Strangers in the Night
Copyright© 2015 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 16
Strangers in the Night:16.
While Riki was home producing bastards, (Twins) and Hannakaisa was learning the racing ropes, Wendy was racing the Volvo 240 at tracks built in all manner of weird places; closed open pit coal mines, iron mines, quarries and abandoned airbases.
The competition was other Volvo cars in assorted sizes, German air and water cooled Volkswagens, Czech Skodas, French Citroens, Russian Ladas and assorted, recovered from interesting places, rally cars. Four cylinders only, any transmission.
Build a track approved roll cage, buy some cheap tires, weld or bolt on a steel skid plate and go race. The car must look, remotely, like the model it's intended to be. Don't sink a fortune in it because it's for sale as soon as it rolls through the gate. Don't want to sell? Don't race ... and forget about going to another track ... they already know you wouldn't sell.
Like I said ... Wendy loved it. The tracks are twisty, turney, over hill and down dale with at least two ways to get to the finish. The racing is as fast as unimproved four cylinder engined cars will go.
It's not unusual to hear the fans laugh like crazy when you wreck ... it's entertainment in a country that has very few entertaining things.
Sweden, Norway, the Baltic States all have their own names for the same thing, and there are drivers who try to race on every track.
Well ... I see I've gotten nicely sidetracked.
The Duke and Duchess of Seitz Bunau demanded ... well ... something. Their eldest was lying dead in his grave and nobody was proclaiming responsibility or even bragging about it. The only thing anyone knew was the bullet... 311.
The British Enfield used .311. The French... 330 ... but the Swiss used .306. Swedish rifles used 6.5mm. The Russian Mosin Nagant rifle shot .311 and the Americans used .308 and the German Mauser used .311.
Eliminating the French, Swiss, Swedes and Americans left the British, Russians and Germans.
When a bullet is fired from a rifle, the grooves cut in the barrel impart a spin to the longitudinal axis of the bullet. The depth and width of the groove is an identifying feature. It is possible to calculate the twist of the rifling from the grooves cut in the bullet. Calculations showed that the twist was one inch in ten inches of barrel length.
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