Flashback: Leif Nylund's Drag Racing Porky

Leif Nylund was one of the most successful drag racers in Finland during the 80's winning many Finnish Championship titles and at least one in Nordic Championship. He started racing with "civilian" 60's 911 with 2.5 liter engine, then continued with another 911 built for drag racing and later had yet another 911 (as a spare car). He spent his career in Modified Standard class and continued in similar Super Stock class when Finnish Hot Rod Association started to fully apply the NHRA rules.



His times in MS were in 13-second range which were due to get car in favourable sub class, most of his opponents had much faster V8s, but Leif usually won them due to his handicap in his subclass. The handicap gave him 2-4 second head start while the V8 guys were still at christmas tree watching the Porsche disappear, catching just at the finishing line and most cases just after it :-) During the Super Stock years he got into 9-second range, fastest ET I saw while browsing old magazines was 9.901.



I tried to dig more about the cars and engines but came bit short handed. There was one feature article about Leif's Porsche in Street/Race magazine but that wasn't exactly filled with details. One of the sad events was the '87 race in Seinäjoki where the 911 got sabotaged, someone had poured sand though the oil filler over the night at the pits. Leif's 911 is pictured here in 1988 Super Car Expo in a slant nose 935 disquise, held in old Helsinki Ice Hall like many 80's car shows.