As I have already mentioned in the previous blogs the work put in by Steve just to get the car ready for Dragstalgia was immense and he made it. Steve and Dave arrived at the Pod Thursday afternoon, the only thing left to do on the car was to fit the new fuel pies which took a bit longer than expected they were still at it at midnight.
On Friday the car was fired up but there was a problem the gearbox was chucking out oil out of the dipstick hole, solution? drain some oil out....didn't work. Here we go again axle out gearbox out and stripped the gearbox guru that is Bradly Cooper came over to help the team out and found the problem a gasket in the wrong place resulting in low oil pressure and ruining the new as yet untried clutch plates. Luckily Steve had the old ones with him and they were given the OK but a bearing was broken during this time so Steve high tailed over to Mike Oates place who had our old knackered gearbox for setting up his new dragster, it still had the bearing we needed in it. Back to the Pod and Steve and Dave worked till 2am to get it just about back together. Up at 6am to finish bolting it back together ready to run. The team missed the first run as they weren't ready they were still trying to align the engine gearbox and axle but they made the second call.
Video clip courtesy of SantaPodTV please click on the link for complete video
Steve took it easy had a bit of a wobble at the start but came of the throttle at around 1000 foot as he could feel a vibration the alignment had gone awry again. I get a phone call from a very tired and disappointed Steve telling me he had enough and was going to pack up and come home.
But as most of you know Steve never gives up and with some help from Steve Fields and the Collivers he managed to align everything again but he was still working very late and once the car was back in one piece it was towed around the Pod site just to make sure the alignment didn't move but he missed the fire burnout...sorry folks couldn't be helped.
Sunday came around and the team made three runs, not the best runs but at least the car went down the track.
Video clip courtesy of SantaPodTV please click on the link for complete video
After the last run the alignment was checked again and....it had moved again so it was fast becoming obvious we had chassis issues. This car has been with us for 10 years and has run as fast as 8.2 seconds @ 160mph for the quarter mile and it has proved too much for the old chassis, it. has served us well and given us many great memories but I am sad to say that is it for this car we are retiring the old girl as of now, so wont be entering anymore competitions for the foreseeable future. We need to spend some time to clear our heads and have a think...done that! Tight Fit Too coming soon...? Watch this space.
So sometimes not everything goes according to plan that in itself can be very stressful but add in a tight time constraint and the stress levels end up astronomical. Steve has been physically ill with all the stress of putting the car back together in time for Dragstalgia next Thursday. So what happened to cause all this excess stress? The axle and gearbox were fitted into the car on Friday, and the hubs were re-built. on Saturday the days work was to service the engine fill everything up with oil and start her up.
I got a call from Steve Saturday night to tell me that the car has first gear, second gear feels "Funny" and when the revs are built up the wheel speed does not increase and there is no reverse. I was out with friends at a local bar it was getting late so I told Steve to pack up go home get some sleep and attack it fresh in the morning and if getting nowhere give out friend John O'Sullivan "Mr Mopar" a call and ask him to come over to the workshop and have a look. Now another problem was solved, because the team came fourth in the Wild Bunch series last year the car now has a new number however with no time to sort out stickers Steve improvised.......!
Now all racers know there are things called Gremlins horrible little critters that come out at night and fiddle with the settings on the cars, we know this because you can have the car set up beautifully all day, leave it overnight and in the morning nothing works properly, well in this case the reverse happened, Steve went back to the car in the morning and low and behold the gears all worked properly, thank you Gremlins. John O came round and told Steve to just up the idle speed a little bit and....da daa the trans brake worked as well so reverse is now doing what it should. The car was put back together and loaded into the trailer to find out 1. That it fits now 2. Where to put the tie down rings? and yes the dragster does fit but only just after Steve's mods to the trailer, and I have to say this...it was a tight fit!
The trailer was washed and scrubbed and the car put inside for the night so it now looks very likely that the team will be at Dragstalgia after all but it took some doing, a massive effort from Steve.
Only a couple of jobs left to do now fit the tie down rings tonight then tomorrow change the dragsters fuel lines on Wednesday load the trailer up and clean the dragster and of course Thursday head for the Pod ..Well done Steve.
The car is looking good and the engine sounds great, very crisp, here's hoping for a great weekends racing with The Wild Bunch. I wish I could attend but going to have to wait a little while before I return to the UK.
