Well guys... it didn't happen this year.. fastest I saw was somewhere around 225mph and as highlighted in the blogs we had a few tech issues...
Was a pretty steep learning curve, I got in a car I'd never steered or changed gear in and did 0 to 170mph in the first mile I drove it! But it turned out that there were some major issues with the set-up, monster vibration from front end meant I physically couldn't see above about 140mph, everything being just vertical blurs and also the cockpit was filling with methanol fumes.
So we stripped the front end apart and re-worked everything and made huge improvements to this and also the airflow to me, however it turned out that the rear end was also running out of true and combined with some sprockets that weren't perfectly round and an expert setting the front chain too tight, we managed to rip the gearbox casing apart.
So change of motor but similar issues (American element of team were blaming my shifting for breaking 1st motor rather than spotting issues) meant a chain failure which damaged the second trans.
And we only had the 2.... So it was all over... ??
However we found the casing we need in California so I flew out Tuesday night to collect it (all nicely machined for us) and back Weds AM when UPS delivered the gearbox internals from Houston, but stripping the 2 motors showed both had suffered too much damage from oil loss and the cranks were both dead. Once again it looked like we were dead in the water.
But, legendary Salt bike racer, Joe Amo (272mph on a sit-on bike!) had what we needed, in South Dakota. And I managed to persuade him to get on a plane Weds night. He arrived in camp at midnight and worked with our engine guy to build up a new motor, which was finished at 7.30am at which point the Scots took over and installed the motor back in the car... This was finished at 11.30 but when we fired up the motor, it was running flat. The valves had all moved in the head and needed reshimming.
But we had no spare shims. There was 24hrs of Salt left and we were dead in the water again.
Luckily we managed to find a guy on the Salt who had some shims to fit the ZX11 motor we use so by 3pm I was back with a box and the engine was refettled. Finally at 6pm we arrived on the Salt and I fired her away knowing this was likely to be one of our last chances, but within 0.5miles I was losing drive, a transmission bolt had not been done up tight enough around 5am. This was a quick fix, but we couldn't turn the car around that night.
So Thurs night we prepped the car for 1 last chance. Turned up the boost and changed the gears for 325mph top speed and I headed to bed knowing we were aiming for a "Hail Mary". Speedweek finishes Friday morning and we'd have 1 shot to qualify for the record.
To say I was a little pumped up before the run would be an understatement... she went off the push truck well, took the change into 2nd without issues and was up and away when at 200mph there was a small pop and the power gradually drifted away. Speed dropped back to 170mph (which felt so slow u could get out and walk!!) and stayed there until I popped the chutes and called it all off.
Diagnosis a dropped valve, our makeshift motor just couldn't take the boost...
Gutted, but roll on 2011 when I'm happy we will be able to break the record and have the fastest 1 litre car on the planet!
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Just picked up this thread.well done Rick and hard luck with the engine!
