I semi retired form racing last year and Steve took ever running the car and has done very well, but I did tell him that I wanted to run at this years Dragstalgia. Now this leads to two problems the first is how do I get there from Spain and second getting the car ready in time, and as far as the car goes it looks like we will be putting the engine together on the Thursday and Friday morning of the meeting just like we seem to have to do every year at Dragstalgia, more on that in a minute.
Lets have a look at how I'm getting there, at this moment in time I live just south of Valencia in Spain I could get a train to Valencia airport and fly to the UK but that mean organising lifts taxis and places to stay etc and that could get complicated and to be honest even though I was in the Air Force for 12 years I am not that keen on flying, There is a train service now that could get me where I wanted with a couple of changes but that is very expensive. I could drive there but Lorni will need the car while I'm away, you can see where I'm going with this can't you?...this leaves the motorbike..aha! So that's what I'm going to do and that will be an adventure in itself. not bad for a Granddad eh? I didn't take any of my bikes from the UK with me and seeing that all vehicles are around 20-25% more expensive over here in Spain that ruled out another Harley. so I am the owner of a Yamaha XT1200 Super Tenere.
Smug Russ with new bike
Actually I bought this in January for the prime purpose of touring, seeing that I am now on the right side of that 21 miles of expensive water way they call the English Channel, just right then for the trip to Dragstalgia. Route is worked out I am taking it easy this time and will take three days to get there going from home over the Pyrenees and stopping in Pau and then on to my friends biker stop-over just north of Limoges Called "Belonga Mick" yes it is really called that and it can be found on Google maps if you ever find your way out to that part of France. Then on to the crossing and the Pod hopefully arriving on the Thursday evening. A trip of nearly 1300 miles, well that's the plan hmm so if you don't see me by Friday morning then something has gone drastically wrong and Steve will end up driving the race car. The bike has had a few additions made since acquiring it. in the vain hope it will make the journey safer and more comfortable for me.
Ready to eat miles.
Over night stops and crossings sorted and booked so that's the driver arranged how about the car? well! as usual Steve has been busy and after the Nostalgia Nationals was not too happy about the cars performance, so after consulting Spud Millers web site FIE and using the fuel calculator it looks like we have been running the car way way too fat we have been running with main pill of around the mid 80's but the calculator tell us we should be running a pill of around 120 that's a massive difference and worth a couple of tenths but that is still not enough now that everyone seems to have stepped up on the performance front, and as I mentioned in the last post our cam shaft is really crap for drag racing, so after consulting Comp Cams a new camshaft was ordered, one that is matched to our engine and our goals and it duly arrived a few days back.
Oooh shiny new thing
Of course we have also had a problem with the crankshaft seal leaking so a shim kit along with new seals were ordered so now the hard work begins. Steve has stripped the engine down, the timing cover is off ready to fit the seal kit and shim and to double check cam timing for the new camshaft, the heads are off also to help with fitting of the aforementioned camshaft and also to have a look inside the motor and check out a few bits and bobs. In the past we have had a lot of problems with torched heads and we have had the right hand head welded up a couple of times Steve found there was a little "dink" in the usual place so to be on the safe side the head is going to an engineering workshop to have the dink filled and the head blocked, so now we also need a new set of head gaskets, the ones we have been using since the last rebuild are a bit thicker than we needed but they were all we could get hold of at short notice, so at the moment our car looks like this......
So with just over two and half weeks before I leave for the UK we have an engine in bits waiting for some machining to be done and trying to source some gaskets which when done still has to be assembled and the new cam shaft has to be run in and then a new fuel map worked out, so no pressure then Steve??. And of course having seen the current weather conditions in the UK it might be a good idea if I buy a boat! so a few prayers to the weather Gods on the way over are called for as well. So situation normal for the Tight Fit team then, see you all at Dragstalgia...I hope!!.........to be continued...
