We’re going to start this update with a huge thank you to you.
A project on this scale involves a lot of time standing in a really cold garage, either one or two of you contorting yourself into some bizarre position. Inevitably during these cold hours you can’t help but wonder whether you’re ever going to reach your potential.
Part of what keeps us going is knowing that you guys are out there and seem genuinely enthusiastic about our exploits. The feedback we receive from these updates always puts a huge amount of energy back to our efforts.
So, once again, thank you, we really appreciate every time we hear from you.
2023 Summary
We had the best year ever! It certainly wasn’t easy, we have all worked incredibly hard, but we are finally starting to see the fruits of our labours.
We began the year, trying to get the international shipping organised. We had chosen to send the car to the west coast of America this time which means over six weeks at sea.
For those that haven’t had the pleasure of organising trans-atlantic shipping, it’s a ‘blooming’ nightmare! We were fortunate to find a really helpful company in Transglobal Logistics. They were happy to walk us through every step and not get too grumpy when we messed it up or left out some vital piece of information.
We knew we had a lot of work to do, modifying the car from a runway racer to a salt flat racer and we also had an unknown issue with the engine to sort out. But, we had all the parts and knowledge we needed and we sent the car off, with only the engine needing work.
Our team, really showed it’s strength once the car docked in San Francisco. Bruce and Rich drove almost the entire length of California in a weekend picked the car up and then almost immediately began to get the engine out and stripped so we knew exactly what was needed to get it sorted.
Bruce and Rich over the next few weeks managed to diagnose exactly what had failed, why and had also managed to get the engine rebuilt and ready to go back in the car.
And, what a job they did!
When we flew out at the end of July to get ready for our trip to Bonneville, all we needed to do was refit the engine and go racing!
After a few days of rushing around and getting all of our ducks in a line we ended up back on the road to Bonneville. Our spiritual home.
Upon arrival we were a little disappointed to discover that there had been a fair bit of rain on the course and the surrounding area.
Unlike the previous year this wasn’t a game changer but it did mean a delayed start to the event.
By the time we’d got the car through tech insection and ready to run we only had a day and a half of running.
The one course available was harder than the surrounding area but had been shortened from 5 miles to 3 and started to break up after a few days use.
We started our first run, planning to run in the new engine and try and get a feel for this new surface. The car really is not good on soft surfaces, it’s designed to run on a flat hard track. But, we’d come a long way to not give it our best shot.
The first run went so well that once we’d collected car and driver from the end of the course we went back to the start for another run.
The second run was a little more ‘eventful’. The course had broken up so badly at the mile and a half point that our driver nearly lost control and decided to abort the run.
The run on the next day was a lot better.We managed to get a top speed of 169mph (alas no video footage) without incident and we’re now in a position to really go for it next time.
Flushed with our success at Bonneville we decided to leave the car in the USA so we had the opportunity to return to Bonneville in 2024 if funds allow.
This also created another opportunity. We are storing the car with team member Bruce who coinicidentally happens to have his workshop about 25 miles from El Mirage.
El Mirage is the other site of regular land speed racing in California. If we could, it would be foolish not to take the opportunity to at least visit.
As such we decided to return to America in November for the two day meeting on the dry lake bed.
We would be rookies again at this event, but it was too close to ‘home’ not to try and run there.
Once again we fell foul of a deteriorating track surface and we didn’t get as high a top speed as we would have liked.
However, via a number of errors and miscalculations we managed to learn some incredibly valuable lessons and we are now a lot more prepared for our next attempts, wherever and whenever that may be.
As great as all of the above is we also achieved something far more worthwhile.
We have a car that has now run perfectly for six runs, we’ve hit our highest top speed ever and are a lot more experienced on some less than ideal surfaces.
But, the big result was in the form of inspriation!
This year we took three other teams for their first trips to Bonneville. We were so successful at this that one of the teams has now become part of our team and the others are planning their return to both sites we visited this year.
So, well done to the Banfield brothers and Ian with his ‘Finishing Straight’ Triumph.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.
Here’s to a speedy 2024
