Right! so we didn't make it tot he RWYB on the Sunday after the firework meet even after an heroic effort from the team. I think I can say we were all a little disappointed but never mind always look forward.
So fast forward to the following weekend, a very early icy start to Sunday morning 4:20am Sunday morning, the start of a 470 mile one day journey. I left the warmth of my home and made my way tot he M25 and headed for the M1 and Luton where I picked my Brother Dave up. Then back down the M1 back onto the M25 and then the M4 to Swindon to my sons place. The truck is parked outside his house on arrival and after a much needed cuppa we loaded the truck back up with the generator and fuel. Then it was time for me to drive the truck over to Marlborough followed by Steve in his car and Dave in my car. We were headed out to the middle of nowhere to Steve Fields Fieldcraft Fabrication premises. because of its remote location it was a great spot to fire the car up..hopefully...!
After we got the car out there was still stuff to do, the valve back-lash had to be done and the firing order and ignition sorted out and to some point we had to get the fuelling near right, this took Steve a little while to sort out then...dah dah daaaah! it was time to fire her up, so it was time to get back in the office hit the button and after a couple of splutters as she drew the fuel through the empty fuel lines...she barked back into life.
So we let her tick-over for a few minutes so we could run through a couple of heat cycles, all part of the running in procedure, we are going to have to do this a few more times at the track when we get back there next year. I shut the fuel off turned the ignition off got out of the car with a great big grin on my face, matched by both Steve and Dave's grins and we made our way into Steve Fields workshop for a cuppa while the car cooled down.
After about 20 -30 mins we were back out in the cold and dam it was cold, back in the office and start her up again, first turn of the starter and she was off and running, dam she started easy.......
This time we gave her a few revs and boy did she sound sharp and angry so much better than before, but then she had to sound better really after what we had found wrong with her, so after stripping the engine down to every single nut bolt and bearing and then re-assembling with all the new parts we had one tiny oil leak where the sump meets the timing cover, an easy fix. Steve once again has done a great job.
Just to put everything in perspective I have found the video clip of the first proper start-up of the engine after it's last rebuild and with the new injection system fitted. I think it is easy to tell the difference.
This video was taken at the beginning of the year with most of later found problems in place and to think we ran a best of 8.7 at nearly 151mph like this, can't wait for next season!!!!.
After a very long day we put the car back in the truck loaded up and left for the M4 Steve went straight home Dave followed me all the way back to Bedford where we dropped the truck and car off I then took Dave back to his place in Luton and then headed home where I arrived at 21:40 exhausted!
That's where we are at the moment a good head start on what was a bit of crap season this year, apart from Dragstalgia of course, there is still work to do but I think I can say the team are happy at the current state of play.
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