NSCC 2014 Round 2

Monday would be another day of racing into a headwind. I wouldn't say the wind was strong, but I watched a pigeon lay the same egg four times. With the threat of rain heading in mid-afternoon, the qualifiers were done with a degree of alacrity rarely seen in NSCC circles, with Ian Walley back on top with 10.6 at 127mph, and Russ snapping at his heels with a 10.8 at 121mph. The rest of the qualifying tree was much the same as Sunday's (cue Fluff Freeman's “At The Sign Of The Swinging Cymbals” theme tune) but up two places to number five was Paul Hughes, getting a handle on the blown Fox for a 13.3. Dec and Kevin had swapped places, Dec now ahead by four thousandths, and everybody else below that having shaved a few tenths off their Sunday times. In all, after Sunday's drop-outs, we had 16 qualifiers which made for a lovely, neat ladder.

With that rain getting ever closer, we couldn't afford to fart about, which is a shame, as it's what we do best. In fact, some of us have spent years honing our skills, and the only thing that's prevented us turning professional in the high-pressure public sector world of politics is the hope of being selected to fart about for Team GB in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Mark Presland was the first victim, falling to Russ's 10.8, shortly followed by his twin brother Scott falling to Ian's 10.55. The battle of the Foxes saw Paul's white one trounce Dave's red/black/brown one, after which Shaun bested a struggling Andy in the TVR – clearly he has fallen from favour with the almighty. Nigel put paid to Dec's hopes, James ended Nad's progress, then things started to go a bit runny – Kev beat Billy and Mark beat Nigel Henderson, both on apparent red-lights in the left-hand lane caused by the competitors rolling out of stage. It was all rather questionable, the start line marshals claiming that the wind was blowing the cars out of the staging beams, but Billy and Nigel were far too British and sportsmanlike to ask for a rematch. Stiff upper lips, gents!

In round two, Shaun lost out to Ian, while another battle of the Foxes saw Mark take the win over Paul, Paul's 13.0 promising more to come. Kev's good luck in the first round evaporated in the second with a red light against James, whose 12.2 pointed the way back to previous form, while Russ took another win to set up the semis.

The semis went according to the form book, with the yellow perils setting up another ten second final, but with dark clouds all around there was no time to waste. In fact, as Ian and Russ made their way to the line the rain was beginning to make its presence felt, and with spots starting to appear on windscreens, the final may have been a case of who was the bravest/daftest and who would keep it in a straight line the longest. That would be Ian, who managed an 11.2 against Russ's 11.4, and hats off to the pair of them for having the conkers to give it that much on a dampening track.

Two days of maximum points and a big welcome back for Ian Walley, runner-up and a gauntlet down for Russ, and a mighty fine weekend of racing for everyone concerned. We're back at York just a scant fortnight later for rounds three and four, and things are already starting to heat up. See you there.  

NSCC 2014 Round One

Easter, the time when we celebrate our Lord being nailed up by some Eyeties with a four-day weekend, perfect for a spot of drag racing. And this year saw something that has been rather lacking from too many rounds of NSCC for the past couple of years – people. Lots of them.

Rocking up just after dark on the Saturday night, we were greeted by an NSCC pit more packed full than the Pope's happy-sack. The people had already made camp, and suddenly the NSCC was looking like a force to be reckoned with once again. Late arrivals included James Murray (to nobody's surprise – I believe Biff won the sweep with his guess of 10.54pm, within two minutes of James's actual arrival time) and, a welcome return to to the fold after far too long, Ian Walley.

Some of the usual suspects were absent, many still with unfinished or damaged cars; fortunately, there were plenty of new faces that more than made up for the shortfall. By a long shot. A couple of new Foxes had swelled the ranks, including Mark Butterworth's, fresh from a serious engine rebuild, and Paul Hughes' supercharged hatch out for a shakedown. Andy Errington came out to a few NSCC events last year in his TVR, but this was his first time in competition at the drag strip proving that, at 70 years old, you're never too old to start. He had Simon Boot for a crew chief, but that seemed to mostly involve Andy drinking Simon's booze for him. Another (sort of) new face was Shaun Cockcroft in a MkII Escort Harrier with Harris brothers' stickers that promised to be entertaining. Nigel Swift finally brought his beautiful blue big-block Firebird out to play, and would spend the weekend remembering how to change gear. Nigel Henderson was another face back after a long lay-off, now with a sweet 105E Anglia looking lovely, low on steels, and powered by a Zetec.

There were a few people out taking advantage of the new rule stating that a newcomer can come out to play in whatever car they can muster for their first year of NSCC competition, one being Nad, Mrs Cattell, out popping her cherry in her daily-driver Celica. Second-generation NSCCers Dec Hughes and Kevin Winstanley were out in their Golf and Punto respectively, representing the next wave and, frankly, making a damn fine showing of themselves.

Sunday dawned bright, but with a considerable headwind that varied from 10mph to 50mph, depending on who you asked and how far they were off their expected times. Qualifying got underway with Jamie Hughes' turbo big-block Land Rover defying aerodynamics by blasting off a 10.29 at 135mph to set the benchmark. Next up was Ian Walley, heading towards the sort of times that car promises with an 11.0 at 126, with Russ Pursley hot on his heels with 11.2 at 120. Then was James Murray, the old Cortina still turning in the numbers with a 12.6, followed by Mark Butterworth shaking down with a 13.0 on the motor. Billy Cattell put the Austin in sixth with a 13.94, Biff Bailey a coat of paint behind on 13.96, then Paul Hughes enjoying the vagaries of the T5 transmission with a 14.2. Another racer having fun with a manual shift and street tyres was Nigel Swift on a 14.5 at 105mph, that terminal giving a clue of plenty more to come, followed by Shaun Wilson with a 14.8 from the Syclone. Andy Errington was next, after trying his damnedest to sabotage other racers until 3am that morning, his 15.4 being an opening salvo, followed by Shaun Cockroft's Escort, its Kent motor kicking out a 15.6. The two youngsters were next, Kevin's turbo Punto with a 15.97, and Dec 12 thousandths behind. Next was Dave Smith, way down with a 16.0, the car still in shock after its annual wash some weeks previously (plus the 60mph headwinds, of course), then Nigel Henderson in the sweet Anglia on 16.7. Nadia Cattell was next with a 17.8, and looking like she was enjoying every minute of it, followed by Mark and Scott Presland respectively, the little Crossflow rods still out pounding the strip every chance they get.

That's right, 19 cars qualified for NSCC, and with a couple more in the pits for decoration, that was the biggest competition class at York that day. Excellent effort.

Straight into round one, which started badly for Shaun Wilson with a red light against Andy Errington, the beginning of a sensational string of luck for Andy. Nigel Swift knocked out Shaun Cockcroft, then Ian Walley hit the tens, his 10.98 being a full nine seconds quicker than Scott's Pop. Another red appeared in Biff's lane letting Dec Hughes cruise through, before Mark Butterworth put Nigel Henderson out with a 12.77, bettering his time with the old motor on gas. Yet another red light shone in Dave Smith's lane against Billy Cattell, but Dave was clearly overcompensating for the 70mph headwinds. Russ Pursley wasn't arsed about headwinds with his 10.58 at 123mph against Mark Presland, while James Murray showed no gallantry with Nad Cattell, putting her out 13.7 to 17.4. Paul Hughes then beat Kev Winstanley to finish off the first round, the biggest news being that Jamie Hughes, number one qualifier, had no-showed after some suspicious bottom-end rattles caused by a loose oil pressure restrictor to the turbo.

That no-show meant that Andy got a bye in the second round, and a mysterious burning bush was seen on the return road. Mark put out Billy 12.7 to 13.5, before Ian beat Nigel 10.8 to 14.2. James ended Dec's good fortune 13.6 to 15.4, then Russ stamped his authority on proceedings with a 10.7 to Paul's 14.5.

Ian Walley got the lucky bye in the third round, while James got a lot closer to form with a 12.3, nowhere near enough to see off Russ's 10.9 though. In another case of divine, or possibly satanic, intervention, Andy won against Mark, Mark suffering from Palsy, a plague of frogs and being turned into a pillar of salt whilst recording a time of 25.48 seconds at 694mph... Famine, plague and pestilence will surely follow.

In the semi finals, Russ got the bye and still chose to run a 10.9, but then Andy's run of luck came to an end at the hands of Ian Walley, who also ran a 10.9 against Andy's 15.7. Balance was restored to the world, and good triumphed over evil. Or was it the other way around? Anyway, the septuagenarian assassin got to park the car and put his fluffy slippers on.

It also set up an all-yellow final, Russ's Dutton versus Ian's Cortina. With both cars showing high ten-second form all day (despite the 80mph headwinds) it should have been a really climactic end to the best round of NSCC in some years. In the end, it was all over at the start line, as Russ picked a cherry and Ian stormed away to a 10.66 at 126mph and maximum points from the opening round of 2014.

After racing had finished, the NSCC crews got together on the startline for a team photo. It was certainly a better photo than last year's picture at the same event, where all seven race cars lined up in the bitter cold for the photo; this year, two rows of cars posed in front of the tower before all heading off to the Barnes Wallis for a nosebag. On the way, Biff's Mustang lost fire and died at the side of the road. It spoke a volume that everyone else on the cruise stopped to help and stare at the open bonnet, possibly not realising that they were only 300 yards from the pub – they could have pushed it there, and stared with a refreshing pint in their hand. Anyway, it spoke another volume that, after calling reinforcements at the track to bring a trailer, Paul Hughes brought a trailer that was slightly too small, then went back for Ian's! After a damn fine face-filling, we headed back without incident, where Biff diagnosed a dead MSD coil as the source of his problem. He would sit the next day out, but then as soon as racing was over, fellow 5.0er Paul Hughes would donate his coil to the cause so Biff could drive home and post the coil back to Paul. That's what mates are for.

After a few rounds of beer and a few more rounds of bullshit, everyone sacked out for another full day's racing on bank holiday Monday.  

April Fools

It occurs to me that I haven't been on here during the whole of March. I'd love to tell you that during that time I've got loads of work done on my projects, but I think we all know that that'd be a crock of shite, wouldn't it. Apart from removing a few more bits & bats from the silver breaker I've not achieved much at all. Well, I've achieved something crap - all the parts from the silver breaker are now precariously balanced on top of the rolling shell inside the workshop, to a height of in excess of seven feet. If one of the rats living in the roof joists concentrated hard, he could probably start an avalanche of Mustang parts with a good, strong fart.

It also occurs to me that, well over a month ago, we had the annual NSCC Drivers' Meeting and AGM.  Over the weekend of February 28th to March 2nd, the faithful headed for The Manhattan in Blackpool to discuss the NSCC calendar and rule book and refloat their livers. It was a pretty good bash, a decent turnout and a good catch-up for a lot of folks who haven't seen each other since the last round, plus the overall atmos seemed positive, which is always a good indicator for the year.

Business got under way with the usual recap of the foregoing season, a discussion of cruises (same as last year) and the shows (pretty much the same as last year). Then we gave the rule book a good going over, and while we have stuck pretty rigidly to the same format for many years - if for no better reason than "because that's the way we've always done it" - there were some changes put forward that surprisingly went through without the usual Mobius debate.

First was the rear-wheel drive only rule. This got downgraded a year or two ago in light of the fact that some of the older front-drive stuff is now properly classic, or at least 'retro'. Now the rule states that you can run absolutely any car you like in NSCC, in your first year. This was aimed at bringing in people who might fancy having a go, but haven't yet got a car ready or maybe just want to give it a whirl before committing to building something. It's already been taken up by some of the younger guys who simply can't get insurance on anything "interesting".

The next rule was slicks for race meetings, which went through smoothly with a surprising majority. There was a points-boost for attending shows for the full weekend, with 1800 points up for grabs if you drive your car to a show and make a weekend of it. There's another points bonus for the person (or, rather, the car) whose quarter mile times improve the most between the beginning and end of the season, though anybody suspected of sandbagging will be shot with a blunderbuss loaded with fox shit and thrown to the hounds. Also, surprisingly to many, the vote went that we will run 2014 on a Sportsman tree!

The only tricky bit points-wise was the UK Power Tour. Run by the UKV8 Club, this looks like an excellent beginning for Britain's answer to drag week, and happens over the Bank Holiday Weekend of May 24th to 26th. Starting at the 1/16th-mile (!) strip in Rye, then heading to Shakey, then to York, it's a good old road test for street-legal machines. Any NSCCers participating can score points - at the end of the Tour, the highest-placed NSCCer in the Power Tour organisers' ranking gets 2000 points. The next highest gets 1900, then 1850 and so on. The best bit is that the Monday when the Tour rolls into York is also an NSCC round, so you can score points in NSCC as well! The Tour is at Gary's Picnic/Yanks Weekend at Shakey on the Sunday, and while this is an NSCC 'show' event, Power Tourers won't score show points for being there. If they did, it'd be a bit of an insurmountable points bonanza overall, with the Tourers scoring more in one weekend than many NSCC qualifiers do all year.

At this point in the proceedings, we thanked out sponsors for the 2013 season - Andy Hadfield, Simon Boot and champion John Peace. While showing our appreciation, a Unicorn ran in through the side door and kicked seven shades out of Andy Hadfield. I know I wasn't the only one to see this...

Hah, see?! There's photographic proof, though this was after the Unicorn had sold his shirt to Simon. The following photographs were provided by Drakie - there's a link to his site on the right - and due to a failing lens (his story... :-)) the photos got progressively more out-of-focus as the night went on. Which is a pretty accurate reflection of the perception of the attendees, I should imagine.

First up was Simon Boot, receiving the John Payne Spirit of NSCC award for having a nine-second car, taking it bloody everywhere including round Mallory Park and over Kirkstone, and generally being a helpful chap and all-round good egg.

Next up was Billy '4-speed' Cattell, picking up the KC Best Newcomer award. With his marvellous metalflake Austin, Billy and his family have not only had a damn good go in their first year, they've also fitted right in and are lovely people to boot.

Next there were trophies for all qualifiers, but let's skip to the top three. Now I wouldn't say that Derek Beck's luck is bad, but if he fell into a bucket of tits he'd come out sucking his thumb. Even so, nobody can have tried harder than Derek in the TVR. Even on the way to the drivers' meeting he managed to put the bloody thing through a dry stone wall, yet there he was, smiling, to pick up his more-than-well-deserved trophy.

James Murray's Cortina has been a consistent NSCC performer for 15 years now, rarely off the podium at the end of the year, yet you have to wonder how it holds together. It's been used, abused, crashed, repaired, patched and thrashed, used as a test mule and guinea pig for James' electronic trickery, yet still, wherever you look, there it is. Usually very late.

And the 2014 winner, a guy who put thousands of miles on his Mustang last year, took part in every round of racing plus a hillclimb, a track day and the Hot Rods & Hills uber-cruise, and looked like he was enjoying every minute of it, John Peace. Always ready to lend a hand, he's become one of those NSCC characters that the series would be so much poorer without. Not only that, he had engraved pint pots made for every qualifier, out of his own pocket, because he wanted to give something back to the series. Now that's a worthy winner, I think you'll agree...

So there it is, just over a month late, and now the season's started it's time to put some of it into practice. I've already had the Fox down at Shakey for some pre-season testing, and I'm pleased to say that it completed several passes without needing attention from the AA or the track clean-up crew, so that's a start. Let's get ready to rumble, as they say.

Eugene

Group B Sex

The other day I went along to the Race Retro show at Stoneleigh. It's basically Autosport for the classic/historic racing crowd, and what follows is pretty picture-heavy.

It was a lovely day, made less lovely by the guy at the gate wanting 26 sodding quid to let me in, but immediately improved by the display of McLarens just inside the entrance. Look at that, from the days when the sponsors were incidental to the race car and the power adder and limiter rules weren't drawn from a hat before the season.

Now this really took me back - when I was a kid I was well into rallying, and my favourite driver was Tony Pond. I remember seeing him tonking about in a TR7 V8 like this in the late Seventies. My dad took me on a trip to Belgium to watch the Ypres Rally in 1981, a rally that Tony Pond won in one of these the year before. No such luck in 1981 - it was won by a sodding Ferrari, I think!

There was loads of old rally tackle floating about, some of it slightly less likely than others. This Rover Vitesse can't have been too handy on a forest stage, but it looked terrific.

Now these were mental - the 6R4, that surely owed bugger all to the Austin Metro they were based on. Mid-engined, insane, and worth a small fortune now.

Ah, talking of small fortunes, was there ever a more gorgeous rally special than the Lancia Stratos? I remember watching them on the RAC Rally in the Seventies where, somehow, they still got beaten by bloody Ford Escorts!

The Sunbeam Lotus... possibly the most non-descript hatchback in the world until Lotus started dicking about with it. What was the last little rear-drive hatch in production? The Sunbeam only managed to hang on until 1981, while the Chevette and the Starlet lasted to '84. Was there anything after that?

Of course there was one car that changed the whole damn game and rendered shonky little Escorts and Sunbeams obsolete almost overnight, and it was this fine piece of German engineering. Amazingly well-built, blisteringly fast and on the very cutting edge of the latest technology, it dominated the world. And parked in front of it is an Audi.

Another car that was surrounded by a reef of slightly sweaty men with tented trousers was this, marked up as having been driven by Jimmy McRae. Behind it is a Subaru, marked up as having been driven by  Colin McRae, a car from back when Subaru were best known for building those little rust-while-you-wait four-wheel drive pickups, rather than cars for people who think that even though everyone knows a flat-four sounds atrocious, they should fit an exhaust that amplifies it.

No matter how shiny and valuable the classic race machinery is, you can't beat a good old unfinished project to draw the crowds in. This old Wolseley 1500 was the classic rally project for some university.

I think it spoke a volume about me that, out of all these classic rally cars and race cars, the thing that really made me go 'wow' was a MkI Transit beavertail. I must have some gyppo blood in me somewhere.

Even so, this beauty was hiding a 2.9 fuel injected Cologne V6 and five-speed manual. He only lives just up the road from me, too. Never mind using it to haul a race car around; I'd be inclined to race the transporter!

This old sixpence-cab Austin was a treat, too.

Meanwhile, the 'Sheep In Wolf's Clothing' Mustang Pinto project continues apace. Well, 'bloody slow' is a pace, isn't it? It's all bolted in - using actual bolts, now, not just the tent pegs that have held the transmission crossmember in for a few weeks - and the PAS is plumbed in, the cooling is plumbed in, and the fuel lines are plumbed in. Just ... well, everything else to do now.

It's the NSCC Driver's Meeting this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it, though I have so many bits of car and other stuff to bring along that I should probably have considered chartering a cargo aircraft. Or just buying that V6 Transit.

Eugene

Valentine's Day Massacre

Just a quick reminder for all the men out there (who, let's face it, are generally oblivious) - it's Valentine's Day on Friday.

That's when you're supposed to make a romantic gesture towards the woman in your life. That's the woman who lives in your house. Your house is the building next to the garage where the kettle and the clean clothes live. And apparently, farting in bed but then NOT holding her head under the duvet doesn't count as a romantic gesture.

For Valentine's Day, I've given the missus a Pinto. Now bearing in mind that, in some South American countries, a "pinto" is slang for a tiny penis (oddly enough, Ford's Seventies compact was renamed for sale south of the border), there's much mirth to be had there. even more laughable is the fact that the space in the '92 Mustang convertible that used to house a fuel injected 5.0 V8 now houses a carburetted 2.3-litre four-pot.

Even this wasn't easy, despite the fact that the subframe is the same for both motors so the Pinto engine mounts drop straight onto the slots in the subframe. In theory. First, I waited until it was dark and cold, because every major job should involve blundering round in the dark. Ford handily made the Fox Mustang with a bonnet that opens to 90-degrees, so you don't have to remove it to extract the engine. It's almost as if Ford knew that 20 years on they'd all have their engines whipped out and the rest scrapped. You can see the length of all-thread propping the bonnet open.

When I removed the Pinto from its previous accommodation, it was a rusty four-eyed 1980 model. I'd taken the bumper and nose-cone, so when it came time to remove the engine I just hacked off the slam panel and whipped the engine out in seconds. What I now found was that the aero Fox has a mighty front overhang, and the Pinto sits a long way back in the engine bay. When you're trying to push a loaded engine crane - a supposedly "long reach" engine crane - over gravel, the little release valve on the front of the ram has hit the bumper and scraped all the paint off long before the engine is anywhere near where it needs to be. To drop the engine onto its mounts, you need a jib at least 42" long. This one was 39". Blood-buggering arse-biscuits.

It got done, though, and the engine mounts just dropped into their slots in the subframe. Eventually... after an hour and a half of levering, swearing, jacking up, letting down, cursing, and manoeuvring that involved a scissor jack between the chassis leg and engine block at one point, while I informed the engine that it was, in fact, a bum-rutting bastard son of a mother-f**king bitch's bastard's whore, it dropped in.

I'd salvaged the entire engine-bay wiring loom all the way to the ignition switch from the donor car, but it seemed that though the '92 had had its engine loom and ECU removed, all the other systems were still wired in - the engine loom was stand-alone and separate from the main body loom. This was great, as it meant I just needed the handful of circuits used on a carbed Pinto. So I set about paring away all the no-longer-required circuits from the loom... a job easier said than done when you're trying to follow circuits in a Haynes manual that, frankly, lies so unashamedly that it should have been part of the Plebgate inquiry. In the end, approaching the end of my tether, I cut one last redundant wire and the remains fell into two parts - the charging and external voltage regulator bit and the ignition control box bit. I wired the alternator bit in (AFTER realising that I was going to have to relocate the battery to the other side of the engine bay), then mounted the ignition box and coil. This left me with half a dozen wires to connect to a factory connector on the bulkhead - oil pressure, water temperature, tacho, two ignition-fed lives and one that's live when you key the starter. Should be a piece of cake. Let's see.

In the meantime, I've taken delivery of this. It's another engine-less breaker, even though it looks rather handsome in its Eleanor silver. I only really wanted the PAS pump and the wheels. Even so, having dragged it home, removed the power steering pump, removed the pulley from my old pump (using the correct special tool, kindly loaned by one of the Fox Doctors), fitted the new pump to the Pinto bracket and driven the pulley onto the new pump, I'm still no further forward as the pipe union on the car is different again to the new pump! The one on the silver car crumbled like a little bitch at the mere sight of a spanner, but fortunately, Steve the Fox Doctor may have come to the rescue with a PAS pressure hose to suit.

Don't forget - Valentine's Day!

Eugene

Indoor shows and outdoor work

Last week, I went to the Autosport International show at the NEC. There's precious little else to do in January, so it seemed like a good idea, and despite coughing up a tenner just to park your car, it's a good day out. 

There's always some cool stuff to see, things you wouldn't see anywhere else, and some people really put the effort into their displays.

This Fiat took me back a bit, to the days of watching the RAC Rally in Sutton Park when I was a kid. Another hot rally machine was a GM Dealer Sport '83 Manta 400 that raced in Group B in the 1984-85 seasons with Jimmy McRae and Russell Brooked that sold for £70,000 to a Czech collector.

There was other good stuff, like the Bloodhound land speed record car, Andy Robinson's Pro Mod, Chris Andrews' Lucas Oil Top Fueller, Ronnie Petersen's old March-Ford with the front spoiler on top of the nosecone... There was also some cack, like this thing. And yes, those wheels are metalflake pink. 

I'm all for "dare to be different" but walking around with your dick out and a Sooty puppet stuck on it is different; that doesn't make it good. It was in the Pistonheads Performance Car Show end of the show, where there was a lot of "more money than sense" on display but some damn good stuff in there too. 

On the other hand, last year's Autosport was a reall buzz and an absolute blinder. I really enjoyed it. This year ... I just wasn't "feeling" it. The atmos wasn't there. It's still the best thing January has to offer, but I'm wondering whether the organisers have suddenly realised this...

Back in the workshop, my "Arse About Face" Mustang project - converting a Fox V8 to a four-pot - is continuing apace. The biggest buggerance so far has been the PAS pump, and realising that in the 11 years between the date of manufacture of the engine and that of the car, Ford had the bastardly temerity to change the PAS fittings. Changing the PAS pump is a piece of cake, but changing the pulley on the front requires a Ford special tool. Terrific.

I also had to change the shifter, from the cable-shift four-speed shifter the car came with to the rod-shift three-speed shifter that came with the donor engine/box. The rod-shift one comes away from the floor in 10 seconds, but the cable shifter needs you to remove the damn console. That was life-affirming.

The throttle pedal is the same between both cars, but actually releasing the cable from the top of the pedal requires you to have the size and dexterity of a midget gynaecologist with three elbows in each arm. I also discovered that if you're sitting in the driver's seat with the door open and your legs sticking out while you have your head in the driver's footwell dicking about with the throttle pedal, and it's raining, the rain runs directly off the roof into your crotch. Good old ragtops, there's nothing like a dose of cold rainwater to the love-spuds to really add an extra dimension of enjoyment to a tricky task. 

With the engine on the crane the other day, I thought I'd best drain the oil. It's been in there at least 20 years so it's probably due a change. I opened the sump plug and some ancient oil drained out. After the first half a gallon, it started to get a bit thicker, and by the end it was as thick as a Big Brother reunion. It looked like my engine was having a cack. Ben, across the way, suggested launching a load of diesel into the filler cap, and that would flush the crap out. Top tip - apparently, you can use petrol to do this, but if it comes into contact with any rubber seals it'll cause them to swell up and get soft. Diesel won't, but it's just as good at flushing the crap out. Is this common knowledge, or was it just me that didn't think of this? Anyway, neither of us actually had any diesel so it was a bit academic, but at least I know now.

Anyway, I still need a PAS pump with the correct fitting on it, or possibly just the fitting. I checked both my pockets and didn't find one, so I went and bought another Mustang for spares. Well, I say I bought it, I haven't paid for it yet. I haven't finished paying for the last one yet.

Eugene

Happy New Year!

Happy 2014! This Hot Rod Gazette blog got its maiden posting exactly a year ago today. Since then, it's had over 5500 hits. I reckon that's pretty good going, especially as around 20% of those hits have come from abroad - mostly from America and Canada, but a lot from Germany and eastern Europe. So that's either a lot of people remembering the Hot Rod Gazette as was and a few people just surfing the net, or a lot of people have tried to search for a website called Hot Red Gusset and predictive text has taken over... *

So, over Christmas I've had a bit of holiday time to use up, so I've spent a lot of it wisely, down at the workshop with the latest Fox Mustang project. Over in the States, where the old Fox is a formidable tool on the drag strip, especially in the drag radial and restricted tyre-width classes, many racers are snapping up clean four-pot Foxes and bunging them full of V8. As ever, because I often end up doing things arse about face, I have bought a 1992 Ford Mustang 5.0 convertible that's been relieved of its running gear, and I'm converting it to a four-pot...

Allow me to explain. Mark bought this Fox for its engine, auto 'box and back axle which will end up in a pick-up project he's doing. As it turns out, he bought the Fox from about eight miles down the road from me, but I didn't know about this until later. Anyway, he drove it home and said it was the nicest-driving Fox he'd ever been in, and far too good to break, but as he'd paid less for the whole car than he could but the component bits for, it was getting broken. I said I'd have the rest. Why? Because, a week or two previously, I'd bought and broken a completely rotten early Fox that had yielded a 2.3 Pinto and C3 auto. This is it:

As you can see, the thing was the basest of base models, though it did have the hugest air-con compressor I've ever seen - it was almost as big as the 2.3, and looked as if you could switch on the A/C and stall the engine.

It was also victim to the "de-smogging" pixie, who thinks that the way to "de-smog" a car is to just remove all the vacuum pipes. Except that one, to the huge air filter element, which, it seems, is the one they could have safely thrown away. Anyway, with the engine out and on the deck, I've had a quick go-through, and everything seems to be in order. I've changed the plugs, leads, cap and rotor, fitted a new timing belt, rebuilt the carb (which is a Weber built under licence by Holley!) and other bits and bats. The timing belt turned out to be a really easy job, requiring no special tools or techniques ... though I suppose I should get the engine running again before I declare how easy it was. I've also dashed a rattle-can over some of the rustier bits like the rocker box and timing belt cover.

I think it looks a bit more business-like now. The car is still sat on its 8.8" axle, which Mark wants back, sadly, so I also salvaged the 7.5" axle from the four-pot. I wazzed a pint of chassis black over that, too, prior to rebuilding the drum brakes with new shoes, cylinders and springs etc.

All I have to do now (notice how saying "all I have to do now" makes the job sound tiny and insignificant with no chance of error) is to drop the engine and 'box in, change the axle, fit the prop and exhaust, hook up the brakes, change the shifter, and try to marry up the wiring ... What could go wrong?

Answers on a postcard, please...

Eugene

* - I just looked, incidentally, and found no website called Hot Red Gusset (thankfully), but you probably don't want to type it into Google Images...