The Razors Edge Pulling Team around Herman and Henk Staal from Voorthuizen in the Netherlands brought a new single semi-truck engine powered 2.5t/5500lbs light modified tractor to the track in 2021.
After 8 years with the old steel tube frame on the tractor, the small Dutch team decided to build a new chassis with a lot of new components for the tractor in 2020.
The Razors Edge Pulling Team was founded in 2008, but the owners Henk and Herman were much earlier active in the tractor pulling sport before they founded the team.
Herman's dad was going to many pulls as a spectator before he joined the Eager Beaver Pulling Team from Putten in the Netherlands in 1988. The workshop of the Eager Beaver Pulling in Putten was only 15 km away from their home in Voorthuizen. In his first years, Henk was a mechanic in the Eager Beaver Team on the Chevy V8-powered modified tractor called ''Beverol Eager Beaver''.
In 1998, he got the opportunity to drive the modified tractor in the 4.5t heavy modified. Henk drove the tractor in that class until 2003, before he retired from the Eager Beaver Team as a team member at the end of the 2003 season.
His son Herman was born in 1986 and came quite early in contact with the pulling sport, so he was almost born into the most powerful motorsport on wheels. When he was getting older, he also helped as a mechanic in the Eager Beaver Pulling Team. After his dad quit with the Eager Beaver Team, Herman also did. After that, Herman started with micropulling. The micropuller was Herman's first puller, which he built by himself. It was a TWD Truck with a 1-cylinder RC airplane engine. The Dutchman was very successful in the micropuller scene in the Netherlands. In 2005, he won his first and only title in the micropulling sport.
After his success in the micropulling scene, he became a team member of The Special Edition compact diesel pulling team.
In the Special Edition Team of Eddy Hofijzer, he learned a lot about the technic of the Ford TW compact diesel puller and the turbocharged diesel engines. But that wasn't the only thing which he has learned there. Eddy also owns the only garden puller sled in the Netherlands, which was Herman involved as a mechanic and sled driver in his time.
But already in this time, Henk Staal, Herman's dad always mentioned he still wants to pull and built something. One thing was sure for him, he didn't want a mini modified or modified tractor with a V8 engine. Henk wanted a modified tractor with a big engine, which was different compared to the other pulling vehicles in the Netherlands and Europe.
After some searching in 2007, they found a Russian Transmash V12 power plant at a dealer, Grootebroek in the Netherlands. After the deal was closed, Henk and Herman transported the Russian engine to their workshop in Voorthuizen. When the engine was in the workshop, they started with the rebuilding of the engine, which should take a lot of free time. The whole rebuild of the engine took almost 3 years, and Henk and Herman did a lot of changes and improvements to the engine. At that time, they also decided to convert the power plant from diesel fuel to alcohol fuel. That was also unique at that time because nobody has tested or run on a pulling tractor with a Tranmash V12 engine on alcohol.
The plan of the father-son duo wasn't only to convert the engine on alcohol, the plan also was to make that engine as light as possible to get into the 2.5t light modified class.
The Tranmash V12 engine is an engine that was used in tanks, towing vehicles, or for industrial purposes. The engine in Voorthuizen was one of the last and latest versions of the Transmash engine, which was built in Russia. According to Herman, this was the best type of Transmash engines for tractor pulling, because the engine was very strongly built and had better stronger rods and bearings than a Rolls-Royce Griffon V12 power plant.
But the big disadvantage was the weight of the engine. Every part of the original Russian power plant was manufactured out of steel, and there were almost no parts out of lightweight aluminum on the engine. The only components of aluminum were the cylinder heads of the Transmash engine. Everything was built very strong and reliable by the Russians at the time. Alone, the original oil pan of the engine had a weight of 70 kg. They replaced the original one with a new homemade oil pan out of aluminum sheet metal. That aluminum sheet metal oil pan was around 60 kg lighter compared to the original pan.
To save more weight on the power plant, Henk and Herman also modified the cylinder banks, the crankshaft, the pistons, and many more parts. The cylinder banks on the engine were completely milled down. In the end, only the original steel sleeves and the water jackets are left over between the cylinder heads and the engine block. So that the cylinder heads hold the sleeves together on the block, the team had built for the engine some stronger and bigger steel studs. Also, the original steel crankshaft was heavily modified. The team chopped counterweights off the crankshaft and saved 22 kg. The pistons were lighter made too. They saved around 400g per piston, it wasn't very much but had an effect.
The advantage was, that the original connecting rods were to be subjected to less stress. The original Transmash engine is a naturally aspirated diesel engine, which hasn't had a turbocharger or a supercharger on it. Most of the European pulling teams, which have used this kind of engine on diesel fuel, have used turbochargers for charging the engine. But also there, Herman and Henk Staal went a different way. They put as a charger a Zvezda radial blower on the engine. The supercharger came from a Zvezda M50 V12 N400 engine with a capacity of 63l on diesel fuel. The supercharger was fitted with a homemade aluminum air intake funnel.
The camshaft drive of the engine was totally new built. The Staals had developed and built a completely new belt drive for the camshaft drive, that saved more weight. Due to the switch from diesel to alcohol fuel, they also needed a brand-new intake manifold and a new fuel and ignition system. The fuel system came from the Green Monster Pulling Team in Germany, and the ignition was from Jacobs Electronics. The intake manifold was built out of aluminum by the team himself. That gave the Zvezda supercharger a better airflow to the engine and more power. Later when the engine was ready, the engine was positioned on used modified tractor tube chassis which the team has bought in the Netherlands too.
Herman and Henk Staal purchased the old chassis of the single Rolls-Royce Griffon V12 tractor called ''Red Diamond''. The chassis was rebuilt and modified, plus received a new 2 bar steel roll cage and a new Rockwell rearend. The Rockwell rearend was shortened and had a Rockwell stock center section with a diff from the Rocket Science Pulling Team and DAF truck planetaries. The driveline on the tractor was built by the team himself. Herman has machined and manufactured all the parts (except the gears) for the driveline. At the time, Herman spent most of his free time on the lathe and milling machine to produce all the components for the tractor.
The advantage was, that he was supported by the company which he has worked in the past. So he could use all the CNC-milling and lathe machines of the company to build all the parts for the tractor in his free time.
After 4 years of hard work, the new tractor was finally ready to run in the spring of 2012. The team registered the tractor for the light modified class in the Dutch Grand National Championship and named it ''Another Russian Invader''. The new Another Russian Invader did his first meters with the Transmash V12 alky engine in Stroe 2012. Herman Staal did the maiden run on the tractor, but all the settings on the engine were in safe mode to avoid any damage to the engine during the first hook.
It took a couple of runs before the tractor ran well. After every pull, the engine, fuel, and ignition settings have been adjusted and improved. The tractor ran from season to season better and better and the guys made some very impressive hooks with the Another Russian Invader in 2.5t light modified class. But there was a problem. The engine ran pretty well, but the main issue on the engine was the Zvezda supercharger. The Russian supercharger wasn't reliable and broke quite often. The team tried everything to get sorted these problems out and did many changes to the supercharger, but without big success. Also, the self-developed and homemade parts for the supercharger brought no improvements in the reliability.
Unfortunately, after the 2014 season, the team stopped with the Zvezda supercharger on the engine and decided to go a different way. For the 2015 season, Zvezda supercharger was replaced by 2 Holset HX82 turbochargers. But that wasn't everything, they decided to replace the old steel Transmash engine block by a lighter Wola engine block. The Wola V12 engine was a Polish license-built Transmash V12, but had a lighter engine block. Alone, the engine block on the Wola power plant was 140 kg lighter compared to the original Transmash engine block. That also gave the team more possibilities for more moveable weight on the tractor.
With the updated engine setup the tractor was ready before the 2015 season in the Netherlands started.
But the luck wasn't on the site of the team. At the third pull of the season in Made, the Netherlands they had troubles with the driveline on the Another Russian Invader and one dead Russian was the result on the light mod tractor. The problem was when the driveline broke, the Transmash engine revved up to 5375 rpm which was too much for the power plant at the end. The result was many junked parts in the engine. A very sad end for the engine.
After that junked engine, the team started to plan a new, improved Transmash V12 engine for the tractor. After they were ready to build the new improved Transmash engine, the team got the option to get an inline 6 cylinder Iveco Cursor 10 semi-truck engine.
After many head-scratching thoughts by the Staals they decided with heavy hearts to stop with the plan to build a new improved Transmash V12 engine for the tractor. That decision was made for the future. Another thing was nobody had used an Iveco Cursor engine on alcohol fuel in the Tractor Pulling Sport and light modified class so far, so it was a new challenge for them to get running this kind of inline 6 cylinder engine on a light modified tractor.
After the italian Iveco engine was in the workshop, the guys started to take apart the engine and did further decisions for changes to different engine parts for the power plant.
Parts like the stock steel Iveco crankshaft and the Cursor cylinder head were revised and overhauled.
The head was revised for a better airflow and the crankshaft was re-machined and fresh balanced for a nice smooth run at high rpm. Further internal parts like the stock pistons and rods were replaced by new stronger homemade aluminum rods and forged aluminum pistons. Also, the stock camshaft was replaced by a new homemade steel camshaft in the engine. For the grinding of cam, they got help from Jan Burgraaf in Loosdrecht in the Netherlands. Jan, with his experience in camshafts and a good contact to a company which is specialized in grinding of camshafts, he arranged the grinding for their new camshaft. Also, very interesting what the team on the engine has done is the whole intake and exhaust manifold.
The team decided to make their own thing and brought their own ideas into the new intake and exhaust manifold, which is unique still today. The intake and exhaust manifold were built and welded by team member Bert Cousijnsen.
Also, turbocharger-wise, they went a other way. Everybody knows the original turbocharger from the engine is much too small and with only one the engine has far too less boost and power. According to the engine points and rules in the light mod class, they had the possibility to put a maximum of 4 turbos on the engine, like on a super stock engine. But the father-son team decided to put 3 Holset HX turbochargers on the Iveco Cursor 10 power plant.
In their opinion, it was the best way for them, to begin with, 3 turbos on this new engine project.
Most of the light modified and modified teams have positioned their turbocharger package on the front end of the engine due to the less moveable weight, but not at the Staals. The triple turbo setup was positioned on the back end of the engine and was covered by stainless steel protection.
Due to the switch from diesel to alcohol fuel, a new fuel system was built for the engine. The fuel system was built by the team himself with Hillborn and Enderle Parts. For the ignition, they decided to use an MSD 8 Dual ignition. And to get the motor easier running, a Racepak data logger system was added to the Iveco engine. With the data logger, they can evaluate the motor data more easily, and they can make quick changes to the settings for the fuel and ignition system. After the Iveco Cursor engine was rebuilt for pulling, the team put the power plant on the old Another Russian Invader chassis.
But there was more to change on the old tractor before they could run with the Italian engine on the tractor.
Due to the new motor, they also needed new parts for the drivetrain.
So after that, the team started to make calculations for the new drivetrain and decided to build it completely new. Herman was again the man behind machines to build all these new components for it. A new gearbox was built with a lighter aluminum housing and new gears for a different gear ratio. The old reverser was replaced by an SCS reverser, and the driveshaft from the clutch to the gearbox was machined completely new.
Due to the Italian engine instead of the Russian engine, the tractor also got a new name. The name of the tractor was changed from Another Russian Invader to The Razors Edge. Because of the name change, the tractor also received a new look on the fenders. Both fenders were blue painted with the Razors Edge logo of the 1990 revealed AC DC album called ''The Razors Edge'' on it.
Gert Koudijs from Stroe, in the Netherlands, did the new paint job on the fenders.
The rebuilding of the tractor from Transmash V12 to a Iveco Cursor 6 cylinder engine took over 2 years before the tractor was finally ready for the Dutch Grand National Championship final round in Alphen 2017.
But that maiden run at the end of the season wasn't successful. Troubles with the fuel setting made only 73 cm possible. The engine ran way too rich with fuel.
Unfortunately, these problems with the engine settings should continue throughout the whole 2018 season. On the pulls which they have competed, they couldn't find the right settings for the engine, and almost all hooks ended in front of the 20 mark. Herman and Henk weren't happy at all, but for them, it was also clear it will take some time before the engine run properly on The Razors Edge. In 2019, the team did a sabbatical year and did some other things which were important too.
Usually, in 2020, The Razors Edge Team wanted to return to the pulling tracks, but then came covid 19, and the plan was shattered. So that meant the guys had pretty much time to do something new. In the summer of 2020, Henk and Herman purchased a set of new uncut 30.5-32 Mitas Powerpull tires for the tractor. But there was an issue. The Mitas tires were heavier compared to the old 30.5x 32 Firestone All Traction tires. Due to the less moveable already on the tractor with the old tires there was only one way to build a totally new lighter chassis for the tractor.
So the team set the rolling chassis with the fenders, the rear wheels, and all the driveline components for sale in the summer of 2020. Within 3 days, the whole package was sold to the Knight Rider Pulling Team from Scotland. That also brought some extra money into the team's pocket and made the building of the chassis from the financial point of view much easier. After the chassis was sold to Chris Knight from Scotland, the whole team started to build the new light modified tractor in August 2020. But they had already started collecting parts for the new tractor 3 years before.
The reason for that was when they started to build the Iveco Cursor power plant it was already clear that the cursor motor is relatively heavy and many possibilities for moveable weight on the old chassis were not there too. So after that, they decided to collect parts for new lighter chassis for the future. Due to the small budget (most of the tractor was paid of their own pocket) it was not possible to build a new chassis already after the 2015 season. So it took a while before they could realize the new lighter chassis for the engine.
For the new chassis, they decided to build a new Domex wedge frame instead of a chrome-moly tube frame.
Henk and Herman are usually big fans of chrome-moly tube frames in tractor pulling, but because of the great effort and the price, this was out of the question. Due to the easy build and price-wise was a Domex wedge frame the best choice for them.
The new The Razors Edge received a new homemade Domex steel wedge frame with a newly built 2bar chrome-moly tube roll cage, a Kirkey aluminum racing driver seat, a new homemade rack and pinion steering, new weight and driveline brackets, new homemade chrome-moly tube wheelie bars and a homemade steel sheet metal rearend with a new constructed drawbar and hitching device.
The new roll cage for the light mod tractor was purchased as a welding kit from Ace Chassis in the USA and was shipped over from the US to the Netherlands by Arjan van Lenthe. On the left side of the steering wheel on the roll cage is the screen mounted for the Racepak data logger. The screen shows the driver the data of the Cursor 10 engine.
All the parts for the wedge frame, like the Domex frame rails and all the other frame parts, were laser-cut and bent by Nauta laser cutting from Sneek in the Netherlands.
The whole welding work on the new chassis and the new roll cage were did by The Razors Edge team member Bert Cousijnsen.
The Dutch company sponsored all the laser-cut parts for this new light mod project.
The front wheels on the newly built front axle are completely new. The front wheels are a set of new Airtrac airplane tires with new homemade aluminum rims. The new homemade aluminum rims on the tires are CNC-machined by the team himself at the company Diemax.
Herman Staal is an employee at Diemax, like in the other company where he has worked before, he can use all the CNC machines to build pulling parts for the tractor in his free time.
Pretty unique on the tractor are the brake pedals and the clutch pedal. Herman has machined the pedals out of aluminum on a CNC milling machine.
Also, completely new are the fenders on the tractor. The fenders are homemade too off aluminum sheet metal and are lighter compared to the old ones on the old Razors Edge. The aluminum sheet metal on the fenders is riveted to a homemade aluminum frame.
The homemade sheet metal rearend in the new light mod is based on a shortened Rockwell/Meritor rear axle. The lighter homemade rearend and received a Meritor 20-145 stock cast aluminum center section with a Rockwell needle bearing differential, a stock Rockwell ring and pinion gear, new custom-built steel half shafts, machined Mercedes cast aluminum planetary carrier housing with stock Mercedes planetaries.
The whole drivetrain in the new light mod tractor was totally new built and almost no parts were taken over from the old tractor. The team built a completely new speed-up gearbox with a new CNC milled aluminum casing and new custom-built gears in it. The newly designed and CNC machined aluminum housing of the speed-up gearbox is lighter compared to the old one and the new custom-built gears for the speed-up gearbox were made by JGGH engine & transmission Solution in Overberg, the Netherlands. Directly on the speed-up gearbox is an SCS reverser fitted. That reverser was taken over from the old tractor with the tube chassis.
On the top of the speed-up gearbox becomes the external starter attached for starting the Iveco engine. After the engine is started, the external starter comes away from the speed-up gearbox. That external starter is usually a starter for blown V8 Dragster engines, but was modified for the use on the speed-up gearbox. The steel driveshaft between the clutch and the gearbox was newly manufactured by the team. The 8-inch Molinary centrifugal clutch still remained the same and got a new pressure plate assembly from Molinary. The Molinary clutch is placed in a safety-proved Browell aluminum bell housing. All in all, the newly developed and built drive train in the new Razors Edge, is lighter compared to the old one.
The new Mitas Powerpull tires will give the light modified tractor much more traction on the pulling tracks compared to the old sold Firestone All Traction tires on the old tractor. The new Mitas tires were cut and prepared by Hans Heesakers from the Netherlands. After the tires were back from the tire cutter, the tires were fitted on a set of new polished Keizer aluminum rims from the USA. The rims were ordered and purchased at Post & Dros in Dronten, the Netherlands.
The new Razors Edge light modified is powered by a triple turbocharged 6 cylinder Iveco Cursor 10 truck engine with 10.2l capacity on alcohol fuel.
The Iveco Cursor engine usually runs on diesel fuel, but the Dutch team modified the power plant and converted it to alcohol for more power.
The Cursor engine was developed by Iveco for heavy semi-trucks, tractors, generators, boats, and other applications. The Cursor series was completely redesigned in the 1990s. In 1998, the first cursor appeared in the Iveco models EuroStar and EuroTech. Since then, the engines have been used in all vehicles of the CNH Industrial Group, including military vehicles, as well as in various industrial and marine applications.
Since then, Cursor engine development has been taken over by FPT (Fiat Powertrain Technologies). Iveco and FPT have developed different Cursor engines for more than 20 years. The smallest engine in this series is the Cursor 8 engine, with a capacity of 7.8l and around 300hp. The Iveco Cursor 10 engine with 10.2l on the Razors Edge is not the biggest Cursor engine that has Iveco/FPT developed during the years. In 2014, FPT revealed the Cursor 16 engine at the SaMoTer exhibition in Verona, Italy. The engine was usually developed for use in industrial plants. But the engine also found its way into the agricultural farming machinery. The daughter company CNH (Case-New Holland) uses the engine for their biggest combine harvester in their program, the New Holland CR10.90 with 700hp. The Cursor 16 engine is currently the biggest engine in the Cursor engine family of FPT.
But back to the Cursor 10 engine. The Cursor 10 power plant was mainly used in the Iveco EuroStar semi-trucks. The Iveco EuroStar semi-trucks were built between 1993 and 2002 in the Iveco semi-truck plant in Ulm. The plant in Ulm, south Germany, was the former plant of the former German semi-truck manufacturer Deutz-Magirus, which was taken over by Iveco in the early 80s.
The power plant on the Razors Edge has a Iveco stock engine block with stock sleeves, a revised Iveco crank with homemade aluminum rods and homemade forged pistons, a revised Iveco Cursor 10 cast iron cylinder head with a homemade aluminum intake and steel exhaust manifold, a new homemade camshaft (ground by Jan Burggraaf, New Generation), new Iveco valves and valve springs from PAC Performance, a homemade aluminum fuel tank, a 3 Stage Aviaid oil pump, a homemade fuel injection system with Hillborn and Enderle Parts, a MSD Dual 8 ignition and Racepak data logger.
The whole engine was taken over from the old tractor and nothing big was changed on it yet so far. But how much horsepower the engine currently has in this setup is difficult to say in monetary terms. At the moment, there is no test bench data from this triple turbocharged Iveco Cursor engine on alcohol. But according to estimates, if the engine is running properly, 3500-4000 hp should be in it without any problems.
The 4 men team from Voorthuizen worked one year on the new project, before the new light mod did his maiden run in front of the sled. That maiden voyage was made (like in 2017) in Alphen in the Netherlands in September 2021.
But the tractor was without a paint job at the start. Due to the short time, it was not possible to paint the new chassis of the tractor. On the scale in Alphen, the weight of the new The Razors Edge was under the weight of 2.5t. A weight of 2.44t showed that they have made a huge improvement on lightweight parts, even though they have tires on the tractor that were 65 kg heavier than their old ones. The team was very satisfied with the result. But not with the result in front of the sled. The pull was not what they have thought. The triple turbocharged Italian engine wouldn't rev over 3600rpm and after 4.88 m the run was over.
In the 3 weeks between Alphen and Langedijk, they did some changes to the fuel system of the engine. In Langedijk the track conditions were a bit tricky and with a newly built tractor, it was a gamble to choose the right settings. They put the drawbar up to get some pressure from the sled on the tires and dropped tire pressure. When they wanted to drive in front of the sled, the engine shut off. Before they were disqualified due to the 3 min limit, they decided to drop 6 places in the running order for another attempt. In the second attempt, the engine revved over 4000 rpm, but the tractor didn't run smooth and after 21.31 m it was over.
The last pull of the year, in 2021, was the Indoor pull in Assen in the Netherlands for them. But it wasn't the day for the Razors Edge. Troubles with the clutch avoided a good run.
During the winter break of 2021 / 2022, the tractor was completely dismantled and checked and the new chassis plus the fenders and many more new components got the paint job.
The tractor wasn't painted in the same colors as the old tractor. Henk and Herman Staal decided to make a switch to a new color scheme. The fenders and chassis etc. were painted in red and the roll cage in gold metallic. But the tractor received no further vinyl graphics and stickers so far, but that will change the Dutch guys in the next months if there is time.
The 2022 season for the new The Razors Edge began in Langedijk in the middle of May. But the season started with a little fire on the engine, which was caused by an ignited ventilation. Fortunately, it wasn't big damage, and it was fixed pretty quickly.
In Oudenhoorn, The Razors Edge ran much better compared to the last event. Herman Staal in the hot seat did the first really good hook with the still new light mod tractor and with 60.40 m, the whole team was satisfied with that distance. But the inline 6 cylinder Iveco Cursor 10 alky burner still ran not smooth. After some changes to the fuel system, the problems continued in Stroe and in Made. The power plant still not made the full power and more changes have to be done for the next event in Putten.
In this 3 weeks break the tractor receives a new Rockwell ring and pinion gear with a slower ratio, and the Iveco power plant an update on the ignition. With those changes on it, the team hopes for more rpm from the Italian 6 cylinder alky burner engine.
But the update didn't worked as planned in Putten. Like at the 2 events before, the engine turned not over 3000 rpm and at 63.19m the pull was over. After the pass, the Herman Staal an the team looked a bit at a loss. Back in the workshop, they found a leak on the intake system of the engine. That was maybe one of the issues why the Iveco engine ran not well in Putten. In Putten, they also revealed on the light mod tractor the new vinyl graphics on the fenders for the first time. The team also showed 2 new sponsors on the tractor, which is very good for that small team.
The plan is clear, the Razors Edge Pulling Team hopes to have a reliable and well-running tractor in the Dutch Championship in the future.
The Razors Edge Pulling Team also would like to thank all their sponsors for the support on the new 2.5t light modified tractor. They want to thank Hametco for sponsoring all the materials to get the stuff being made, Nauta laser cutting for all the laser-cut parts and Diemax for using the CNC machines for machining the new parts.
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