10 May 2009 FOCUS ON TESTING 2009

The 2009 season will have focus on testing for Karling Racing Team. The new bike that was built from scratch during the last three years needs some more testing. During 2008 did we “torch” the heads bad three times and at the end of the season had we solved that problem. The reason was cam timing in combination with intake design and fuel distribution.

The main things that is new on the bike for 2009 is:
New Leahy Ignition Crank Triggers
New designed Karling Crank Trigger Bracket
New lighter Venolia Pistons for Dykes ring package
New Aker & Childs Dykes .017 Piston Rings
New Karling Countersunk Copper Head Gasket
New Karling Uddeholm Deivar 4.250 Crankshaft
New Karling Uddeholm Orvar Supreme 1.094 Wrist Pins
New light weight hard anodised Supercharger drive pulleys
New ARP2000 ½” Super High Strenght Cylinder studs
New in case timed Cam Lobes

To make the most and best of testing this year will the team go to the European Championship races in Finland and Sweden. It will probably be more testing after Mantorp depending on how it fits into the schedule.

RACING SCHEDULE FOR 2009 IS NOW UPDATED

8-9 January 2009 AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL SHOW 2009 BIRMINGHAM ENGLAND

For the second year in a row did Udddeholm UK participate at the Autosport International Show. The new Karling dragbike was a big help attracting visitors to the display. The new bike is not only good to get attention to the Uddeholm brand it is also useful as a reference object for 13 different Uddeholm materials used in the 6000 hour project. Materials that are used is from the simplest low-carbon steel in clutch plates to the most exclusive powder steel in valve train parts.

Karling Racing also had some examples of components on display together with Dealer Sports STCC Team that use Uddeholm materials in different components. On display was some parts that is going to be used in the SAAB 9-3 BioPower STCC car for coming season.

To see pictures and text at Eurodragster just click on the link:
http://www.eurodragster.com/live/2009autosportinternational/reports/friday.htm
http://www.uddeholm.co.uk/
http://www.autosport-international.com/

20-21 November 2008 SACO STUDENT SHOW STOCKHOLM SWEDEN

Saco Student Mässan 2008

For the second year in a row did Bergsskolan from Filipstad use the new Karling/Uddeholm dragbike at the annual Saco's student exhibition in which most of the Universities in Sweden participates. The show had 22.751 visitors which is 1.700 more than last year. Bergsskolan has expanded their courses for engineers with high grades of steel and metal industry training. The basics with all from minerals to steel production still exists of course. A lot of the high grade of engineers at Uddeholm comes from Bergsskolan.
See: http://www.bergsskolan.se/index.asp?textid=251

Oct 21th to 24th 2008 TECHNICAL FAIR STOCHOLM

For the second year in a row did the new dragbike attract visitors to IronCAD/Solidmakarna´s display at 2008 Technical Fair in Älvsjö (Stockholm) Sweden. The new dragbike is designed in IronCAD 3D and as Charley Karling says “It had been impossible to get a bike like this together without IronCAD. And now when the bike is built we have a product not just a one-off dragbike.”

This years show had over 22000 visitors during 4 days. Solidmakarna did feel a very
good response at the show and the bike really did show what can be done with a good easy to use 3D program. In matter of fact Charley who have been doing the designwork did learn IronCAD the same year the bike project started.

Aug 29 to 31 2008 Alastaro Finland at FHRA DEFA Finals for testing

We have to cancel the race at Gardermoen There was to little time to work getting the bike ready, finding the problems we have and travelling. The weather in Norway was bad and if we had worked day and night to be there we have had been disappointed because of the bad weather.

We decide in an early stage to repair the bike and try to figure out what is wrong. We know that there is no mechanical problems but we do get a lot of mechanical damages when we are torching the heads.

By a discussion in the team and with people around us we find out that there are some areas that we have to make modifications to eliminate the risk of failures.
What we also decided was to cancel the Europen Finals at Santa Pod. We wanted to do testing before season is over and that must be on a good safe track - like Santa Pod - but we find out that we had one closer and that was in Alastaro in Finland the weekend before England. FHRA did run their finals. We did contact Tapio Valia in Finland and FHRA and they wish us welcome to come over for testing.

So, with the bike in perfect shape did Greger Johansson, Matte Tärnström, Carina and me go by the boat over to Finland. The weather was perfect all three days. Only one round was cancelled because of light rain. We did burn a lot of fuel during 16 warmups in the pits, adjusting and checking. The engine did run much better on idle and the response was there too. We did three shorter test runs, one per day. No sign of torching heads. But we got misfiring on front cylinder under load from the first round and by adjusting and checking we got less misfire every round. We couldn´t get rid of it before the weekend was over. But anyhow did this test weekend give us a lot. A very big thanks to FHRA letting us be there.

We did watch the race in England on the internet and for us that needed to get runs were glad we did get them in Finland. We did see many racers doing very good ET:s at Sunday mornings qualification and it was really exciting to follow the races and counting points. Congratulations to Svein-Olav Rolfstad who became 2008 Super Twin European Champion. There are many that is going to chase him next year.

Must mention Sverre Dahl Norway that now is running the new Karling/McBride clutch and setting a new European Speed Record with 371,93 km/h (231,11 mph) in Top Fuel Bike.

July 25th to 27th 2008 Mantorp Park Sweden Veidec Festival

Photographer Tapio Valja Photographer Tapio Valja

Photographer Thomas LePrince

After Finland the torched head was repaired and the bike cleaned from the bottom to the top. It had aluminium sprayed over many components that has to be removed. Engine and transmission was totally disassembled for inspection and cleaning. The head seal was modified for more efficient transportation of heat. New Pushrod balls in the Uddeholm Vancron 40 was made and installed for testing. Greger Johansson who is taking one year off the racing, busy with building new engines, has been with us in the team this season. He is an expert in sheet metal works and did reshape the intake tubes for better more rigid mounting in the future.

We had a wonderful weather in Mantorp, up to 30 degrees C. At Thursday before the race had Leif Andreasson organized a MSD and Racepak on track training. Over 100 people did participate. Joe Pando MSD and Tim Andersson Racepak did an excellent job at the presentation and could give all answers on the tricky questions that came up.

As previous year did Super Twin Top Fuel and Top Fuel Bike run 1/8 mile on Mantorp because of the short stopping distance. New for this year was 1000 feet for Top Fuel Cars same length as NHRA start with in the Denver race this year.

Friday morning early, time for qualification for the Super Twins. We got big expectations and with the shorter distance we can try to find a “window” for our tune up without destroying to much parts. But we got the same problem again, torching the head direct after the hit. The team took a quick decision. We have to fix it for Saturday´s qualification. There is something in the tune up, fuel mixture, ignition, comp ratio, boost that not is right. Mechanical there is nothing to do except for maybe some smaller design changes. Nothing breaks it just torches.

Just before noon Charley and Jarmo borrowed a car and drove 2,5 hours home with heads and cylinders. Matte, Greger and Göran “Spex” Lönnmark did stay at the track cleaning up the bike and fix, inspect and replace parts.

In the teams workshop a new rear cylinderhead was completed and made ready for use with seats and guides, machining for nozzles and head seal and porting. Three more head studs were added in the hot area on both heads. The front cylinder head also needed seal fresh up because of smaller burn marks. The cylinders got the extra holes for the new studs. After a contact with Chris Brown at ARP did we choose studs and torque values to optimize the mount of the heads. The pistons were modified for lowering the comp ratio and with support from Tom Prock at Venolia did the top of pistons machined in shape to be optimised for nitro.

After 16 hours in the shop, eight a clock in the morning, did Charley and Jarmo drove back to Mantorp. At the track did a lot invited guests and sponsors have a lot of questions and also big expectations and hope too see the bike running down the track. Carina took care of all guest and the guys could assemble the bike. We missed the first qualification pass because the bike was not ready in time. After a warm up in the pits and small adjustments did it seems to run very well. Ready for last chance to qualify.
Time to make the run. Now the engine does not sound as good as it did in the pits, runs almost only on one cylinder. It cleans up during the burn-out and revs easily 6500 rpm at 20% throttle opening. Down to idle again, still running bad. What is the option, we have had been running fairly good with the old bike also starting with bad idle and this is the last chance to qualify. It is worth a try.

As soon as Charley open the trottle did aluminium from the front cylinder head spray out in huge flame and the last bend of the intake manifold also came loose. Big disappointment in the team. After all hard work and still similar problem.

We have been backing off on the tune-up as much as possible within the possibility of the design and when checking the logger everything looks great, except for the bad idle of course and that was even worse this last run at Mantorp.

At the elimination day did the team got the time discussing what to do and what possible can be done to solve the problem. The flame temperature must be lowered.
By talking with other teams at the track and see and compare logged runs and discuss design solutions we did collect as much info as possible to go on with our own bike. The positive thing with the overload of the engine parts we have experienced has been a continues development of the design in some areas that we will have good use for in the future.

Svein-Olav Rolfstad won the final at Mantorp and is now in the lead in the Championship.