Tag: Santa Pod

Drag Racing & A Local Fête.

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The weekend has been very busy for me and it turned out to be all car related which all started on Friday. The “A602 Street and Strip Rods” had hired out Santa Pod Raceway 1/4 mile drag strip for a private day of racing. Mustang Maniac were invited along with some friends if they wanted to come along and watch or race. I got a phone call to ask if I wanted to go, pretty stupid question really, so I booked the day off work and arranged to meet some of the Mustang Maniac guys and follow them up to the “Pod” early in the morning. I had deliberated whether to take my Mustang and thrash it down the strip or not. You only needed to pay a single fee of £50 and you could go race as many times as you liked for the day. In the end I thought better of it and decided against it and settled for watching the others race. The reason was simple in a way, I didn’t want to blow something up that I had spent years restoring, just to see how fast it goes.

Yogi had his car there a sweet ’69 that has all sorts of things done to it and he achieved his personal best of 11.4 for the day, he was not happy as he messed up a gear change on that run. Other runs he was just playing around with tyre pressures to see if he could get better times. which were all pretty much the same time.

Yogi’s best friend Spence had his “Green Grinch” running just a second and a little bit behind Yogi.

Adam had taken up his 1000bhp UBB (Ultimate Bad Boy as it was officially named by the guys who built it). Adam’s first attempt was a cracking 12.4 with no burn-outs and just pulled it up to the line and nailed it when the tree turned green.

Back in the paddock there were some pretty serious cars from the Pro Mod class.

There was a huge assortment of cars running, from Toyota Prius and a Land rover medical van to Ford Kugas and Porsches. The Porsches couldn’t beat Yogi’s best of the day and they seemed to be a little disgruntled that a fifty year old car blitzed the best they could rustle up, even with their launch control, paddle shift gear boxes and aero styling.

In a wat I sort of wished that I had taken my car for a blast down the quarter, but after seeing a well tuned car crack an engine block, I was glad I didn’t run in the end.

What a great day was had by all, great atmosphere and everybody was just amazing, and it’s honestly not as easy as some of the guys make it look!

Saturday on the other hand was a completely different day in terms of pace. The Bury Retro Car Club that I am a member of had asked for thirty cars to be available for a mini show. I offered my car as I knew the sun was going to be out. There was going to be a Fête in a little village called Risby, about twenty miles away from me. A senior club official lives in the village and knew they were holding the Fête for a local hospice charity. The cars were to be there as an added attraction to the usual village fête antics, there was the tombola’s, tug of war, Morris dancers (that I find pretty unnerving), book stalls, cake stalls, bouncy castle, kiddies face painting, a very popular BBQ and bar etc. The only racing during the day was the children’s races where all the children won a little something, a light-hearted dog show with categories like; dog with the waggiest tale, the curliest tale, best biscuit catcher, cutest dog, softest coat, floppiest ears, the dog that the judges want to take home etc. Again all of which was great fun to see, especially when the dogs ignore the owners and started chasing the biscuits that wasn’t even for them! 😀

Anyway the cars were allocated a roped of area of the car park so the visitors could see the cars as an added attraction to the day. The down side? The car park area was a large stoned gravel area, in the hot sun moving the dried and baking hot stones cause clouds of dust that all seemed to settle on my car. My beloved blue car was sort of grey by the end of the day. So I had to wash it very carefully when I got home to get the dust and sand of the paint work.

The day was a great success with virtually all the village showing up at some point. From what I understand they made a fair amount of money for hospice charity as well.

For once I was a nice change to be able to use my car for a good cause and charity. Sunday (today) I was at another event which I shall post probably tomorrow as it deserves a post of its own.

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Still Here & Showing The Car

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I have had an email to ask if I am still about on my blog. The answer is a big yes, of course I am. Last weekend I was with the Mustang Maniac guys at Santa Pod for a Classic Ford meet. Yogi took his ’69 Mach1 down the strip a few times and set some impressive times even though he had wheel spin all over the place off the line. We camped overnight on Saturday and that was a laugh as I hadn’t been camping for nearly 40 years! It was still as bad as I remember it, only made up for it with the steady supply of beer, only to help make us sleep of course. It was share a tent time and I left my shoes by the zip exit to the tent. Yogi got up in the night and tripped over my boots and feel out the door in a most undignified manner! I shouldn’t laugh, but I did. Sorry Yogi, but it was funny. There was some great cars there and I have borrow some of the pics from the Mustang Maniac Blog, click here for the full story and some videos of Yogi racing.

Some of the drag set up cars couldn’t match Yogi’s Mach1 times, and that is almost a fifty year old car. I was very impressed with that I must say. Running in the eleven and twelve second range for the standard quarter-mile.

The Week before that was the Enfield Pageant Of Motoring which is the Mustang Maniac show of choice. I was there this time with my completed car on Saturday & Sunday, stopping overnight in the big motor home Adam has for the hospitality. I was not disappointed and Adam can rustle up a good breakfast too. There was so much to see at the show, but I have noticed that there are more and more new stall traders creeping in rather than the old skool auto jumble. I arrived early in the morning at the Mustang Maniac yard and helped out where I could and followed the guys in convoy to the show, literally about twenty mins down the road. I parked up with some of the other cars already there, Ranchero, Yogi’s ’69, Ian’s fastback, and mine for now. What was great was that people from last year recognised the car where it was unfinished.

As the time grew closer to opening times more cars arrived to show on the stand. Paul turned up with his ’66 coupe to complete the line up of old cars. The new cars where out in force with a couple of GT’s and a Saleen. The stand looked brilliant and attracted the usual crowds to the old and newer cars.

Sunday saw Spence in his convertible take the place on the front row to provide a different display along with a new 2016 right hand drive black Mustang which was quite cool.

Monday was mix and match day with Lance bringing his ’65 coupe down to replace mine in the Classic section of the stand.

The weekend was a lucky weekend with the rain holding off most of the time with only a few spots of drizzle.

The Car:

I have been driving her around now and enjoying every second of it and put almost seven hundred miles on the clock driving to and from car shows. Adam now wants the car back to give the car and check over and make sure all the bolts are tightened up again and re-grease all the points that need them. There is a sweet spot of sixty miles an hour where the exhaust quietens down and is a pleasure to cruise. But if you stamp on the gas it soon makes a noise again.

Miles per gallon?

I am always being asked this and not really had a chance to work it out so far. Now after a few tank full and recording the mileage on my phone app, it works it all out for me now. If I drive it like an old lady and be very, very gentle with it down hill I get a max of 25mpg but if I drive it like I stole it I get 14mpg. If I am on a run I get about 20mpg. I can’t complain at that at all.

I just say: “It’s not miles per gallon, it’s SMILES per gallon”.

So it has been a very busy couple of weekends where I have just had the chance to catch up a bit and recover. Mostly I now appreciate just how comfortable my own bed is! There are more car shows coming up and hope I will be a little quicker getting the blog posted up.

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