40. Hot Rod Drags

Sometimes things just don't go according to plan and this weekend was one of those times, Dave and I took the truck and car up to Shaky Friday afternoon to make sure we got a pit place and to set up camp ready for the rest of the crew the next morning, the trip itself wasn't too bad to be honest considering it was a Friday, we arrived later afternoon sorted out the tickets and proceeded tot he pits where we found a place not to far away from everyone else in the Wild Bunch we unloaded the car and set up camp.

Here is Dave relaxing after a hard hours work LOL

Now as you can see we have fitted the longer injector pipes, this is after consulting Hilborn themselves who assured us that the long pipes would improve low and mid range torque and not affect our top end noticeably and of course there is another reason.........

.. the car looks so much better with them on than the cut off ones. Anyway that was us for Friday we made out way to the bar and had a couple of drinks and listened to a really awesome Rockabilly band in the marque. 

Will get these chromed eventually

Saturday morning arrived along with my crew chief and other Brother Andy, first order of the day was to service the car then go for a run ..which we did but unfortunately there wasn't enough water put down so I didn't strike the tyres on the burnout so I had to be a bit careful on the launch and I short shifted to be on the safe side. the result was a low 10 second run.. not that good but it was a run.

Steve then went about  changing the springs in the distributor as the old ones were stretched and not working right, next run, first off the car is now more difficult to start, she popped back a bit more than usual but we went for the run anyway, I managed to get a face-full of methanol on this run which was back in the 9's so a bit more fettling and away we go with run number 3 again the car is difficult to start and I have to keep the revs up to keep her running, yet another crap burnout and on the run I got a face-full of oil as the rocker box gasket blew, still in the 9's at 140+ mph but still not where we wanted it to be.

Returning from a run

At this point I have to say a big thank you to Mark Coulsell and the Limited Funz team for all their help and advice and to everyone else that came by and gave us advice and tried to point us in the right direction, this what makes Drag Racing so good and even after all the problems we had this weekend this is what gives us the motivation to put things right spend more money than we have and to come back racing, cheers guys I really do mean it.

So the upshot was we had managed to throw the adjustment of the butterfly's on the injectors out on the front two cylinders they were running far cooler than the rest of the cylinders and we had a crack in the rocker box, so on Sunday we had to put tall this right, first we put the old springs back in the distributor  Steve then adjusted the butterfly's, I did hear him swear a couple of times when he let go of the feeler gauges as they slipped down the injectors so thanks to the Wraith Child team for the lend of their magnet on a stick. We then sealed the rocker box as best we could till we can get it welded up and then Mark and his team helped us with the timing set up Oh and congratulations on your 8 second 150mph runs...(bastard) LOL

Marks gorgeous looking rather fast slingshot

So now with then engine sounding really good and angry we go down for our first run on Sunday I decided to try the other lane I had been running in the checker board lane all Saturday, for the first time in ages the burnout was strong..well for us anyway, we got smoke of the tyres at least and everything sounded really good I was running against another car for the first time this weekend, the lights counted down I buried the throttle and she pulled like a train..yeee haaa, shift light on go for second...nothing...tried again..still nothing then I noticed a thin film of oil on my helmet.

..ooops, something has gone wrong so I remembered a piece of advice I was given a little while back in case something like this happened...Don't touch brakes, shift to neutral and let the car roll to a stop, I got off at the first exit. The guys in the top end crew came running over to see if I was ok, apart from not being able to see I was fine they told me I had puddles of oil under the car and that I had oiled the whole track, So apologies to everyone it was never my intention to do that believe me.

I just noticed that at the hit the car turned hard right, I was too busy keeping an eye on my opponent in the other lane, I wonder if the oil had already gotten onto my slicks, a real shame as it was on a good run I could actually feel the difference between this and the other runs we had completed on Saturday.

We towed the car back and took the bodywork off and what we found was not good...we had two holes in the gearbox and all 7 litres of oil had gone....

So the car was dismantled the axle removed and the gearbox taken out.......

What we found was the governor had sheared a bolt in the output shaft and had come loose in the tail piece and the weights had smashed holes in the side of the casing.

We had only had the gearbox rebuilt just before Dragstalgia so you can imagine this was a huge downer for us and I have to admit I seriously though about quitting for while back there. 

It was the first time we had raced at Shaky and apart from the car problems we had a really good time, the track crew were great and I found the track to be a lot better than I was told to expect, Ok so there is a big bump or two halfway down the shut-down area but you get used to it. the shut down area is a lot longer than the Pods so didn't need to use my chutes at all, and two great bands in the marque..brilliant, but I must remember to bring my own loo rolls with me as the ones in the toilets seem to disappear at night!! LOL

Anyway that is it for the season for us now...probably. We do have plans for the engine and now of course the gearbox but we will be back next season faster and quicker than ever we will get that elusive 8 second run and you never know we might even be able to race Mark on even terms, although I know we will never be able to match those Freddie esq burn-outs LOL

39. The run up to the Hot Rod Drags

Oooh its getting exciting again LOL, today is Wednesday and I had to do dome of that work stuff this morning, I then made my way home via Tesco's recycling centre to get rid of all the cardboard out of the car. Then it was a case of empty the car so I can get it cleaned as it is absolutely filthy, and at the same time start getting all the bits and bobs ready to take to the truck, the problem with this is it has filled my living room up..

I am sure Lorni will forgive me once I fill the car back up tomorrow with all the gear that I have to take with me.

I have the two main batteries on charge that is the on board battery which powers the ignition and the starter battery. Then of course there are all the batteries that go with the cameras and torches etc.

So tomorrow it is car clean time then go shopping for some easily burnt meat for the BBQ and gas grill, buy some beer and some milk. then load the car ready for Friday morning, We should get to the truck around lunchtime and once Steve has turned up with fuel and stuff we can make our way to Shaky.

Steve has assured me that this time he has not forgotten his sleeping bag and to prove the point he sent me this...

So hopefully this will be a good weekend and I am dam well hoping that I will get that elusive 8 second run..dam there will be some celebrating if I manage it. this could be the last race of the year for me as we are now at the end of the season the only other time the car will run this year will be at the Pod for the "let the minions have a go " day LOL next update will be next week after our weekend at Shaky.

38. Some stuff arrived and.......

Lorni was..still is on nights, yesterday so with not much that I could do I played on the PC for a while and I had a look through YouTube, I found some old footage of Ian Turberville racing at Shakespeare County and now I know what everyone keeps telling me about the bumps LOL The other Video I found was this.........

... here we have Ian Turbeville whose daughter Laura raced my car last year,in his slingshot before he fitted the supercharger, racing Pete "Eddie" Yates who I bought my race suit from, driving what was to become my car Tight Fit.

I also found a couple of photos which I am sure Ian and Mr. Andy Wilshere wont mind me sharing as I think they are brilliant these are both of Blood Lines cars before I bought Young Blood at Hockenheim a couple of years back.

On a happy note my new Injection Ram pipes turned up form the States....after I had paid the obligatory "Import Duty" and rip off handling fee,which doubled the amount, how many more ways can this bloody Government make money out of us?? anyhow I am now going to take one of the pipes with me.......

... on Friday as I am going to Santa Pod to go watch some racing at the European Finals, and check they fit correctly if they do, then they will going to the platers to have a layer of chrome added, will be very interesting to see if they make any difference at all apart from looking better., if anyone else is after any Alky bits then this is the place to go to..........

..very good service from Toni and the crew, just watch out for that dreaded "Import Duty" I mailed Shakespeare County about me coming up to the Hot Rod Drags a day early and I got a reply from Jerry Cookson who informs me that indeed the meeting is so popular people and teams start turning up on Thursday evening before the gates officially open on Friday morning, so it looks like I will have to do my best to get there really early .Ok as early as possible on Friday and hope I can find some pit space.

37. Euro Finals and some...!

Wow hasn't this year gone fast? it was only yesterday when I was meeting up with my Brother Dave at last years Euro Finals. Funnily enough it was at this meeting that I decided it was time for me to have a go at this wonderful sport of ours, I had no idea what a ride it would be..yes there are ups as well as downs but my god, I went and bloody well did it didn't I? It has cost me no end of money far more than I ever thought it would, but would I change anything...naaa course not it has been worth every single penny, you only live once for gods sake.. make the most of it  you can't take it with you!

So here we are just a few days from the biggest meeting of the year and in case any of you have no idea what I am on about then here is a wee taster video from Santa Pod.

I am just hoping the weather holds for this amazing event if it does then I might even be tempted to take my little tent and stay overnight.

The weekend after that my team and dragster will be going to Shakespeare County Raceway, again I have my fingers crossed for the weather as I have never raced there. Everyone I have spoken to have said it is a brilliant meeting and I will enjoy every second of it so...can't wait now!

On a personnel note it is my long suffering brother and crew members birthday in a few days, Happy Birthday Dave... in a million years did you ever think we would be doing this Dave eh? I still have trouble believing it I can tell you. I have to pinch myself sometimes, I keep looking at all the pictures and videos and I still don't believe it is me sitting in the car.

To quote my favourite wrestling team off al  the time "The Legion of Doom"........."oooh what a Rush!!!"

36. Santa Pod or Shaky

It looks like I have a quandary to sort out, I sat down the other week with my son to try and see when we could fit another day in to do some testing on the track. After much discussion it was decided that 14th September would have to do as it was the only day that we could all get together at the same time. So the crew were informed that we would be attending a RWYB at the Pod on that date...but!!! I get a message from a friend and fellow racer Jim Tanner that he was going to be attending a meeting at Shakespeare County raceway that same weekend...

Ok so that got me thinking can I get all the crew together for a weekend race meeting hmmmm. well it was not just the crew this time as both my brothers were coming and my three sons and my wife so a lot of phoning and it is all sorted now I hope, if the meeting at Shaky is what I think it is then we are all going but Phill and Dan will be going back in the evening the rest of us will be staying but! if  we have to then we can all still go to the Pod on the 14th..well that's the plan anyway.

Will be good to get a two day meeting in as it will give us time to sort out the tune up with the new injector stacks on and the new spring kit in the magneto with the hope that all this will give us our first 8 second run, I wont be too upset if it doesn't happen this time but I really want it,,dam do I want it.

We will see in a few weeks time and as they say.." what will be will be" or was that Doris Day...anyhow we will have fun trying and fingers crossed we don't damage anything.

Of course a lot depends on whether my son and crew chief Steve gets a car sorted by then and if his back is better as he has hurt it, dam I wish I could insure against such things happening LOL..roll on September...Bring it on !!!!!!!

35. Bigger pipes

Since I bought the car there is one thing that has bothered me...no not bothered, annoyed me and that is the injector ram pipes or lack of them to be honest, the ones on my car are very small and I believe the previous owner cut them down and it really spoils the look of the car, well I think it does...

Anyway not being too sure what is supposed to be what? I left well alone, but! a couple of times I have been told they are not the right length so I made the decision to find out for myself so I got on the net and sent a mail and a photo off to Hilborn in America..

I got a reply  rather quickly explaining that the length of my ram pipes are fine if the engine is revving between 9000 and 9500 if it is lower than this I really need a set of 8 inch ram pipes which will increase the bottom end and mid range torque....which would be brilliant, our engine only revs to around 7000 to 7500 so time to look for some  bigger ram pipes.

It was around this time that I found a picture of the car before the previous owner got it..and guess what??? it use to have much larger ram pipes....

So after scouring e-bay I found a place in America that still supplies the correct size pipes www.alkydigger.com  and after a mail or two about diameters I found the ones that I need.

These are no winging themselves from the Sates and I have my fingers crossed that will turn up before the 14th Sept when we are testing again at the Pod, I am hoping they will make the difference between a 9 second run and an 8 second run,,,,we will soon see.

The next problem is I promised myself that I would let both Steve (son and crew chief ) and Dave (brother and crew) a go in the car at the end of the season, now I know how not so easy it is to keep in a straight line I am having doubts LOL that is such a good idea, the other problem is the required safety equipment I know that my fire suit and gear will fit Steve but Dave is considerably smaller than both of us,, oh well we will have to try and see what happens, I will probably find it more difficult and nerve racking watching my car than actually driving it..October will come round far too quick...........and they had better not go quicker than me or they will never get in the car again LOL.

34. Back to the Pod RWYB

I had been watching the weather forecasts for two weeks and I had my fingers crossed that the sun would shine and the rain would hold off just for Saturday. It would seem that the remains of Hurricane Bertha is a drag racing fans as the weather for Friday was horrendous and acute weather warnings had been issued by the Met Office and again for Sunday looks like we got the "eye of the storm" thank god.

So up at 3:30am  disconnect the batteries and get them in the car and the rest of the food from the fridge. wake Lorni up and get moving. Steve had already left Swindon with my youngest son and was on his way to Luton to pick my youngest brother Andy up. I picked up my other brother Dave and we all met up at the truck in Bedford, So this is a first I have with me my wife, my two brothers and two of my sons, I am hoping that next year I will get everyone together for at least one of the meetings maybe Dragstalgia 2015.

First thing was to get parked up and get the car out and set up camp which we managed to do in record time, then Steve wanted to set the backlash change the oil and warm the car up which didn't take too long in fact the whole session took less time than it did to boil up some water for coffee on Dave's gas BBQ.

Santa Pod were having trouble with the track, there had been so much rain that the water table had risen and water was seeping up through the track so they were having a torrid time trying to dry it all out, in fact for much of the day we were only using one lane which sort of slowed things up which is why we only managed three runs instead of the planned four, anyway while they were still drying the track we made out way tot he food hall and a light breakfast.well some of us did......

I guess Steve and Andy just hadn't eaten for months....?? LOL So on with the testing  we let the tyre pressure down a wee bit to see if that would help with a relatively green track, unfortunately I didn't get backed up into my tyre tracks very well and at the hit the cat turned sharp right and headed for the Xmas tree so I had to peddle and then hit again which resulted in a 10.19 sec pass at 137 mph not what we was looking for but we learned something.

Also on the first run the car seemed to be moving left to right a bit more than is comfortable so having passed this information on to my crew chief  and number one son he changed the tyre pressures for the next run, put a little bit more pressure in. this resulted in a much better launch but the car still moved about a bit.

I also noticed when we were racing at Dragstalgia that whenever i ran in the Pit lane I had trouble with the run so I was beginning to wonder if there was such a big difference between the two lanes. The last run of the day was made on the spectator lane as the Pod track crew had managed to sort out the water problem and with even higher tyre pressures we managed a 9.5 second run at 143mph that was a little bit more like it. what I would have liked was another run in the other lane with the same set-up to see if we could run the same numbers and prove to myself that there is no difference between lanes and that it is all in me head....probably!!

Anyway that was it for the day we were lucky with the weather and I and the team did  learn a few things...how to untangle a parachute , how to pack a parachute, I also learned that you must release the chute under power or you will get bounced all over the track and yes it is uncomfortable LOL...very!

So we started to pack up Steve had a look under the truck to find the source of the oil leak and he found it was nothing to worry about..phew!!! and I managed to get a photo of all three of us Heaven brothers, it's not often we are altogether like this in fact the last time we had a photo of all three of us was again at the Pod about 9 years ago.....

After the photo the crew thought very hard about packing the car away...

And as always with the drag racing fraternity we made some new friends..Jim Tanner  and the "Wavy Gravy" crew, he built the car himself and like us he is going through the steep learning curve stage, great guy great looking car.

photo courtesy of www.eurodragster.com

So we learned a lot made some new friends and it was great to have so many of my family together I am now looking forward to next year, we have to get the car re-tagged (dragster MOT) I will get a licence and I am determined to run in Super-Pro et so we will get the car into the 8's at some point. in the meantime I must check to see if there are any-more RWYB's I can get the crew together for before the end of the season.