We are in Tuxtula

Racing legend Herschel Mcgriff and me in San Miguel de Allende. Today we unloaded the car and drove it to Tuxtula we went from sea level to 3800 feet we passed tech inspection and the car is ready to race tomorrow Tom and Jim are going to adjust the carbueration for altitude. Go to catch up with some friends from 2006.

We're almost there

I got to meet a true racing Legend Herschel Macgriff who won the first La Carrera in 1950 a very nice man who also was the oldest person to win a NASCAR race thanks to Gary Faules who Introduced him to me. He also signed the dash board of the Volvo for us. We are currently in Coatcoalcos Mexico which is on the Gulf of Mexico we arrived tonight after a 13 hour drive to get here a very stressful ride to say the least. Tomorrow we arrive in Tuxtula Guteirrez to start to go through the whole process of tech inspection and all. Just a note anyone can post to this blog site and as time permits I will try to update spare time will not be a luxary from now on . I have tried to upload images and it won't work Sorry

We Now Have Shirts!!!

We now have shirts for Dover Bros. Racin' sizes available are small to 3XL the cost is 25.00 each including shipping. We are using this as a fundraiser for our Mexican adventure in October. To find out how to get the shirts e-mail doverbrothersracin@hotmail.com and we will e-mail you the address to sent the money to . We feel this a more secure way to do this.
The car is coming along good we found a small pin hole leak in the radiator so that was repaired and reinstalled in the car . With all the cooling problems we had in the past this really didn't surprise us and this is another reason to have plenty of time to do testing on your car before you make the trip to Mexico. We are bringing a spare radiator along just to be on the safe side. Our last trip we didn't bring a spare alternator and it froze up and we were out for a half a day. I would say if a part has a chance of breaking bring a spare because the one item you leave home is the one that is going to fail. We had a spare transmission with us and another Volvo needed one so we worked out a deal and they were running the next day. One thing all the racers do is to help each other out with much needed advice or parts or car knowledge. Never shrug off advice from a veteran racer they are always willing to give some really good tips to help you out. And then you can listen to some really good stories from past races while having a cold beer with them.

Mechanicial Surgeons

Well we have the Volvo back running again we finished assembling the engine last night. It fired up right away and tonight we are going to reset the valves and re torque the head. Jim Blett really knows his way around the Volvo engine his value in Mexico in going to prove to be

quite a bonus for us to us. From now on Jim will be making all the mechanical decisions on the car. We still need to do some minor work on the car now the major thing for us is to wait to leave for Mexico.

This weekend we are taking the car to a Volvo meet at the Gilmore Car Museum and put some miles on it. I hope to post some more pictures from the weekend next week.

Your Help Appreciated

We have decided to offer space on the car for sponsorships .What you get is a 4"x8" space on the roof of the car for 150.00. The hood is open for someone who is willing to offer more support to our team. If anyone can your help would be greatly appreciated and you get to sponsor a race car with two really great guys. To contact us e-mail at sullivan.g.j@comcast.net

Now for the Volvo update. The engine was disassembled and Jim looked everything over and the lifters are going to be replaced and while the engine is apart all new bearings will be installed and of course all new gaskets. The cam and pistons were all in perfect condition . We had some serious cooling problems the last day of the 2006 La Carrera so we felt this was necessary to check everything over. Now the front suspension has been rebuilt the rear end has been changed, the exhaust and finally the engine. We should have the car ready to go with two months to do some testing and any changes we feel necessary.

Update July 2008

The gearing was changed in the rear end we now have 3.54 gearing which replaced the 4.11 gears. We should be getting more top end and not putting as much stress on the engine . We took the car out for a test run and noticed a difference right away. On the way to Veracruz in 2006 we unloaded the car to test it out an we happened to record the speeds with rpms so we can compare what we have now.

This is Jim Blett on the left who will be our crew chief in Mexico and Tom on the right installing the axles in the rear end. Jim has over 30 years experience working on Volvo's he runs a shop called Swedish Car Services which is in Coopersville Mi. Jim is a very welcome team member to Dover Brothers Racin. Our 4th team member is Kevin Sullivan who we met the last time we were in San Miguel. Kevin has a car passion and has followed the La Carrera for years.

Right now the engine is out of the Volvo Jim wants to check the whole thing over and make sure all is well inside. The car was running good but in the 2006 la Carrerra we had cooling problems so just to be sure he is going to go through the bearings check the cam and pistons. The car will be back together by the end of the month then we will have time to work out any problems if run into them.

We Are Smokin !!

This past weekend Tom , Bill and I rebuilt my smoker which was in dire need of a rebuild. The fire box was completely shot and some of the cooking area needed some attention also. I use my cooker all year and the winters have been rough on it. So we took a Saturday off from the Volvo and rebuilt the cooker

.This is how the old fire box looked when we cut it off.

The new fire box is made out of stainless steel which I fabricated . I wanted to make the fire box larger so I can use longer pieces of wood . The plan I had worked perfect it all went together like I knew what I was doing. Tom and Bill were a very big help during the rebuild the only thing I would do different next time is pay them in cash not beer.Here is the first firing of the smoker

I tried some pork lion and short ribs which came out really good. The thing seems to hold heat much better than before so less wood to use. When doing this type of cooking always low and slow.Tomorrow we are going to assemble the rear end in the Volvo with the new gears and try it out. We will have 2 complete rear end assembly's for the car. The La Carrera Panameriana is sold out this year there are 105 cars competing .