RE: Walker's Volvo ...

Jim Walker & his Volvo (with college librarian Ginny Reese aboard when Joe LeBeau wasn't) were consistently a podium threat, back when there was but one class.

From a 1975 press release, "Jim Walker and Joe Le Beau of Ann Arbor, MI, drove thier Volvo 142 to victory in the Lancia El Diablo Pro Rally in Green Bay. Walker and Le Beau defeated 28 other rallyists from across the country on the icy roads of northeastern Wisconsin to capture fourth place in the Lancia/Wonder Muffler Pro Rally Series."

He came 2nd on the 1976 Wonder Muffler Northern Lights NARA Rally in Midland, MI. and 2nd at the 1978 Twenty Stages Rally in Michigan just 0.19 seconds behind Scott Harvey's 4WD Dodge Aspen - to name a couple.

More info (including his time in an Alitalia FIAT 131) is available by searching http://www.rallyracingnews.com/

Halley ...
http://www.realautosport.com

 

Jim Walker & his Volvo (with college librarian Ginny Reese aboard when Joe LeBeau wasn't) were consistently a podium threat, back when there was but one class.

He came 2nd on the 1976 Wonder Muffler Northern Lights NARA Rally in Midland, MI. and 2nd at the 1978 Twenty Stages Rally in Michigan just 0.19 seconds behind Scott Harvey's 4WD Dodge Aspen - to name a couple.

Wow there used to be a rally in Midland, Mi ? (that's where i grew up) WOW

 

RE: Walker's Volvo ...

Matt
-1973 volvo 142E
So it did good. Cool thanks

 

RE: Volvo 142s

Both Jim Walker and Tom Tolles were top five contenders in their Volvos in the mid to late 1970s.

Topi ran a Volvo on the West Coast in the early 1980s with some success as well.

Doug Mepham has an immaculate 142 that he uses for Vintage Rallying. His most recent conquest was Targa Newfoundland where he and Jim Kenzie (www.thestar.com/wheels/) finished 4th.

 

RE: Volvo 142s

I remember a Jan Jolles? from several years ago (10-15 years). Last I saw him he put his 142 in a creek at STPR if I remember correctly.
Ah yes, my son took a picture, follow this link.
http://www.rockyroadracing.com/events/1989/stpr/volvos.html

 

RE: Volvo 142s

A couple more recent Volvo 142s (glad somebody mentioned Jan Jolles, he was quick in his 142).

Jeff Griffin ran a heavily-modified 142 in the California Rally Series for a number of years with great success.

In the NW, Erik Thompson ran a 142 for about four years, with yours truly co-driving for three of the seasons (my first ride in stage rallying!). We had some top three finishes (alas, never a win), admittedly this was before AWD was all the rage (although there were a few GTXs out there at that point). It can be a competitive Gp 2 car.

http://www.bensrallypage.com/beninfo/erik1.jpg

This is a shot of Erik's first 142 (of three), circa 1990. He says he'll be back out there with another 142 one of these days (he has all the parts he needs...).

Ben

 

RE: Volvo 142s

Matt
-1973 volvo 142E
To the last reply...
Do you know the guys email address? The one who says he wants another 142 rally car. And he has all the parts he needs? If so that would be great. Thanks

 

RE: Volvo 142s

>Do you know the guys email address? The one who says he
>wants another 142 rally car. And he has all the parts he
>needs? If so that would be great. Thanks

E-mail me at ben@specialstage.com -- I'll send you his e-mail address. I don't want to post it publicly (I doubt he'd have a problem with it, but you never can be sure...). I don't think he's quite ready to go rallying yet, but hopefully it won't be too far off.

Ben

 

RE: Volvo 142s

This can't be a real rally car There's no stickers on it }> I had a 142 that I ran in our 'brisk' TSD NEPRO series in the early 80's. When I told some people that I was putting together a stage car they assumed it would be a Volvo. I think it would be a fun RWD car to compete in.

 

RE: Volvo 142s

Matt
-1973 volvo 142E
Maybe its being used as a sweep car? It looks like it has o roll cage!

 

RE: Volvo 142s

"I think it would be a fun RWD car to compete in."

Don, wanna help with my 145 I plan on putting togther next year? (time/money willing) Well, somethings got to replace my 142 I rolled in Maine '99... its either the wagon or a 4 door I just found, lol! Though the 4dr shell is absolutly perfect, would be almost a shame to rally it. Anybody want it? No, a cage wont be going in my street car. Oh, if anyone is interested, I have FIA Rally homologation papers for 122's/142's, and lists of mods/stuph volvo offered back then.

Nick Polimeni
'71 Volvo 142E (daily driver/RallyCross)
Editor, Blue Mountain Region, SCCA
nick@bmr-scca.org

 

RE: Volvo 142s

Matt
-1973 volvo 142E
So r u going to rally a 145? You should use the 144!

 

RE: Volvo 142s

The curb wieght on the 5 door is only 150lbs more than the 2dr. At least on the '68 thru '72 cars. And that weight can be stripped out of it. Besides, I just like being obtuse. And what could possibly get more attention than a 22yr old in a 30 year old Volvo than a 22 year old in a 30yr old Volvo WAGON! :+ Yes I know I need to see a shrink...


Nick Polimeni
'71 Volvo 142E (daily driver/RallyCross)
Editor, Blue Mountain Region, SCCA
nick@bmr-scca.org

 

RE: Volvo 142s

>This can't be a real rally car There's no stickers on it
>}> I had a 142 that I ran in our 'brisk' TSD NEPRO series
>in the early 80's. When I told some people that I was
>putting together a stage car they assumed it would be a
>Volvo. I think it would be a fun RWD car to compete in.

It definitely was a stage rally, and was one of the 1990 Doo *** rally series. Yeah, it must be 1990, because we had that green '72. The following year we had a white '73, following the demise of the '72 in a rollover.

This photo was, of course, taken before the recent proliferation of required decals. Rather than spend money on the big fancy numbers, the event organizer just used numbers like you see on used car lots for the prices, and we only put them on the right side of the cars for the benefit of the control crews.

If this is the event I think it was, we finished 17th, having spent some time nosed down a bank.

Ben

P.S. If you want to see more photos of our 142s in action, I can probably oblige. This is the one shot I happened to have scanned and on my web page.

 

RE: Volvo 142s

I would love to see more photos of 142's in rally! Can u post them here? I got sponsered today for just 20.00 bucks a rally for having 1 sticker on the car! Is that a good or bad price for me? Whats the norm? It is not a car company or nothing so i assume thats pretty cheap.
Matt

 

I would love to see more photos of 142's in rally!
Matt

You asked for it.

 

RE: Volvo 142s

Back in the mid '80's, when I rallied in Belgium in the Liege International Police Rally, my navigator, Fred, told me of the time that a Finn by the name of Reuben Borjesson, rallied a Volvo (Topi knows him). For some reason he could not get the lights on his car to work. The only light that worked on his car was a roof mounted one. He had no time to get the others fixed. This was back in the days of real rallies, 450 miles of them! Anyway, Reuben was one hell of a driver and guess what? With only the one light working, he won the rally! All this on a rally which didn't start until 1900hrs and ran until 0500-0600hrs.

 

RE: Volvo 142s

Matt
-1973 volvo 142E
That would be soo fun!

 

RE: Volvo 142s

> Oh, if anyone is interested, I have FIA Rally
>homologation papers for 122's/142's, and lists of mods/stuph
>volvo offered back then.
>

What years do the papers cover? I would be interested in seeing them. I have a 1966 122s and a 1960 544. My plan right now is to make the 122 a rallycross car by summer. If I can get my wife to let me really play with them, I would love to turn one into a rally car for the historic class.

shane

 

RE: Volvo 142s

- While in WA "North Bend Rally", going 100MPH, my local navi said:" Look at that big hole in the forest - that's were Eric stuffed his Volvo 142!" Sure enough, there were a Volvo size "clearing" at the end of the long straight... Ben, were you there?

 

RE: Volvo 142s

>- While in WA "North Bend Rally", going 100MPH, my local
>navi said:" Look at that big hole in the forest - that's
>were Eric stuffed his Volvo 142!" Sure enough, there were a
>Volvo size "clearing" at the end of the long straight...
>Ben, were you there?

I think that was the year after I stopped running with Erik (or maybe the year after that) when Cam Jackson was co-driving for him. Was that the year Erik lost his fiberglass hood in the middle of the stage and everybody ran over it? It survived, and he ran it for the rest of the year with tire tracks on it and all.

Or was it the year Erik and I rolled the white 142 but still finished? That was at the end of a straight, but around a blind, off camber, decreasing radius, narrows, road drops corner that wasn't in the route book (but was the following year).

I sure enjoyed that rally, pity Weyerhaeuser won't let us back on those roads.

Ben

 

RE: Volvo 142s

- Sounds like you WERE there the way you remember the turn perfectly! It looked easy but sure was a nasty, deceiving turn after a long straight...I did a looooooong 4th gear slide, too.
- I miss those roads. Dave Clark & co put an exellent rally up there. 4th and 5th gear stuff all the way....smooth roads....BEAUTIFUL!

 

RE: Volvo 142s

What kinda car were these 4th and 5th gear slides done in?
i don't think my volvo has that kinda power!
Matt

 

RE: Volvo 142s

HeY Topi,
I was coming down that damn straight and it was once know as "I-405" since you could drive three log trucks down it abreast, I since nobody could think to use the banking provided by the nice crown the only placed slightly swept was right in the middle of the huge road. My car does a genuine 105mph and were were flat out for a way long time, and at some point I start cussing in English,Swedish and even a perkele satanas satan!, co driver was Dave Clark's housemate Jamie Bradshaw and he asks me "WHAAAAT????!!!!" Satans helvetes fan this stinking straight never ends! I'm backing off! "why??" Because i'm a big weenie and I don't want to (at this point I see half mile ahead out in the clear cut the POS 142 of Thompson)END UP PARKED OUT THERE!!!
I reckon he fell asleep since the 142 would never turn no matter how much he sawed right and left at the wheel.

Maybe even with over half mile visibility the 13 1/2 turns lock to lock steering didn't respond in time. Or the commands from the bridge hadn't made it to the crew at the steering oar (Ahoj bryggan till besättningen! Hård åt styrbord! Tweeeeeeet!)

Thompson was funny guy, one time I run into him at Bow-wow where he was delivering som Colways and I had a bunch of the Swedish paper Idrottsbladet (oxo känt som Idiotblasket)in the car I was taking to recycle, and he was in A 240!!! I said jessus you got a 240? Are you going to build this next?
No, nobody rallies 240s back in Sweden, he says.

Well I pull out 6-7 issues of Idiotblasket and open them randomly and start reading him results (this was maybe 90 or so) and it was still lots of Ascona B but still it was like: Ascona B. 240, 240, 240, Ascona B, 240 240 240, 240, Ascona B on and on in all the National A or B class then maybe in C class you would see a 140, event after event after event.
I asked him "wanna see?"
"Er.....uh.....I can't read Swedish!!!!, I don't have the time...!"
I say "Here, you can have 10 copies, the names of the cars are the same, and "national A" is the same so you can read these when you sit on the throne."

"Errrr....uhm....no thanks, gotta run....."

Didn't want his fixation with 140s disturbed by reality appearantly.
Sounds like he hasn't seen the light yet.

Stackars larviga sortens brukade ha svanska flaggan efter namnet på dörren, o brukade säga (på engelska) Jag är svensk, yep yep.
Tjock i skallen nog var han! Tee he



John Vanlandingham
Seattle, WA. 98168

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

 

RE: Volvo 142s

13 1/2 turns lock to lock steering didn't respond in time.
its not that many turns! u over exadurate tooo much damn,Lol
Matt

 

RE: Volvo 142s

>What kinda car were these 4th and 5th gear slides done in?
>i don't think my volvo has that kinda power!
>Matt
Rally cars, kid. What do you think?

And by the way, all these guys saying how the 140 was doing just fine in the day, well in real competition, back in the old country, against sub 2000lb Ford Escort MkI and MkII,
sub 2000lb Ascona A and Kadette GTEs with typically over 190bhp or even puny SAAB 165bhp, the VERY HEAVY; VERY UNDERPOWERED very underbraked and poorly steering 140 was a slow lumbering dog and only driven for patriotic or poor guys.

Volvo was not supporting rally at all at the time, and it shows in the results. Even the flimsy horrible 2002 BowelMovementWonder did better than Volvo 140, but couldn't match those other cars very often.

Oh, you still haven't answered my email where I said I was sorry you misunderstood what I had said.
And how many email names do you have anyway.





John Vanlandingham
Seattle, WA. 98168

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

 

RE: Volvo 142s

>I would love to see more photos of 142's in rally! Can u
>post them here?

>Matt

Here is a picture from the 1991 Rim of the World rally, Erik and I in the '73. I think this photo was from Trackside, so hopefully I'm not violating any copyright...

http://www.reed.edu/~bradley/loki_rim91.jpg

This is the same car that we rolled at the Twin Peaks Rally (discussed elsewhere in this thread)

BB