Hifi & Tuning Show 2018 - 8th and 9th of September - Oulu, Finland - Part 1/2

This year's Hifi & Tuning Show a.k.a. Hötsi offered again lots of cool modified cars, dB Drag Racing, Miss HTS competition and much more. After party was held at the nearby Mango DiscoBAR after the first day of a two day event and distribution of prizes in ten different categories at the end of the second day. I divided my photos in two parts and you can find the second part from here 😊

Drift & Tuning Day Vol.2 @ OuluZone - 22nd of September - Oulu, Finland

Here's few photos I took at the second edition of Drift & Tuning Day last September. Event was free to attend just like last year. Despite the weather being a bit challenging quite a lot of people came to visit the it. Schedule included drifting demonstrations and a playful competition. Drifters also gave rides for visitors for a small amount of money. In the nearby the parking lot was a Tuning car show. I will upload video clips to my Instagram account later. Stay tuned for those 😉

BMW M3 - FullGas Motorsport

Radalle.com Drifting Finals @ Kemora - 15th of September 2018 - Veteli, Finland

This year the final round of Finnish Drifting Championship was held at the Kemora motor circuit in Veteli. This time the weather wasn't the greatest and it kept raining the whole day. Day started around 9 am with practice and continued to qualifying where Mika Keski-Korpi got the most points. Henri Haanpää came second and Lauri Heinonen was third.

Juha Pöytälaakso battled through to the final from the left side of the bracket and faced Lauri Heinonen who took out Henri Haanpää. Henri met Jonathan Hast in the bronze final. Here's few clips from the competition (#1 & #2).

There was also a car show held at the start of the pit area. There were a lot of nice cars such as a grey Nissan Skyline R33 and a yellow MK4 Toyota Supra to name a few. Below you can find photos from the pit are and car show. Take a look 😎

BMW E30 M50 - ProFlex Motorsport

Hifi & Tuning Show 2018 - 8th and 9th of September - Oulu, Finland - Part 2/2

Here's the second photo set from this year's Hifi & Tuning Show. Check out part one from here 😎

Ground Zero Mini @GroundZeroMini

Venetsia Drifting 2018 - 25th of August - Kokkola, Finland

Venetsia Drifting is an annual drifting competition held in the city centre of Kokkola, Finland. Track is a street circuit closed off from public traffic. Around 40 drivers with different levels of experience participated to this year's competition.

Day started with free practice and continued with qualification which determined who went to battle who in the bracket. Each driver had two attempts which were scored. Actual competition began shortly after qualification. Two drivers competed against each other driving in tandem. Both drivers had to lead and follow. Driver with a better score continued to the next round. Power2Drift Team Finland's Juha Pöytalaakso ended up taking the first place. Henri Haanpää from Haanpää Motorsport was second and Juha Rintanen of Juha Rintanen Motorsport was third.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see to whole competition since my train left a bit earlier than it finished. Curbs were packed with visitors and it was nice to see a lot of people attending the event. Only downside was that there weren't any grandstands near the track and it was a bit hard to see what happened there if you didn't have a good viewing spot.

I uploaded few clips (#1 & #2) to my Instagram account. Please check them out as well 😎

Historic Grand Race 2018 @ Ahvenisto Race Circuit - 18th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 1/2 - Pit

Here's a photo set from the pit area of 28th Historic Grand Race held between 18th & 19th of August at the Ahvenisto Race Circuit. Event showcased three major themes which were 40th anniversary of Mini 1000 race class, 70th anniversary of Porsche and 50th anniversary of Ford Escort. Overall 170 drivers from Finland and Sweden took part in the event. Weekend included 18 starts which were divided between different race classes such as Historic Stock/GT & Formula, Roadsport, Subaru Sport, SS 1300, Locost and Mini 1000. There was also a Tourist Trophy exhibition showcasing veteran motorcycles in the middle of the day. At the end of the day when all classes had finished their races visitors were allowed to enter the pit area. I included photos from the hobbyist car park to Part 2/2 - Hobbyist car park. Check it out as well 😊

Historic Grand Race 2018 @ Ahvenisto Race Circuit - 18th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 2/2 - Hobbyist car park

Here's photos of the hobbyist car park which was organized during Historic Grand Race at the Ahvenisto Race Circuit. A lot of nice cars attended it. Take a look 😊

Jaguar E-type

LinnaCruising 2018 - 11th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 1/4 - Rods & trucks

Here's a photo set of hot rods, street rods and pickup trucks I encountered during my LinnaCruising visit. LinnaCruising is a three day event held at the Kantola event park in Hämeenlinna, Finland. Area was easy to access since it is close to the city center of Hämeenlinna. I ended up taking a morning train to the city and walking from the station to the event park.

Event park of Kantola is on the shore of a lake called Vanajavesi. Park itself is a big grass area with a big gravel parking lot. LinnaCruising turned 16 years old this summer and it was the first time it was organized in Kantola. From 2013 to 2017 the event was held in Ahvenisto Race Circuit and before that in Satulinna and Verkatehdas. I visited Ahvenisto the next weekend. Story of that visit to Historic Grand Race is also coming out later this month 😊

The event opened on Friday evening with a Drive-In movie and live music. Saturday morning started with a burnout competition. There were also two F2 and F4 Powerboat exhibitions at the near lake. The day ended with a cruising and live music. A swap meet was organized on Sunday before the event closed. This was my first visit to LinnaCruising and it was a very pleasant one. There were a lot to see and experience. Hopefully I get to visit it next year as well.

Remember to check out my other photos from the event as well (links below) 😎

Part 2/4 - Cruisers     Part 3/4 - Muscle cars     Part 4/4 - European cars

LinnaCruising 2018 - 11th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 2/4 - Cruisers

Let's continue with nice cruisers from LinnaCruising 😎

Buick Super

LinnaCruising 2018 - 11th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 3/4 - Muscle cars

And here's few muscle cars I saw during my LinnaCruising visit 😊

Dodge Charger R/T

LinnaCruising 2018 - 11th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 4/4 - European cars

Here's few European cars I spotted during my visit to this year's LinnaCruising 😊

Citroen Traction Avant

Vauhtiajot Drifting & Tuning Show 2018 @ Kapernaumi - 21st of July - Seinäjoki, Finland

Here's photos from a one day trip I made to Seinäjoki in July to their local racing event called Vauhtiajot. Vauhtiajot is a festival which combines motorsports and music. It is held in two locations. Street circuit where all of the racing takes place is build to the industrial area of Kapernaumi near the city center of Seinäjoki. I visited the event on Saturday and only bought tickets for that day's track event. The track event continued also on Sunday but since I only stayed there for one day I had to skip it 😐

Five classes, which are Legends, BMW Extreme, V1600, Touring Cars and Gran Turismo, competed at the track during the weekend. There was also a car show and few exhibitions such as drifting and drag racing during breaks. Most of the photos I took are from the car show and pit area. I felt that it was a bit too difficult to spectate the races and see what is going on at the track if you weren't sitting in a grandstand. So I wish there would have been more of them. I uploaded one clip of the Gran Turismo cars driving in the circuit when they had their practice session to my Instagram account. I'll see if I can make another one of the drifting exhibition. Look out for that 😊

Legends cars lining up for practice

Turku AutoSaloon & Drifttime Shakedown 2018 @ Itäparkki, Skanssi - 14th of July - Turku, Finland

Here's few photos which I took while visiting this year's Turku AutoSaloon. Event was held in a parking garage of a shopping center called Skanssi in Turku. It was my first visit to this show and I was positively surprised by it. The venue was great and there were a lot of room to look around all of the cars. There was also a lot of variety in cars which I enjoyed. Few of my favorites were Porsche 911, Opel Kadett C, oval era VW Beetle, DeTomaso Pantera GTS and supercharged Dodge Challenger.

Event also included drifting exhibitions and a Gymkhana style competition. Track was laid down to the roof of the parking garage. Here's video clips from the competition I posted on my Instagram 😊

Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4

Helsinki Bike Show 2018 @ Merisatamanranta, Kaivopuisto - 9th of June - Helsinki, Finland

Here's photos from this year's Helsinki Bike Show (HBS) organized by Modified Motorcycle Association of Finland (MMAF) and Aliens MC at Merisatamanranta in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki. HBS is a free of charge ride-in motorcycle show for custom motorcycles. Show gathers around 100 motorcycles each year for display. The quality of those bikes is always really high. Jury picks out three best motorcycles of each category (Sportbike, Street fighter, Cafe racer, Bagger, Custom, Classic custom, Chopper, Best paint, Jury's and People's choice) which receive a trophy. In addition a lot of visitors ride in with their own motorcycles and gather around the street and harbour of Merisatamanranta.

1946 Indian Chief

EPUA Drifting 2018 @ Ala-Talkkari Areena - 26th of May - Lapua, Finland

Here's a throwback to EPUA Drifting event held in Lapua at the end of May. One day event gathered a lot of people to watch drifting at the Ala-Talkkari Areena. Event was not part of the Finnish championships but many of the pro drivers from that series participated to it. You can find few video clips (#1 & #2) from my Instagram account. Next Saturday I will be traveling to Kokkola and visiting Venetsia Drifting and cover that event later so stay tuned for that 😊

Henri Haanpää Drifting

American Car Show 2018 - 12th & 13th of May - Oulu, Finland - Part 1/5 - 20's & 30's

Here's a photo set of 20's & 30's cars showcased @ American Car Show Oulu 😎

1931 Ford Model-A Cabriolet 'Eldorod'

American Car Show 2018 - 12th & 13th of May - Oulu, Finland - Part 2/5 - 40's & 50's

Here are some of the 40's & 50's cars displayed @ American Car Show Oulu 😊

American Car Show 2018 - 12th & 13th of May - Oulu, Finland - Part 3/5 - 60's, 70's & beyond

Let's continue with cars from 60's, 70's and beyond displayed @ American Car Show Oulu 😎

1960 Chrysler Saratoga

American Car Show 2018 - 12th & 13th of May - Oulu, Finland - Part 4/5 - Motorcycles

And here are some photos of the motorcycles displayed @ American Car Show Oulu 😊

1949 Harley-Davidson Panhead 'The Purple Nurse'

American Car Show 2018 - 12th & 13th of May - Oulu, Finland - Part 5/5 - Parking lot

Here's few photos from the parking lot of this year's American Car Show Oulu held in Ouluhalli during Mother's Day weekend 😊 A lot of nice classic and kustom cars showed up to the hobbyist parking space near the hall. Take a look!

Cadillac Sedan de Ville

1st of May parade - Car museum of Oulu - Oulu, Finland

Here's photos from Car Museum of Oulu after the annual 1st of May parade organized by Oulun Seudun Mobilistit R.Y. May seemed to be really busy for me so I had postpone the editing and uploading of these photos. Hopefully this month isn't that bad. In the next post I will cover American Car Show Oulu and next week I will be going to visit this year's Helsinki Bike Show. Stay tuned for those and have a nice a weekend 😊

VW Split Window Bug

American Car Show 2018 - 22nd of April - Kokkola, Finland

Yesterday I took a train to visit Kokkola and the local American Car Show organized by a registered association called American Car Riders of Kokkola. Two day event gathered around 60 vehicles both cars and motorcycles to the bottom floor of local gymnasium called Kokkolan Urheilutalo. On Saturday there were also a Pin-Up Show and an evening party at a local bar and grill called Rock'n Roll Diner. The event ended on Sunday to a distribution of prizes. Crowd got to vote for their favorite cars and 1947 Cadillac Series -62 Convertible Coupe took the first price on that category. I will post photos of the motorcycles displayed at the event later. Stay tuned 😎

1967 Buick Lesabre Hardtop Coupe

Hot Rod & Rock Show 2018 @ TESC - 14th of April - Tampere, Finland - Part 1/3 - 20's & 30's

Hot Rod & Rock Show is an annual event held in Tampere, Finland, and is organized by Tampere's region of Finnish Hot Rod Association. Event acts as a kick off for the new season. This year was the 39th time it was organized and gathered vehicles from all around Scandinavia.

Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre (TESC) functioned as a venue and vehicles were divided into three halls. American cars and motorcycles were displayed at Hall A, Hall C held a dB drag racing competition and Hall C included tuner cars, customized big rigs, Motorsport and drag racing vehicles. There were also three live bands, HeviSaurus, Peer Günt and Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus, performing at Hall D.

This was my first time to visit the event and I concentrated on the American cars side of it. I divided my photos to three blog post by decades. First part covers vehicles from 1920's and 30's, second 40's and 50's and the last one 60's and 70's plus few pics from the parking lot. Check them out 😊

1921 Oldsmobile 43A

Hot Rod & Rock Show 2018 @ TESC - 14th of April - Tampere, Finland - Part 2/3 - 40's & 50's

1940 Chevrolet Special Deluxe Business Coupe

Hot Rod & Rock Show @ TESC - 14th of April - Tampere, Finland - Part 3/3 - 60's, 70's & Parking lot

1960 Chevrolet Corvette

American Car Show 2018 - 30th of March - Helsinki, Finland - Part 1/4 - Yankees (and couple Euros)

This year's American Car Show offered again lots of diversity and unique vehicles from different decades. Oldest were from early 1900's like the 1906 REO Model 8HP Runabout. Since there were so many nice cars it would be difficult to pick favorite ones. But as a big fan of old aircooled VW's, it was nice to see car like the 60's T2 Panel Van, which I also included to the end of this photo set.

There were a lot to see with four different shows, American Car Show, Tuning Car Show, Motorsport and MC Heaven, included to one event at the same time. I divided my blog posts and photos by those shows. Please check them out! 😊

1906 REO Model 8HP Runabout

American Car Show 2018 - 30th of March - Helsinki, Finland - Part 2/4 - Tuning Car Show

Here's a glance to the Tuning Car Show held at the American Car Show this year 😎 Take a look!

1975 Ford Escort MKII

American Car Show 2018 - 30th of March - Helsinki, Finland - Part 3/4 - Motorsport & Offroad

And here's a peek to the Motorsport division of the event 😎 A lot of drag cars and drifters were on display this year. I really liked to look of the 1965 Plymouth Valiant Pro Street drag car. Unfortunately there were lots of people around it all the time and it attracted a lot of attention so I wasn't able to get photo of the front end and engine bay of it 😞 Maybe next time!

Morris Mini LS1 Twin Turbo

American Car Show 2018 - 30th of March - Helsinki, Finland - Part 4/4 - MC Heaven

Here's few photos of motorcycles displayed at this year's American Car Show and MC Heaven which caught my eye and camera 😁 Unfortunately I didn't have that much time to cover the whole motorcycle section of the show. They were also a lot of same bikes which attended Petrol Circus and MP18 show this year.

1929 Husqvarna TV 30

'73 Suzuki GT250 - Part 7 - Betor Expert rear shocks

Last weekend it was time to brush of dust from my GT250 project bike 😀, which it had unfortunately gathered for a while 😬

Couple of weeks ago a blue box arrived from England to my local post office with a pair of Betor Expert rear shocks inside. At first I planned to order them straight from Betor (located in Spain) but unfortunately they didn't have shipping option to Finland so I had to find another supplier.

Luckily Google found me Villiers Services from England. I went and asked them by email how much the shipping would cost and after getting their answer I made my order through their website with these specifications:

Mounting bolt size: 10 mm / 3/8"
Spring weight: 50 lb
Shock length: 340 mm

Shocks have 12 mm diameter holes for mounting bolts and came with four 10x12x24 mm bushings.

I made a simple sketch in CAD to check the fitment with T250 frame, which I had modeled earlier. At first I thought about ordering longer ones than 340 mm, but after coming to conclusion that the chain would eat up my swingarm quite badly I decided otherwise. The sketch has dimensions of 21"/18" tires and GT front forks and they are just close estimations.

It's good to notice that there are differences in T250 and GT250 frames. For example head tube of GT250 is different than T250 due to different forks. Basic geometry of both frames are however pretty similar 👍

Sketch of rear suspension dimensions

Bushings (10x12x24mm)

I decided to use and modify the old GT250 rear shock mounting points to fit the new shocks. Mounting points in the 80's RM250 swingarm are not symmetrical in my setup and they are just a bit wider than the ones in the GT250 frame.

Shocks mounted very well to the swingarm and they didn't require other modifications than drilling the mounting holes from 8 mm diameter to 10 mm. After mocking up both shocks to the swingarm it was obvious that left side needed a longer spacer (14 mm).

I decided to drill through the frame mounting points to fit long bolts. I lathed two support sleeves which helped to keep the drill bits straight while drilling. I used 8 and 10 mm drills. After both sides were drilled I cut off the 10 x 12 mm sleeves which were left to the both ends and fitted the spacers in place together with shocks. I finished the job by welding the 14 mm spacer to the frame.

I used zinc plated bolts and nut for mockup and will use acid resistant DIN 931 bolts with DIN 6926 flanged Nyloc nuts for final assembly. Hopefully they will withstand the load and shear from the swingarm. Time will tell 😅

12 mm GT250 rear shock mount with 10 mm thread

Bushing helped in figuring out side offset

Swingarm didn't require other modifications than
drilling the mounting holes from 8 mm to 10 mm

Left side mockup

Dimensions for spacers

Left side spacer

Support sleeves, centre drill , 8 mm and 10 mm drill bits

Lathed sleeves helped keeping the drill bits straight while drilling

Drilled through

Cut off the 10 x 12 mm sleeve and mocked spacer in place

I used just a long bolt to keep the spacer in place while welding

Job done!

Acid resistant M10 hexagon bolts (DIN 931) and
flanged Nyloc nuts (DIN 6926) for final assembly 😀