In 2017 we announced our intention to take the car out to Bonneville to compete at Speed Week in 2018. We were comically underfunded and so we took every opportunity to try and drum up support and hopefully sponsors.
As you hopefully know we were mostly successful, we garnered a huge amount of support and an amount of financial support for which we were incredibly grateful.
As part of this and also to give us an opportunity for some real world procedural practice we decided to enter an event down at Pendine Sands in May 2018. We started the event with no idea what we were doing and made many rookie mistakes but over the two days we set the groundwork for everything we achieved after.
Pendine Sands is the last place in the UK where an outright land speed record was broken. Back in the 1920’s the likes of Malcolm Campbell and Parry Thomas exchanged top speeds for the opportunity to call themselves the fastest man on earth.
Now that our car has returned from its extended visit to the colonies we decided to take the opportunity to revisit the site of our first ever top speed runs.
However, despite time being very short we had some vital work to carry out on the car before we could go anywhere near a UK venue.
Our regular readers may recall that in 2024 we had a number of adventures caused by a failing limited slip differential in the rear axle. This led to a very hurried pit area differential change. The replacement unit was a ‘spool’ or locked axle, with no planetary gears that locked the two rear wheels together. This results in fantastic performance in a straight line but without the wide open spaces of a salt flat it makes the vehicle very difficult to manoeuvre.
The solution was yet another differential change, this time in the slightly more suitable location of a workshop.
The next and final requirement was to check the engine started and ran well.
With the benefit of a non-pressured look, a number of faults were found in the engine bay, mainly around overheated components and connections. All of which were fairly easily remedied.
After a quick rebuild of the starter motor to free up a siezed bendix the car was up and running and ready to go.
A few days later we were all loaded onto and into the back of a rental van and on our way to Wales.
This particular trip was pivotal to the project, this was going to be one of the last times when we may get the opportunity to drive the car at full power. The plan is to do some demonstration runs at an event at Shelsey Walsh (details to follow) and we are hoping to do one more final run at Elvington (again, details to follow) which will be the last time the car is used for top speed racing.
It also, was an opportunity for another driver. Ian’s daughter, Jessica only passed her car test a couple of years ago after years of riding motorcycles. The opportunity to drive a full blown (literally) race car, doesn’t come up often and when you’re one of the few people small enough to fit in the drivers seat, why wouldn’t you?
Alas, the weather and the beach conditions were against us this weekend. The clerk of the course had made a few trips down to the beach over the preceeding weeks and things were looking very good for a mile or mile plus course.
However, once the time came the only safe course was as short as half a mile. The decision was made to put timing towers at a quarter mile and half mile (finish line) markers.
Dissapointing, but way better than the other option of cancelling the event or even worse someone getting hurt.
This however did have one advantage. The UKTA (United Kingdom Timing Association) had never run events at these distances at Pendine. Therefore, every class top speed was a UK record.
Ian took the first run in the car as a bit of a shakedown, to check the car and to try and get a feel for the surface conditions.
His initial take off was dreadful as the car took some time to ‘clear it’s throat’ and he really couldn’t get any power down until the last half of the course.Once he did get the power down the car was quite litterally all over the place. This was very much like driving on ice.
The initial result
Standing 1/4 mile 62.688 mph
Standing 1/2 mile 104.471 mph
Then it was time to hand the car over to Jessica for her rookie run. After a serious briefing and an enforced bale out test.
Jessica’s first run
Standing 1/4 mile 68.208 mph
Standing 1/2 mile 58.771 mph
So, on Jessica’s first seat in an high powered racing car on a very soft track she broke the UK standing 1/4 mile record! Wow, what an achievement!
Both drivers got another run, before the tide started to return and both improved on their initial attempts.
As a team we were so proud of both of them, especially Jessica for the way she controlled the car in very difficult circumstances. As we write this we’re wondering whether the adrenalin has started to subside yet and she has stopped shaking!!
Day two saw a dreadful weather forecast and we woke fearing the worst. Once we got down to the beach things were a lot better than expected.
The clerk of the course had managed to extend the course a little further and we would have half and one kilometer distances. Once again a new distance for this course and some new records.
On his first run, Ian thought the course was a little better than the day before. Still like driving on ice but not quite as slippery ice as the day before. The speeds were up as a result.
Jessica then went for another run, this time not quite as confident as before mainly due to the amount of standing water on the course. It’s hard to keep your foot down on a soft surface when it appears underwater!
Ian had one more run as the rain was starting to come down. As the car has no windscreen wipers, this was a tough run. As he finished he said he couldn’t see any of the marker boards, either at the half or the end of the course. It didn’t stop him going faster than he had all weekend though.
Not long after Ian’s run there was a drivers meeting called and the event was called off before someone got hurt.
There were quite a number of motorcycles of various shapes and sizes from all over and some amazing cars, from a traditional belly tank racer to the world’s fastest shed.
We would like to say a huge thank you to the Straightliners organisation for putting on this event. The volunteers that started us, the timing crew and all of the office staff.
We also need to mention all of the people that came down just to see us, before being press-ganged into the team and forced to work. Particularly David, Kev and Jo.It was fantastic to see you all and we are eternally grateful for your time.
Neither Ian nor Jessica had the correct license for this event. As such they both ran in the RWYB (Run What You Brung) class. The only down side with this is the record runs were not ratified! A shame, but we’re not here for the records we’re here for the experience.
As a reminder we are also booked in to The Enfield Pageant of Motoring on May 23rd and 24th. Please feel free to join us. We hope to share our adventures with as many people as possible and have been given permission to run the engine up a few times.
We are now booked into the Mach 2 car show in Bristol on fathers day June 20th and 21st.
We have been invited to do some demonstration runs at the Classic Nostalgia event at Shelsey Walsh 18th and 19th July.
Closer to home we are definitely attending the Capel Car show on August 15th. Apparently we are getting the ‘star’ treatment and once again have been given permission to run up the engine.
