Talking Skulls, Thor's Hammer Medallions Bring Grim Scandinavian Despair To Thunderhill

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The last time the Black Metal V8olvo raced, it was black and blue... and evil. It's still evil, but- like a bleak Swedish winter of death- it's all in white now.



The roof-mounted vacuum-powered skulls have been retrofitted with electrical innards and anatomically correct arms; when you pull the Metal Switch (a BMW 2002 hazard-light switch) on the dash, a PA speaker blasts Immortal, the skulls' red eyes flash, and the jaws snap open and closed.

Talking Skulls, Thor's Hammer Medallions Bring Grim Scandinavian Despair To Thunderhill


We'll have a how-to on this project later on, but for now all you need to know is that Volvo 240 door-lock motors move the jaws, and a turn signal flasher hooked up to a set of three Bosch relays controls them. Sadly, it appears that the VDO designers who made these lock actuators never anticipated a duty cycle involving nonstop up-down-up-down operation for hours at a time, so the skulls have had some reliability issues.

Talking Skulls, Thor's Hammer Medallions Bring Grim Scandinavian Despair To Thunderhill


The drivers of a Swedish car must be armed with Thor's Hammer, aka Mjöllnir, so I made some for the team out of rusty steel and spikes. A few junkyard trips netted a bunch of Volvo emblems, while various emblems provided many numeral 8s (BMW 318s, Mercedes-Benz 280s, and Volvo 850s were good sources). You don't want to step on one of these babies barefoot!

Talking Skulls, Thor's Hammer Medallions Bring Grim Scandinavian Despair To Thunderhill


Add some post-Halloween clearance-sale monk costumes, and there's your Black Metal V8olvo uniform!

Talking Skulls, Thor's Hammer Medallions Bring Grim Scandinavian Despair To Thunderhill


Your metal is weak! That's what the Swedish text down the sides of the car means.