64. Yanks Weekend at Shaky

I approached this weekend with very high expectations of performance and power and I guess in hindsight that I really set the bar way too high, I really wanted to come away from this meeting having run a very low 8 as a prelude to getting the car into the 7's by the end of the year, but things never go the way you plan them in drag racing.

Anyway Dave and I left for Shaky on the Friday early afternoon we went cross country to try and miss the Bank Holiday traffic we arrived at Shaky early evening and set about getting the car out and setting up camp, well we got soaked trying this so we left the car in the truck until Steve arrived we waited for the morning, Saturday arrived along with more cars....

I have to admit I did have a soft spot for this big V8 powered "Trabbie" while I was wandering around taking photo's Steve was hard at work sorting the car out.. first on the list was reset the backlash re-torque the  heads and then check the compression again...this was now sorted

..but Steve wasn't happy the car was not running right it was running far too rich and no matter what he tried nothing seemed to work, the car was dumping so much fuel in the sump we were having to change the oil every other warm up the car was also eating fuel like no tomorrow in fact we used more methanol this weekend than the whole of last year, I had bought a leakdown tester so we could check all the poppet valve operations but it turned out that we needed some adapters for this bit of kit, to the rescue comes Professor Sir Bob Hawkins and his great crew not only with the bit of kit we need but with a total mechanical fuel injection course for Steve, not long after came more advice from team Paranoia of Steve Williams and Alan Loten and even Phill James from the Rampage team at one point.

I did wonder at one point if Steve's head was going to explode with all this  input LOL so that was the end of Saturday and we hadn't run.

Along come Sunday we are all up bright an early and Steve armed with all his new knowledge set about the car..work did he work?? all dam day till he was satisfied that he had done what he could and that the tune wouldn't hurt the car this was now late afternoon sow e went down for a run and the car under load still sounded bad didn't pull at all and to be honest a Nissan Micra could have nailed us, in fact I was going so slow I ended up stranded between the finish line and the end of the track...this happened three times in all and I have now become good friends with Steve and his mate the top end marshals.  I noticed as I was getting ready to run that Lorni, my wonderful wife had turned up and was in the stands. So that was Sunday done and dusted and we were all a bit depressed and I was seriously thinking about packing up and going home. I am glad we didn't.

So Monday arrived this was the day we had to post a dial in and run four times, well the lovely Claire came round and we gave 9.20 as a dial in, could have been any number to be honest as we didn't have a clue what the car would run. Steve and Dave were now working like idiots on the car to get some sort of tune that would get me down the track Steve managed to lean the car out a bit and we towed down.

It's amazing what fly's over your head at Shaky, I was getting nervous in the driving seat it came to our turn to run and we luckily were on a solo as the car still ran poorly and sounded like s***

I still had neat fuel pouring out all over me from the headers so obviously still far too rich and we were getting worried about the size of the fuel tank or lack of it. so much fettling in the pits again at which point I went and had a word with Wild Bunch new boy Jim Tanner..

A few minutes later and we were getting called for the next run, Steve had managed to lean the mixture off a bit more and was more hopeful this time around......

This time we were up against a car that I had watched for many years right back to the 70's "Oblivion"  As soon as I started the burn out I knew the car was still not right but I staged anyway Oblivion red light and I was off again but the run was still only in the 10's

So this time Steve took drastic action he drilled the jets out on the injection system to try and lean the car out enough to get a decent run in and this time he wanted me to use the trans brake....nervous or what.. we fired the car up but the tick over was far too high since Steve leaned the car off so we were pushed  out of the back of the track while Steve hot footed it back to our pit to pick up the much needed Allen Key, adjustments made and were signalled to re-join the show.......

This time we were up against the Brown boys in their slingshot I staged waited for both cars to turn both lights on then pressed the button and hit the throttle amber amber release button but even before I did release the button it was obvious to everyone that the engine sounded lumpy. But I did become a member of the trans brake club.

So now we had run out of ideas and the required parts to continue so I went for a walk to the stands to watch my fellow "Wild Bunchers" run the last round of the day and what an impressive bunch they looked, I started to walk back to the pits when I saw my car being towed down at warp factor 7. I tried one more thing Steve shouted at me..get in...so I jumped the fence and strapped myself in the hot seat for one last time for the weekend, the start line marshals would let me run but only as a test not as part of the Wild Bunch as I had missed that slot by too much which was fair enough, I went through the burnout routine staged and hit the throttle thinking ...here we go again..but no! this time she picked up her skirts and ran...came off the line really hard but turned hard right I had to peddle and then  hit the throttle again and for  the first time that weekend she actually started to pull, still no where near what she is now capable of but it's a start, And also for the first time that weekend I managed to get to the end of the track and I had a smile on my face, even Steve when he came to pick me up had a huge grin on him, what had he done?... the complete opposite of what seemed logical he richened the mixture right up!! strange....the down side was there was no one to see that run and we didn't have anyone to video it as our camera woman..my wife.. was helping to pack the truck up.

So we are going the right way we or should I say Steve has learned oodles more and with a few bits that need to come from Hilborn along with some more info we should be able to start tuning the car properly soon, our newly installed data logging equipment didn't work so that is something we need to sort out and we couldn't set the shift light on the rev counter another problem to sort out but a minor one. so that was the end of the weekend or so I thought. The lovely Claire came round and told us all not to go yet as there was still the prize giving to do. While waiting for that to happen I went and had a chat with another new Wild Bunch member and his charming wife Andrew and Catherine Stones then we all gathered around Claire for the trophy ceremony and to my complete surprise we won a trophy for the best Slingshot this was the commentators choice so thanks Barry and crew we  really appreciated that especially after all the work we had put in over the weekend...

I shall share this trophy with Steve and Dave over the next year they can all have turns in keeping it, now we have to look forward to the Nostalgia Nationals I am hoping we will be further along with my dream of running an 8 for the first time but then again who knows in this game anything can happen!!!

63. Road trip...!

A dam long day yesterday, 386 miles road trip in just over 10 hours I have got to get my crew chief to live closer to me LOL. So we started off here in Kent at around 10:30am yesterday and managed to get home at around 9:30pm...Lorni and I drove down to Swindon to pick the truck and car up, the only jobs left to do on the car can be done at the track or are not that big an issue that we can't do without them.

We met up with Steve at his house where he showed me what he had been up to the night before.....

At last he managed to find a union that fits the fuel tank so we now have a permanent fitting rather than a wee bit of hose as the previous attempt at a fitting to the tank leaked and stopped us filling the tank up to the top. The other problem we had was the brakes, the master cylinder was leaking and had taken the paint off all the way down the chassis, which has now been sorted but finding a master cylinder to fit the hole was a different kettle of fish, Steve had to adapt a different cylinder to fit......

We still have a bit of bleeding to do but the brakes now work properly and we have stopped the connecting bar from bending so might even be able to hold the car now on tickover without leaving an imprint of the brake handle on my palm. I then took the truck and car round to where Steve works so his boss could have a look at what Steve had been struggling with for the last six or seven weeks...!

So the car and truck are back in their home from home just outside Bedford waiting for the 17th May..

 when we can take them to the Pod and start the process of sorting out the engine...running it in...fuelling and timing. and you never know might even get a run in.

So we have a few little jobs to do like mount the Fuel/air mixture gauge I have ordered some stuff so that we can record some data..

This should help us tune the engine a bit easier but we can still get the engine running without them so they will be fitted as soon as they turn up. The magnetic breakerless ignition module for our distributor should turn up in the next 7 days which will be great. we still have to adjust the gear linkage up properly, but we are ticking the jobs off one by one, so with a bit of luck we should have everything working right on the 17th which means we should be at Shaky the following weekend at the Yanks Weekend ready to really try the car out.

So after nearly 400 miles in 10 hours of sitting on over crowded motorways and having to sit behind a truck that with a downhill section can just about manage 55mph what state was Lorni in....

Still smiling bless her, Oh and when I parked the truck up I took a photo of the fuel gauge as I am sure that some of our expensive go  go juice went missing the last time we parked up.....

..so just in case LOL at least I will now be able to compare what we left in with what's left when I go to pick her up early on the 17th......nearly there!!!!!!