SWEDEN. Heard a V8 rev the engine and saw a huge cloud of rubber smoke. Out of the haze a fenderless Ford T-23 slowly glides crosswise with Robert Svedman from Ånge a.k.a. Lille Skutt behind the wheel. by Kent Åberg translation Ellen Kay Krantz
Robert drives his Rod in the most brutal way you can imagine with that car. He utilizes every part of that T-23 and he has an expression for it; Cruise use and abuse. I can testify to the truth in that statement.
The T-23 has a tube frame built by Hotton Hansson. It’s built by Janne Wickstrom who registered it in 2003. It’s got a backwards Volvo 140 front chassis and an air plane steering gear.
The rear axle also comes from a Volvo 140 and is AGA-diffed. (Differential welded together).
Cheva 305 motor from -86 and behind it is a prepped TH 350. Took it for a test run where it did a quarter mile on 13.87 sec. Passed the finish line in 105 mph. Robert even tested top speed on track and got it up to a little bit over 125 mph which is a speed I would not be comfortable with in that car.
Robert has played around with different stuff within the hobby, like drifting. He used a BMW 535-E28 and also a FWD VW Scirocco. He says it worked out pretty good despite the FWD part.
Robert also entered a dragracing competition just to try out a BMW on a BMW meet in Gavle in 2006 where he flew in on third place in class 1 with a 1981 518-E12. And that’s not all.
He drag raced on grass with a snow mobile in Dala Jarna 2002 where he got third place in the Pro Stock class. He now intend to drag race with his rod but before that happens he is changing motor and rear axle to some more hard core stuff hoping to get a better place next time.
He’s already done test runs drifting and racing so he knows how the T-23 performs. Robert drove the mini mile on ice lake in Are during WJTA in 2009 where top speed reached was 97 mph with ice wheels. Of course, it’s on Youtube.
When opportunity knocks he will race anyone who challenges him. With any vehicle at anytime. His nick Lille Skutt (Small rabbit) is therefore quite misleading, it should be Speedy Gonzales with his track record.
During the photo session the AGA-diff cracked and he stated with a smile that a garage visit was due.
Full throttle to the garage to hoist the car. He unscrewed the housing on the block and drags out the weld and repairs the diff.
Had everything done in 20 minutes.
… Out from the shop and around the curve in full spin that turns details of the surroundings look like a green blur. I’m left there thinking if I was just a smidge younger with a fenderless rod to play with…
– Pure happiness!
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