The new Fuel Addict

After 1 1/2 years of building, the new radial powered 950kg / 2095lbs mini modified tractor called ''Fuel Addict'' of the Oil Addict Pulling Team from Skjern in Denmark is ready.
In October of 2017, the Danish team around Dennis, Preben, and Sigurd Juhl started with the planning and building of the new tractor. But the building process took a longer time than they have expected. Usually, the maiden run of the tractor was planned for the 2018 season, but unexpected problems with the delivering of the custom built parts, especially for the driveline made it's not possible to make a pass in front of the sled in 2018.

The completely new built mini mod received a new homemade Docol R8 tube frame with a homemade chrome-moly roll cage, a fiberglass driver seat of a go-kart, a custom built steering, a new lighter rear end, and a completely new constructed drawbar.
The fenders on the tractor were made off aluminum sheet metal. The roll cage and the fenders were taken over of their old radial Alvis powered mini mod tractor called ''Black Blood''.
The driver's position on the new chassis is more forward and the center of gravity is lower compared to their old mini mod. Also, the engine's position on the new frame is more forward. The team hopes to get a better balance with those changes on the pulling tracks in the future.

The new lighter rear end has a custom built sheet metal rear axle housing with a billet aluminum center section, an aluminum diff with special made gears, a specially made ring and pinion gear, custom built half shafts and billet aluminum brake calipers with laser cut brake rotors. The Oil Addict Team purchased the complete rear axle from the ''The Challenger Pulling Team'' in the Netherlands in 2017.
Because of the heavy weight of the engine, the new machine received no transmission, only a billet steel driveshaft from the little gearbox to the center section of the rear axle. To save weight the new billet driveshaft was inside drilled out. The new little gearbox on the clutch bell housing is custom built. All the components for the new box were constructed and manufactured by the Gators Pulling Team from Skjern in Denmark. 
The housing is made off aluminum and was machined on a CNC-milling machine in the Gators workshop. The special made gears were done by a local company in Denmark. The 3 discs centrifugal clutch on the mini is an 11 inch Crower clutch with a billet aluminum flywheel and is protected by a custom built aluminum Browell bell housing.  
All the components and parts like the chassis etc. were painted by one of their neighbors from Skjern.  

The new Fuel Addict is powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial aircraft engine with 14 cylinders and a capacity of 30l / 1830cui on avgas. The engine ran usually in the Consolidated B-24 and in the Grumman F4F Wildcat airplanes from the second world war. The engines were produced between 1932 and 1951. A total of 173,618 R-1830 engines were built during that time. The Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp power plant is the most built aircraft engine ever. The engine on the tractor was completely dismantled and overhauled. For this work, they received a lot of help from Piet de Haan from the Netherlands. The 77 years old Dutchman helped them a lot in the workshop to bring the engine back to life. Piet is a man with lots of experience in aircraft engines. He worked and helped many different teams in Europe to get their engines running, like the White Horse Pulling Team from the Netherlands and the Starfighter Pulling Team from Denmark. That's are only quite a few of many teams, who Piet has helped on aircraft engines in the past.

The 14 cylinder engine on the mini mod should make around 1200 hp. The power plant on the Mini Mod has an original supercharger, stock connection rods and pistons, original heads, homemade steel exhaust pipes, an original modified fuel system, the original ignition system, and a homemade fuel and oil tank.
The Oil Addict Pulling Team competes with their new Pratt & Whitney radial powered mini modified machine in the Danish Championship this year. But the new mini is currently 65kg too heavy for the class, that's why they are currently running outside of the evaluation at the events.

The official maiden voyage of the new tractor was on the 5th of May 2019 in Brande, Denmark. And it was a successful premiere, the tractor ran not bad but the setting of the engine was still in safety mode. The team was satisfied after the pull and went back home without any damages on the new tractor. A second attempt in Brande wasn't possible, the class was canceled because of the broken mini mod sled.
The next event for them was at the Motorfestival in Allingabro. This time they have changed the setting on the engine and the new tractor made two nice passes in front of the Danish crowd. Preben, Dennis, and driver Sigurd Juhl were very happy with both runs. But the gear ratio was a little bit too fast for the tractor. The rpm's of the Pratt & Whitney power plant were maybe a bit too low, because of the too fast gear ratio, what Dennis Juhl has explained after the pull. 
For the upcoming pulls in the summer they have planned to change the ratio on the tractor and then the American engine should bring his full hp on the track.