I believe many knows our ’67 VIP here. But for those who don’t, we built the 1967 Plymouth VIP in 2006, run it first with a naturally aspirated street engine running 10.6’s, and once all the parts arrived a twin turbo intercooled 478 cu in RB with Indy heads and EFI. During the years following we run the car becoming the first street car in Finland to break in to 7’s winning numerous races and championships.

We run the car until I crashed it in the street in 2014, after which we decided to update the engine a little at the same time when the body was being rebuilt. However, happened like it sometimes does, delays after dealys…. until now.

Next summer is the 50th birthday of the car and we decided to give it a present, take it back to where it was born! And what would be a better way to do it than to participate on the 2017 Drag Week!

Our main goal at this point is first to get the car there, and then be able to survive the week, performance and success doesn’t matter. We are going to run the car in the Ultimate Iron class, it should fit the rules with stock doors. There is still a few things to do and a lot of practical problems to be solved…, for example I have never been in to USA and have no idea about anything there.

And then there are a lot of technical things that must be tested and solved, and of course the problem of getting the parts needed.

The engine will be an Indy blocked wedge with Molnar crank and rods, Diamond pistons with 8.8:1 CR. The heads are FBS heads that probably no one has used for this kind of purpose before… The transmission is a JW powerglide with 10 disc FMX drum, and the rear axle a Dana 60 with 4.10 pro gears.

Basically everything will be done in our home garage by ourselves excluding the more complex machine work we have no tools for. I will report here about the progress, or if you are in the facebook you can follow things there too, there is stuff both in English and Finnish.
https://www.facebook.com/VIPFlyingFinns/


But for now a couple of videos, the first one is from spring 2014 and the second one showing the car isn’t quite ready yet is from last week…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYH7x7Dh9zg

https://www.facebook.com/VIPFlyingFinns/videos/808878022582994/

Good luck Bro. I'll be following

I'm in Wisconsin. If you need anything stateside, let me know. If I can help I will.

AWESOME! Never figured there'd be any shot at seeing your car in real life!

Love the car and love to see it at drag week.
Best of luck on your goal

Following! Good luck and hope to see you at Drag Week next year!

Sick, I was driven to the hospital in a vip to be born in 69. Love It!!!

You are in for a adventure driving in Europe compared to here in the U.S.
AKA, I was shocked how close all the town and cities in Germany where back in the late 1960s.
I was borned and raised in Southern CA in the Mojave Desert where every town was at least 50 miles apart, not so in Germany
One of my old bracket cars is in Finland, I got a E mail years ago from the owner wanting to know if I ever owned that car, it looked like it hadn't been driven in a long time
I sincerely hope you have fun and enjoy the trip and have no problems with the car, will it be shipped by air or by boat ? Not cheap in either case I'm sure I wonder how much the Aussie and Kiwi pay to ship there cars here for that week long torture trip

you are livin the dream!!! hoping for the best... you need anything, you'll have support. Lots of "friends of friends" here

That is one awesome car. Good luck at Dragweek this coming year.

I am not a drag racer...but still read here some..


Just a little advice, and be sure and ship the car with plenty of time up your sleeve this end in case of any unforeseen delays. (Customs checks, etc,etc can slow down getting your container and car cleared to go.
(I ship stuff/load containers back and forth to Melbourne for a living so have seen every manner of delay possible over the years. )

Jykä, what are the dates for this Drag Week?

The dates come out in december I think'

Drag Week is the week after Labor Day. So, Sunday September the 10th will be registration day, and the event will be the 11th through the 15th.

Now we wait for them to announce the tracks!

Hey Jyrki
I hope to have my fbs headed motor together and there also. If I make it ( will be 5th drag week) you will be able to see the Brewer intake that you sold me ! Hope to see you there.

Very cool!

Good Luck and keep us posted on this adventure.

Bill

You might want to start researching where specifically you want to ship the car to the US (New York, Baltimore, ???) on the east coast. Then, begin trying to build a support network of Moparts members (and anyone else you know on this side of the Atlantic) who are close(r) to the port where the car will be delivered and can assist you with storage, workshop space, transportation to DW, etc.

I haul a lot of stuff into Baltimore to Mid Atlantic Terminal and see a lot of vehicles there arriving from and going to Europe via this company.

http://www.2wglobal.com/

It's all roll on/roll off.

Kevin

Awesome,hope you will get this done with as little trouble as possible!

Okay, let me make a short brief of the projects current situation.

What's most important is that it seems we have been accepted to participate in Drag Week 2017 and it seems okay that we run in the Ultimate Iron class! The hotel reservations have been made and the trip arrangements are progressing.

The new engine block arrived over a month ago. We decided to modify it for lifter oiling, and it has been at the machine shop ever since, hopefully they get it done soon. After that it must be honed for the pistons and propably the decks machined too since the Indy workmanship may have left something to desire. But that’s for the machinist to decide.





Still waiting for T&D to get the rocker arms done, surprisingly they are late… Don’t know the situation of the Jesel lifters ordered. Scott Brown at Competition Components is arranging us the parts needed.

Other than that, the engine is pretty much ready to be put together, ie all the parts exist. Or at least I think so… The old engine has been torn apart and the next thing will be washing the parts and packing them for further use. At his time only the block will be changed.

The valvetrain may need some adjustment because of the new lifters and pushrod oiling and most likely there will be other small surprises too before it’s ready.





The tubing and headers have been built, now still some finishing work and adding of the o2 sensors left, and they are ready for coating. The exhaust pipes will get done last, The 5" downpies will go into two 4" with mufflers.





Alternator and vacuum pump were installed and water manifolds were made, the oil filter will be relocated and the oil cooler added later.





The intercooler and boost tubes modified, fitted and installed.

.



Yesterday we went through the transmission, no surprises there, it has only been run for one summer. It's a pg using JW housing, wide band and 10 plate drum with FMX discs and ringless shaft. Pretty much has the best parts available.

We have two converters, a “tight” and a “loose”, I believe we’ll choose the tight one. It’s only a three bolt, but so far it has been enough, and of course it’s possible to convert it to 6 bolt.





The rear axle will get changed, we’ll replace the Dana with about four inch narrower “Ford 9” ” rear axle to make changing of the tires easier and to have a wider choice of gear ratios. That part of the project is still in the planning stages but will eventually get done. Now thinking wether to buy a readily fabricated cromo housing or building it ourselves, floater or not? Pro gears? etc etc.





The steel doors should also be put back together so that we’ll get the front end and doors lined up properly before readying the body for paint. the rules require stesl doors. The bumpers are already being covered with a “chrome paint”, we’ll see how it turns out.

Once the car has been painted it’s time to start figuring out the wiring, maybe and hopefully we’ll start getting the engine ready for dyno at that time too, but that’s basically not in our hands at this moment.




The very next thing to do is to design and execute the fuel cells, pump etc locations and the routing of the fuel lines to the front. I guess we’ll concentrate on that tomorrow.





That’s shortly how things lay at the moment, we’ll continue working….





BTW, I heard that maybe some of the next live broadcasts will be held in “Rallye English”, Finlands second official language! I’ll try to advertise it forehand!

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