Racing based work on the car has ground to a halt at the moment. There are a number of reasons for this.
Firstly our fabricator has had to undergo surgery on a shoulder injury. Poor Harry has had his arm in a sling for six weeks now, with the prospect of another six weeks of physiotherapy to try and get some movement back in the joint. If any of you have experienced shoulder problems, you can imagine how painful and restrictive this injury is.
Of course we all wish Harry a speedy recovery, not least because at the moment there are holes in the floor of the car that need filling and an exhaust manifold system to fabricate and a turbocharger to mount.
Secondly, we have had a brilliant idea to try and save ourselves a bit of money. We require an amount of parts to improve our performance. These parts are a new stronger transmission, another ballistic bellhousing to suit the new gearbox, a clutch to cope with the revised system and a set of racing tyres (to remove our speed restriction). Unfortunately all of these parts are far more readily acquired in America.
Luckily for us our tuner Bruce happens to live close by and has very generously volunteered to help getting these parts together. Once all the parts have been located and got together, we will arrange a single shipping to try and keep the trans-Atlantic costs to a minimum, particularly with large, heavy and bulky items like these.
Work is progressing well and the transmission is currently residing in Bruce’s workshop, as we write this the tyres are expected to arrive any minute. The bellhousing has been found and we are simply waiting confirmation of the correct clutch and flywheel configuration before ordering.
This however has given us some free time to spread the word about our project. This arguably is the most important part of the whole thing. We started this project with a few aims, one of which was inspiring others another was aiding our supporters and sponsors.
In April we attended an open day at our driver Ian’s small motorcycle business to try and add some unusual interest at a motorcycle shop. The event went well, and as the alcohol started to flow a number of tall people managed to get themselves stuck trying to get in the car.
The next event was the big one. As a part of the sponsorship agreement with the Jensen Owners Club (JOC) Ian had agreed to take the car to their ‘International’ event and be the after dinner speaker at the gala dinner. The only thing Ian hadn’t realised at the time was the event was held in Hull, which is about 275 miles from base.
Pete and Ian towed the car up to Hull on the Friday and met up with Andy who had driven up in his Mk 1 Interceptor on the Saturday. The JOC are a very friendly bunch and despite our car not quite measuring up to their standards for a concours car they were very welcoming and accepting of our efforts.
The gala dinner was lovely and Ian and Andy got some very good comments after their presentation. Obviously with a story like ours it’s hard not to make it sound like we had the best time ever at Speed Week.
As Pete and Ian had a fair distance to travel at towing speeds they left the event just after lunch time. It turns out they should have hung around a little longer; one of the trophies awarded was the chairman’s choice trophy. This is quite a prestigious award and goes to the car that the chairman would most like to drive home from the event. We’re not sure whether he was most impressed with the car itself or the story. Luckily Andy stayed behind and accepted the award for the team.
