Just getting to Santa Pod for this years version of Dragstalgia was going to be an adventure in itself 3 days of hard riding an incredible numb bum and a total distance of 4111.1 km or 2554 miles completed at an average 55 mpg the Super Ten did well. Arriving was in itself an achievement but on top of this the wonderful Wild Bunch are inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame this was worth the journey on it's own.
Me leaving on the morning of the 9th
I arrived around 21:30 on Thursday 11th to find the car was not as ready as I had expected, as I stated in Dragstalgia part 1 Steve had changed the cam shaft and checked everything out that goes with it, valve lift and clearance etc, changed the firing order by doing the 4-7 swap new head gaskets and new inlet manifold gasket and of course change the fuel system to match. But! there was another unforeseen problem bought to Steve#s attention by the very helpful Leo Knight and that was the valve springs which we have had in the car since we purchased the new engine 4 years ago, with Leos help Steve found the springs were seriously lacking in tension and it could have ended up with us having no engine to play with. Not being able to find any springs suitable for the job Steve and I made our way over to Hauser Race cars where with Geoffs help we purchase a whole load of shims this was Friday morning bearing mind that we had our first practice run scheduled for around 5:30 that afternoon and we still haven't even run the engine yet. Steve set about spending the next 5 hours shimming both the inlet and exhaust valves up.
With literally minutes to spare we ran the motor up, Steve wasn't happy at the way it sounded and on top of that he noticed a rather nasty oil leak coming form the inlet manifold which would have had us shut down at the start line. To top it all we had just been called into the pairing lanes.
I have never seen anyone work so fast in all my life the inlet manifold came off in seconds and was re-sealed Steve found two blocked injectors and one loose one all sorted put back together again and run but just two minutes too late for our call to run, We were all rather disappointing but we were ready for the next day.
Saturday would also bring it's ups and downs, we wee called for what would be our first run in the morning we were confident of big things we were paired off with Luca from Italy and......ring rust? I forgot to let go of the trans brake switch, I did eventually and the car went well..ish the time for us was 9.16 at 153 mph not where we wanted to be, we took a look at the plugs and they were cleans very very clean we wee advised that we were running way to fat and the plugs had been washed, OK so we leaned her out a bit more. Next run was against new boy Bob Wright in his "T" altered we ran 9.13 at 152 a bit better but not enough so we took more out of it next run I managed the burnout form hell against Jim Tanner bu the revs wouldn't come down after the burnout they stayed at around 3500 rpm I couldn't do anything but get off the end of the track no time recorded.
About bloody time we were on the right track again, If we had managed to get the three runs in on Fridays RWYB ......"Thats Drag Racing" as we keep getting told.
So another Dragstalgia is over another excellent event for the now Hall of Famers the Wild Bunch, I got quiet emotional at the little gathering we had when we heard that news and so many PB's by the Bunch I didn't get to see much racing that weekend as we were so busy most of the time it was really sad to see what happened to Bob and Sam so glad they are both OK, the safety equipment does work folks, I'm sure both cars will be rebuilt, So what about us Slimline Racing? well there is a small chance of the car coming out at the Hot Rod Drags with Steve back int he seat who should now smash my PB's into touch I may make it back for next years Dragstalgia not sure yet we will see?????
Oh yes the 1300 mile ride home was by far a lot more pleasant thanks to the last out of competition run that we were allowed to do thank you Santa Pod Raceway.
Saturday would also bring it's ups and downs, we wee called for what would be our first run in the morning we were confident of big things we were paired off with Luca from Italy and......ring rust? I forgot to let go of the trans brake switch, I did eventually and the car went well..ish the time for us was 9.16 at 153 mph not where we wanted to be, we took a look at the plugs and they were cleans very very clean we wee advised that we were running way to fat and the plugs had been washed, OK so we leaned her out a bit more. Next run was against new boy Bob Wright in his "T" altered we ran 9.13 at 152 a bit better but not enough so we took more out of it next run I managed the burnout form hell against Jim Tanner bu the revs wouldn't come down after the burnout they stayed at around 3500 rpm I couldn't do anything but get off the end of the track no time recorded.
The reason for the high revs was found to be a loose idle adjust lack nut which let the scew undo itself enough so as not to be able to hold the car on the brakes or change gear.
Again a very disappointing and frustrating day the problem with the idle adjust was quickly seen to by Steve, the frustration of what was happening with the car was starting to get to us all, Steve was doing everything that he was advised to I was doing my best with the driving and Dave was also scratching his head we set 8.7 as our dial in and we had got no-where near it again even after all the hard work and money spent...not a nice feeling. But we did have an excellent back up girl, Diana looked gorgeous at Dragstalgia and should have won BUG of the meeting in my humble opinion.
Diana doing her thing Photo by Callum Pudge click on the name for more
Sunday rolls around and we find ourselves up against Leo Knight in his awesome altered we didn't touch the settings form the last run and we did run a fraction quicker 9.01 the speed again at the 153 mph mark, So Steve and I scratched our heads and had a think, the new camshaft has a far longer duration and opens further so that would let more air in so we effectively leaned the car out just by changing the cam which means we have been going the wrong way with the fuelling so we started with an 85 pill in so we fattened her up from that setting ad went for our last run against Gonzo the Great and Alan Lloyd, but it all went wrong for some reason the car rolled the beams as if the trans brake wasn't working , then it did and it lifted the front wheels up so that was the end of that...well maybe not once we had towed back to the pits Steve had an idea and said run down and see if we can tag on at the end of the session and have an out of competition run, So I ran down the pairing lanes, haven't run that far in about 30 years, and asked the race officials if we could run again the answer was yes if we could get the car down in 2 minutes,,,bloody hell I had to try and run all the way back again, thanks god the boys decided to run the car down at around 50 mph once they had re-fuelled her, So having been told no long burnouts I just cleaned the slicks out of the box and nailed it and low and behold she actually went like she was supposed to, that was the first run of the meeting where my back was slammed to the rear of the seat, the wheels came up and away we went.
However the run didn't feel that good she was still a little flat at the top end and probably the high speed lean out needs a lt more work but when Steve came up to collect me he had a grin on his face the first thing he said was you didn't use the chute and you just PB'd on speed 156.38 mph and I was just 2 hundredths off my ET PB at 8.7...phew!
About bloody time we were on the right track again, If we had managed to get the three runs in on Fridays RWYB ......"Thats Drag Racing" as we keep getting told.
Thanks to Blackett Photography for the great photo
So another Dragstalgia is over another excellent event for the now Hall of Famers the Wild Bunch, I got quiet emotional at the little gathering we had when we heard that news and so many PB's by the Bunch I didn't get to see much racing that weekend as we were so busy most of the time it was really sad to see what happened to Bob and Sam so glad they are both OK, the safety equipment does work folks, I'm sure both cars will be rebuilt, So what about us Slimline Racing? well there is a small chance of the car coming out at the Hot Rod Drags with Steve back int he seat who should now smash my PB's into touch I may make it back for next years Dragstalgia not sure yet we will see?????
Oh yes the 1300 mile ride home was by far a lot more pleasant thanks to the last out of competition run that we were allowed to do thank you Santa Pod Raceway.
