Like A Spare Part

Since the last posting, it's all gone a bit daft. For a start, the Pontiac Bonneville has totally failed to sell. Or even attract any serious enquiries. I've not even had any enquiries about spares, although there aren't exactly a load of other Bonnevilles out there for for me to sell parts for. The only bit that's sold is the blower, the bit that I'd have quite liked to keep; still, the money will doubtless come in handy.

I'm also looking to put the 2.3 Mustang ragtop up for sale. I'm really not feeling it, and would rather get shut in favour of something that seats five and might be good to tow with.

Then, in January, I spotted the online auction for all the stock from the closed-down Bauer Millett showrooms. Long story short, James is now the proud owner of one metric shitload of new old stock AC Delco GM stuff, not to mention another metric shitload of genuine Mopar/Fiat/Alfa gear. It's always difficult to work out on an online auction exactly how much you've bought, so when I went to hire a van I thought I'd pick the high-roof LWB Transit just to be on the safe side. Bugger me bandy, we'd have looked a right pair of bell-ends if we'd brought anything smaller... we filled it, front to back, side to side, and to within a foot of the top. The lengthy cataloguing process has begun, so if you're in the market for some genuine OE spares at bargain prices, check out the dedicated website at http://www.jamesmurrayengineering.co.uk/parts/ or look for acdelcomoparoem on eBay.

As if we didn't have enough shite between us, I then went and bought a couple more bits of NOS, one of which was an offside door for a 1993-2002 Camaro. So I went to pick it up from west London, gleefully certain of the fact that it would fit into a Fox Mustang convertible. Unusually, for early February, it was a glorious day - almost T-shirt weather. That's just as well, because there's as much chance of fitting a Camaro door in a Fox Mustang as there is of there then driving it up a badger's bottom. Fortunately, it was pleasant enough to put the roof down and drive with the Camaro door sat up in the back seat like the shitest President Kennedy decoy ever. Yeah, it was nice to have the roof down but this was at 4pm in west London, and I could say with some degree of certainty that the moment the big, strange warm thing in the sky dipped below the horizon, it would turn rather Pearl Harbour - there'd definitely be a nasty nip in the air. As I joined the M25 just before 5pm, this prediction came true. I spent the next two and a half hours trundling through traffic up the M40 freezing my conkers off, wondering who the hell I would be selling that door to - they're made of plastic, they don't rust!

This time next week, we'll be thinking about heading to Blackpool for the NSCC AGM. In fact, I expect many will already be there and by this time of night they'll be multiple sheets to the wind. Just to clarify, the AGM - the nuts-and-bolts rule book and calendar discussion - will be held in the afternoon. We'll say it's going to start at 1pm, which means it has a chance of getting under way by about 2. Then we'll wrap it up no later than 4pm so everyone can go back to their room and do whatever before meeting back in the room for dinner at 6pm. If you haven't already booked for this, you might still be able to get in or you might have to eat downstairs with the plebs. After dinner, there should be an NSCC quiz, followed by the Tat Auction for a bit of a laugh and to stick some money in the NSCC kitty, so don't forget to bring some tat. Then there'll be the prizegiving for the winners and qualifiers, then the annual NSCC quest to see how much beer is left in the barrels and alter that figure to zero.

It should be a laugh riot, so please come along, buy tat, drink beer, and let's see if anybody can remember exactly why this pub kicked us out and asked us not to come back all those years ago. The Red Lion, Bispham FY2 0AR is the place. February 21st is the date. I can't wait.

Eugene

Happy New Year and all that shite

It's 2015! Woohoo! Hm. Feels much the same as any other year, except that the price of petrol has tumbled dramatically. Jeeezus, how many of you carved the Christmas turkey, pulled the wishbone and wished for cheaper petrol, because it worked!
So, it's January, and that is universally crap. The only dot of light on the horizon is Autosport at the NEC and there was way less there to hold my attention than there has been previously.

There were a few classics to get all sweaty over, but by and large it seemed to be fewer stands spread out to cover the same area. The 'engineering' section appeared to be pretty empty, too, with far fewer American visitors than there have been in previous years.

I can't say I'm surprised, mind you. Speaking to a couple of the stallholders, I was stunned to learn of the price they get charged for the simplest of stands. You want a stand big enough to fit one car and a few bits of display material? That'll be £14,000 please. You want a mains supply? That'll be extra. Or, if you just want a 3x2 metre booth in the 'engineering' section - for two days, not four - that'll be £3500. And at nearly £30 for a ticket plus £10 to park your car, I reckon that it's only the fact that there's bugger all else happening in January that keeps the crowds coming.

I liked this Gaskit stand, with the posters saying "Now you can fix head gasket failures YOURSELF!" My god, it's come to that. It kinda reminded me of Mr Ed Gaskit ... "F**k off and fix it YOURSELF!" He needn't have bothered hiring the pretty Asian girl to hand out leaflets, though - his end of the hall was bloody empty.

I say there's bugger-all happening in January, but in fact there were two new shows - the London Classic Car Show, which, for all I've seen of it, seems to be an exercise in saying "Look how much money we've got", and a new indoor custom car show in Manchester's G-Mex. And, naturally, they all happened on the same weekend. Brilliant - it's the dullest month on the calendar, there are only three shows happening, and they all happen on the same weekend. The G-Mex one didn't seem to be terribly well promoted, in as much as people were talking about it a few weeks beforehand as if that was the first they'd heard of it. Still, early reports are promising, and this could grow into the winter high spot on the custom calendar.

Talking of winter high points, the plans for the NSCC AGM have been announced. The new venue is the Red Lion in Bispham, a place we've previously been told not to return to after a spectacular chunder fountain down the stairs. I can't remember what year that was, but it has to be at least 10 years ago so hopefully they'll have cleaned the stairs by now. And, hopefully, nobody will feel compelled to have a 3D laugh at the carpet this year. Enthusiasm is high, and this could actually prove to be a problem in itself.
Firstly, there's a Premier Inn next door. Perfect. Cheap rooms with brilliant showers. The Manhattan was all well and good, but the rooms were a miracle of packaging that would make the Japanese piss their knickers in delight. Okay, to the letter, the rooms each had an en suite bathroom, but I always felt that being able to have a crap in the lavatory, clean your teeth in the basin and wash your hair in the shower, simultaneously, meant that the room was a bit small. To do all these things without having to get out of the bed means that the room is so tiny that a bloody Hobbit would have said, "Are they taking the piss or what?" However, as the Premier Inn fills up, the price of the rooms is going up. Tight bastards!
Secondly, the function room isn't massive, and less than a week after the date and venue have been announced, the number of people who have said they're coming and/or booked into the hotel means we may be looking at over-capacity issues...
We'll be having a good sit-down dinner at the AGM, which should be a revelation. We'll have to count the cutlery in and out of the room, you know what some of these Yorkshire folk are like...
Happy new year!
Eugene.

Haynes Pains

A couple of months ago, I bought another project. Yeah, yeah, like I really need another project. But, frankly, I'm pretty sick of the Pinto-powered Fox. The novelty of having a convertible had well and truly worn off, and I wouldn't mind it being as slow as a 1.3 diesel if I was getting similar fuel economy to a 1.3 diesel instead of more like a stroked small-block. I had spotted a Pontiac for sale on Gumtree. It was a front-wheel driver, but otherwise it had everything I need: it was a big, comfortable daily with five seats, should tow pretty well, qualify for specialist insurance, provide fuel economy that wouldn't leave me feeling reamed yet still turn in some sprightly times on the track.

It's a 2001 Pontiac Bonneville SSEI, which has the factory supercharged 3800cc V6, four-speed auto and other fun stuff. It was listed with an unspecified engine fault so I called the seller who described the fault - he said he was cruising along the Autobahn through Germany on his way back from Bulgaria when it developed a misfire and lost power so he pulled over and called the recovery truck. It had since sat outside his gaff for two years. Well, that could be anything, couldn't it? A crank angle sensor, a dead coil pack, even a jumped timing chain. That could be a really quick and easy fix, and I'd be on the road in no time! You'd think I'd learn...

I should have heard an alarm bell when the seller presented me with a V5 that still said it was tax exempt because it was owned by a serving American military officer and a key. No remote key fobs, no spare key, just one solitary key.

I loaded it on the trailer and dragged it home. Job one was to let several gallons of water out of the spare wheel well - the spare wheel was literally floating.

The bodywork seemed completely straight apart from a scuff on the bonnet and a chipped wing mirror. Even the factory chrome wheels were still chrome. Then I did a compression test on the motor. Yeah, zero psi on the middle pot of the front bank didn't bode well. I got a Haynes manual for the Bonneville and other badge-engineered GM products, but of course, it doesn't cover the less common supercharged models so I've decided to write my own. Here's the procedure for checking the bores then removing the engine on a 2001 SSEI:

1. Disconnect the battery. To do this, you'll have to find it. It's under the back seat.
2. Remove the blower belt and the auxiliary belt. Throw them in a pile so you can't remember which one's which.
3. Disconnect the multiplug to the coil packs, and remove the numbered HT leads from the spark plugs. Always pull on the boot of the lead, not the wire itself. Then watch as on two of the rear bank of plugs, the boot just drops off the wire anyway and falls into the darkest recesses of the engine bay, never to be seen again.
4. Remove the coil packs from the bracket above the blower belt tensioner.
5. Remove the blower belt tensioner bracket.
6. Realise that you could have skipped step four altogether, taken it all off as one unit and saved yourself five minutes.
7. Start disconnecting the wiring from the injectors, switches and sensors around the engine. Using labels or strips of masking tape, be sure to label each wire or multiplug with useful guides such as "to vacuum thingy", "goes to odd black box on bracket behind EGR valve" or "????".
8. Release the 'quick-release' fuel feed pipe and return pipe couplings above the supercharger using the special 'quick-release pipe coupling release tool' that you don't have. Marvel at the stench of stale petrol.
9. Release the nuts holding the fuel rails to either cylinder head and lift away, complete with fuel injectors. Spill stale petrol all down trousers.
10. Remove radiator bottom hose and allow coolant to escape. Note that the inlet pipe to the water pump is above the level of the cylinder head gaskets.
11. Release throttle cable and TV cable from the throttle lever on the throttle body. Then either frig about for hours removing the cables from their bracket like the manual says, or just remove the two bolts holding the bracket to the throttle body and hoy it out of the way.
12. Undo the long bolts securing the supercharger to the intake manifold and remove the supercharger complete with throttle body and air intake ducting.
13. Remove the bolts securing the intake manifold and lift the manifold free.
14. Remove bolts securing the rocker cover from the front bank of cylinders. Each bolt includes a rubber washer which will disappear to join its friends, the spark plug boots (see step 3).
15. Remove rockers and pushrods, and store them safely in the order that they were removed. A cardboard box with marked holes punched through the lid will help keep everything in order. Put the box on the bonnet of the car parked next to you. As you put the last rocker in, the box will slide off the bonnet and into the gravel. Replace the gritty rockers in the box in no particular order.
16. Realise that to remove the cylinder head, you need to remove the exhaust manifold. Say "Twat" under your breath.
17. Remove the two nuts that secure the front exhaust manifold to the exhaust crossover pipe. Remove the two nuts securing the crossover pipe to the rear manifold. Fling the crossover pipe across the yard.
18. Remove the six nuts from the studs that secure the manifold to the head. Most of the studs will come out with the nuts. Remove the manifold.

19. Unfasten the cylinder head securing bolts in the order specified in the manual, a quarter turn at a time until they're only finger tight. Place them in the box with the rocker gear, marked according to the position they came from, even though you won't be reusing them. Note with interest that when you remove the bottom left bolt, a fountain of water issues from the hole. Remind yourself of step 10.
20. Lift the cylinder head and store it somewhere where it won't get damaged.
21. Look at the bores (see illustration).

22. Mumble "For fuck's sake".
23. Stamp off to the pub.
24. You will now need to remove the engine, because you're never going to get the rear cylinder head off with the engine in situ. Start by removing the cooling fans according to the manual.
25. Then remove the radiator according to the manual.
26. Then remove the air conditioning condenser according to the manual.
27. Realise that you could have saved 20 minutes by removing the whole bundle as one unit.
28. Remove the nuts securing the air conditioning compressor to the engine block. Try to slide the compressor off its studs. Realise that there's not enough room. Realise that that's why the studs have a Torx star machined into the end of them. Unfasten the studs using the Torx sockets that you haven't got and put the compressor to one side.
29. The power steering pump is tucked at the bottom of the engine bay, right at the back next to the bulkhead. It's impossible to fill, never mind remove unless you know the secret. The manual says there are two bolts, one facing left, the other facing right. It's lying. Eventually, you'll find that both face the same way and the only way to unfasten them is through a hole in the pulley. Put the pump aside.
30. Remove the starter motor.
31. Release the three short bolts securing the torque converter to the flexplate.
32. Remove the two nuts securing the rear exhaust manifold to the downpipe. You can't even see this joint, so you'll have to do the job using a combination of gynaecology and guesswork.
33. Connect an engine crane to the engine lifting hooks. Realise that the front lifting hook is attached to the cylinder head you've already removed. Get creative. Take the weight of the engine.
34. Remove the large nut securing the front engine mount to the underside of the subframe under the offside wheel arch. Notice while you're down there that the offside coil spring is broken. Say "For Christ's sake".
35. Remove the bolts securing the engine mount bracket to the block, and remove the bracket. It's a huge aluminium casting the size of a lower arm on a lesser car and probably worth more in scrap than the rest of the car.
36. Place a trolley jack under the transmission and release the bolts securing the transmission bellhousing to the engine block.
37. Wonder why they're not coming apart. Start levering with progressively larger tools, ending with a crowbar. Note the way the thin, aluminium bellhousing flexes alarmingly while you're heaving at it with a crowbar.
38. Oh, sorry, forgot to mention, there's another bellhousing bolt, facing the other way, tucked way down in the dark between the block and the trans in the little area designed to fill with grease over the years and make bolt heads nigh-on bastard invisible.
39. Realise that you can't even get a spanner onto this bolt. Attempt to get a socket onto it by using varying lengths of extension bar and working from the front of the block. You should waste at least an hour trying to do this.
40. Realise that to undo this bolt, you're going to have to remove the exhaust manifold from the rear cylinder head; exactly the job you were trying so hard to avoid. Spend a few moments having a quiet whimper.
41. The nuts on the rear exhaust manifold are highly inaccessible and tightened to a very specific torque - this torque is just too tight to undo with your fingers, but not tight enough to overcome the ratchet on your ratchet wrench so you spend a long time spinning each one up and down its thread without ever actually removing it. Most nuts and bolts that you can't see and can barely get a spanner to are tightened to this torque - it's common manufacturing practice.
42. Realise that one of the manifold studs also holds the lifting bracket to which you've tied the lifting sling. Spend a few moments trying to unpick a bloody impenetrable knot.
43. Realise that there's not enough room to slide the rearmost exhaust manifold off its studs; you're going to have to remove the studs, which also have a Torx head on them. This takes a different size of Torx socket, which you also don't have. Spend a few moments wondering aloud why GM didn't just use bolts like every fucker else. The studs are just as invisible as the manifold nuts, with the added bonus of being a little closer to the bulkhead. They're also tightened to the torque mentioned in step 41.
44. We forgot to mention that the rear manifold comes with an EGR valve on the end of a flexible and rather fragile-looking pipe. It's going to have to come off with the manifold.
45. Realise that there's not enough room to remove the manifold. You're going to have to remove the rocker box first.
46. Realise that there's not enough room to remove the rocker box without removing this vast, rather redundant aluminium casting that seems to do nothing other than carry the water to the heater pipes and prevent you removing rocker boxes. Remove this.
47. Then remove the rocker box.
48. Then remove the manifold.
49. Then replace two of the studs and the lifting hook. Re-tie the sling and take the weight of the engine again.
50. Finally you can get to the last bellhousing bolt. Cry a little as you realise that the bastard thing was only finger tight. Fling the bolt as far as you can across the yard because you'll be buggered bandy in Woolworths' window if you're ever going to refit it.
51. The engine and gearbox can now be moved apart. But only by an inch. Curse, swear, cry, plead and cajole.
52. Oh, shite, yeah, forgot to mention that there's another bracket securing the block to the gearbox. The transmission is in a huge casing that wraps all the way around the back of the engine. This bracket supports the offside end of the trans. This bracket is invisible from above, below, left or right, and can only be found by touch. It's not mentioned in any manuals. Undo the two bolts securing the bracket to the block and the engine comes free.
53. Commence lifting the engine. Stop lifting the engine. Lower the engine back into position. Untie the sling. When you re-tied the sling in step 49 you put a bundle of wiring on the wrong side of the rope. Move the wiring, re-tie the sling again and hoist the engine out. You don't need to remove the bonnet like the manual says.
54. Remove the engine and put it gently in a safe place.
55. Note the broken wires in the engine bay. Oh, yeah, forgot to mention there's a knock sensor on the back of the block, and an oil pressure sender too. Neither of these can be seen with the engine in situ, and both are bloody expensive to replace.
56. Tidy up tools. It has been raining on and off while you've been doing this job, so as you pick up the box with the carefully labelled and arranged rockers, pushrods and head studs, the bottom turns to mush and scatters everything in the gravel again.
57. Wonder why you didn't just buy a Lexus like everyone else.
58. Go to the pub.

Eugene

Season's End - Finals race report

It's now October. Boooo. Once again, the season's all but finished and there's bugger-all to look forward to for the rest of the year.

Prior to the finals, I was jolly excited, looking forward to seeing whether Nigel could sneak the crown from James.

After the finals, I was just a bit ...

... and still bloody am. I copped for a bit of a cold the day after the finals, and even though that was nearly a fortnight ago now, I'm still blowing half a pint of guacamole out of my nose every five minutes.

Anyway, the finals. September 21st was the date, and for the first time in living memory, I actually rocked up not just early but early enough to have to join the queue at the still-closed gates! First in line was John and Chris Osborne, and behind them Andy Hadfield who was already dishing out the JD and Coke to his usual recipe... We'd managed a late-ish booking at the Barnes Wallis to allow everyone to get set up and take a leisurely drive, and enjoyed a right good nosebag and a beer or two. As well as the Osbornes, it was also good to see the return of Nick and Carol Gunby.

Sunday was cool, clear and dry with a slight cross wind, and there were a few of our star players out to chalk some final big scores on the board before the end of the season. Andy Fadster set his stall out early with an 8.28 at 171mph, taking pole position by in excess of two seconds. In the past few months, Andy has run a seven at Santa Pod and York, and was clearly going for the full set, perhaps becoming the first street car ever to do so. He was also looking for the fastest street car at York title, although nobody seems to know exactly what that record stands at.

Another arrival out looking for a big score was Ian Walley, who had had a high-stall torque converter custom built to short order in the States, sent over double-quick and fitted in rather lively fashion, only to find that it stalled at exactly the same revs as the old one (which he had since sold). Rather than complain, the stiff upper lip prevailed and, by using a monstrous dollop of nitrous and the transbrake, was able to overpower the converter and launch inside the powerband. He tested this a few times ... inside his crowded unit full of customers' cars. Well, what could go wrong?

It's a 1.3 ... yeah, right, 1.3 second sixty-foots, maybe! A 10.4 in qualifying showed that there was definitely something in store from Ian. Russ was next on 11.0, then Derek on 11.7, then another big jump to Gilly in the Cortina looking sharp on 13.7. Phil Winstanley in the long-absent Moggy Minor returned to the fold with a 14.4 (and qualifying for the season at the same time).

Next was Tom Barker in the Astra, also qualifying, on 14.5, Andy Errington's TVR on a 15.0, then Gasket in the Mustang on a 15.2. Considering the season so far has been like a meeting of the Mustang Owners' Club (but with more emphasis on Fox and SN95 Mustangs and less emphasis on matching numbers), Gasket's was the only one there and is now up for sale for a very reasonable sum. Nigel's championship-contender Anglia was next on 15.9, then Rick, back out in the Viva, on 17.8, with the dirty dozen rounded out by Nick in the Zephyr that sounded, apparently, just like a BRISCA F2 stock car on its straight-through pipes but thoroughly exceeded Nick's expectations by breaking into the teens on only its second run with a 19.9.

Christ, I've just coughed up something the consistency of creme brulee but the colour of a 1970s bathroom suite... good god, it's got tubes sticking out of it. If this is man-flu I'm quite worried that it may have mutated into ebola.

And so, straight into the first round, and that saw the clean and rapid MkI of Gilly showing Andy's TVR how it's done, 13.4 to 15.2. Next came a bit of an upset as Ian Walley was pushed back off the line for fluid leak, leaving Rick to run uncontested into the quarter finals - yet another dose of bad luck for Ian. Next, Phil Winstanley pushed an extra tenth out of the Minor, 14.3 to Tom's 15.1, followed by Russ pulling a 10.1 out of the bag against Nigel's 16.1, thereby ending his hopes of taking the championship top spot - Nigel was assured of second, but now nobody could catch James Murray, our new 2014 NSCC champion.

Nick got a stellar view of Faster's parachute end, his 20.1 playing a rather optimistic catch-up to Andy's 8.4, while Derek managed an 11.5 against Gasket's 15.4 to round out the first bout of eliminations and set up the quarters.

The quarters opened with Fadster, still on his mission for a seven, but seemingly with it getting ever further out of reach, ripping off an 8,7 against Phil's 14.1, followed by Derek hitting out a so-close 11.09 at 124mph to Russ's 10.1 at 135, a lightning reaction from Derek meaning that race was probably a lot closer than it looked, but Russ still took the win light. Gilly ended Rick's good luck, 13.9 to 17.7, to set up the semis.

Gilly's luck ran out straight away in the semis as he met Russ, whose 10.8 rather overshadowed Gilly's excellent 13.4, while Andy just broke the beams in his bye on the other side of the ladder as he was also competing in Super Cup and didn't want to push his luck. Oh, the irony...

I've just blown my nose again - imagine trying to catch half a pound of Swarfega in one sheet of bog roll. Yuk. I bet this stuff would make really good gasket sealant. Has anybody ever tried it? Never mind Blue Hylomar; I've got Green Aaarghmenose,

Right, to the finals, and it was a bit of an anti-climax. After a full season of hard-fought competition, it came down to Russ and Andy, the latter still trying for that elusive seven. In the end, Andy, shot off prematurely. Very prematurely - he left on the first amber, and later claimed confusion as Super Cup race pro tree and we race sportsman. Whatever, we reckon it was caused by him pressing the cigarette lighter instead of the transbrake button, but either way he ran a whopping 8.48 at 170mph but Russ took the win with his 10.1 at 135mph.

In other news, Ian was honing his full-boost, nitrous launches and not only managed to pick the front wheels right off the deck he also finally broke into the nines. And not just a bit - he broke right in there with a 9.57 at 133 and backed it up with a 9.64 at 132mph. Much celebration chez Walley, then, and a ling time coming, though I suspect his 0.83 and 0.79 second sixty-foots may have been a little optimistic, surely?

And that's your lot for this year. The final points standings are on www.nscc.info, congratulations to James Murray, our 2014 champion, and well done to all the runners-up. In fact, to everyone who took part - thanks. This year has marked a radical improvement in numbers for NSCC and, more importantly, there's seemed to be a lot more enthusiasm floating about. It's been a lot of fun, so thanks to everyone who has helped make it that way.

And talking of floating about, I'm off to find another roll of bum-tickets.

Eugene

Are You Startin'?

After finally having put the 32/36 Weber on the Pinto-powered Mustang ragtop, I've come to realise that manual choke conversion kits aren't that plentiful any more. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, seeing as the last car made with a carburettor probably rolled off the production line 20 years ago, but it still makes me righteously indignant.

Anyway, the latest issue with the bloody thing involved the starter motor. About a month ago, the sodding transmission cooler lines ruptured AGAIN, leading me to abandon the cooler built into the radiator and to repurpose the redundant air conditioning condenser radiator as a trans cooler. This merely involved cutting off half the rusty trans cooler pipes and replacing them with some thick-walled rubber hose. Don't use thin-wall - I found this to my cost when it burst within five miles last time around.

The new cooler works a treat - in fact, it's probably over-spec by about 200% as the fluid never seems to get warm - but I'd noticed that the starter motor had been getting a bit lazy. Sometimes it wouldn't turn over at all, and, suspecting the solenoid, a common fault on Foxes, I'd bridged the main terminals and got it to start. Then, after a trip of about seven miles to the local bearings and fasteners factors, it wouldn't start. I tried bridging the solenoid but ... nothing. I tried clubbing the starter with a hammer, and still nothing. I could hear the solenoid clicking closed, and could hear the arm that throws the pinion on the starter, but it wasn't turning. You can't push-start a C3 auto so I had no choice but to call the AA and tell them the starter was fubar. So, after waiting just over an hour (there was a pub nearby that sold London Pride which, although it sounds like a gay festival is actually a decent pint. Well, this one was pretty mediocre, but anyway...) the AA patrolman turns up and tells me my starter motor is fubar. Thanks. Fair play to the guy, though, he jacked the car up and whipped off the starter, connected it to his jump-start pack and, sure enough, the pinion shot out but the motor didn't turn one jot.

So, two hours later, a recovery truck arrives to haul the car three miles to the workshop. I'd told patrol-dude I was happy for him to flat-tow me for three miles but he wouldn't - not only might it damage the auto box, there's no towing eye on the front of a Fox.

A desperate plea went out on Faecebook and, having confirmed that a Euro Pinto starter motor will NOT fit, found out that a V8 starter WILL.

The Pinto starter (on the right) uses a three-bolt fixing, while the V8 uses two, but apparently a V8 starter will go on. God bless Billy 'Four-Speed' Cattell, who not only had a spare starter but was also heading to the Hot Rod Drags, where I was going the following day.

As you can see, Billy's starter is clean and painted while mine is foul and filthy, and I think this tells you everything you need to know about Billy and I. You'll also notice that the V8 starter is quite a bit larger around the body than the Pinto one (yes, I know, I'm a fine one to talk) and when it came to mount it, guess what was in the way? Yes, the remains of the sodding transmission cooler steel pipes. Well, if I just bend them out of the way here a fraction, bend them a fraction towards the sump here, then just a tiny little bend heSNAP. Bloody hell's teeth, I thought, with another few quids-worth of ATF dribbling into the gravel, there must be thruppence-worth of shonky steel pipe here but they've already caused me at least a grand's-worth of pain in my fudgy bunghole and they're STILL AT IT! Another cut'n'shut with some rubber pipe and I'm considering buying shares in the company that makes Jubilee clips.

I also had to drill out the terminal end on the starter cable by a mil or two to go over the stud on the V8 starter, which means putting the terminal in the Workmate, the drill biting into the brass, pulling it free and coiling up the starter cable while you get whipped by the loose end. I don't understand why some people pay for this sort of treatment...

The silver lining is that the car now starts with a minimum of fuss, and I may one day get around to stripping down the Pinto starter and trying to find the cause of its demise. I believe that being soaked in hot trans fluid from busted cooler pipes not once, not twice but FOUR times may have something to do with it...

The Uphill Gardeners

Right at the end of August, we all headed off to Shelsley Walsh, one of the hallowed grounds of UK motorsport heritage. On this weekend, though, they'd opened the doors to all manner of scruffy herberts, youngsters and other hoodies.

The Retro Rides Gathering is just that, a gathering, not particularly a show, organised by the Retro Rides online forum. It seems (from the outside) to be blessedly free of club politics and BS, and everyone with an interesting car is welcome. Note: interesting. Not necessarily the rarest, most expensive or laden with billet crap, just interesting. The rarity value they seem to prize isn't the most valuable, rather the car of which there are few left, the forgotten. And they genuinely seem to appreciate resourcefulness and engineering ingenuity rather than who can bung the most money at something. Yes, there were a few examples that make you scratch your head, like cars with preposterously extended and convoluted exhaust pipes like those oddball Japs do, and a few cars with one pint tyres on quart rims, but mostly it's just interesting older stuff. The average age of the car owners is also well below that of the usual rod run.

There were a handful of NSCC cars in the mix, such as Nigel's Anglia (above), many of whom were guests of Mick Wilkes' Wacky Racers, who had a display stand there. Phil Winstanley's Moggy was also there after a long absence.

The hill was open on a RWYB basis, although there was no timing so it was purely an opportunity to blast up the hill for fun. Wacky, god bless him, made several runs in the little Bedford van and was warned by the clerk of the course to take it easy after each one. They also invited him back at a later date to put a few timed runs in, saying that the Bedford was as quick out of the gates as many single-seaters...

It's a buzzing little event to go to, out in the middle of nowhere, and a tremendous atmos. Any pre-1990 NSCC car could have turned up and been welcomed into the fold. There were even a few familiar faces from Shakey there - I spotted a Huxley Falcon and Mr Mulligan's brown Buick. You also know you're west of the M5 by the fact that the bar had a couple of different ciders on tap. Looking for something a little different from the usual rod run? Give RRG a go next year.

Eugene

NSCC Rounds 8 & 9

Blimey, it only seems like two minutes since the last race report, but here's August's! And it's only bloody September! Please do not mistake this for efficiency, and I'd advise you don't expect this in the future.
August's bank holiday double-header at York didn't start very well for Saturday evening arrivals, beginning with Biff locking his keys in his Mustang in the queue to get in (a Mercedes key, provided by a helpful guy in the queue, fitted perfectly, apparently) and followed after dark by some torrential rain. This led to many people attempting to waterproof themselves from the inside out with beer. It doesn't work, but after a while it stops you giving a shit about being wet.

Even with Mr Murty Sr brushing and sledding the track at midnight, Sunday started cool and very damp, and it was a while before qualifying got under way. Nobody was expecting great things from the track, but Russ managed to put the Dutton on pole with a 10.5 at 135mph anyway. Next came Simon Boot in the Bootlegger Camaro at 11.54 and Derek's TVR at 11.8, then Jo Zyla in Eddie's Mitsubishi while her own car is still awaiting major engine surgery, easily rattling off a 13.2. James managed 13.5 in the Cortina, then Steve Gilmour back on form at 13.9 in his Cortina, then Mark Butterworth led the Fox charge three hundredths later. Biff's SN95 was down at 14.5, a whisker ahead of Tom Barker's Astra now sporting a 2.0 engine and a three-second jump in ETs. John Peace was way off form in the next Fox at 14.8, another Fox from Paul Davies at 15.0, then Shaun Wilson's fresh-out SN95 on 15.3. These bloody Mustangs are getting as common as muck. Andy Errington's TVR was down at 15.7, then Nigel's hot four-pot Anglia at 16.2, rounded out by Rick Swaine in the Viva at 17.7. It says a lot that 14.5 was enough for the bottom spot in the top half of the ladder.

Eliminations started with Bootlegger eliminating the Viva, 11.5 to 17.6, then Biff and Tom, only five hundredths apart in qualifying, suddenly went their separate ways, Biff to a 13.6 and Tom to a 16.0. James picked up some form to a 12.5 against Shaun's 15.1, likewise the Foxes of Mark and John both picked up almost half a second, the advantage going to Mark. Gilly got the sprightly MkI Cortina down to a 13.4 against Paul's 15.0, then Derek laid down a relatively gentle 13.0 to put Nigel out. Jo squeezed a 12.9 out of the Evo to Andy's 16.0, then Russ laid down an 11.7-second bye to finish off a first round that went entirely according to the form book.

Into the quarter finals, and Simon Boot opened the bidding with an 11.8 at a low 100mph to Mark's 13.5 at a more-like-it 101mph, then James repeated his 12.5 second form to see off Jo's Evo at 13.1. Russ belted out a 10.7 with Biff crossing the stripe three seconds later, before Derek ran 13.1 with half a second to spare against Steve. Again, all to the form book.

The first of the two semis threw up a bit of a conundrum, Derek apparently running a 7.6 against Simon's 10.5, both of them crossing the line at 128mph. Simon got the win light, though, so maybe it was Derek's apparent 4.2 second reaction that lost him the race. All Derek has to do now is to back up that 7.6 within 1% and he can really stick it to the Twister... Meanwhile, Russ ran an easy 11.2 to end James's day and set up the finals.

That last run had produced some rather funny noises from Derek's TVR, Derek tracing the problem to a split weld on the manifold. If only...
In the final, Simon, on tyres with the remaining structural integrity of a novelty condom, managed to launch hard, picking the wheels up on a 0.5 reaction and rattle off a 10.7 at 129mph. Brilliant, but wily Russ always leaves something in the bag, which he whipped out now and dropped a 9.70-bomb to take the win. Wow.
It should also be pointed out that Derek, Russ and Simon were the last three remaining in the annual Street Racer Shootout running concurrently with NSCC, and Simon managed to put the "hot favourite" out with a 10-second blast, then Russ won overall to take the honours and the prize purse.
The evening saw the KC Cackle on the startline, then a pick-your-own cruise led everyone a merry dance around the countryside before returning to site to enjoy the band and sink another few ales.

Sadly, there was more overnight rain to endure from Sunday night into Monday morning, and Monday started late with a marginal track. The first round of qualifying was run, with the track telling us that that was all we were likely to get, with them running the RWYBers up as cannon-fodder for most of the morning. Then, at lunchtime, with a view to finally running American Super Stock, Super Cup and the like, they glued the track. Sadly, half an hour later, with A/SS midway through their first qualifier, a proper shower of rain came along. This, on top of the freshly-prepped track, gave indications of putting the tin hat on the rest of the day's proceedings. A kangaroo court was convened somewhere in the NSCC pits, and the majority voted to abandon the day.

The rain persisted down for the next hour or so while everyone was packing up, but those who stayed were treated to a track almost to themselves later in the day, and some classes ran to completion. A bit of a whimper to end a weekend that should have gone with a bang, but at least the points could be awarded based on qualifying times. The piss-poor luck award either goes to Russ, who missed the first and what would turn out to be the only qualifying round on Monday, or to Lee who turned up to race his El Camino only to be booted at scrutineering for only having lap belts.

It all certainly gives James a hell of a lead in the championships. In fact, James could hang up his crash hat right now and be almost certain of lifting the trophy at the end of the year. But you never know - we're now into the last month of NSCC 2014, and with many, many people still yet to qualify, it's heading for the Last Chance Saloon with the finals just a couple of weeks away. It's all getting jolly exciting...

Eugene