Our initial outing with CNA 161C at Silverstone was to show that some of my concerns with the back axle and engine performance were not unfounded. Initially a typically wet and windy British spring weekend had me trying to qualify a rather unruly car in very slippery conditions. After only a couple of laps the engine died right away, fortunately right next to the pit entrance. One of the SU jets had fallen out of the bottom of the carb, complete with locking nut and spring, and was, by a miracle, dangling on the fuel pipe that comes out of the float bowl. I could only wonder if the cause was chassis vibration. This could have been passed to the carburettor through the chrome pancake air filter, which was in turn fouling the clutch cylinder. We have now fitted SU trumpets with soft foam air filter "socks" over each one (we used a kind made by ITG). We since found this combination is good for another two BHP and a lot easier to take on and off for tuning (no fiddly nuts and washers) as they are just a press fit. However, the failure gave my co-driver Jos Van de Perre no qualifying time at all and, heroically, he would have to start the race two-thirds down the capacity grid without practice.

In the still damp and windy race we struggled as the engine simply did not want to run much past 5500 revs in 3rd and top, and I was finding changing up into overdrive at 5000 RPM gave better progress. We had torque but no power; something was clearly wrong. Meantime, there was appalling drivetrain vibration and finally, when the race was over, inspection showed the back axle had leaked oil all over the backing plates again from the tube drain holes. Funnily enough the family chose to stay at home that weekend.

Back home I got to grips with the vibration problem right away. The propshaft had received new universal joints and been re-balanced in the week before the race, but Pole Classics (Tel 00 44 (0) 1722 718722), who had done a good job of rebuilding the axle for me with special uprated halfshafts, were convinced it was still out of true. So out it came and it went back to the propshaft specialists once more. Two-part props like on the Amazon can be tricky to get right. This time they first re-tubed the front section which Pole thought was suspect, and then finally changed the front flange which was showing slight damage marks on one side of the locating rim. The latter provided a transformation.

On the engine front I had happened to bump into reknowned Marcos Volvo GT racer and leading UK Volvo race engine builder Dave Methley at Silverstone. He invited me to bring the car down to his workshops in Horsham Surrey (Tel 0044(0) 1403 248009) where he prepares a fleet of Volvo-engined Marcos's that run in the FIA Historic GT championship, regularly winning against Lotus Elans and occasionally victorious outright against the likes of Cobras and even a Ford GT40. The Marcos weighs only about 600 kilos and the engine can use Weber carbs, so they are quite a different proposition from our sedan. Nevertheless, Dave played with our cam timing, distributor advance and valve clearance to his satisfaction, and sent me back to the rolling road with transformed driveability. Richer needles then produced another 12 BHP with power up to nearly 6500 RPM. We used an RF type followed latterly by an RE. Another two BHP was to be found by running the two Facet electric fuel pumps on both together. This car seems to have quite a thirst for just a "little fella."

The next Top Hat race was to be at the twisty up and down circuit of Brands Hatch in Kent. A remarkable entry field included many Jaguars, Mustangs (including one driven by ex-'60s Grand Prix star Jackie Oliver), Falcons, Alfas, Cortinas and Minis amongst other makes including a '56 Chevy that lit up its rear tyres like a dragster out of every corner. This time Jos kindly organized a test session the day before, which was handy as we were able to play with the suspension, saying goodbye to the rear anti-roll bar, and adjust brake bias, plus getting some much needed driving practice. We even had time to fit our excellent new brake pads supplied all the way from OJ Rallye in Wisconsin.

Things were running more smoothly and we entered the race day in confident mood. Also joining in was a PV544 driven by top rally pilot James O'Mahoney and ex-Ireland Hillclimb Champion Donal Griffen. They run to freer Irish regulations that allow the use of Webers and 2000cc, and so we were well pleased to just out-qualify them on an amazing capacity grid. Their "Beetle Back" could leave us standing still in a straight line. In fact, it sounds like an aeroplane where we sound like a lawnmower. In the race I had a good long dice with German Mercedes ace Rolf Stockerbrand in an immaculately race prepared 300SE, eventually catching and passing him, dodging around the traffic, on what was a very crowded track. The Amazon was proving friendly, although pretty physical, to drive and reliability was good, but I was worried that the power deficit of our relatively low output engine was always going to keep us to the back half of the grid.

Two weeks later and we were tempted to take on a different event, the British round of the international FIA European Touring Car Championship. Here we would be in a race with cars running to the same regulations, conceivably even up against other Amazons. In actual fact we won our class, but before anyone wants to send me a congratulatory telegram, I have to report we were the only car in it. The usual BMW hares never turned up, nor the Amazons, and so the single Viking tortoise just had to finish to win and enter the record books. However, hollow or not, I hope the publicity will encourage some others to get out there in Volvos.

We now think we may have finally cured the back axle oil leak problem. Pole Classics changed the standard oils seals for some uprated double lip types with a tighter grip. It looks like it has done the trick. Currently I am rebuilding the front suspension. Thanks to John Parker, I have been in e-mail contact with Dan M. Johannsson in Sweden who also races an FIA regulation car and one that he was victorious in their national championship with last year. Dan has also helped guide me with spring rates and other information, and we are in the process of changing ours up from 600 lb. to 900 lb. front coils (standard road cars are around 280 lbs., I believe). From Stein Johnsen, also in Sweden, I have got some race specification Bilsteins, which have a crosspiece on the bottom mount like on a 140. The idea with these is you can move the mounting point slightly outwards on the spring pan in the wishbone, and thereby get a better angle of purchase on the damper (you have to cut the wishbone and weld on new mount nuts). This is particularly popular with rally cars, but also helps the geometry on a lowered race car, or so we think. For the final touch the lower wishbones are getting treated to uprated Supa Flex poly bushes to go with the uprated Delrin bushes from IPD in the upper wishbones. The Supa Flex bushes use the original steel outer shells of the standard ones. You just carefully drill out most of the rubber from the originals, press out the inner steel bush with a large pair of grips and then having cleaned it up, the new poly items can be easily fitted individually just using a vice. No big press is required and no risk of bending the delicate wishbone. I used the VClassics tech info guide as workshop manual reference for this operation.

This desire to get the front suspension really solid is in preparation for our next event, which is at Spa-Francochamps in Belgium, location of the famous Eau Rouge corner which only the bravest of Grand Prix stars can take flat out, and where I once saw a BMW in a 24-hour race fly off and climb an advertising hoarding clear 20 feet above the ground. Of course, we will be aiming to drive like old ladies as Goodwood starts only four days later. For the latter, we have to run on original narrow steel wheels, and they would prefer it if we had an original steering wheel, too. I am thinking of using a P1800 two-spoke wheel (if I can get one) as seen in the road test photos in Car and Driver of the 1964 New Jersey-built Volvo importer race car. This also had an attractive metal dash with round dials replacing the strip speedo.

Finally, so far I have to report there is not much sign of the family or the picnic hamper in back of the family race car. Of course, most of the seating has been removed to save weight and I guess we haven't had much time to think about taking luncheon on a rug. So far it has mostly been me and my old crew chief buddy Nick Morgan just getting on with the spanner work. Still, I am sure it's just a question of it being the right occasion. Think how much more weight I could save off the car if we didn't have to drive it to the racetrack.

Next time, if we survive Spa in one piece, I should be able to report back on Goodwood and our goal of being first vintage Volvo to compete at this event.