49. "It's beginning to cost a lot like Christmas"

Wow where did that year go??? I started this year with absolutely no idea what I was letting myself in for..and now I'm a drag racer!  We have met some of the nicest people in racing full stop. The Wild Bunch, what a great bunch of people I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to my racing career.

So where are we then after all our engine woes..well that's a surprise and if you read through this blog you will find out at the end...LOL

This brilliant photo was taken by John  Kennedy of johnkennedypotography.com  at Shakespeare County Raceway, because of the lane I am in I know this was when the gearbox let go this was just the start of our woes as we decided to strip he engine at the same time as repairing/replacing the gearbox and...well if you read all this blog you all know what we found.

This was the lowest point of the year, I really couldn't see how we were going to continue I had spent so much money on the car and truck to start with, then had to replace the truck and repair then replace the gearbox it was all too much, this all happened in the same month that I had already paid for the road tax and insurance on the truck and the storage fees. I really thought about calling it a day and I thought of myself as a silly old git for even trying to do what we were doing,,yeah depression...big time! I didn't even want to t think about drag racing ever again.

Luckily I have a wonderful Wife and Son, Lorni reminded me how much we had tied up in this venture and that it was too much to let go and number one Son and Tight Fit Crew Chief Steve, went to work to find a replacement engine, what we found was, there isn't a lot out there at the moment well not Small Blocks anyway, we even though about fitting a big block in the rail but! too much work to adapt the car, because of what had happened we were put off looking at anything second hand..unless it could be proved that it had recently been refreshed, we found nothing that we thought would be useful to us.

So Steve went looking for new bits and he scoured the States and eventually realised that whatever we do it is going to cost a fair bit of money and even though the prices for new gear in the Sates isn't too bad but!, by the time you added shipping, duty and Vat it was too much.

So another month went past and we kept looking and it soon became clear that if we didn't go for a new power plant then we weren't going to race in 2015, Steve found a company in America that would put together an engine for us for a reasonable price, Steve has been haggling with them and checking on them of course so it looks like we are going to order a new engine from them this week 3rd week of December 2014.

So as we speak Steve is working on the car he is taking the tank out to repair the union on the fuel line he is taking the master cylinder and callipers out to update them with better items and he is also taking the screen with him as we need to make a new one.

If you look carefully you will see a well placed piece of duct tape as I split the screen with my knee getting out of the car at Dragstalgia,,yea a diet is also on the cards LOL

OK so back to the engine then, what we are getting is a 454 stroked Small block putting out around 800 horses we want to run low 8's or even drop into the 7's We are hoping to get the car re-tagged in the new year and I am going to  try and get a licence so we can have a go n Super Pro, we will be staying with the Wild Bunch.

 This is the spec of our new engine with maybe one or two changes that we are talking to them about at the moment yes it is going to cost me a lot of money and it will mean my motorbikes will have to go but it will be worth it,and yes we are going to use our old injection system because I love the look..

So with a bit of luck and a following wind we will have everything in place to go testing around March and try and get my licence signed off, it looks like it is going to be an exciting year it also looks like there are going to be a lot more cars in Super Pro if what I read is right and I am really hoping that we can have everything sorted and have the car running good for Dragstalgia 2015.

48. Perhaps we should have left it alone!!!!!!

Looks like I might have to go and find a second job at this rate, Steve my crew chief and number one son has been very busy recently on top of his day job he has had a few after hours jobs to do and...he now has my Chevy to take apart and sort out, then engine went down to Swindon last week in the back of Steve's car which promptly wrecked the rear floor of his car and the side panels he then upset his better half by plonking the engine in the utilities room of their house till he could get someone to help him shift it to his workshop...shed.

After a couple of days the engine did get moved into the workshop..shed, where Steve has set about stripping it ready to refresh it...refresh now there is a laugh and a half......Ok so first the engine plate cam off and then the flex plate where he found the crankshaft oil seal was leaking rather badly..

Next the heads came off and that is where the real fun began...first off both head gaskets had blown between the back two cylinders so that explains the lack of power we thought that was bad until we found this............

The liner is cracked so again no wonder we  were having trouble tuning the bloody car and getting the fuelling right so 4 cylinders were leaking badly and then this one with a crack in it and on the same cylinder that we found the rocker damage on when we first got the car hmmm no wonder we were having a problem with a smoking breather and a sump full of methanol after every run and on top of this the electronic ignition box was set to 6 cylinders and not 8, its a wonder the car ran at all.

The valve stem seals are all rotten as well and that was only the top end Steve hasn't taken the bottom end apart yet so god know what we will find down there...Oh lottery win where art thou???

And just to cheer me up at the end of the day Steve sends me more photo's of the heads...cracked...is there anything on this bloody engine that is not cracked or knackered???

Ok so there must be a time when enough is enough and lets just give in as it looks like I am just banging my head against a brick wall here....who said drag racing was fun??????

47. First it comes apart.....

What a day it has been, I have been stuck at home still feeling like crap after suffering some sort of virus for nearly two weeks now, while I have been stuck at home Steve...crew chief and number one son has been very busy, he loaded up his car in Swindon and headed for the bad lands..well Bedford and in what looks like pouring rain started the arduous task of removing things...lots of things.

Ok so before that he managed a test fit of the new gearbox. bearing in mind that this on is a standard length box as opposed to a short tailed box that was in the car before it hit the self destruct button....

And low and behold...miracle of miracles it dam well fits, no machining or fettling required..there is a God after all.

So just as the rain came down the hard work started...remove axle take gearbox out again loosed all bolts and get engine ready for removal....

Making very careful not of where everything goes..pipes..wires etc then lift engine out and on to floor...

So at this moment the car is looking very sorry for itself with no drive train in it but not for too long I hope and no bodywork either......

So the engine is now winging its way down to Swindon where it will be stripped and all components checked and as I have already said if t he budget is there we will fit a stroker kit to her the block is going for crack checking and repair if needed. We still have the tank and wind shield to fix up and then get the car tagged I will sot some of the wiring out and then put her all back together again in time for February...fingers crossed.

46. The hard work starts..

I used to read reports from other racers that said the "off season" went too fast I now know what they mean it only seems like yesterday when we blew the gearbox up at the Hot Rod Drags and here we are in November and I am looking at the first RWYB's on the new race calender from the Pod for January????

So what are we up to then??well first off last Sunday I met up with Mark Coulsell who was letting me have his old Rocker boxes as we managed to crack one of ours...right next to where the bolt goes so don't think it can be welded.

The trip back wasn't so nice as we had the biggest downpour I have seen in ages..I hate this time of year.....

This was the view over the Thames on the Dartford crossing..miserable.........

In a few days time my crew chief and number 1 son Steve, is going to be taking the engine out of the race car after trial fitting the new gearbox, the engine will then be taken to Swindon where it will be stripped and inspected and repaired /  new parts fitted where needed and if the budget allows a stroker kit, I was going to have the hand brake removed and foot-brake fitted but I have been advised that maybe a left foot brake is not the wisest thing to fit to a dragster so maybe we will just upgrade what we have instead.

The master cylinder has been leaking for some time now and it looks like the lid does not seal but the brake fluid has taken a lot of paint off the chassis so that will be sorted as well, I am going to have a look at uprating the wheelie bar brackets...hmmm just in case.....

Talking of bodywork I found this piccie of the car in it's previous guise I would love to know where the front bodywork went???

The new gearbox comes with a trans brake so we are looking at how to set up the "two step" on the system so we can really improve our 60ft times..we are hoping to get it all back together and running for mid to end of February so we can go testing in March and get the car tagged ready for competition.......which means I have to get a licence so get fit time..well nothing much else to do in Winter is there..got to lose a few stone I reckon and that will make getting in and out of the car a bit easier might even make it go faster...?? talking of which if we just upgrade the engine we have without making any further modifications we want to run in the 8.7 sec range at least, if we go this route then I will be looking at putting together another block over the coming year with all the mods on i.e. ally heads, Scat crank etc ready for the 2016 season...and if I happen to find a supercharger sitting around doing nothing then you never know...??? now will my engine as it stands run with a drop of  Nitro in the tank???? Super_pro anyone??

45. Next year 2015??

We are in October and it is really time to start thinking about next season,what do we want to do? what class? etc and of course what to do to the car, so after much discussion with my Crew Cheif and my Wife this is what is going to happen over the next few months ready for next season...of course best laid plans and all that but! I am  keeping my fingers crossed.

Part 1 of the plan is already completed this weekend I am going to pick up the gearbox that was in Al's Gasser and modify our car so it fits, this gearbox has only 7 or 8 runs on it since it's last rebuild and it manages to handle the power of the Gasser without any problems so our small block should be a breeze.

After making the gearbox fit, the engine is coming out and going down to Swindon where my son and crew chief is going to strip it then send it off for crack testing and repair as necessary we are then going to fit a stroker kit to it which should up the cubic inches to around 400 and a bit..

Going to make sure the Scat crank has a double key-way so that we can stick a blower on this engine in the future if should wish to go down that road, I would love a set of Ally heads for her but I am not sure if the budget will stretch that far but we will see...but if anyone has a good second hand set then please get in touch via our Facebook page.....

It may be the case that we will have to get the original heads flowed and ported for now, a new cam and lifters and springs will go in as well and probably a new timing cover so along with  the new gearbox that comes with a trans brake and some new injector parts to help tune the fuelling we are hoping that we can get the old girl into the mid to low 8 second bracket which should see us run competitively in the Super Pro class.

Of course we also have to get her re-tagged, again if anyone knows how to go about this please get in touch I would love to know, the chassis is also going to Swindon where a left foot brake will replace the old hand brake system which is not man enough for the job really.

Whatever happens we are looking forward to next year where we hope to run faster and quicker and be a stronger team and you never know we might even bloody a few noses along the way...we can hope.

Until the new season starts I will keep looking at this video t keeps me motivated and stops me thinking about how better I could spend this money

Welcome to the Thunderdrome from NGK Torque on Vimeo.

44. Might be able to go racing next year after all!!!!

The last few weeks have been a wee bit torrid, I had even thought about selling up and quitting as money as always is an issue but!!  the events of the last few days might have solved a few problems for us..by us I mean of course Slimline Racing.

After the Hot Rod Drags at Shaky our car looked like this...again.....

Steve and Dave have gotten very good at removing the gearbox and on Tight Fit that is no mean feat, but we don't really want to keep on doing this, the damage to the box was severe and the legend that is Al O'Conner showed us what was happening and what had happened in our gearbox, the problem is our box still has a lot of standard parts in and they are simply not up to the job and as Steve manages to squeeze more and more power from our engine we have overpowered the box.

Next job meant some serious measuring we needed to know the difference between our gearbox which is a short tailed power glide and a standard length power glide gearbox.

The difference in length is due to the tail pieces as you can see in the photo's above there is about 2 inches difference...the bottom one being the short tailed.

After some careful scrutiny it looks like there was some modification done on my prop shaft which has resulted in the shaft being just about 2 inches longer than it should be....result net difference equals ...zero soooo it does appear that a standard gear box will fit in my car with none or very little modification required.

Having had a word with Al he is willing to sell me the gearbox that is sitting in the ..just a bit famous...Al's Gasser which has only done 8 runs since a total rebuild with all the right parts including the  Trans Brake for a very reasonable price..so that's that sorted...next I have to find out how to get the car re-tagged for next year. but that's another story for another time....for now!!

43. Oh boy just when you think......!!!

Even though we have had a good time this year it has not been without it's problems, for some reason we keep shredding gearboxes this is not a good thing as the do tend to be a bit on the expensive side.

So after the last gearbox problem  we decided to try and see if we could beef it up a bit so bearing this in mind the gearbox was taken to the legend that is AL O'Conner to asses the damage for us and if possible fix it..

The famous Al's Gasser peaking out from the garage

A couple of days later I get a call from Al to tell me the bad news which is? he found some bearing material in the sump and the planetary gears are breaking up, so it looks like this box is toast, the only problem is this particular powerglide transmission has the rather rare short tail piece as opposed tot he regular one or the "Shorty" and it looks like it is as rare as hens teeth,...oh!

We do have some options we can try and move the engine forward by a couple of inches and see if we can fit a standard powerglide in, we can scour the internet till we find another rebuilt glide with a short tail piece or just give up!

Well giving up is not an option I haven't finished with this little car yet, one way or another we will be back racing next year even if I have to have a new chassis made.

Now of course if I had the money I know what I would have built and I wouldn't be one those new rear engine clone cars that all look the same and sound the same and run the same numbers it would be something like this......

I realy wish I had the money to build a modern day replica of this car..Dennis Priddles's Mister Revel oh well we can dream..can't we?

42. Its been a hard long year but fun

OK folks here we go then, this is an end of year report if you like, Just over a year ago I had a silly idea to have a go at drag racing , after 40 years of spectating and at the age of 55 I went and did it, I ended up with the car that Laura Turbeville had been campaigning.

I had not intention of licencing for the first year a I thought it would be a good idea to just stick to RWYB's until we understood what we were doing. It has been a steep but interesting learning curve.

We have had our share of problems, we found the front timing cover was badly cracked and leaking oil all over the place, this is when we found John O'Sullivan and his engineering works. we then found a cracked tail piece on the gearbox when we serviced it, this was also sent off to big John for welding, then the gearbox destroyed itself we managed to get it back and running just before Dragstalgia which was one of my target meets for the year...

It was at this meet that we at last gave the car our identity and changed it's name to Tight Fit...for a very good reason..it was.

Dragstalgia 2014 will remain in my memory for a very long time it was everything I thought it would be and more,we were pitted between Mo Blackburn and Steph Milam, we were very ably looked after by Claire and her bicycle, we made some good friends..Ove and his family and team from Germany for one, we met many more racers that I had only ever watched I was enjoying every second of this. We ran our best time to date 9.2 seconds and I got to run against other cars, the first being Miss Winter from Germany.

Photo courtesy of Mike B

One thing I did notice at this event was the amount of vapour/smoke that was coming out of the engine breather hmmm!!! so one more RWYB at the Pod before the Hot Rod Drags it was at this event I noticed there was a discernible difference between the two lanes at the POD the spectator lane was far more lumpy and unsettled the car and I never ever got close to what the car was capable of in that lane, at the European finals other racers also mentioned this problem about the bumps that were appearing in that lane..all this after all that money was spent an resurfacing, perhaps a few quid on drainage wouldn't have gone amiss.

Anyway onto the Hot Rod Drags at Shaky I have never raced there and was looking forward to it, I like Shaky I like the laid back atmosphere of the place and how helpful everyone was but...and there is always a but! I did notice a difference between the lanes or is it me? is there a difference? I maybe getting paranoid about it and then there is that bloody bump where the other runway crosses the shut down area, my god what a tooth rattler why oh why don't they just fill in that bit with a piece of tarmac or is that too simplistic a solution? and get rid of that problem once and for all, I watched a couple of outlaw Anglias take off on that bump.  before anyone starts lambasting me I did say I liked Shaky but it does look like the place has been left to its own devices for too long and needs some money spending on it, and yes I will be going back. They do have to get the basics sorted though and safety must come first. I can put up with that bump and so can my car but I dare say there are other cars that can't. I' know that some cars can't race there as they would be seriously damaged it would be great to see all types of cars back at Shaky and get crowds as big as they were at the Hot Rod Drags at all meetings.Please remember these are my personnel observations from a stand point of a being a Shaky Virgin.

We had a few problems at Shaky we changed the injector ram pipes for longer ones, not only as we were advised to by Hiborn themselves but ..Dam! the car looks better with them! and we adjusted the clutch and changed the springs in the magneto so after three runs I only managed a best of 10.0 but I also managed to get a face full of methanol and oil and then gearbox oil, With a lot of help form people like Mark Coulsell we managed to sort out the timing and the fuelling problems and boy did that make a difference but we managed to knock a couple of holes in the  gearbox and oil the track. So that was it for us for this season.

We found the engine needs a rebuild we were getting far too much fuel in the sump this goes back to the vapour through the breather looks like the rings have gone we also found one the rocker boxes was cracked, so the engine will be coming out over the next few weeks, the gearbox will be repaired unless I can find a suitable replacement, the car will also be re-tagged  and I will apply for a licence for next year.

With a gearbox that works properly and an engine that has some compression and that will burn all of the fuel and not let half of it slip into the sump we should get back to running 8's I am now on a diet and keep fit program to help me shift a bit of weight which should also help and on top of that we found that the MSD box was set to 6 cylinders and not 8 so all things being equal we should be able to compete in Super Pro next year as well as staying with the Wild Bunch who are just the most incredible bunch of people in the land.

So I am looking forward to next year and again running at both Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceway and having some more fun with the Wild Bunch and maybe getting stuck in with the big boys in Super Pro.

I would like to say a big thank you to my ever so understanding wife Lorni and my super crew of Steve and Dave who I did promise a go in my car at the end of the season unfortunately the damage is such that this is not going going to happen this year, but there is always next year. A big thanks to all the track crews and safety people at both the Pod and Shaky for all their hard work and all the people who have helped us out and advised us during the year.

I also found out that we had appeared in a foreign magazine ..woo hoo we are famous LOL

So this was our rookie year I spent far more than I thought I would ever have to, I have had far more fun that I ever thought I would, I went faster and quicker than I thought I ever would, and I made some serious friends I have loved it, and I am going to spend more money that I don't have to ensure we will be back next year faster quicker and bigger than ever.

These are the rantings of a rookie driver and team owner who never thought he would ever get to do this, what an incredible sport and it is full of incredible people who I have nothing but respect for even more so now I have changed the side of the fence I sit on. Roll on next season.!!!!!

41. A day to calm down....

So after a very hectic weekend life returns to normal I am back working, I am also black and blue thanks to the bump halfway down the shut-down area at Shaky, yes I was warned about it but! I didn't think increasing the tyre pressures by half a pound would make such a difference to the "bounce" LOL

So where are we at the moment then? Steve is busy ferreting around trying to find the bits we need and maybe even the services we need a little nearer to home he is tracking down a hopeful or two as I type this. I know this will not be a cheap problem to put right but hey! if we want to continue racing it has to be done.

I think I can say we (the whole team) enjoyed the weekend even if it was a little disappointing with regard to what we wanted from the car and it was hard work the crew were very busy most of the time in fact my younger brother found the whole thing just a bit too much on Sunday.........

On the upside I did find a photograph on Facebook that showed that we had managed to get the power back again, insomuch that after resetting the backlash and the timing and resetting the butterfly settings we got back some of what has been missing since the gearbox rebuild, in fact it was such a good photo I bought the original from Mike B's photos.

This photo clearly shows smoke form the burnout, something that has been missing for some time till yesterday, it's a shame that it was on this run that the gearbox let go and I am sure I was heading for a very low 9 if not a high 8 second run...oh well next year then.

I was also sent this photo I do like this but there is no information with it regards who took it ect so if anyone recognises it  please let me know so I can give it the correct compliments. I just found it after looking through all of Facebook that is a photo taken by Steve Weston

Dam I still think it;s one of the best looking cars in English drag racing, but then I am ever so slightly biased aren't I?????

40. Hot Rod Drags

Sometimes things just don't go according to plan and this weekend was one of those times, Dave and I took the truck and car up to Shaky Friday afternoon to make sure we got a pit place and to set up camp ready for the rest of the crew the next morning, the trip itself wasn't too bad to be honest considering it was a Friday, we arrived later afternoon sorted out the tickets and proceeded tot he pits where we found a place not to far away from everyone else in the Wild Bunch we unloaded the car and set up camp.

Here is Dave relaxing after a hard hours work LOL

Now as you can see we have fitted the longer injector pipes, this is after consulting Hilborn themselves who assured us that the long pipes would improve low and mid range torque and not affect our top end noticeably and of course there is another reason.........

.. the car looks so much better with them on than the cut off ones. Anyway that was us for Friday we made out way to the bar and had a couple of drinks and listened to a really awesome Rockabilly band in the marque. 

Will get these chromed eventually

Saturday morning arrived along with my crew chief and other Brother Andy, first order of the day was to service the car then go for a run ..which we did but unfortunately there wasn't enough water put down so I didn't strike the tyres on the burnout so I had to be a bit careful on the launch and I short shifted to be on the safe side. the result was a low 10 second run.. not that good but it was a run.

Steve then went about  changing the springs in the distributor as the old ones were stretched and not working right, next run, first off the car is now more difficult to start, she popped back a bit more than usual but we went for the run anyway, I managed to get a face-full of methanol on this run which was back in the 9's so a bit more fettling and away we go with run number 3 again the car is difficult to start and I have to keep the revs up to keep her running, yet another crap burnout and on the run I got a face-full of oil as the rocker box gasket blew, still in the 9's at 140+ mph but still not where we wanted it to be.

Returning from a run

At this point I have to say a big thank you to Mark Coulsell and the Limited Funz team for all their help and advice and to everyone else that came by and gave us advice and tried to point us in the right direction, this what makes Drag Racing so good and even after all the problems we had this weekend this is what gives us the motivation to put things right spend more money than we have and to come back racing, cheers guys I really do mean it.

So the upshot was we had managed to throw the adjustment of the butterfly's on the injectors out on the front two cylinders they were running far cooler than the rest of the cylinders and we had a crack in the rocker box, so on Sunday we had to put tall this right, first we put the old springs back in the distributor  Steve then adjusted the butterfly's, I did hear him swear a couple of times when he let go of the feeler gauges as they slipped down the injectors so thanks to the Wraith Child team for the lend of their magnet on a stick. We then sealed the rocker box as best we could till we can get it welded up and then Mark and his team helped us with the timing set up Oh and congratulations on your 8 second 150mph runs...(bastard) LOL

Marks gorgeous looking rather fast slingshot

So now with then engine sounding really good and angry we go down for our first run on Sunday I decided to try the other lane I had been running in the checker board lane all Saturday, for the first time in ages the burnout was strong..well for us anyway, we got smoke of the tyres at least and everything sounded really good I was running against another car for the first time this weekend, the lights counted down I buried the throttle and she pulled like a train..yeee haaa, shift light on go for second...nothing...tried again..still nothing then I noticed a thin film of oil on my helmet.

..ooops, something has gone wrong so I remembered a piece of advice I was given a little while back in case something like this happened...Don't touch brakes, shift to neutral and let the car roll to a stop, I got off at the first exit. The guys in the top end crew came running over to see if I was ok, apart from not being able to see I was fine they told me I had puddles of oil under the car and that I had oiled the whole track, So apologies to everyone it was never my intention to do that believe me.

I just noticed that at the hit the car turned hard right, I was too busy keeping an eye on my opponent in the other lane, I wonder if the oil had already gotten onto my slicks, a real shame as it was on a good run I could actually feel the difference between this and the other runs we had completed on Saturday.

We towed the car back and took the bodywork off and what we found was not good...we had two holes in the gearbox and all 7 litres of oil had gone....

So the car was dismantled the axle removed and the gearbox taken out.......

What we found was the governor had sheared a bolt in the output shaft and had come loose in the tail piece and the weights had smashed holes in the side of the casing.

We had only had the gearbox rebuilt just before Dragstalgia so you can imagine this was a huge downer for us and I have to admit I seriously though about quitting for while back there. 

It was the first time we had raced at Shaky and apart from the car problems we had a really good time, the track crew were great and I found the track to be a lot better than I was told to expect, Ok so there is a big bump or two halfway down the shut-down area but you get used to it. the shut down area is a lot longer than the Pods so didn't need to use my chutes at all, and two great bands in the marque..brilliant, but I must remember to bring my own loo rolls with me as the ones in the toilets seem to disappear at night!! LOL

Anyway that is it for the season for us now...probably. We do have plans for the engine and now of course the gearbox but we will be back next season faster and quicker than ever we will get that elusive 8 second run and you never know we might even be able to race Mark on even terms, although I know we will never be able to match those Freddie esq burn-outs LOL