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