Preparing for the Big Shoo-La Carrera Panamericana 1
“How long are you going to be doing this?”
It seems this question about my racing is becoming more common with the start of each new trip around the sun, especially among the more elderly of my family and friends. I define elderly as much by attitude as chronological age, maybe even more so by the former. As long as one has reasonable health, denial of the latter is useful to my mental well-being.
So why slow down? New adventures await inside and outside racetracks and Volvodom.
Such are my thoughts as I write this in the waning moments of 2023.
Earlier this year, my buddy and partner in VSA authorship Duane Matejka made me aware of an opportunity for a new adventure, just awaiting a little work and transport from his shop to mine. Seems one of Duane’s rally car clients had decided that an ES Duane had started to prepare for him had to be sidelined and Duane wondered if I wanted it. Maybe wondering is too weak; rather, encouraged me to avail myself to this marvelous opportunity.
It was tempting since the ESes have become quite the staple of my existence. After mulling it over and talking with my left coast friend Cameron Lovre, with whom I had long ago entertained the idea of doing the Ultimate Road Race, Mexico’s La Carrera Panamericana, I decided to pass on it.
The car sat for a bit longer, Duane kept talking with me, and Irv Stein, with whom Duane has had a long-standing racing relationship. Irv decided to buy the car and Duane suggested that he would not be able to finish it. “But Jim can.” Next thing I knew I had struck a deal with my right coast Volvo 1800 racing friend Irv that I would complete the project — do what little (ahem) work remained to be done, to turn it into a La Carrera entrant for a Stein-Perry team for late 2024.
The car was to be delivered to P and B Motorsports forthwith. Well, these things have a way of not working out exactly as planned and the delivery to P and B Motorsports has been delayed from May of 2023 to maybe May 2024. But the basic plan still exists.
The pictures below shows where the car was in December of 2023, before the roll cage being fitted before it came to me. La Carrera is 2000+ miles of demanding driving on Mexico’s highways. It’s not for the faint of heart or a poorly prepared car. Safety requirements of the event are high, as in the past there have been not just a few people who made this a one-way trip. There are places along the route where guard rails don’t exist, and it can be a long way to the bottom.
Almost ready for paint – Car as it sat at Duane’s, without cage completed. Note new jacking point under the door, just like that of 1 Red.
Duane has done a whole lot of the heavy lifting. The structural and suspension reinforcements that made my 1 Red such a successful race car have been improved upon, using Duane’s ME knowledge and that gained from creating some very successful Peking to Paris Volvos more recently. While this is an ES, we’re going to fit it with Joe Curto rebuilt HS-6 SU carbs to feed a fully race prepared B20.
Lower A arm reinforcements have strengthened them to deal with increased torsional forces.
Likewise, the upper A arm have been reinforced with plating.
The roads can be rough, with speed bumps that defy the imagination of those who drive around in the U.S. Duane did his magic on the front cross member as well, first adding structural reinforcements, then modifying it to accommodate custom made Bilstein dampers from Sellholm Tuning AB in Sweden.
The rear shock mounts needed reinforcement too. Here’s what the mockup looked like for the passenger side roll cage location. The damper (shock absorber) has been installed.
The drivetrain will include a newly rebuilt BW (Mustang) T5 5-speed transmission, which has specially selected ratios to match those of the original Volvo M41 OD transmission. The shifter is a Hurst unit.
T5 with overdrive
For the fuel system, while this is an ES chassis, we’re going to run twin SU carbs that have been totally redone by the highly respected SU rebuilder Joe Curto. The fuel cell is large to accommodate this particular race — a 32-gallon JAZ unit.
Now it’s up to me and Dave Buettner to finish it off. Dave will paint the car and no doubt help with some of the assembly. I’ll be purchasing the rally instrumentation and lord knows what else with the hope of creating a great car that might serve as the crowning event of my, and Irv Stein’s racing life. Stay tuned for more developments.
“You don’t stop racing when you get old, you get old when you stop racing.” – Author unknown.
