Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

Finally, after months of dicking around, I took the Bedford ambulance up to Southport on the back of the Bedford transporter on Friday evening. Having rebuilt the top end - twice - and with not long to go before the MoT expires, I thought it's now or never.

So, at about 7pm, after the rush hour had died down (and, hopefully, those nice VOSA guys had knocked off) I set off. After about 15 miles, the temperature gauge was reading about three-quarters hot, but I figured it was a warm evening, and it was carrying a pretty heavy load. I joined the M6 at junction 15, and by 16 it was boiling so I pulled off the motorway feeling something like this:

This was Jessie, and clearly the Hook A Duck stall at the local travelling fun fair was just too much for her. Although, to be honest, this was the demeanour of most of the visitors to our local fair. And the staff, too.

Anyway, I let the truck cool down and got the water out to top up the radiator. Hmmm, it hasn't lost a drop. So I set off again. This time, I made it to Knutsford before stopping again. Same thing - boiling, but no water loss. I'd also noticed that if I put it in neutral and coasted down hills, it'd cool down a bit. While i was stopped, I had a bright idea - remove the in-cab engine cover and get some air circulating, cool the engine bay down a bit. It didn't make the damnedest bit of difference.

What I did notice, after coming off at junction 20-odd, was that it was now dark, but my exhaust downpipe was glowing bloody orange! WTF! It was running beautifully, but must be running so lean ... well, that could account for why it burned its valves out before.

The following day, before setting off, I thought a quick carburettor rebuild might be in order. I hadn't touched the carb previously, thinking "if it ain't broke...", but it clearly was so I had it apart, cleaned it, had the jets out, blew through everything with compressed air, removed the crap from the built-in filter and put it back together, then set off homeward. I would say I was going home empty, but a combination of circumstances meant I was actually going home with a scrap, engine-less Rover 620 on the back...

Same bloody scenario - still running way hot, and occasionally boiling. I stopped at a petrol station near junction 20-odd, as I'd had an idea. The built-in filter had been full of shite. There's a filter screen in the fuel pump too, isn't there?! The petrol station couldn't sell me a Philips screwdriver. Dog food? Yes. A bag of flour? Naturally. Sixteen different flavours of air freshener? No problem. A screwdriver? Fat chance. I pressed on to Lymm truck stop, and went to the 24 hour shop at the fuel station there. It was shut. Clearly it's open 24 hours, but not in a row. I ended up borrowing a screwdriver from the lady behind the counter at WH Smiths, who apologised for her newsagent shop not stocking screwdrivers - bless her - and lent me one from behind the counter. I had the top off the fuel pump and found this:

Crud, metal shavings, insects..?! But it still didn't make any difference. Two more stops on the way home and I finally got back five hours after setting off, still none the wiser about why it's running lean.

I have since had a brainwave. The brakes are shite, but the pedal is rock solid. The servo doesn't seem to do anything at all. It certainly doesn't lessen the pedal effort. Could the engine just be sucking in fresh air through the servo vacuum pipe? But surely it would affect the idle more than anything, whereas mine seems to suffer more at high revs/cruising speed? Any ideas?

Eugene

Fun With Corners

I missed Hot Rods & Hills this year. Again. Despite the fact that it was the best event I went to in 2009 that has so far been the only running of this event that I've actually made it along to. Damn.

Still, the silver lining is that I had to go to the inaugural American Speedfest event at Brands Hatch on Sunday June 9th, and Christ almighty what an incredible event that was. An international-standard venue, a packed bill of racing and the organisational abilities of MSV meant hundreds of cars on display trackside and plenty of other entertainment for the visitors, which apparently numbered almost 20,000. That's not dicking about.

Top of the bill was the Euro Racecar series, which is a European version of NASCAR but on road circuits. It was cool, lots of V8 grunty power and some close racing, but once the pack had strung out a bit it seemed rather processional. The Legends had an endurance race - 40 minutes. I'm not sure whose endurance this was meant to test, the drivers' or the spectators', but it took some enduring. There was an Intermarque series for what seemed to be large go-karts with odd jelly-mould bodies, but I didn't get that at all. Pick-up trucks looked lots of fun, though, even though they're four-pots.

The true stars of the show for me were Bernie's V8s. Now this series really appeals to me. The criteria are thus: 1. The cars must be production based, no kit cars. 2. They must be V8s. 3. Convertibles must have roofs up or hardtops. 4. No whingers. That's my kind of rule book.

 Obviously there were stacks of Corvettes, Camaros and Mustangs filling the grid, but in amongst them you'd find some really rare stuff like this (above), an Iso Rivolta with a 327 Chevy V8 and quad Webers. There was a Ford Maverick, which looked the business, and an Opel Manta painted in a stars'n'stripes paintjob that really kicked some arse. Apparently it used to race in Thundersaloons, or some such?

There were TR7 V8s like this above, and a MkI Capri that the announcer said was a Perana but I'm not so sure. Actually, I couldn't give two shits whether it was a Perana or not, it looked the dog's and went like frozen shite off a shiny shovel.

These guys all lined up behind Bernie's old Fifties Chevy pick-up on the grid, then went for a parade lap before Bernie peeled off and they took the green flag as a rolling start. If you can imagine 30-odd V8s on a rolling start when you're stood right next to the start line ... I think a little bit of love-wee came out. The fastest cars on the day were the Brits - an MGB V8 took both race wins, with this SD1 running a close second all the way

Of course the Yanks have more power, but the MGB was close to half their weight. He and the SD1 swapped the lead once a lap for five laps. And that's racing...

And it has to be said that none of these guys were at all precious about their rides. There was one guy with a Shelby GT350, and I don't know what was under the bonnet, but when he opened it up on the back straight... oh boy. Imagine a jet engine on the brink of orgasm. Although it was me who had to fight the urge to give Mr Winkie a good beating. One guy in a Sunbeam Tiger lost the back end getting back on the power after Druids and fetched the tyre wall a mighty wallop. He restarted it, reversed out of the tyres and got the fuck on with it. I think he finished fourth. One guy with an Aston Martin DBS V8 stoved the front end in in the first race. Did it stop him? Did it arse-burgers. One guy with a Cobra Daytona rep tore the middle out of one of his rear Halibrands...

At the end of the day there was a parade lap for all the American cars on show. They lined up, three abreast, and filled well over half the Indy circuit. One guy in a C4 Corvette pulled onto the track, gave it a load and ended up backwards into the gravel at Paddock. Total time spent on track? About 10 seconds and 100 feet. Total number of cars who drove past him thinking "Wanker"? About 200. Bless.

This event has been Brands Hatch's biggest event of the year. At 9am, I joined the back of the queue to get in. It was four miles away, on the M25. The event outsold the BTCC and the DTM events, no problem. Some of the marshals told me they hadn't seen crowds like this for a non-motorbike event since the last British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch ... that was in 1986, when Nigel Mansell won. It's been so successful that they've already pencilled in Speedfest II for the same weekend next year. And if you can't make it to HR&H, this is definitely worth the trip.

Eugene

Gary's Glitters

Last weekend was Gary's Picnic / Yanks weekend at Shakey County. Last year, this weekend was the one truly glorious, sunny, hot weekend we had all year; this year wasn't quite up to the same scorching standards but it was still beautiful. Having arrived on Friday evening, I set the caravan up, handed the car keys to the missus and that was pretty much the last I saw of them all weekend...

Last time we were up at York, the startline marshall had noticed a drip of water at the front of the Mustang. By this time, a few weeks later, the drip was beyond a joke - my front crossmember was more moist than the chairs at the WI when Daniel Craig was guest speaker. What follows shows not only how indebted I am to some people, but how a gang of mates in the car scene will put themselves out to help a fellow in need....

Just before setting off, I'd asked Graham (who I knew was going to the event) if he had a spare water pump. He didn't, but he put a message on the Fox Doctors Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/groups/FoxDoctorsUK/) to ask if anyone else had. Two guys - Steve and Don, were heading up to Manchester on the Saturday to buy more Fox bits, and said they'd got a second-hand pump. After a day's racing on the Saturday - well, there wasn't THAT much racing due to oil-downs and such - they said they'd detoured to the M40 and could I meet them at j15 at 4pm? Graham gave me a lift there, and, as good as their word, at 4pm, an old Ford Ranger full of Fox bits came off the motorway and the guys handed me a water pump, and Graham a rear axle! Would they take any money for it? Not on your Nellie - I had to force some cash on them. What top guys.

Back at Shakey, I whipped the old water pump off, which was dribbling through the lower vent hole like a gerbil on Ex-Lax, and fitted the new one. I'd had the foresight to bring a gasket and some gasket-goo, so it should have been fairly straightforward, but the old gasket was well baked onto the block. I headed down to the Motorshack stand to get a scraper, but he was shut; fortunately, Simon Boot was nearby and handed me some Stanley blades which got the job done with minimal loss of fingers.

Sunday was another blinding day, and, now watertight, 'er indoors was off and running again. Monday was a different matter. For some reason, the place half emptied on Sunday night, and there was hardly anybody about on Monday, so she had a lap time of about 3 minutes at one point. Her best time of the weekend was 15.03 - not bad for a car with 32psi in the budget radials and the shifter in D. 

The photos above are courtesy of Martin from Drakie's Americans - see the linky to the right for more. 

Also, having lashed up my fan belt tensioner after snapping the LEFT-HAND THREAD bolt by not knowing it was a left-hand thread bolt, I got a new bolt in the post from Mark Butterworth. Somebody else willing to put himself out to help a fellow in need. It restores one's faith in humanity, it really does.

Oh, and a little money-saving tip I discovered whilst putting the Bedford back together: prevent wastage of expensive anti-freeze by fitting the bottom hose BEFORE filling the radiator... twat.

Eugene