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1967 Volvo 1800s - The Second Time Around

Amazing work on restoring those carbs. Love seeing the progress being made!

Thanks, very happy to have found the Solexes which will be a big improvement over SU's for the new engine since the VSCCA does not allow the use of Webers unless a car was originally equipped with them.
 


Finished up the steering rebuild on our '67 1800s by lowering the rear of the steering column by adding a few spacers behind the dash. To lower my center of gravity in the car while on the track a new racing seat which sits about a 1/2" above the floor is being installed now which is the reason the column needed to be dropped.

The wheel is attached to a thin-wall 6061 ribbed aluminum tube we machined. Between it and the steering wheel is a NRG SFI-rated quick disconnect. This style of spacer was used on some 1960s racing cars.

The 14.5" steering wheel is a NOS Racemark leather-wrapped piece that was found in a sealed box after a long search. It was designed by the late US Trans Am, Can Am, Indy Car and F1 racing driver Mark Donahue in the 1960s.

This complete new set up including the spacer weighs 12 lbs less than the original wheel. The original turn signal switch fastens to the left side a fabricated aluminum cover so it remains street legal but can also be removed quickly before taking to the track. The OD switch mounts on the right side of the cover.







 
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This photo with the racing seat installed minus the head rest puts things in a better perspective. It is fastened to the original mounting points for the seat rails and is only 1" higher than the floor to get the drivers weight as low as possible. This steering wheel is a 15.25"/390mm Nardi that will be used for road and some racing use.
 
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Just noticed your radio delete. Cool.

Thanks, we usually give our cars a name and since the bodywork design and the prototypes were done at Fura Coach Builders in Turin, Italy it was named Sofia after Italan actress Sofia Lauren.

The "radio delete" is part of a caricature of her face. It needs to be laminated in some clear plastic and have a thin and simple framework added around the opening.

As you know the shape was designed by Pelle Petterson a Swedish sailor and yacht designer while he was an apprentice working there. https://www.coachbuild.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=3726
 


A month ago on the last weekend of July we went racing the fun and old-fashioned way and drove the '67 1800s from VT to Lime Rock Park in CT. Ran it in a practice session, the qualifier, and two races at the VSCCA.org/ Empire Cup Races. All the changes since last season paid off and we were able shave a couple of seconds off last years lap times. Started from the back and finished mid-pack in the races with street tires, and only a stock B18B engine w/SU's against a lot of lighter and more powerful cars on race tires.

Then repeated the process and drove it back home in the evening to VT (350 total miles on the road and track.) It was a bit of a marathon and an adventure, although going racing this way these days can be a lot of fun, and you meet some great people along the way. It also saves all the time it takes to load the car in the trailer along with all of the other things you take to the track because you have the room and unloading and unpacking.

If you are interested in it, there is quite a bit of pre-1975 Volvo vintage road racing and rally photos and info at this Facebook group myself and a couple of my friends started earlier in the year @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/232999844689051

 
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After rebuilding and installing the carbs on our 1800s a year ago in the spring, the accelerator linkage under the hood was checked to make sure that it opened them to full throttle. It also did on the inside of the car because you could hear the inner steel arm hit the floor.

Fast forward to the VSCCA Mt Equinox hill climb last August when on the second run, I could feel that the pedal had fallen off, but I could continue the run by pushing on the roller on the end of the arm.

Back at the bottom of the hill, I found that one of the two original sheet metal screws the held the original pedal to the floor had loosened up and fell off, and the other one was very loose. So, the pedal was taken off, and on my next run up the 5.5-mile hill, my time dropped by an impressive 25 seconds with no other changes.

The linkage was found to be working correctly after looking the situation over, but the rubber hinge in the original pedal had hardened over time. Because of this, it couldn't be pressed down far enough to get to full throttle. At the VSCCA Fall Finale races at Lime Rock Park, my lap times consistently dropped by 5 seconds a lap because the pedal was never put back on.



An original style 1800s gas pedal above.

Instead of installing a new reproduction pedal (they are quite heavy because of all the steel reinforcements on the inside) on Labor Day weekend, I fabricated the gas pedal seen here out of 6061 aluminum pieces from the scrap box. Thin aluminum sheet metal embossed with a diamond pattern was then added to all three pedals. The gas pedal was engineered to stand upright at rest instead of being on an angle, allowing the throttle to be opened up all the way faster. At wide-open throttle, this works out much better because the foot and ankle are not strained by having to push it so far forward and hold it there.

The footrest on the left is a smaller lightweight aluminum piece that replaces the heavy original, it is is a work in progress that will be finished up this weekend.

The motto of the story is to replace your 1800 gas pedal if it's an original because the rubber hinge is likely too stiff to open it to full throttle.
 
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First off happy holiday's to everyone!!



Here are the pedals and the footrest last shown in 2020 year, all finished.

Have been very very busy in the shop with projects, racing and haven't had time to post here in over a year. Did enter two vintage events in 2021 - the VSCCA Mt. Equniox Hill Climb with the 1800S and the VSCCA Fall Finale and the Pebble Beach Tour with a clients 1915 Duesenberg which finished 2nd at the Indy 500 in 1916.



Climbing and at the top at the 2021 VSCCA Mt Equinox Hill Climb.

 
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Also started the Historic Volvo Racing & Rally Society for Pre-1975 Volvos with some friends on Facebook almost two years ago and it now has over 3.2K members from around the world. It is only for Volvos which have a race, rally, hillclimb, competion history or participate in modern vintage races and rallys with a B16, B18, B20 or B30 pushrod engines. The carburetor is king, although pre-1975 Bosch FI systems are ok. No other forms of induction systems are allowed other than period superchargers like the Judson.

The photos in this thread give you an idea of some of the posts members make. Cars, parts, and speed equipment are also offered for sale.

Thanks go out to mikep, who allowed us to post this here.

Check out the The Historic Volvo Racing & Rally Society here.




























 
So much awesome. Thank you for sharing with us David, I always appreciate your postings. I'd love your dead pedal, maybe I'll try making something like that, during spirited driving it would be really nice to have something to put some weight on.
 
So much awesome. Thank you for sharing with us David, I always appreciate your postings. I'd love your dead pedal, maybe I'll try making something like that, during spirited driving it would be really nice to have something to put some weight on.

I also like the dead pedal. Especially how he kept the high beam switch down there.

Looking at the gas pedal I have to wonder if there would be any advantage in durability to use a hinge instead of a bending piece of metal or rubber.
 
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I'd love your dead pedal, maybe I'll try making something like that, during spirited driving it would be really nice to have something to put some weight on.

[/QUOTE]spock345[/QUOTE]

All 1800's were built with a steel sheet metal dead pedal which is about an inch wider than this one and weights several lbs. Before you build one I'd check to see if there is enough room in a 122S for one. The gas pedal is farther back in a 1800 and without the dead pedal in place there is nothing to rest that foot on other than your heel and your foot has nothing to steady that leg to.
 
vintagewrench said:
All 1800's were built with a steel sheet metal dead pedal which is about an inch wider than this one and weights several lbs. Before you build one I'd check to see if there is enough room in a 122S for one. The gas pedal is farther back in a 1800 and without the dead pedal in place there is nothing to rest that foot on other than your heel and your foot has nothing to steady that leg to.

Thanks David, I'll look into that.
 
I widened the foot box on my 122SW. I did both sides so I'd have extra room for the Vintage Air unit. You can see the skeleton of the 544 in the way the foot boxes dive in at the front. Since they removed the flared out fenders and made the car a bit wider you think they would have opened this area up too. It's pretty easy to do once you've taken off the fenders.
 
I widened the foot box on my 122SW. I did both sides so I'd have extra room for the Vintage Air unit. You can see the skeleton of the 544 in the way the foot boxes dive in at the front. Since they removed the flared out fenders and made the car a bit wider you think they would have opened this area up too. It's pretty easy to do once you've taken off the fenders.

I always thought the biggest problem with the amazon wasn't the foot well size on the outside, but the amount of space given for the accelerator pedal. Maybe that is because my car is a converted automatic with a bigger tunnel.
 
^ That's probably true. I'd speculate that putting an auto in was only done for the US market so why bother relocating the go pedal. From my experience europeans mostly drive manuals, at least back when these cars where new. Even today some/most rental cars in europ have manuals.
 
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