68. July shoot our/ Fancy dress party

When I say we have been having a tough year I wasn't joking! and the bad luck followed us to Shakespeare County Raceway this weekend as well. I set off from home at around 12:30 on the Friday I went straight to Luton to pick Dave up then up to Bedford to pick the truck up then head for Shaky, a trip that can be done in under four hours but not on Friday, 6 and half hours later we turned into the airfield gates I was shattered before I had even got there, we got the car out and set up camp as fast as we could. While getting from the  cab of the truck tot he back I stepped on one of the big plastic storage boxes that we keep our plates and stuff in..it collapsed I slipped and kicked the car..not on purpose, I caught he drop arm on the steering I was wearing sandals!!! I heard the crunch first..ouch. I had broken my toes what a start tot he weekend?

 

We were a little disappointing to find the catering bars were not even open when there were so many people there so it was a good job we had bought some food with us so out with BBQ and after a couple of burgers we felt good..

Steve turned up early the next morning and went straight to work, serviced the car, fuel pump on wait for 9am and fire her up, we were really looking forward tot his weekend and seeing what the car could really do!!!! first run out of the block and we only ran a !).2 at 126 mph she was going really flat after half track. so Steve took some timing out and changed the pills, the next run was very strange after the burnout I staged the lights ran I hit the throttle and....nothing!!! the engine was still running but wasn't revving and the car didn't move??? so I hit the throttle again..same thing..I was about tot make the decision to shut down and get pushed away form the start when the car just took off ..when we got back we found a wire had come off the trans brake switch and was shorting against the steering wheel adn therefore activating the brake..no wonder the gearbox smelt a bit hot. Two more runs that day netted us a10.1 and a 9.9 still not brilliant but at least we were going the right way.

There were rumours of some serious weather hitting overnight so we covered the car up, we didn't want anymore problems to deal with.

This meeting was our (The Wild Bunch) party meeting and of course it had to be fancy dress, now we, that is our team didn't dress up as first of we really had only made the decision to go at the last minute and we had all been so busy we just didn't have the time to sort out anything. But it didn't stop a lot of the other members....

 

A good time was had by all and yes the weather did turn bad for a wee while in the night as we woke up to a damp and soggy Shaky, but luckily it didn't last too long and we were ready to go not long after ten.

We ran twice more and each time we got a little quicker we got down to 9.7 in the end but at a cost, we managed to fry our starter motor which Steve changed for the spare in record time, we have stripped a tooth or two from the flex plate and the car was still flat at around 800-900 feet hence we never got much over 130mph and now we were seeing little puffs of smoke coming from one bank of the engine which usually is an indicator that something is wrong,

 Steve was convinced we had cracked a head but this wasn't the case after a chat with the ever helpful Mr. 6 Bob Hawkins we have concluded that the car has been running far too rich for far to long and we have suffered from what is known as "Bore Wash" too much fuel taking away the oil has damaged the rings letting more oil come up from the sump ..the cure??? new set of rings and hone the bores not a difficult job or too expensive thank god but it will be time consuming because of the distance we all live from each other..So at that point I called it for the team not just for the meet but for the rest of the season.

 

We were a little down as you can imagine, we were just getting the car to perform from the lights, the 60 foot times were starting to come down, but not as fast as the last engine so Steve is going to do some homework on torque convertors, we have no idea what one is in our car, and we were hitting the rev limiter at around 800feet which explains why we were so slow through the traps so maybe a new set of gears for the axle???? lots to do and think about.

The drive home was not a happy one..we did had Tom follow us for the first part of the journey and then

Keith for the last part of the trip into Bedford, not a lot was aid on that trip till after we had dropped the truck off and I was heading back to Luton to drop Dave off, when I got a call from Steve.."Dad just order the rings and I will fit them and sort it all out lets get the car ready for the Hot Rod Drags"...That's better!! Steve reckons he can get the fueling sorted and then we can worry about the torque convertor and axle ratios...right so back to the internet then, and fingers crossed we may make it out again this year........

Once again a big thanks to everyone that helped us out over the weekend and well done to everyone for putting on such a good show and again look at all those PB's and what can we say about the ever happy Claire,,wouldn't be the Wild Bunch without her????

67. Dragstalgia 2015

It's been a quite a year for Slimline Racing we have attended a couple of meetings and one RWYB and we were still having trouble setting the engine up, at the Nostalgia Drags we found the fuel pump was completely toast and had probably been playing up doe some time. We had dared hoped that fitting a new pump would solve all our problems, but no! this is drag racing after all and if it was that easy everyone would be doing it.....

The story of Slimline Racing's Dragstalgia 2015

I set off at my usual time when racing which is far too early for any me but I try to get across the Dartford Crossing before they start charging at 6am, I got to the truck in Bedford a couple of hours later transferred all the stuff across to the truck that I needed, then it was off up the road to the Pod.

Dragstalgia for me is the biggest event of the year, even if I was competing in MSA events it would still be the biggest event of the year for me. After finding my pit spot I set up camp as best I could on my own, couldn't get the car out as that takes at least two people maybe three sometimes....

At least I had managed to set out our boundaries, there were so many cars entered space was at a premium, I set up between our good friends the Stones's and one of our European visitors Christian Frei and team  and then waited for the rest of the crew to turn up.

We got the car out and Steve set about fitting the new fuel pump and getting all the fuel lines cleaned through and dry, and then cleaning the tank out as it been back for some welding, fill the car up with fuel and fire her up...no no no..she wouldn't? much head scratching later and Dave realised the direction of rotations was back to front so...change the face plate round and try again...she lit up straight away. A few minutes fettling with pills and springs and then tow down for a run,into the water, hit the throttle sit back and wait for the violence that comes with a methanol burning V8 on full chat....but!! nothing she just conked out on the line, re-fired and tried again but no..so we towed her back to the pits feeling a little down and bewildered.

In the meantime Lorni had set off for the Pod but she encountered two accidents on the way so she took tot he A roads and 6 and half hours later arrived hot and bothered and not in the best of moods along with a cracked windscreen, to say she wasn't happy is an understatement.

We had a bit of a fiddle but not different..time for a change and go for a drink and chill for a bit. Saturday came round far too fast, Steve decided that we were simply running out of fuel at the top end of the rev range so we put the larger nozzles in and changed the pills yet again for more fuel...fatten her up.

This time we managed to get her off the line and up the track but very slowly only 17 seconds.back to the pits and more head scratching....

Steve checked the back lash all the fuel lines timing etc etc..everything was perfect apart from...as soon as the revs hit around 6000 she died, fuel starvation..electrical we were stumped?? we had a lot of help and advice as usual from all the Wild Bunchers for which we are always very grateful. I think at this point even Steve had given up the will to live.

What Steve did find was a leaky barrel valve and he thought that maybe the leak was enough to drop the pressure and close the poppet valve shutting the fuel down so..off came the stacks and the all the fuel lines and then the barrel valve, many thanks to Sam Freeman's team for the seal and all their help and advice during the weekend.

While fitting the seal Steve realised there was something else amiss what he found..well didn't whether to laugh or dam well cry

What had happened was the valve operating arm had slipped round and the valve was now opening and closing at the wrong point. Steve rectified all the problems but to set up the barrel valve correctly we need a leak down tester, we keep borrowing Bob Hawkins gear but he was having problems of his own th is weekend and we had already borrowed it once, so we had a word with Darryl and used his but Steve was still not sure if what he was doing was right or not or if he was reading the gauges correctly,So he sat down with his phone and a wee while later had it all set up without having to use a leak down tester at all!!!!

So Sunday morning's job was put all the original pills and nozzles back as we now had a car running so rich we could empty a swimming pool in 30 seconds, this was done just in time for the first call, we fired her up first and yeeeaaa we had full revs again but the engine wasn't running right yet, we didn't have the time to get down to final set up so we towed down anyway knowing that we wont be making a decent run but! we should at least get off the line????

We were up against Mark Couslell who always runs hard so I knew we weren't going to be gving him much of a race but I willt ry..so into the water and burnout..yaaa we got a little smoke this time and she kept running albeit very rich apparently the car soaked Lorni in methanol who was standing behind trying to video the run....

So I let Mark go (OK I was so busy watching him I forgot to watch the lights) I hit the throttle and she pulled..covered me in fuel but she pulled I short shifted. not wanting to do any damage and just let her go through the lights at around 120mph in 11 seconds..not brilliant but a 5 second improvement on the day before, so must be going in the right direction.

 So back to the pits and more fettling Steve spent a few hours..we had this time due to the weather, it had decided to rain rather heavily for an hour. I jumped back in the car on jacks and after a lot of tweaking and swearing as Steve managed to snap a throttle turn buckle. I would like to thank Wayne Colliver and team..

 for helping us out with that problem.. so back in the car again and this time it sounded absolutely bloody awesome..evil even we had full revs the fuelling looked to be dead on......

...we were so looking forward tot he next run but! we then noticed that some of the teams weren't just packing but were leaving, while we had been very busy we had't heard a tannoy message informing everyone that the powers to be had called the meeting to a close because of the weather..god I was angry and I have to admit so were a few other racers it was early and I am dam sure if it was an MSA event or FIA event they would have cleared and dried the track but there you go what can we do...this years Dragstalgia didn't turn out to be the successful event for us that we wanted it to be but at least we sorted out a lot of issues so now it is down to tuning only..I hope. So we packed up and went home ready at lest for the next run at Shaky the following weekend....bring it on!!!!

Congratulations to all the racers that managed yet again a hat-full of personal bests and Andy Stones..well just you wait pal I will get you next time LOL..well done mate that was an awesome run. And to anyone whose photo's I have used thank you very much..Ingrid Chesworth, and my son Phill who turned up with his new better half..it was about time I met her..next time I hope we will have more time to chat.