Rollin’ into the Weekend Like: A Redblock Tractor
Tractor pulling is known as the world’s heaviest motorsport, where 3000-hp machines tug 60,000-pound sleds as far as they can down a dirt track. It’s huge in America, but it’s also a worldwide phenomenon, with events all over Europe, Australia, Asia, and beyond.
Less common, probably, is stuffing a turbocharged Volvo B21ET into your old Volvo T-series tractor and then hooning the absolute hell out of your boggy fields with it. But that’s exactly what Swede Rickard Nilsson did, and way back in 2013, he and friend Mikael Karlsson memorialized it on video. To date, nearly 40 million people have watched “Terror” tearing it up with glee.
Beneath the hood of an early ’80s Euro-market Volvo 240, the B21ET made about 155 horsepower—roughly 100 more than the T-series tractor’s stock Bolinder 3-cylinder diesel would have produced—though the flexibility of those engines allowed for much more. And though it’s hard to say how much farmer Nilsson is getting out of his machine here, we’re inclined to say it’s just about perfect.
What are you hooning this weekend?
Had a neighbor who built a pulling tractor with a Jet engine in it.
That was ok but he he as Cub Cadet with a Small block Chevy in it. It was used to pull the batteries to start the jet and also in garden tractor pulls. It was over 500 HP. He passed us on the street one day He was flying.
You have much more interesting neighbors than most people.
I’ve got a field that needs disking, but I don’t think this is the way I’d want to do it. Tractors have a high center-of-gravity, and although this looks like fun, it also looks pretty dangerous – I cringed every time he turned the wheel sharply. Also, notice he goes out when it’s wet. If he accidentally finds a dry spot where those rear tires get some purchase, it’s wheelie time – and wheelies in a farm tractor can truly kill you!
I’m with you on the danger involved with a tractor like that. Fun to watch, but could go very bad quickly for the driver and/or the person behind the camera. I watched my son nearly flip our old 8N backwards years ago – just trying to help out our neighbor – I will never forget that moment as long as I live.
Further proof that redneck is not an exclusively US phenomenon