At Nilséns Performence in the small village Bjursås located outside Falun in Sweden  racing is the big thing. At the time we visited, Pro Mod driver Adam Flamholc was on site and did some updating for customers engines.

In the basement of an old building up in the hills of the village Bjursås, Emil Nilsén has his workshop. He is one of Sweden´s best in testing and updating racing engines to go faster. And that’s not too hard to understand if you know Emil and his background. He has learned from the best and grew up with a dad that took him to races and let him play around with the big guys who had race cars. Father and son have been playing around with vehicles all Emil’s life, so he got it in the blood.  Some of you know the Bjursås-Camaro and those guys liked this little fellow so much that they took him in to the team as a mascot. And of course by that he learned a lot.



Emil started automotive high school after elementary school and remembers an interview at a local radio station where he said that he had a dream of going to USA and build big engines for racing. That interview was about the reward he got as best automotive student in Sweden that year.

-    In 1999-2000 the dream was fulfilled as I went to the famous Lennart “Bagarn“ Bergqvist, tells Emil. I spent seven month at Autoshop Racing Engines and that was just the best thing I ever have done. It was just the best education one can get in this business, says Emil.

When Emil came back home he started his own business in his spare time. It became like a rolling stone and he got more and more orders, so in 2006 he started the business for full time. He bought “Bagarns” old dyno a couple of years before that, when he replaced it. 

Then it has just rolled on and now Nilséns Performance is well known in drag racing-Sweden as elsewhere. 

Now the circle is kind of closed as Emil got a helper in the shop. When we visited the work shop we got to meet Austin Bergqvist, who is the 20 year old son of Lennart “Bagarn” Bergqvist and his wife Birgitta (who still runs the shop in Orlando. Sadly “Bagarn” passed away in 2006).  Austin is now living in Bjusås and doing and works as an apprentice at Nilsén Performance.


Austin Bergqvist

-    I will stay for a year at first, he says. I have been working in a drag racing team in USA and also worked for my mums business before I came over here. I really like it here in Sweden. It´s too hot in Florida and I have seen enough of that for a while. So I hope I can find a way to stay here for some time. I want to learn how to handle a dyno and build race engines.
It seems that the business is working its way forward and the knowledge is saved for some time.

The Nilséns Performance does all necessary operations in building all kind of engines, everything from street to the fastest at the strip. They also have a new DTS Dyno, capable for more than 3000 hp. Adam Flamhlc and Mats Eriksson both famous in Pro Modified are just a couple of many satisfied customers of Emil.

For more information visit: http://www.nilsenperformance.com