Dragstalgia was supposed to be a celebration of weeks, no months if not years of hard work dedication and a lot of words that would get me into trouble if I typed them on here, while watching our slingshot once again take to the track that has been long missed by the whole family. But! the litany of disasters that happened over the weekend would be enough to break most men, Somehow though the team left with a little smile and some encouragement. So what occurred then................?
The plan was for Steve and Nigel to leave from Swindon Thursday morning for the Pod to get set up ready for the RWYB session on Friday with Dave meeting then in Bedford.
The first disaster hit as Steve was leaving as he closed his front door the locking and handle mechanism fell apart so he couldn't shut the door. so he had to rush around and find someone to sit int he house till a repair man could arrive and fix the problem or Kerry, Steve's wife got home from work. Next problem happened near Oxford when the tow trucks front calliper seized started smoking and nearly caught fire, So Steve pulled over and used the precision instrument that all mechanics have about their person...a big hammer! One big clout and the calliper gave in. A few miles further on and Steve heard an awful noise coming from behind him, once again he pulled over to find one of the exhausts dragging on the ground after the rubber mount had given up the ghost. And somewhere along the way he had lost Nigel who was supposed to be following on his motorbike!! Eventually they made it to Santa Pod and set up camp ready for the weekend and everyone was happy and buzzing.
The car was looking good but there was still one or two little jobs to do before it was ready for battle on the track.
Friday morning arrived with a phone call from Steve..."That's it I´m packing up we´re going home" We were not sure if the car was going to be ready for Dragstalgia we knew it would be close but one thing we didn't do was pay for the electric hook up in case we didn't make it beside we had our own faithful generator. Old faithful dropped a valve and gave up so now no electric no way to charge the batteries etc. I suggested that they ask if they can still get the electric hook up and I would pay but they had setup camp in the exactly the wrong place for that, Eventually they managed to loan a generator so a big thank you to Paul Tarry of the Triggers Broom altered a fellow Swindonite for the loan.
Eventually after nearly four years of waiting Tight Fit was in the pairing lanes as Steve pulled round to the burnout box more problems set in, in fact you could call them disasters. As Steve pulled into the water box he nailed the throttle to spin the tyres to cover them in water but the car seemed to not lie it and nearly cut out as he pulled forward and nailed the throttle again for the burnout...same thing as the revs mounted the engine just cut out back in the water box Steve hit the starter motor to fire her up but! there was a problem with the inhibitor switch and the car started in gear at the same time Dave had his arm over the the top of the car and he was pulled over hurting his shoulder. Obviously there was more wrong with the car then the team knew. So it was towed back to the pits.
Picture courtesy of Eurodragster.com, for copies please the photo pages from Dragstalgia Friday please click "here"
The rest of Friday and most of Saturday was taken up either trying to find all the problems and fix them or plans to set fire to the car...literally happened on Saturday night ! or just to leave it rot in the trailer. They had help from non other than the great Charlie Draper who managed to sort out some of the fuelling problems and from Mike Oates who set up our fuel system in the first place the Team would like to thank both of them for all their help and patience.
Saturday afternoon and the problem was found! it was our MSD box it was cutting out at anything much above idle so Steve found the solution wind out the rev limiter to 9000rpm and the engine revved OK again, of course now Steve would have to drive on the rev counter, So late Saturday afternoon the car was back in the paring lanes.........but! the Wild Bunch got bumped out due to time restraints.
That was not the end of it though. Steve had put his hand up to do a fire burnout, in fact he was the last person to do this four years ago or was it five??? So after the Crackle Fest the track was cleared and Steve and the Tight Fit slingshot made their way to the start line, wheelie bar removed and the parachute pack removed so it doesn't go up in flames. The Fuel was lit the flames licked around the cockpit and Steve hit the throttle and accelerated out of the flames and without putting in one run over the whole three days he became the most photographed and talked about car on the premises.
If the owner of this photo could get in touch please so I can credit them
It would seem that on the beers that you can order in the bar now has Steve's previous fire burnout attached to it
Sunday dawned a little damp and far cooler than the very high temperatures of the previous days I phoned Steve to see if he was going to run today and he said no. He knew we had a few small problems with the car a failed oil seal on the timing cover, problems with the MSD box and the car was running way too rich so he decided to pack up and not cause further damage by running the car, The MSD box was removed for repair and the team made their way home. Steve found problems getting into the storage facility as it had been a couple of year since we last used it even though it had been paid for, then on the way home the brakes on the tow truck were squealing like mad...metal on metal, and when he arrived home he found that some evil bas&·$ had stolen his 3 ton jack from his garden that had cost him nearly 200 pounds.
A lot of problems but all fixable and even though the car had not made on run down the track the team were smiling they know the car is capable of far more, we will be back, Watch this space. Congratulations to all of the Wild Bunch participants for putting on a great show as usual.
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