Volvo X (1967 Pro-Touring Amazon) by Iamtheonlyreal1

11 minute(s) of a 390 minute read

I had someone email me some pictures from this last autocross event, and you can see the body roll that is in the car with the daily driver settings, so I did install some new coil springs with heavier spring rates especially to the rear of the car because that is where I think it was lacking the most.. I am running the heavy duty IPD Sway Bar on the front of the car, but it just doesn't seem like enough for the speed and power of the car, so I will have to check on other options there.

This car is a daily driver, so even though it is going out for competition on occasion I don't really want to get too far from the daily driver comfort, so I am trying to find the happy medium to both needs..

On a side note, the car was a hit at the GoodGuys show, and was picked for the Winners Circle Awards and special display by the judges, even though that is not common for an import car... Volvo X and I were picked out for a Television Interview that is to be aired at a later date, and I thought that was pretty cool due to the shear number of cars at this event, so maybe the old Volvo's can get some love.. LOL This next weekends event (The Ultimate Street Car Challenge) will be televised also, and I have prepped the car to do just a bit better, so if all goes good Volvo X will be invited to the SEMA Convention for display and the Optima Battery Challenge Invitational the day after.

3-21-2014

Here are some pics of the first leg of the Ultimate Street Car Challenge, and it was a long day of setup and a 80 mile Road Rally through the bumper to bumper traffic of the Dallas Fort Worth area.  

As you can see Volvo X is officially decaled up and ready to go, and I am liking how it all looks, but I guess I like stickers. An interesting thing though, I have had a television crew ask to follow me around all weekend so they can follow the car through its journey at this event, so hopefully that means the car will make all the way to the Optima Battery Invitational finals at SEMA in Las Vegas?. The file crew has been following me around in their mini van with the doors wide open while filming, along with series of one on one interviews about the car, so it seems that Volvo X is going to have plenty of exposure and screen time coming in Late July or early August.

As you can also see in these pics, Volvo X is playing with some pretty heavy hitters, and I hope that my lack of driving skills holds up.. LOL











The MavTv network crew asked to place cameras on the front and rear of the car for the Road Rally, and as you can see with the tape, they definitely didn't want to lose them.. I have to meet them in the morning so they can film me coming out of the Hotel to prep the car, and them film the car heading back the Texas Motor Speedway for the event.

3-23-2014

It was kind of a eventful and fun day today at the Ultimate Street Car Challenge, and it started with about 15 back to back runs of the Speed Brake Challenge, and I did on Autocross pass before I had some mechanical failure. I have been daily driving this car since it fired up, and this could only happen at that this particular time and event, but I blew out a Braided Stainless Steel Clutch Hydraulic line just at the end of one of the Speed Brake Challenges. If I didn't complete the allotted number of Autocross runs I would be disqualified for todays points, and that would have surely ended my time, so I had to really push the car hard without the use of a clutch..

I did the remainder of the Autocross runs without a working clutch so I wouldn't be disqualified from todays events, and actually bumped into Dustin from the Fast and Loud show at this event, and they were kind enough to locate the lines I needed and deliver them to me so I can get the car back together for tomorrows Road Racing event. I actually had to remove the transmission because it was a hydraulic clutch release bearing setup, so it was internal to the bell housing. A couple of vendors/racers there like Jet Hot Coating, Wilwood, and really helped out with the use of basic tools and jacks, because I did not bring a single tool with me.. LOL I drive this car to events, and drive it home, and I really had no indication that there would be any sort of hydraulic line failure.

I said I would let people know how this event is going, and it is being made into a small documentary feature on an upcoming series, so it will be shown then on MavTv in late July/Early August. This film crew had adopted Volvo X from the first day sitting at the hotel parking lot, and they have been interviewing me and following the progress through out the weekend, so the Amazon is getting quite a bit of exposure. Funny thing though, and I did wonder what the response would be in this type of venue that is dedicated to Muscle Cars and Exotics, but the Amazon is standing out of the pack and really got the noted respect from the people participating and attending...

Here is an update of this weekend's event, and Volvo X officially made the Optima Battery Challenge (Search for the Ultimate Street Car Event) and the SEMA Convention in Las Vegas later this year, along with some other Awards at this weekends USCA's Ultimate Street Car Qualifier at the Texas Motor Speedway. During this event Volvo X was also chosen for a featured expose about the car at this event, so there was some extensive coverage and interviews over these few days, and the series will all be aired on MavTv starting Aug 8th. I am not sure if Volvo X will be in the first episode, but this production crew did and awesome job really trying to showcase the car and its time at the event, and I cant wait to see what they put together..

The result of the whether I was going to receive these rewards or not was a nail bitter all weekend due to the mechanical failure and what it took to fix it, but the real nail biter was at award ceremony at the end of the event, because the cars that won any events had to be weighed in order to verify they were qualified to be in their class... I had actually entered Volvo X in the less than 3,000 pound class because I had weighed the car at about 2600 pounds without carpet, insulation, hushmat, and a few other accessories, but I hadn't weighed the car since and I was sure that it still remained under the 3k mark. Luckily I saw them calibrating the scales on Friday, and had asked if they would verify that I was in fact still under the 3k mark, and I had found out I actually weighed 3035 pounds.? But that was with a full fuel tank, and that tank holds just over 20 gallons of gas, so I decided to remain in the less that 3k class and burn the fuel weight off.. So when it came time to find out if it was all for nothing, and the camera crews and all the other participants were around, I was very very nervous.. Turns out I burned enough fuel to drop the car down to 2970 pounds, so I got to keep all of my awards..

Here is a pic of the official weigh in..






Here is the official Award and Invitation to that Invitational event, along with the other Awards that Volvo X walked away with this weekend.

The RideTech Renegade Award will be presented to the person who demonstrates the ability to “do the most with the least”.
This person will not necessarily be the fastest lap time, have the best looking car, or be the winner of the event [although they could be]. It should be someone who is mostly “unsponsored”, who has built most of the car in their own garage, and who has obviously put considerable time and effort into educating themselves about how to improve the performance of their car and executing the changes necessary to achieve that.
Congratulations to those who continue to play with cars just for the love of it



This is the Award I was hoping to be considered for, and that is due to the credentials of the judges.





Here are a few other awards for the various competitions.








The USCA events are a great time, and is really all about the cars and drivers having fun and really pushing their cars as hard as they can, so it is a must do for anyone with these types of cars. Even with my mechanical failure and the rush to get it done so I still qualified to the Invitational, it was still a lot of fun, because everyone there is to help and support in anyway they can..