I had nothing to do with that car, but my wife did design the "Vainglory Racing" tee-shirts for them.
The La Carrera Amazon soldiers on... problems have been the urethane upper A-arm bushings splitting under the loads imposed -- after running through two sets, they've got stock rubber ones in there now that I hope will see them through. They also lost time to a clutch actuating rod breaking in two (that one cost them a 60-second penalty).
We had 600 miles of testing and sorting before sending the car to Mexico, but it's simply not possible to simulate the actual event elsewhere. That's the biggest challenge of the whole deal -- and that's racing 
Day 4 Results:
After missing a stage yesterday and being up most of the night resolving further clutch problems (finally fixed for good, I hope and think), "our" car has battled back up to 28th overall, 2nd in class and 11 seconds behind the class leading Alfa in 27th. 3rd in class is a Volvo 1800, 1:43 behind us and running 36th overall (they were way ahead yesterday).
65 cars of the original field of 103 (plus a few Exhibition class cars) are still in it.
Final Ranking:
Historico A+ | (Overall) | Driver | Marque | Total
So, we took third overall, and came very close to catching Jo Ramirez, who is a famous guy. Considering how much sheer guesswork I put into setting up the car, we did good. Next year will be better yet.
Onwards!
Congratulations! That's quite an accomplishment.
Truly excellent!
Congrats!
I finally got the full report from Steve Berry. The problems with the urethane bushings were that the ones on the header side were melting. My bad -- I missed that possibility entirely.
It's clutch problems that kept the car from first in class, or at least a strong second. I got talked out of my original plan by a respected Volvo engine / race car builder, and ended up using something that was engineered to fail. The crew was finally able to correct it, took fast time of the day on Day 6, and were closing in fast on second place the last day.
We'll get 'em next year...
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