Who knew 13.5 seconds could be so exciting? Classic Ford at the Santa Pod Raceway near Milton Keynes, is a HUGE event, with every Ford you can think of from ancient and mint condition Anglia's, to the new (ish) Focus RS, and as you would expect a few Sierras in the mix too! The BF's car was not behaving and so was grounded and not allowed out for the day *sad face* But his BFF's car did make it for the first ever time, and so this is my photo documentary of his day.
Step 1 - Register your drivers license and buy your strip of 4 runs down the strip, and get strategising on the best way to launch, when to change gear and how hard to push it up the revs before you do!
Step 2 - Queue up for AGES in a line of cars all ready to run the quarter mile, the aim being to get your car across the line as quickly as possible from a standing start, they measure your reaction time to the traffic light go system, your run and you terminal velocity or finishing speed across the line (i ALWAYS wanted to know what that phrase meant!) So the queue is huge and to try to stop the car from overheating from sitting there, most people switch off their engine and get a kindly friend or two to push them forward as the line moves up.
Step 3 - Pull up to the line, get scrutinised by the marshals, warm up your tyres with a bit of weaving and revving, and check out all those people watching you!! No pressure!
Step 4 - TRY to understand the complex lighting system, where you get a series of orange lights to prepare you, remember you are being measured on your reaction times off the lights as well, remember you have seen a few people stall at the launch and vow not to be one of them!
Step 5 - LAUNCH IT!
Step 6 - Check out your times, and coast back to applause on the car club stand
It was a superb day, REALLY tiring, as you are constantly running that quarter mile from the starting line grandstands, back through all the car displays to the car club stand to welcome people back and then go watch them run, but awesome fun, and i didn't even mention the 217 miles per hour Rocket Car, and the drifting, the dragsters and the friends and the anniversary present i got given by the BF (more on this tomorrow!!!)
Where did he finish?? :o)
ReplyDeleteWell its really a race against yourself and seeing how far tweaks and modifications to the engine give increased power and speed, but this was the cars first ever run, and his time beat Rysz's XR's from a year ago, and a couple of others in the XR club too! So he (and we) were well pleased
ReplyDelete