This Sunday just gone 30th April 2017 was the first time we could get the whole team together for weeks, The day before , Saturday, Steve and Dave had gone to the car to replace the valve stem oils seals on the right hand cylinder head and to replace the sump bung and balancer bolt and to fit the fuel catch can so we can stop the track crew having to mop up after us every time the car runs. Sunday morning Lorni and I were up early around 5am after about two hours sleep, the idea is to get out and over the Dartford Crossing before they start charging which is 6am. Which we managed with a couple of minutes to spare.
We met up with Dave and Steve at the trailer which we hitched up and towed out very quick, it didn't take long to get the car out and have the camp set up for the day,
The guys didn't take long to get the car ready and then I was on my way to sign on for the day, I asked at the office if Ian Marshal was back to work I was told no not yet why?I answered that I wanted to do observed runs so I can licence, the lovely Carol told me she can sort out that, just let her know when I am running so she can watch, I was then asked how long have I been running the car? well now this is our fourth year already.
We towed down for our first run, there were a lot of cars in the pairing lanes the bank holiday sun had bought them all out and quite a few bikes as well, we were told that all race cars were to run solo, We thought the track would be OK as there was some heat and it had been prepped well as some American guy was going to be licensing in a top fuel car, so we started her up made our way to the water and performed what was till then the best burnout I had ever done...All the video clips are a compilation of both Lorni's behind the car shots and Steve's video clips from his phone at the side of the track which is interesting as the side on clips make the car look as if it is going in a dead straight line whereas Lorni's videos shows what really happens.
But! the burnout was as far as it went as the car just suddenly stopped, died, nothing, I tried to restart her on the track but she wouldn't have it so I was pushed back to the barn where I told Steve I bet it's the coil lead again so off came the bodywork and there it was! not on the coil,so with some borrowed pliers and a screwdriver we were back ready again, second attempt at our first run.
This time it was a pathetic attempt at a burn out I only managed to just smoke one tyre, the actual run was a disaster as you can see, came off the line turned right and then went for a quarter mile wiggle with me peddling like hell, oh well at least we got up the track.
When we got the car back to the pits I found oil on my helmet visor, Steve found the culprit the rubber oil seal under the distributor was leaking, maybe some got on the slick, crap burnout, dodgy track who knows? we were ready to try again, another long wait in the pairing lanes and as we got nearer the front then we heard the announcement that came over the speaker system that there was to be a lunchtime break for around half an hour, So out of the car, and I had a walk around and chat with some of the other drivers, then back in and get ready for run 2. We had also lowered the tyre pressure to try and get more traction.
This time the burnout was again brilliant for me, I tried to "back up" a lot quicker which is difficult as the spring pressure on the throttle is so high just touching it doesn't work, to overcome the spring pressure usually means the revs come up rather high which would mean shooting back at a rate of knots. This time we got off the line a lot better but! the run was still all over the place even though we hit a 9 second run it was still not where we really wanted to be.
Back in the pits I found oil again even though Steve had tightened the distributor down it was still weeping Steve also found the timing was now out so it looks like the dizzie moved when he tightened it up, so with the timing sorted and some gasket sealer around the dizzie and the pill size sorted we went for another run, ooh I almost forgot, after the second run I went to the office to get my timing slip and had a word with Carol and yaaaa my licence was signed off, nearly had a weepy moment myself.
Time to go down for our third and what would be our last run of the day, Steve told me to try out the trans brake and see if we can get our 60 foot times down, I got him to double check the wheelie bar first! he set the trans brake rev limit to 4900, We were called round and this time Steve and Dave wanted me to pull a little further forward on the track before I started my burnout so I could get some tyre rubber down past the start line, the track temperature was starting to drop. We had also lowered the tyre pressures in the rear slicks again to just over 5 psi.
I managed another great burnout even the commentator mentions it if you listen hard enough. Since we changed the axle gear ratios I now start the burnout in first then as soon as the slicks spin up I change into top and it seems to work, the run itself wasn't spectacular still a high 9 at over 144mph which was better I suppose, we didn't have the revs set high enough for the trans brake to be effective and the car is still wandering around, maybe the driver has just got to get used to it and hang on for grim death? again the dizzie seal was still weeping so that is something we are going to have to look at. I also pulled the chute on this run and it worked, dam my shoulders are sore this morning , why am I surprised well I tried to pull the chute on on both the previous runs and it didn't work !! LOL good job I wasn't running at 300 mph? The chute pin had got stuck.
We still seem to be chucking out blue smoke out of the right hand bank on the burnout it goes away quick so what we think is, when we got the block re-honed we were told the block was honed as far as possible without having to replace the pistons so it looks like that we will have to go down that route at the end of the year we will put up with the puff of smoke for now as it is not damaging the motor.
Talking of burnouts I have made a compilation of the burnouts we did on the test day from both cameras, yeah I know I have far too much time on my hands but it's fun....enjoy
So we packed up ready to make our way home Lorni and popped into Blackett Photography's place and saw a brilliant photo of the car so we bought three copies one for Dave and Steve and one for me...
I think I can see me using this photo for my profile picture very soon, So back home, we have a car that is producing power and is wandering around a bit more than usual, probably due to the aforementioned "More Power" we have a leaky distributor seal and still have one or two doubts about the axle ratio change we made, So on to Shaky in two weeks where we will put it all to the test and hopefully improve further. We should get our chassis tag put on the car at Shaky and of course the most important thing of all, I am now fully licensed. So thanks to everyone that has ever helped us or given us advice and a special thanks to my super crew of Steve and Dave, and the part timers of Al and Phill and Andy. and of course to the track crew at the Pod for giving us a track that we can use.
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