79. Getting there...slowly!!!

OK so here we are at Easter, race season has began and God I have an itchy right foot, I am suffering from this Spring Flu bug so instead of watching or racing I am stuck at home so I have time to do an update.

So where are we with the car then? good question I wish I knew LOL,  When we took the car down to Swindon in the back of the truck it was in one piece and was dropped off at FieldCraft Fabrication for a little surgery..

As you can see the headroom is a little tight, a bit too tight as to make the car and myself  MSA legal there has to be some padding between  me and the roll cage, well if that was in place as it is I wouldn't be able to get in so...new roll cage required 3 inches taller...!! While that was being sorted I sent off the gearbox shields to Andy Robinson Race cars to be re-certified.

But!! we found a wee problem with the main gearbox shield...we only had half of it apparently, we only had the op bit not the bottom bit and they are re certified as one shield so......

We were missing the bit with all the holes in it

We have had to order a new shield, again thanks to ARRC for all their help in this they have gone out of their way to help us and I am really grateful, got my fingers crossed that all the parts will turn up in time for our first outing at the and of April.

So last week I went to pick the car up from FieldCraft Fabrication which is now sporting a new very shiny roll cage and...ta-da the car is now tagged.

Number 1 and 2 sons looking her over Steve and Phil

So as I type this Steve is putting her back together ready for her first fire up and hopefully testing at the fast show so that's the car up to date but then of course that's half the story no point in the car being legal if the driver isn't well......

...that has now also been put right as well, so here's looking forward to a safe, parts breaking free, fast season, see you all at the track soon.

78. I hate "That time" of the year

There is every year a time and a date that really wish I could avoid for more than one reason. Forget about the car for a minute and lets concentrate on the truck, now Elsie our truck is more than just a truck, she is our mobile garage and workshop and while at race meetings it's our home  our bedroom and our kitchen, so obviously Elsie is very important to us.

The problem is of course that to remain legally on the road Elsie needs an MOT every year, So she goes down to Swindon to Greenbridge for a once over and check and MOT, this year I asked them t do a mini service as well.

But lets go back a bit, first of all I have to get her to Swindon, this is where the fun starts LOL, this year we had to drop the race car off before the MOT and it takes at least three people to do this so I took Christopher with me and my brother Dave followed us in his car to bring us home again. But even before that my son Steve had been up the week before to do some work on the car and while he was there he cleaned the outside of Elsie which is no mean task.

So it was up at silly O'Clock Tuesday morning and out on the road not long after up to Bedford a run of around 140 miles where we met my brother. The first thing we had to do was fire up the generator and plug in the battery charger as she had been standing for a while in the freezing weather we had just had, but even before that I had to go fetch some diesel and unleaded fuel for both the truck and the genny. And after ten minutes she was running...great load up and set off, out of the gates foot down and go...err no! for some reasons he would only rev to around 700rpm not high enough to change gear and of course she would only do 15 mph hmmm so up to the roundabout and back to the storage depot, A quick look around and we noticed the choke lever was out aha! so shove it back in and off we go again err no! again this time she would rev to just over 1000rpm and just manage to change up once but still only 25mph flat out so...back up to the roundabout and back to the depot again. Over an hour and half had gone by now and we had a schedule to keep so I was going to phone around and cancel everything, Then Dave noticed a slight noise which he recognised, he drives a truck for his day job, what had happened was when someone had climbed into the truck they had accidentally  pressed the exhaust brake switch which is on the floor just in front of the drivers seat and it had stuck on, so a couple of thumps and everything was ok again...phew!! LOL

So off to Swindon we go another 150 mile trip, but at least the trip goes without indecent which is good. So the car is dropped off and Elsie is driven round to the service centre. The one drawback to Drag racing is that all the race equipment including transporters sit idle from October to March and as we know just sitting there does them no good at all, things get stuck and corroded etc and again this year I have just been told that we have to have the kingpins replaced and the front brake callipers are seized up and maybe corroded beyond repair..so here we go again LOL But we wouldn't do it if we didn't love it..maybe a trailer would be the way to go to try and reduce costs every year...I might have to have a good think about it. Still the new season is nearly upon us can't wait, lets go racing!!!!!!!