New Swiss Mini Modified

At the 2021 season, the Swiss nation will have a new mini modified pulling team on the competitions. The newly founded Bastard Pulling Team around Sven Müller and Sven Riedener from Birmesdorf, Switzerland have built a brand new V8 Hemi powered 950kg/2095lbs mini modified machine during the last 3 years. For Sven Müller and his team is the tractor pulling sport a new experience, because they never have built a pulling tractor before. But due to less experience, they received a lot of help from a pulling team in south Germany, from a Swiss drag racing team and from a couple of local Swiss companies during the building time of the new project.

Team owners Sven Müller and Sven Riedener were infected with the tractor pulling virus in 2014. Especially Sven Müller was impressed by the modified classes.

After some considerations, he decided to build a 950kg / 2095lbs mini mod tractor with a V8 racing engine. Shortly after that, he started looking for an engine, which did not turn out so easily. His plan from the start on was to have a mini mod with a competitive engine with a minimum of 2200 hp. After quite a long search, Sven found something at the Swiss Trouble Racing Team of Marcus Hilt. After a visit to Marcus Hilt's workshop, he decided he wants an engine like he has in his dragster. Through the contact of drag racing driver Marcus Hilt, the relationship with the Ghost Buster Pulling Team came about. An appointment was made over Christmas 2017 to see how they have built their whole frame for the Ghost Buster 5. The Swiss Team was welcomed in a familiar way and they were told everything about their experience in the mini modified class.

Then the guys came to the business part, the components for the chassis, the engine plate and the material for the exhaust headers were ordered. It took 4 long months until all the material for the frame was delivered to their workshop in Switzerland. In April of 2018, Sven and his team started to build the new chassis and welded the frame rails, the roll cage and all the other parts. All those components for the chassis were in laborious work welded during the weekends.

The mini modified received a brand new homemade chrome-moly tube frame with a homemade 2 bar chrome-moly roll cage, a Kirkey aluminum racing driver seat, a homemade rack and pinion steering, homemade chrome-moly wheelie bars and an Advanced Chassis sheet metal rearend with an Advanced Chassis drawbar from the USA.

The new frame for the mini was developed by Stefan Schwarz (Schwarz Frästechnik) of the Ghost Buster Pulling Team from Oberharmersbach in Germany. The frame of the tractor is a copy of their procharged V8 Hemi powered mini called ''Ghost Buster 5'' which they have built during the winter of 2016 / 2017. The only thing which is different compared to the Ghost Buster 5 is the rearend. The Ghost Buster Team using a homemade planetaries rear axle which the new Little Bastard not has. That Advanced Chassis rear axle in the Little Bastard has no planetaries.

The rear axle with the differential was bought from the Lambada Pulling Team in Zwolle, the Netherlands. Also, the rear wheels were purchased in the Netherlands. The rear wheels on the new ride are a set of used cut Pioneer Puller mini rod tires on polished Real Wheel aluminum rims. This set was purchased from the ''The Riddle Pulling Team'' in Putten, the Netherlands.

After the chassis and the engine was almost ready, there came the most exciting part for the team, the Hemi engine was mounted on the new rolling chassis. But that happiness was short lived, the power plant was way too far back on the chassis, which would have meant a much worse weight distribution on the tractor. With today's tires and the high power, it's very important to have most of the weight on the nose of the tractor. The low center of gravity of the driver's position is another very important point today to have a good balance on difficult tracks. But the main problem for that engine position problem was the snout of the fuel pump for the engine. The snout was too long and the only thing was to order a new shorter snout for the fuel pump from the USA to sort this problem out. With this change, the power plant could move 12cm more forward on the chassis. Another interesting thing was the weight of the tractor.

The estimates of the team were 750kg with the chassis, rear axle and engine, but the surprise came when they put the rolling chassis with the engine on the scale, only 650kg and that with all attachments parts which was a great result for them. After the engine was newly positioned on the chassis, the team started to work on the position for the fuel and the oil tank. After the calculations were done, the new 35l aluminum fuel tank and oil tank were manufactured and new brackets on the engine for the tanks were built.

The new rear fenders are homemade and were off aluminum sheet metal. The parts for the sheet metal were laser cut by a local company and the parts for the fenders were later welded together by the team himself. For the new paint job on the tractor, the Swiss team received support from the Swiss company called ''Mäder AG''.

The Walter Mäder AG Coatings Department is part of the Mäder Group, an international manufacturer of specialist industrial coatings. Walter Mäder AG has been one of the most innovative industrial coating manufacturers in Europe for more than 75 years. After the paint has arrived from the Mäder AG, Rene Fischer did all the paintwork on the chassis, fenders and the tanks.

The Advanced rearend in the mini has a new TRB Machine & Tool billet aluminum center section with a used billet aluminum diff from the Lambada Pulling Team in the Netherlands, a Rockwell F105 ring and pinion gear, Strange floater axles and Willwood brake calipers with steel brake discs.

Also completely new calculated and built is the whole drivetrain of the tractor. The newly built drivetrain received a new Lenco gearbox with a Lenco reverser, a custom built steel driveshaft between the rearend and the reverser, a Crower 10 inch centrifugal clutch with 3 discs and a Lakewood steel clutch bell housing from the USA. The new custom built driveshaft for the vehicle was machined by Schwarz Frästechnik from Oberharmersbach in Germany.

The new Little Bastard is powered by a blown Jan-Cen Racing V8 Hemi engine with a displacement of 521cui on methanol fuel. After all the parts were delivered for the engine from the USA, the Bastard Pulling Team, together with the Trouble Racing Team around Marcus Hilt from Grellingen in Switzerland started to build up the motor in the workshop of Marcus Hilt. Marcus Hilt and his Trouble Racing Team owns a Tommy Mauney built 1963 Chevrolet Corvette pro modified dragster with a Noonan 521 cui engine with about 3000 hp. Driver Marcus Hilt and his team compete with the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette pro modified dragster in the FIA European Drag Racing Championship since many years.

The power plant in the mini modified received an AJPE TFX billet aluminum block with billet steel sleeves, a Bryant 4.150 stroke billet steel crankshaft with billet aluminum rods and pistons, BAE Hemi Stage 6 cylinder heads with aluminum valve covers, a billet steel cam, homemade exhaust headers, a DMPE 14-71 blower with a carbon fiber scoop, a TAE (Tom Anderson Enterprises) fuel pump, a homemade aluminum fuel and oil tank, a dry sump lubrication with an Aviaid oil pump, an MSD 44 Pro Mag ignition and a new Racepak data logger.

The Jan-Cen Racing power plant was used before in Marcus Hilt's pro modified dragster, but has been updated with new parts. Jan-Cen Racing engines is the company of Mike Janis Jr, the son of 3 times NHRA pro modified drag racing champion Mike Janis from the USA. The company Jan-Cen Motorsports was formed in 1958 by James Janis, Sr. and Tony Centra, Jan-Cen Motor Sports has built its reputation as the number one stop for high-performance products and service. What started as a mere dream for quality engine service over sixty years ago has turned into a mark for perfection. Located in Elma, New York, Jan-Cen Motorsports specializes in a variety of areas, which include race engine building, high-performance products, snowmobile sales and repairs, and ATV sales and repairs. They service Elma, the surrounding Buffalo area, and all of Western New York.

Also at Jan-Cen Motor Sports, the racing engine specialists are always doing constant R&D to better improve your motor's performance. Their in-house dyno helps them better understand their engine's tendencies and makes for dramatic increases in horsepower. Now run by Janis' sons, Jan-Cen Motor Sports maintains its status as racers' and consumers' number one stop for high performance in Western New York.

The Jan-Cen Racing engine will have around 2500hp with this whole setup around there. The team, together with Marcus Hilt already have fired up the engine a couple of times in front of their workshop and everything worked pretty well. Also, the first little rollout in front of the workshop was done and they found out that the clutch worked not 100%. But, the problem was already solved with some changes.

For the future, the young Swiss team have planned to compete with the new mini mod in the German Championship and on some pulls outside of the Championship, like at the Knutwiler Powerdays in Knutwil, Switzerland.

The decision was made to compete in the German Championship because Switzerland has no sled or a Championship for mini modified tractors in their country. Another point was, Switzerland currently have no further mini mod team in their country.

Usually, the maiden run for the new Little Bastard was planned for the 2020 season, but due to the Covid 19 pandemic was that not possible. Currently, the new tractor standing in the workshop and waiting for his first attempt in front of the sled and one is sure from the horsepower view the Little Bastard should be competitive against the other top tractors in the German Championship.

Sven Müller would also like to give a big thanks to Marcus Hilt of the Trouble Racing Team for the support with the engine, Christian Ebner for the technical support, the Ghost Buster Pulling Team for the support with the chassis and parts, Nicole Markwalder of the Mäder AG for the paint, Dällenbach Roger Tec for the machined CNC parts and Rene Fischer for the paint job!