Bellytank in Australia

[Dr Goggles]

Hi all
Im new here , came across this board via landracing.com.Me and two pals started building a Bellytank a few years back.We fell in love with the original tanks ( our favorite has always been the Brown/Hooper tank , pictured here...

)
and thought it'd be cool fun to build one and being the kind of jerks who think they can do anything we went for it .It turns out making a race car out of an old fuel tank was even more expensive and complicated than the most cynical of our remaining friends thought , being the kind of stubborn jerks who are too proud to quit even when the sane and the worst gambling addicts have long gone we kept going . We used a slipper tank from what we call a Canberra bomber but you guys know as a U2 built in '53 and through a combination of elimination, advice and plain old slog we're nearly done.

We've used a local GM V6 based on the old Buick 232 and a four speed , an 8&3/4 Ford diff ( yeah I know but everything's got some rogue genes in it ) and a straight tube axle , there's no suspension.

We built the whole thing apart from a few minor items in my garage at home , as we tell people if you can't make it with an angle grinder and a drill press , a welder and ...well that's about it ...it's not on the car...

Over the years we had a great time debating the design , the lack of suspension and various ways of doing things .We spent a fair bit of the folding stuff and at times I wondered if it would have been easier if we'd just bought a huge piece of steel and carved the thing out of it with a cold chisel.Lots of our money got swept out the driveway as swarf , some is sitting in the back yard rusting and some bought parts that we will use on the next bellytank ( ah , yeah we have another original P38 style tank...ahem...) because as you can understand we're far from cured of this disease.

I'll get to posting some photo's in time but here's my co-conspirators about twelve months ago shortly after we dropped it off the build jig for the very first time...you can't see me , I'm behind the camera........that's Dik or Reverend Hedgash and Graham or Colonel Grump , in real life they are bigger than this...



next is a shot from the rear left wheel , the cowl is off and the water tank is hoisted......



...you can see the scatter shield and the since changed fuel tank bottom right .Next is a shot from when the motor first went in , it has the original manifold since cut'n'shut into a vertical twin throttle body format



thanks for listening , hope ya liked it and I'll get back soon and show y'all some more.

[Dr Goggles]

Well, since I first posted we've got on with it and managed to drag her out of the shed last weekend to a show and the weekend just gone our club the Dry Lake Racers of Australia had an airport meet for a test'n'tune day at a place called Mangalore an hour north of Melbourne where we live.Early start Saturday morning, the car had been put on the trailer the night before and all that remained was to load up the tools , fuel ,water and other sundry bit and bobs and hit the road.Mangalore is about 60 miles north of Melbourne and it freeway all the way , I picked up the Colonel and we were on the way...some of you will be pleased to note that we played Dwight Yoakam's "Guitars , Cadillacs" most of the way there....

We had a few friends and family who rolled up to watch , mostly I think they were there to confirm their own suspicions .......camera's abounded , my 80 year old mum was there telling all who'd listen stories about me as a kid and monitoring the "coarse talk". The Reverend's name is "Dik" , my mother steadfastly refuses to call him that , she calls him Richard..

There were about eight other cars there when we arrived as well as three bikes , the factory blown Vincent from Adelaide owned by the Penn's and Greg Watters with an R1 he just picked up still with grind marks on the tailpipe and lights from being flipped , Greg did a couple of runs around 250km/h(~158mph) .Spook had his Trumper there but wasn't entirely happy with the tune he had going and didn't get to wring it's neck but gee it looked a treat.Rod and Carol Hadfield were there with his new HAMBster ,Brian Nicholson and the Moe boys, David Partridge with his indescribably violent sounding RX7 which I have renamed ( unofficially) as "Swearing Around Children" because no-one wants to hear it. Max Ellery was there with his Commodore he got in some runs around 120mph and was happy with what he's done with the car, there was a new streamliner sans bodywork with a Toyota twin cam 1600 that got a lot of attention owned by a Graeme who's surname I missed and a couple of cars with number plates on 'em.Graeme's streamliner was a little "wanting" in the electrical department , our Colonel , who's a Graham himself felt a kinship bond and got it sorted out , he's a genius. Sadly Norm Bradshaw who organised the booking of the airport and has run an early Mustang with a 499 that's gone about 210 til recently couldn't get his new car there due to engine management issues and a near disastrous fire the night before .Norm's new car is a late model Falcon dressed up as a taxi with a big block Ford and a turbo "big enough to put your head in " , still Norm had a good day and his booking didn't go to waste and I think the hat that got passed around covered him.

We got the tank off the trailer pretty quickly and put some juice in it , made a few checks and fired it up ...it sounded a bit rough and then started shutting down, fuel?? I changed the fuel filter as the tank is new and it had had a crumby one in it previously...turns out the MAP sensor wasn't properly plugged in...try again ,still a bit rough, oops , two leads were mixed up!!!!! , try again ...r,r,r,r,r...poop, is the battery flat? huh? we pull up PJQ's car next to it and get the jumpers out...this is embarrassing. The alternator is either dead or we've got a wiring problem...it takes the Colonel about three minutes to work out that there's a broken wire....it's sorted......now it starts , now it sounds good....we pushed it back to the start of the taxi-way that we're parked on ( on the way it runs over my foot and wrenches my hip....no-one noticed. ) and I jump in and give it a little test , it REALLY goes!!!!!....roll it back and another little test. Right! , it's on. I get the suit on and we get ready , Greg Watters goes down and checks with the guys at the end of the taxi-way , we're on. I get it down there and start struggling with the gear shift , if you bend your wrist inwards and hold it up near the right side of your chest where it feels like it has no strength then it is where our gear stick is.....grind , screech , grind , clunk... my leg is already tired.......a hand signal and I turn left out onto the runway .Rod Hadfield had said " just take your time and have a few looks at it all and find the rough bits before you get into it"....I'm in third and I can't tell where I am on the track ...I can't see the line , I can't even tell the grass from the rougher tarmac at the edge ...F#%&* it I think and give it some throttle ...it takes off ...ahh ,there's the line over there , man it's rough but the car is great , it wants to go straight , and fast .I see some cones and get on the brakes , well at least that's what they're called...I manage to get it back into second and get off the clutch and put all my strength into the brake pedal ...it slows enough to be able to swing around the cones ...I'm ah kind of excited at this point and have a little trouble getting my s#%* together ....off again this time I get it into fourth as I go past the end of the taxiway though I'm probably around 2000rpm , it's just chugging , apparently the radar trap that has been set up registers 119km/h( about 70) I turn at the other end and two things hit me ...I can barely breathe as the fumes are so strong in the cab and my legs are nearly shot from being tense and trying to work the pedals........I overshoot the turn off and pull up and pop the canopy.

Back at the pit we work out the fume problem and cut a little "smile" vent in the nose to pressurize the cab ,further work will need to be done to seal the body against the frame.The gear shift will need to be sweeter and there will need to be changes to the geometry and hydraulic ratios of the brakes and clutch.....but apart from that IT'S FANTASTIC.......

The Rev suits up. After noticing that the cable mount of the gearshift looks fatigued( turns out I tacked it in position when I was setting it up and never ever went back, oops)we decide to get him to run in third only.......he does six passes and returns completely buzzed . I got back in and gave it a bit of curry , I'm too far over for the speed trap to register but I'm in fourth and well over three grand the runway has several really sharp bumps that are jarring ... I overshoot at the end despite turning it off and getting both feet on the brake pedal, when I finally do swing it around I flick the switch and it blasts off again , I might get to like this .when I get back in the temp gauge reads 200 , when we take the cowl off we realize she's thrown the belt.....we deal with that and send the Reverend out for another run, he canes it and comes back with a grin from ear to ear ....we were both thrilled.

Apart from a water leak from a dodgily installed sender( me) a gearbox oil leak ( a breather will help) and the fume problem it went astoundingly well.

here's a shot of the car underway with the cowl off

[Dr Goggles]

I did a bit of an inspection today , found less problems than I thought we had , the oil leak was mostly from the diff bung...it wasn't done up properly !!!! , there was a bit out of the gearbox ...I might get the rear plate milled , I think the guy who did it might have been having a rough day... The little fuel leak that caused fumes when I was driving at one point seems to have been caused by the breather copping a bit of "slosh" at the point that I was off the throttle so there would have been a bit of a shot going back into the tank from the return line...it's managed to get onto the tailpipe....BUT, all in all I didn't find anything busted , bent or looking bothered at all....which was great news.....here's another shot from the weekend. I'm on the left ( Dr Goggles ) and on the right is my build partner Dik Jarman or Reverend Hedgash

[Jimmy B]

Wow! This is bloody awesome. You should post this on the main board.
Oh yeah, welcome to the HAMB!
Cheers
Jimmy

[Elmo Rodge]

Welcome over here DR Goggles. Someday I'll have to bring my Tank over to your house so they can play. Wayno

[X38]

You're nuts Wayno, but I like the idea! How's your tank coming along?

And fantastic effort Dr Goggles.

[Chaz]

Awesome.. Terriffic work! Planning on Bonneville?

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by Jimmy B

Wow! This is bloody awesome. You should post this on the main board.
Oh yeah, welcome to the HAMB!
Cheers
Jimmy

thanks Jimmy , can I move this thread?

Originally Posted by Elmo Rodge

Welcome over here DR Goggles. Someday I'll have to bring my Tank over to your house so they can play. Wayno

what day suits you Wayno?

Originally Posted by Chaz

Awesome.. Terriffic work! Planning on Bonneville?

one day , one day.... I love your FWD 'tank

here's another shot of the shortened gearbox and ultra short tailshaft , it's a four-speed without reverse( the reverse spline is now the rear slider for the yoke)



here's the home made twin throttle body manifold , I know EFI ain't really rodding but this is kind of rat and after last weekend we know it works , I mean Ive got an angle grinder and a hot metal pump who says I can't make my own manifolds

[nexxussian]

Hope you don't mind, I swiped a quote for my sig line. Seemed too good to pass up.

While I myself am still new, welcome, from Alaska.

The tank looks slick, keep us updated.

[Dr Goggles]

No Worries nexxussian glad you liked it...

here's a shot of some striping we had done at a recent show by the very talented Ryan Ford ...Ryan is from local hot-rod royalty the son of Eddie Ford a well known local builder and writer....

[Dr Goggles]

Thought I'd go back a little further to show some more pics of the build ...first up here's a shot of the scattershield we built from 5/16 plate you can also see the extensions made for the gearbox selectors , because the shift cables had to come around the exhaust we lost a lot of approach angle which made it difficult to get to work, by making the cables meet the selectors at right angles it was easier.What this doesn't show is the gantry that I built to support the extensions at the outside , problem is I'm now in the process of coming up with a different gearshift because the one we've got is too difficult to use in the available space , I might end up going for two sticks......This shot has the original headers before we built the extractors, it's also before we made the manifold..there isn't even a firewall yet



next up is the flip front of the car , the steering box ( out of a VW Kombi) and the method of anchoring the front tube axle.We built two little perches welded flat "bridges" on the axle and then sandwiched two pieces of mudflap rubber .The mounts are only five inches apart .This allows a little bit of compliance tilt wise ...it also has a bit of bounce to it as we found out last weekend ...not too much and the salt is nowhere near as rough as the runway we were on last weekend .The axle is 1/4 wall cold drawn tube and has 30 degrees of castor and a couple of degrees of camber ( one or two , can't remember) I only did an alignment by eye but it ran straight as.



on the right of the photo you can also see the rocker pedals that we made , because it so tight there in the footwell you can't take your foot off the clutch pedal plus you need some way to brace yourself and other builder drivers warned us that vibration can get so bad that you can't see if you can't brace yourself well.So , the clutch is activated by heel down and by pressing toe first you can brace yourself, the throttle goes the other way it works "push-pull" so it doesn't need a loop.

Next, here's a photo of my rough old 63 Panel van or what you guys call a delivery at the salt in '06 ...it gave me grief all the way there ......and all the way back...but I still love her .....and I've still got her



finally here's a photo of the back of my current ride and the tank the morning we were heading to the 'drome meet...um , yeah , flat black, metal flake and red roses on the parcel shelf.......I dunno either.....

[Retroline]

Welcome, What an awesome intro!!

[Dr Goggles]

Having for the first time in a while a " little time on my hands" I dragged the red wagon in the shots above into the operating theatre , that's the driveway behind the gate. By the time I got her back from the salt last year it was howling in every gear except 4th( Toyota 5 speed) boiling the battery from some overcharging issue and had a hideous sound coming from the front left suspension. I hoiked the motor and trans out of it as I have a 4 speed lying around and figured it would give me a chance to clean her up underneath and give the engine bay a bit of attention .....I've had this car for fifteen years and it's never really been off the road for a proper seeing to, and most of that time I was on musician wages ( is there such a thing?) so lets just say if I found a part that was better than one on the car I'd use it , if something fell off I'd replace it ,beyond that ?...well I think you're getting the picture. I dismantled several of the same model during that time and had a nice sedan on the road for a time there too... I parked it last year when the registration ran out as I had a reasonable '73 V8 four door which ticked most of my boxes and I was earning enough money to pay the fuel bill( 120-$150 a week!)....that car suddenly became worth a lot of money and being in need of some paint , being thirsty and attracting too much attention from tyre kickers I put it in storage . The storage option made sense when I got the black "ute" above...for nothing......with LPG fitted....I put a fair bit of work into it but hey....so back to the red one. It's in the drive , motor out and I'm gonna get into a bit of rust repair and sort out the underbody and all the little bits and pieces i've ignored for years.....which brings me to ...I'm setting up a molasses tank again for cleaning up a few bits and pieces .I've done it once before , I just used a 15 gallon bin with about 2llbs of molasses and it worked fine for bumper ends and various bits and pieces .This time i've got a 44 gallon drum and about 8llbs of molasses....has anyopne got any handy hints , experience with them .....would a fish tank pump make it work faster and better???.......lemmee know. Ta fellas.

while I'm here this is a shot of two mates cars Craigs'32 flattie in front , Mick's 34 331 behind ...



...Mick who owns the car at the back ( painted with a brush in house paint ) said " I don't own a good spray gun , actually I don't even own a crap one".......

[Dr Goggles]

oh , oh....I never thought I'd fall for this one....

I am the original tornado when it comes to car work.....there's blokes who'll bore you stupid with stories about how long this took and how the long way is the shortest way.....well, when it comes to cars I drive if there's a shortcut, I've already taken it , paint-job?....hell-yeah I slaved over that for ,gee , it must have been a day!......the red wagon .....has started to stretch out and godammit I've bought a rotisserie that I built for a friend from him .....and.......well it ain't gonna be no full resto , or anything like it but she's goin' ass-up and getting the treatment underneath.......I lay underneath it a couple of times and that was hard enough work, the thought of cleaning her up from there , let alone doing the necessary welding put the shivers in me ........

On the bellytank front we've started on the new gearshift , two levers , more compact , less effort to operate....shots soon.

For the first time in 24 years I bought a stereo for the daily ride...ha ha ha I must have lost me mind and it has USB ( useless silly bastard)......Dang dicka Dow!!

Stay greasy everyone ,don't stop...steer around it and get on the gas again!!!!!

[Dr Goggles]

here's another shot I got today that my big sister took of the tank at the aero-drome test and tune day....it shows the ample ground clearance we gave her.....

[Dr Goggles]

Today we had what we call, "tank day"...just creeping along the road to the day where we'll eventually have nothing to do but race the thing...today we changed the angle of the steering column so the steering wheel would be higher...only so if something goes really bad it's not so far for your hands to go to cover your face....we also tinkered with the alignment of the column and the seat mounts as well as shaving the edges off the seat because up until now we both thought there was something "out of whack" but we couldn't put a finger on it so it's easier to activate the fire system ....and ...um ...the steering wheel...it all feels heaps better now............but it'll never be finished . it just inches toward ideal ...it won't ever get there

at times there I might have been joking , you be the judge.....


adios amigos

[haroldd1963]

Love your tank!

[Drewfus]

Great to see the progress, even better to hear see it driving, congrats, you've done great, now shift up a gear and tidy it up for March....

Cheers,

Drewfus

[Dr Goggles]

you've done great, now shift up a gear and tidy it up for March....

shift UP a gear? sheesh , we're in top bro,besides ,housework is for wives and wimps......where you been anyway Drewfus?

I got the body pivots mounted on the Van ready to chuck it up on the rotisserie....it 37 degrees here today too hot for welding and grinding....and I have to go kip , I've got night shift tonight........


"........I don't need no cup holder!!......."

[Drewfus]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

where you been anyway Drewfus?

trying to establish a thing called HA/GR in oz...building cars for people, and generally trying to earn money(dayjob) to pay for it all...

New HA/GR car to debute soon...

Cheers,

Drewfus

[aussiesteve]

Welcome.
Great Tank and Intro.
Say Hi to Mick Lee and Craig Watson for me!!

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by aussiesteve

Welcome.
Great Tank and Intro.
Say Hi to Mick Lee and Craig Watson for me!!

Will do , Craig got hitched a couple of weeks back.....now , have we met ?....I used to play in the Hepileptiks ....you didn't own a pink Plymouth with a rag-top did you.......????

[aussiesteve]

Pink Plymouth.NEVER.Sent you a PM

[Dr Goggles]

Just to make sure you all heard , Aussiesteve NEVER HAD A PINK PLYMOUTH......he ain't the guy I thought he may have been(just as well I hear you say) but it turns out we trod the same boards propped up the same bar and loved the same bands in this little country town called Melbourne......

Of course!

.....................cripes , that was close....................


Fully doctored.

[Dr Goggles]

I came here to yak about our bellytank so I'll get b.o.t.....

At the moment we're running an early version of a local GM V6 based on the Buick 232..We're doing this for a number of reasons .Firstly we wanted to use the tank we started with in it's original dimensions and there just wasn't enough length for a V8 if we wanted to use a gearbox , in a way this has been good because E class (180 - 260 cubes) is pretty empty as there aren't many motors out there that lakester builders would use in that capacity. Secondly they are cheap, and I mean cheap ....I can buy them with good even comp' complete out of a car for $125 in our money which is US $ 109 on todays exchange... We've built a nice set of headers and have done a pretty thorough porting job on a set of heads , built an enlarged plenum double throttle body manifold ......we just need those bottom ends to hang together for a couple of miles( I'm not exagerating , if we get six four mile runs out of each one i'll be happy) at about 6000rpm....that could be wishful thinkin' I hear you say.....we've heard a couple of stories of them going bad when attempting this and so I sought some advice from a guy who's run several of these motors in various capacity classes for years . I'd been thinking that the quickest cheapest fix for this year before we get into re-building some bottom ends ( cams ,lifters, metal polishing etc) would be keep the crankcase air-pressure down allowing the oil to drain back better to the sump....he agreed and said "well you could spend money on a Vacu-pan or you could scavenge the parts from a air-injection anti-pollution set up" So that's what I've done ......I checked out another home built version on a Clevo' yesterday , got some stainless pipe, a non-return reed valve and some spigots that they use in cast exhaust manifolds to put air into for emissions improvement ( all stuff that was going in the bin)and this weekend it'll be inspector gadget time , again.

The wrecking yard I get my bits from is owned by an old rodder ...acres of shit....some small pockets of absolute gold...and one particular container full of fantastic stuff that "isn't for sale" but sometimes you can ....just......look

[Drewfus]

Again, sweet progress, and great to hear that you're able to now finetune & develope the car.

Did you ever get that damn shifter sorted?

Cheers,

Drewfus

P.S. you really should re-post this thread on the main page, or have Ryan move it for you....lots of bellytank lovers out there who don't look in this section..

[Dr Goggles]

Drew' we have a prototype version going , the idea is this. Two sticks.....the 1st/2nd stick would have a flip up lock out kind of like what you have on a trailer with hydraulic brakes so you can back it,this would stop the lever going into 1st. There would be a spring that pulls the stick against this effectively holding it in neutral. We would take off in 2nd , in order to stay in 2nd you will need to hold the stick back against the spring tension , when you let it go it will return to the neutral position . At this stage it is then a case of using the second stick to then select 3rd then 4th without any worry of locking the box up . When we need to drive in the pits( which is legal here) the lock out can be flipped out of the way so the box will stay in first so both hands can be kept on the wheel ...with 30 degrees of castor she's a bit heavy in the steering at low speed. My head is currently going over the possibility of making the lock-out a long plate that works "both ways" ...when it's up so you can select first it locks the second lever in neutral..

This all sounds complicated and unnecessary?...we have very very little space particularly side to side and this method can all work in a two inch wide space....

...mum !!!!!, help!!!!! ....I've got my head stuck.....

[Dr Goggles]

Got the panel-van up on the rotisserie today and got nearly all the clean-up done...some of the welding too.....chucked a few more bits in the molasses..and blasted a fair bit of stuff underneath as well...It was in better shape than I expected ....it's probably leaked oil since the day it left the factory....that helped. I have to do the sills and also the front sub round where the bumper irons mount is pretty shitty but all in all it's not too bad....

it's got 18 month old fuel in it so I milked that to wash the underbody......Needless to say I got filthy , sand in hair , eyes and bum crack and black from asshole to breakfast time.


...that's O.K , I respect you for it too , now , what's your friends number.....

[publicenemy1925]

Outstanding Post! Viva La Tank!

[Bib Overalls]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

Hi all
We used a slipper tank from what we call a Canberra bomber but you guys know as a U2 built in '53 and through a combination of elimination, advice and plain old slog we're nearly done.

The U2 and Canberra are two totally different airplanes.

The U2 was a high altitude photo reconisance aircraft designed in the Lockheed "Skunk Works" for the CIA and later adopted by the USAF. NASA flys them now for high altitude research. This aircraft was never exported.

The Canberra was a British design built under license in the US by Martin. In US service it was called the B-57 Canberra. It was also built under license in Australia and used by air forces around the world.

The Canberra tank looks like a natural for land speed racing. Hard to tell, but it looks a little fatter up front and more aerodynamic in back. There would be a run on them here but I suspect that in the US they were melted down a long time ago and made into beer cans.

[xderelict]

Tanks a lot for sharring. I love this stuff.

[oldandkrusty]

Dr. Goggles, I love your post! What a neat and most unique project to undertake. Belly tanks just speak "hot rod" to me and, even though yours has an Aussie accent, I understand every note it booms out the exhaust (using my literary license to the max, you understand)! Seriously, what a fun thrash, although I'm certain painful on many occassions - especially when it tried to flatten your toes!

Good luck in the future and please, please keep us up to date with all that is happening.

By the way, please say "Hi" to Rod and Carol for me. It's been sometime since we last saw each other. I'm glad to learn that they are still thrashing away on new projects. What might they be?

John Norton, aka "oldandkrusty"

[flatoz]

good to see more salt cars, I need to get back over there its been a while.

[Drewfus]

Originally Posted by flatoz

good to see more salt cars, I need to get back over there its been a while.

ditto, I miss the cuddles from the Moe boys....

Just call me Stan.....

[PEDDRO]

Cool....where the hell has this thread been all this time?

[Dr Goggles]

Hey Bib Overalls , I stand corrected my mistake ....I'm not sure why I had them as the same plane ...thanks for the update....we've got heaps of history about the actual 'plane our tank came from (WH700) which is a story I'll tell some time soon....

Old and Krusty....Here's Rod and Carol at the Mangalore meet....


Rod has been working on this....



Flatoz.........go to the lake, the lake is calling.....


Hey Drewfus I'm gonna tell those Moe boys what you said ....a man can get mighty lonely in the Latrobe Valley..... anyway , for the uninitiated here's a shot of the Moe Boys Ford XA coupe

thanks for the positive comments everyone...I've got heaps more build shots and stories to tell about the build , and we haven't even raced it in anger yet so the story has only just begun.......


" They didn't have one like I wanted so I made me own"

[DocWatson]

Hey Dr Goggles something dont add up. Australia, check, sunshine, check, Mangalore............. HUH?? What sunshine?? I used to fly in and out of that place and I never saw the sun shine once!!

On a different note, I believe we meet over at the scale auto site, you sent me a disc and a 1/8 vac formed tank. Well, I built a chassis for it, just need to motivate myself to make a motor.
Welcom to the HAMB, we Aussies are taking over!
Cheers,
Doc.

[THE235KID]

You guys are living my dream!

[DocWatson]

Is that taking ove or being Australian??

[Dr Goggles]

Ah Doc......Yes , it was the Reverend you dealt with...As he may have told you we had a bunch of those shells made , we used one as a basis for mucking around with frame ideas in-scale...then we'd go back to CAD . ...here's one of the Rev's renders...

He had the cowl mocked up in clay when we were offered two thirds of a small jet tank by Wayne Mumford from Yarragon here in Victoria who built the "Waza-Vudu" bellytanker with Russell Mack. When the Rev' measured the little tank up it was within 5%of what he'd modeled....unbelievable!Wayne and Russell used the tip of it cut axially to make the cowl of their tank pictured here....( thanks for the photo Drewfus!)



here you can see the tank cut lengthwise and lain on top of the Canberra tank in the early stages of the tank build.......

we have to get organized and finish our model off , one idea involves gutting a remote control buggy to make it RC powered...If you um , need any photo's to ah , help with the historical accuracy of your project we've um...got a few

My Daddy said "son! you're gonna drive me to drinkin'!"

I said " Dad , anything you say but you're gonna have to tell me where it is first"!

[nexxussian]

Hey, Doc G, I can't see the middle two pics (where's that pic of Ray Charles when I need it?). Hope they are good uns.

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by aussiesteve

Welcome.
Great Tank and Intro.
Say Hi to Mick Lee and Craig Watson for me!!

did so Steve....spent the afternoon in Craig's shed having a few fizzy drinks , and chewing the fat......Mick was there..., now there's a man who sees the Mig welder as unnecessarily new technology.......Craig has recently bought an Indian and at the moment I have a German photographer mate staying here who's got an old Scout

Hey, Doc G, I can't see the middle two pics (where's that pic of Ray Charles when I need it?).

I was linking the renders from elsewhere and they wouldn't stick.....I'll get the Reverend to register here and put a bunch of them up.....sorry to get your hopes up....but in the mean time....

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/albums/J...e005detail.jpg

[nexxussian]

Thanks Dr. G, I appreciate it. I like the pic of Ray too, but the one I meant was



All in fun you understand.

[Mark in Japan]

I LOVE that adjustable spanner (shifter) rear wheel chock

[Drewfus]

The Moe Boys owe me a cuddle...



and animal is still.....animal



Sorry Doc, reliving some memories...



Cheers,

Drewfus

[Dr Goggles]

Nice shots Drewfus ....love the one of Animal on the race-fuel...wasn't that in Street-Machine?.........here's one people might like of Lucky Kaiser's most recent build...and in the background Bob Ellis's Chev powered XP........................



for the record , Lucky's liner wasn't allowed to run because of scrutineering issues , it has a Triumph twin....

Oh , and to Mark in Japan , I'm not sure the shifting spanner can take all the credit , I think the trailer hitch at the front might be sharing some of the load.........

....Air-conditioning on my Hot-Rod?....I'd sooner have nuts on my woman!

[Drewfus]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

Nice shots Drewfus ....love the one of Animal on the race-fuel...wasn't that in Street-Machine?.........

yep, a LONG time ago.

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

here's one people might like of Lucky Kaiser's most recent build...
for the record , Lucky's liner wasn't allowed to run because of scrutineering issues , it has a Triumph twin....

That looks sane, I remeber his prior liner with the transverse mounted ford V8......that guy is trippy....in a good way.

Cheers,

Drewfus

Dr...here's a few 'shots' to prep you for March...













ha....Cookie's a tight fit...

[SakowskiMotors]

Great car. If you are going to come to El Mirage or Bonneville and need a place to get your car shipped to / shop home base , I would be happy to put her up for you in my shop / warehouse. You are welcome to use the shop if you need it. I be running my Lakester this upcoming year.
Wil Sakowski
www.sakowskimotors.com

[celibaterifle]

Top looking tank you've got there Dr G. Look forward to seeing it on the salt next year - will be making my first trip next year. Can't wait!

[Dr Goggles]

Ha ha !! celibaterifle??......grouse name brother!!!!....I was just about to go to bed ...I thought " oh , I'll just check the HAMB ....now I've got a beer and I'm tappin' away...."...I don't mind the Rifles...Damo' is a nut.

Are you building something ...or thinking of it?...Once you go to the lake you're a goner...

.......now to our American friends who've heard but don't quite understand ...( coz Wendover is right next to Bonneville and they have everything you need there like steak and car parts) the trip to Lake Gairdner where the Dry Lake Racers of Australia hold their annual Speedweek is a long one from pretty much all of the habitable places in the country .This doesn't of course include Sydney , well Sydney is a long way from the lake but who'd wanna live there....Lake Gairdner is 135 miles from the nearest town and what Drewfus didn't point out is that the last 100 is dirt and the part of the road that is pictured below is one of the better bits....it sorts 'em out I tell ya


and when you get there you meet the strangest people....



....man I should'nt have had that last one , the twenty before it were fine .....but I think that last one might have been off......

[Drewfus]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

Lake Gairdner is 135 miles from the nearest town and what Drewfus didn't point out is that the last 100 is dirt and the part of the road that is pictured below is one of the better bits....it sorts 'em out I tell ya

that it will....(heres a 'bigger' picture since you mentioned my lack of detail....don't ask how long it took to climb that snake infested hill...)

Note: that's the salt (the white bit) to the far left of centre....

Originally Posted by Dr Giggles

....man I should'nt have had that last one , the twenty before it were fine .....but I think that last one might have been off......

still, a few 'schooners' short of a slab.... so close, but so far...

Cheers,

Drewfus

[reverend hedgash]

Ok, as per request here are some design renders for the tank, some are old, some are new, but you get the idea of different thoughts.

3D modelling has been handy, but nothing has been like just building the 1:1.

I think the best thing about building the computer model was it made the end point seem real and get-able (and desirable!). We could show the render to those that do not understand and say that this was what we were building, even when what they were looking at in the garage were a pile of cardboard tubes and bits from a Ford Laser...

It was good to check different ideas out like how to approach the canopy, where the wheels looked best, etc.

Given it was a millimetre perfect drawing, we could measure up parts as we found them and check for fitment within the tank. As we couldn't weld aluminium when we started the project we were hesitant to cut up the tank at all and so having a virtual one to cut up helped us be free-er with our imagination and testing of ideas.

We are now using it to design colour schemes. I'd like to have it a different colour each year so one look in a photograph and we know what year it was taken. Also too many options to have just one scheme. The blue version here has been rejected... too Ford!

Reverend H+

[Drewfus]

G'day Rev, was waiting for you to chirp up....

Originally Posted by reverend hedgash

I think the best thing about building the computer model was it made the end point seem real and get-able. We could show the render to those that do not understand and say that this was what we were building, even when what they were looking at were a pile of cardboard tubes and bits from a Ford Laser...

the best element/feature 3d modelling offers is quick and effective illustration of a idea....now that I work on it all day, everyday, I'm convinced this is true.

As far as the colour schemes, stick with your original (and best version) for the time being, it really 'suits' that car, and is of a timeless appeal....

Cheers,

Drewfus

[celibaterifle]

Hey Rev, Dr G & Drewfus

Trying to get a grip on organizing this trip to the salt. Where's the best place to camp - back at the homestead or out at the campground beside the lake?

As spectators can we drive a vehicle onto the salt? Have been getting conflicting stories on this.

How bad is the road in? Will have at least one motorhome in the group.

Will have 8-10 salt virgins making the journey next year - any advice you can give?

Thanks

celibate

[Mercmad]

Next march will be 10 years since I blew my trans at lake Gairdner( never should have used Frod parts...),I'd dearly love to get back again ,the roadsters(#152) been sitting since then.. .
If any Qlders need a helper next March send me a PM.
To those who think that running 150mph on the street is fast,try it on the salt when you have genuine FIA timing gear checking the lies from the truth.. ,it's a lot fuckin'harder than you think.

[Mercmad]

Originally Posted by celibaterifle

Hey Rev, Dr G & Drewfus

Trying to get a grip on organizing this trip to the salt. Where's the best place to camp - back at the homestead or out at the campground beside the lake?

As spectators can we drive a vehicle onto the salt? Have been getting conflicting stories on this.

How bad is the road in? Will have at least one motorhome in the group.

Will have 8-10 salt virgins making the journey next year - any advice you can give?

Thanks

celibate

I camped at the edge of the Lake in a Toyo coaster where Rosco Mc Glashin had built a camp site.That didn't go down too well with the old dear at Mt Ive..who was charging for camp sites.
How bad is the road.?..see above Pics. Tape everything up with duct tape to keep out the red dust and bring lots of water. You'd want to drive onto the salt because it's too damn far to walk and if you're from Orange,leave the woolies at home and bring long sleeved light clothes , hats and sunblock.I'ts glary like you would'nt believe and you don't want to get the dreaded carcinoma just because you wanted to experience the salt. Bring a good swag because it's fuckin' cold at night if you sleep alone.

[Dr Goggles]

.............hey Mercmad...there's a Queerslanders thread on the DLRA message board(www.dlra.org.au/forum)....those guys are having a Xmas do at Don Noble's joint.......might be worth a look in...

Celibate , I'll give you my tips on going when I get home , this server I'm on ain't stable and it dumped me when I tried last time ( it was a novel!)...............

[celibaterifle]

Originally Posted by Mercmad

bring long sleeved light clothes , hats and sunblock.I'ts glary like you would'nt believe and you don't want to get the dreaded carcinoma just because you wanted to experience the salt.

Already onto this one - warned others making the trip that if they want to wear shorts make sure they were jocks or rub some sunblock on the family jewels

I presume the flys are bad. They were pretty bad a number of years ago when I went to lake eyre.

[Dr Goggles]

Mr Rifle,
the first year we went we had food for every meal and then some...the next year we went we cut down a little bit..each time it became a bit simpler. This year I intend having all dinners at the canteen on the edge of the lake and won't be taking any perishable food at all.The wastage and expense plus hassle of managing food that has to be kept cold ain't worth it when there are so many other things you can spend time on while you're there. At the end of the day the best place to be is at the canteen, talking shit with people and having a cold beer rather than cooking for a crew
you can't seem to get in one place at one time on a stove that is a pain with food that is going off.

Camp next to the lake , there are cold showers there , if you get sunburnt ( and you will) a cold shower is heaven...the problem with staying at the members camp or at the station is that you have to drive to and from the lake that costs time fuel and the roads are hell.Camp where you can walk to and from the canteen, where you can hear the first cars start on the lake and where the ground is sandy , everywhere else it's gibber desert.

Make sure when you're going as spectators that you have a chair each , a good set of boots for off the lake, a camera , lots of water that is drinkable ( there isn't any in Sth Aus) a sizable esky as there is ice for sale on the lake , cameras ,some binoculars , some half decent UHF radios , a registered pit bike if you can fit it somewhere , cash in small denominations , a first aid kit with plenty of wound treatments, painkillers , eye wash , sterile saline , burn creme ( like aloe) and maybe Lomatil or the like.....also it is a good idea to take Staminade or a powdered version of a similar electrolyte replenisher....people get heat stressed out there...they also get hung-over and f*** up by getting dehydrated .....one year I had the flu and then slipped and fell out of the back of the truck just to make me feel better, last year on the way back I got gastro ...42 degrees at Gawler changing the Harmonic balancer with the squits was murder.

this all makes it sound pretty full on , it is , but that is part of what makes it such a stunning experience....time flies ...but the flies aren't that bad ...at least on the lake.... Because of this and due to the nature of the trip in don't let anyone think they can "go for just a day"...it isn't possible to drive in and out in a 24 hour period and see much....you will spend the drive home wishing you'd made the most of the fact that you'd got there in the first place .....arriving at the lake for the first time is an emphatic experience....like seeing the sea when you are a little kid , only bigger.....we came over the rise ...saw the salt and just went " FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK"........and burst out laughing.....we had no idea it was such a bizarre and beautiful place.......and then there is the sound of open headers and a heap of freaks who won't just chew your ear off ...they'll fight to the death over it ........it's unreal .

[Drewfus]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

we had no idea it was such a bizarre and beautiful place.......and then there is the sound of open headers and a heap of freaks who won't just chew your ear off ...they'll fight to the death over it ........it's unreal .

Basically everything the Dr mentioned is spot on, and the above is particularly true, long story cut short, my first 'salt initiation' was with the famous 'Moe boys', these guys look like rough and crazy bunch of bikers, kinda intimidating, due to circumstance, the guys I was helping 'crew' with had not yet arrived, and they invited me in, made me a sandwich, and shouted me a cordial.....then yakked for hours whilst sipping tea and biscuits...

Best advice, be prepared as the trip is long and rugged, but once your there, your perserverance and frustration will be rewarded.

The other part, to really make the experience unreal.......get involved in some way shape or form, help out (as the DLRA are just regular guys volenteering), take a vehicle to race, this will give a depth to the experience that will live with you forever.

Cheers,

Drewfus

[Mercmad]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

.............hey Mercmad...there's a Queerslanders thread on the DLRA message board(www.dlra.org.au/forum)....those guys are having a Xmas do at Don Noble's joint.......might be worth a look in...

Celibate , I'll give you my tips on going when I get home , this server I'm on ain't stable and it dumped me when I tried last time ( it was a novel!)...............

I'll do that,beats spending time with the nephews ,neices etc...
heres a pic I took of Charlie and the Crew in '98 having a quiet breakfast...or three.

[reverend hedgash]

Cellbait,

I drive the Chev motorhome each year to the salt and it is a haven on the salt (has its own wc and cooking facilities) and off (sleeping out of the wind and in a bed has obvious rewards).

Although we have had a few mechanical problems over the years, the track in has not been a problem (although I pretty much got it airborne one year through a particularly nasty gully that appeared a bit too quickly...)

All I can say is take it easy on the way in. You have made it that far and although you'll be champing at the throttle to get to the lake you'd be kicking yourself if you blew it on the way in.

Some knob tailgating a competitor once rear ended him as he slowed for a cattle-grate so respect for competitors going in traveling a little slower to save their precious cargo would be much appreciated too.

[Dr Goggles]

When I look at those three photo's of the members camp( post No 51) I laugh every time .The first year I went to the lake I travelled over with Ben James with his Duke on the trailer . Ben is a very even tempered guy ,I'd known him for fifteen years and had never seen him "lose it"...me? I'm not your angry type ..nor am I the bottle it up type either and in most cases I'll let you know what I'm feeing...

So , we're heading down to the lake ..it's early and it's stinkin' hot, dusty as blazes and we're feeling a little frayed ..as we drive out of the yard near the big shed there Ben notices a spare fall off the mostly empty bike trailer( I'd just tied it there..."1")...."I'll get it Benny"..."chuck it on the roof rack Stew".., " nah , It'll dint the roof...." I sort of tie it on again , "2".....we get about twenty yards , it falls off...."...just chuck it the roof Stew..." I jump out and tie it through the middle of the wheel and down to the wheel channel on the trailer "3"...I get back in the car...Ben is a little bit quiet.....we take off he's in second and I'm just turning to him to make some joke about knots when he slams on the brakes , I kind of hit the dash and when we stop Ben has his head leaning on both of his hands at the 12 o'clock position on the steering wheel ,no , the knot didn't come undone but the wheel was bouncing along behind the trailer like a balloon behind a bicycle..."Just put it on the roof will ya Stew"

As we left the lake that year we were driving along about half way through the dirt section when I saw an emu standing in the middle of the road looking towards us , I said " ...emu , Ben " ...."Yeah Stew".... I think Ben was enjoying the silence...I noticed though that the car didn't "react"......the emu was getting closer "emu Ben"..."yeah Stew" said Ben in a kind of a chuckle....out of the corner of my eye I could see Benny staring straight ahead with his whole head in a plume of cigarette smoke , the car , once again, didn't react ............."F*****G EMU BEN!!!!!!"...."Oh Shit!"...the car and trailer crossed up a little bit but managed to slow just enough in time for the emu to sort of lope off the road.....I nearly got a lap dance off an emu.

here's a shot of the Souter's Ford , drove there and back...

[Drewfus]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

I notice you're one for a reflection Drewfus....

Photography is partially about capturing a moment in time, a 'reflection' of sorts, with the detail being captured, and highlighted as the world passes by..... and yes, I like the story in a story...




Can you see the irony?



I gotta back off the green cordial.....not a good thing to have at work...

Cheers,

Drewfus

[celibaterifle]

Thanks Mercmad, Doctor, Reverend & Drewfus. Appreciate the advice.

Apologise for hijacking the thread Dr. Just discovered the forum at the DLRA website.

[Dr Goggles]

phew , I'm back ....got started on the lock-out of the gear shift last week...it works and all it needs now is a bit of a fine tune ... before I build the "real" one....

we put up a list of what we need to do before we go to Lake Gairdner next year.... here's the Good Reverend Professor with his pointer dealing with a few of the insolents from the front of the class...at this point he was about to give me a detention....



we had to stop the fume problem ...that meant nailing the seal between the body and the frame at the firewall , not being able to access this point was making even measuring this gap difficult , let alone coming up with some sort of remedy...so we cut the tub at the firewall....This was a pretty drastic measure but the more we thought about it the more sense it made .,...every time we wanted to get at the lower engine bay we'd had to drop the tub off ...that meant removing the bones and the tie rods ...as well as all of the machine screws around the front of the bodywork....on top of that the tub was difficult to remove and particularly to replace for one person ....and particularly difficult not to scratch while doing so

here's the amputation..




then the Rev made these neat little pieces to fill the gaps



Today I started on three separate jobs ..the vacu-pan arrangement , made from the pieces I scrounged from the wreckers yard ...it's all going well... the piece that we cut off the tub which is basically the lower engine bay needs a bit of bodywork...and that's my department and I welded in the bits that are pictured above......

Elsewhere I finished what I was doing on my panel van ...I ended up painting the bottom in PPG DP and then black QD with Schuttz in the wheel arches , changed the gearbox and neatened up some lines and welds , the clutch slave is partially seized so that will be coming out again...thankfully the motor started just like clockwork again after the refit.Here's a photo of the old girl in front of the canteen at Lake Gairdner in '06 just after the sun went down , Larry Lague who was there with the Ack Attack streamliner team took the shot...check out the stars

[Dr Goggles]

here's a PM that I thought I'd post with the reply .......

Originally Posted by sawzall

just wondering
what car are these throttle bodies off of?
and what wiring are you using to run the fuel injection?

Hi sawzall
at the moment the motor and management are largely stock. Here in Aus' this was used in a 1989 GM Commodore , it was the first version of the V6 they used here, then they went to the Ecotec , now we have the Alloytec which I've pictured above somewhere in the thread. The throttle bodies are just two of the standard ones from the motor using the senders in only one of them. I cut and shut the idle by-pass off the one on the right hand side and welded up the various vacuum fittings as well . Currently we're just using a stock manual computer with a view to going to a Mega-squirt or ideally a Mo-Tec . The injection is dumb-ass ...not sequential . we toyed with the idea of making the opening of the throttles graduated but in the test run we had it ran and idled fine and didn't stumble so I'm glad we didn't bother with it.

[Dr Goggles]

I made some "inner moons" for the front of the Lakester yesterday .....just flat 2mm Al plate. I got a piece of 1 inch steel strap and marked the circumference I wanted , the size of the hub hole and screwed it to the center of the plate and marked it with a scriber then cut the plate with a jig saw with a wood blade and a generous slobber of CIMTAP which I've found to be just the stuff for cutting Al .Before cutting out the hub hole I got a hole saw and using the center guide hole cut out the exact size of the spindle , pressed the disc on and then marked the mounting holes........they look like this and especially for Drewfus I've managed to get a reflection of the roll hoop in 'em.......Love ya brother



Next up I was wondering whether anyone had handy hints for mounting Moon caps.....is welding nuts around the perimeter of the rim the best way to go?.......

[Mercmad]

I really don't think there is any advantage to sequential injection and the megasquirt with ignition control would do you just fine. It's a damn site cheaper with better support anyway than Motec.
Envious is the only emotion i can think of at the moment.... i only hope this weather doesn't bring down too much rain up north because the lakes will be beginning to fill in march if that happens.
The Darling system has already had heaps of flooding ,the first in 8 years .

[Mercmad]

New Years resolution,fix the ass drainage hole in floor ...

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by Mercmad

. i only hope this weather doesn't bring down too much rain up north because the lakes will be beginning to fill in march if that happens.
The Darling system has already had heaps of flooding ,the first in 8 years .

I'll have some sort of flip-out if it gets canceled again , second only to Dave my mate with the RX7...he turned around in '06 coz he heard it was off( it lost three days but went ahead) so he hasn't been since 05..........

I'm friggin desperate to get there.

Just standing on the salt at about 6.30am , slight cool breeze, low sun angle ,various motors goin' through start-up and a few people standin' around eating cereal , grins on their faces ...bloodshot eyes....bit sun-burnt....

Colonel Grump said yesterday " I'm not looking forward to the drive there , not the drive home either ...I just wanna be there".....hallelujah brother!!!
This shot below was taken after what is called the "new drivers meeting" when there is a tour of the track , next to that cone on the right you can see one of the timing lights so this is probably the three mile marker , in the distance back center you can see the pits...........


PS .at the top of that shot of the chalk-board it says "Install Chalk-board" naturally , that's ticked off.

[Casey]

what a great read . good luck guys !

[Gary 4T950 Chevy Guy]

I really like that yellow car - it looks like FUN!!!!

[Dr Goggles]

Hey Gary being a Chevy guy , when you said you liked the yellow car I hope you meant the 239 bellytanker and not the 131 Ford Coupe......just kidding , I'm a GM guy but I love that coupe .......it's an XA much the same as the Mad Max or Road Warrior car.....

[Mark in Japan]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

Hey Gary being a Chevy guy , when you said you liked the yellow car I hope you meant the 239 bellytanker and not the 131 Ford Coupe......just kidding , I'm a GM guy but I love that coupe .......it's an XA much the same as the Mad Max or Road Warrior car.....

SCHWIIIIIING

[Mercmad]

It's got to the sad point that it feels like there are more of those Falcons in the USA than are here in OZ now. Theres even a mad max clone racing in Portland Oregan at the Drags, complete with sunraysia wheels.

[Dr Goggles]

The only time I've been genuinely scared in a car was in an XB coupe about 25 years ago . We left the parking spot sideways , I was just out of school and the guy driving was working for the landscaper I had some holiday work with , he had a few missing teeth ,lots of tatts that a shirt wouldn't cover and had racked up a lot of time. The car felt like it was on wet grass , sideways , speedway style corners and it was loud . It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon in one of the quieter 'burbs too. I've been in roll-overs and some real near misses including an 80 mph crash in a Fairlane but this was frightening coz he just drove with absolute abandon and the car was seriously fast , I'm not the best passenger on a good day and this was less than ideal........ I will never forget him just decking it moments after it started , the whole car lifting and moving sideways to the middle of the road almost before it went forward and then slingshotting down a slight hill toward an XJ6 Jag sitting directly in front of us at a T intersection..we didn't hit it , or anything else for that matter which was a wonder 'cause we're not talking about a car that handled , at all.But of course as you all know too well , if I had my time over , I'd be sitting right there , shitting myself all over again

[Mercmad]

Check OZ ebay sometime to see the insane money that they fetch..
But sadly Fords were mere players in the 70's ..

[Dr Goggles]

I was standing at the counter of the rego branch when I registered my ute recently , there's a guy next to me with black and white NSW plates BIG 049 ...."they're for an E49 huh?"...."Yeah they are , I just bought it"......"If ya don't mind me askin'....how much was it?" "hundred and eighty , but I've been offered two twenty since I paid coz I'm known collector and it's genuine"......"gee , that's um , a lot!" "yeah , I've got another one I bought in 1974 and a couple of nice other cars.." , "like?" ......"like a Strike Me Pink XU1"........"but there's only........?"......" "supposedly six"

Four and a half years ago a guy I had a shop with bought an E38 big tank for 25 dissassembled .........he thought he got ripped off , it was forty by the time it was all painted............

I won't divulge the full details of a very good friends HK Bathurst except to say it is under 40k miles and all original , the full whack.

If "if and buts" was beer and nuts .......we'd be havin' one hell of a party

[Mark in Japan]

The holidays seem to REALLY do something for your storytelling doctor...I could really picture myself in that XB Coupe with Angry Anderson as a landscaper !

[Dr Goggles]

Ok , Ok , Ok ….it’s been a long time since I posted , and not without reason. I have tried to make this diary here a bit more of a condensed version of some of the other message boards that we’ve posted and used it to tell the story in bigger slabs than the almost day to day commentary on the others.We’ve been hard at it trying to get the tank ready for Speedweek here which starts on the 3^rd of March , we’ll be perfecting this thing for years but before we do that we have to make it all work properly AND pass the scrutineering that it is subjected to before it races

So , lately there been a fair bit going on….We’ve built a parachute bay on the top of the tail . We struggled for a while trying to work out a way to secure the ‘bay doors once they had opened in order to stop them from flapping open and shut and causing fouling of the ‘chute lines or just being torn off . The solution seems a little crude but it works and as we all know at the pointy end of things it’s better to have an ugly one that works than a pretty one that doesn’t , we can make a pretty one later Here’s a shot , of the bay , but before we put in the anchor point for the ‘chute………
I’ve also made a new steering wheel . I got a piece of 10mm aluminium plate and drew the pattern onto it and just cut it out with a jig saw . I drilled the spars and made the finger grip parts with a small hole saw before I cut out the main parts…….Vaughn my fitter and turner mate has been cleaning it up for me , bit of filing and truing up .He’s also made a centre cap for it which is the same pattern as the moon discs that we have on the car

We put a set of heavy duty valve springs on the motor last weekend so we’re hoping it will still be making power over 6500rpm , it has the twin throttle bodies and a severely ported set of heads as well as the nice headers and big exhaust.

I've made a better version of the twin stick gearshift as well....more soon

[reverend hedgash]

For those that don't know the 2008 Speedweek in Lake Gairdner has been postponed and probably canceled for this year due to a wet lake surface.

MAJOR bummer but we will continue on.

We finally had the parachute mechanism operating sweetly just before hearing the news, and the gear stick assembly is the best it has ever been.

We'll move onto completing bodywork and the like but are pretty deflated at the moment. Four and a half years work and still no salt action (the event was cancelled last year the DAY we were leaving for the salt...!)

rH+

[Drewfus]

Originally Posted by reverend hedgash

but are pretty deflated at the moment. Four and a half years work and still no salt action rH+

Keep the faith Rev, keep the faith....your turn to soar is coming.......

Cheers,

Brother Drewfus

P.S. more build pics required.....maybe you should do a thread on that slick streamliner that's got everyone talking....

[Dr Goggles]

Hi All .....well after the cancellation again this year of the Dry Lake Racers of Australia annual Speedweek meet there has been precious little done at the home of the Spirit of Sunshine..... News of the cancellation came through right about the time that we were going to paint the 'tank and now five weeks later it's sitting there , well you know, with the remnants of the old paint on it and not much else ....

We got the 'chute mechanism functioning well and then got the extra fire systems put in and then we kind of lost momentum. In frustration and because the holidays were booked anyway a mate Pete and I decided we'd head over to Lake Gairdner just to see the salt anyway and while we were there have a look at another of the salt lakes in the area to see whether it would be suitable to use as a racing venue.......diesel Troop carrier a bit of camping gear a few supplies and we were off. We took push bikes as taking a vehicle onto an unfamiliar salt lake in a remote area ain't necessarily a smart idea....
We got to Lake Gairdner the second day and went straight down to the salt. It was immediately apparent that the decision to cancel the meet had been a prudent one as the access area to the salt was slushy . Lake Gairdner is a National Park and the powers that be are very sensitive to anything that damage the appearance of the lake particularly at the point at the end of the road where most people who make the effort to go out there arrive .The Parks service had closed all vehicle access to the lake when the race meet was cancelled so we put the bikes together hitched up the little trailer with the chilly-bin and some camera gear and headed out across the lake toward where the track would normally be . It was real hard going at first with the tyres sinking about two inches in as we rode ,after about two hundred yards it began to firm up and a quarter mile out it was rock hard. There were some strange salt formations and a heavily granulated surface unlike i'd seen before. we'd decided to ride directly into a northerly headwind so we could sail back....

We got out to where the 2 mile mark of the track would be and stopped to take some photo's ...this one show's the coarseness of the salt ...


We stayed that night at the members camp five miles from the lake . The next day we drove around the western edge of the lake travelling about 180 miles on the dirt to get to the Stuart highway where could go east again toward Woomera . Woomera has been used as a rocket testing range and has been the launching place for satellites as well as the site of several tracking stations. That night we stayed on the edge of Island Lagoon another big salt lake north east of Gairdner...... this is Conical Hill in the upper eastern arm of the lake , the salt here was just a thin crust.....not suitable for racing


The part of Island Lagoon that we wanted to check out was the eastern edge further south of where we were but according to the people who run the pastoral lease on that edge of the lake access is very limited so we didn't get to have a look........

The next day we drove to Broken hill in Central New South Wales and then up to Silverton and stayed at the Silverton Pub where we hooked up with a couple of club members ,one , Chris Fraser, owns the pub and just for our entertainment fired up this blown methanol 454 ,
he told the missus he had to kill some mosquitoes..., well it worked...I got out my guitar and sang a bunch of car songs for our supper , it was a great night .....the next day we drove the 550 miles back to Melbourne we'd done 1800 miles in four days and most of the time it was over 100 degrees...

[nexxussian]

Sounds like a good time.

What's a 'Push Bike'?

[Dr Goggles]

A push bike or "pushie" is a bicycle Nex.....BTW i neglected to mention that the Silverton Hotel is a very busy film location and is where Mad Max 2or "the Road Warrior" was mostly shot . Sitting out the front is a replica of the "Interceptor" of which there is a photo on the previous page of this thread.....
be good.....

[18n57]

I think you are all certified nutters, but I love your post and love the belly tank. Keep up the noble effort

[Dr Goggles]

thanks for the flattery 18n57 that'll get you everywhere here....now , here's a photo from the test and tune day we did at Mangalore airport last year ...it was shot by Andrius Lipsys...this is a low resolution version ...I'll replace it when I get a better one.....that's Rev Hedgash on the left( yeah the boiler suit Honkey) and Grumm our engine man on the right ...I'm hiding in the car...



Well ?, come on ....did ya car ever sleep with ya best friend....or try and take half yer house?

[nexxussian]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

A push bike or "pushie" is a bicycle Nex.....BTW i neglected to mention that the Silverton Hotel is a very busy film location and is where Mad Max 2or "the Road Warrior" was mostly shot . Sitting out the front is a replica of the "Interceptor" of which there is a photo on the previous page of this thread.....
be good.....

Thanks, I was wondering.

Do I hafta

[Dr Goggles]

Hey-up
It's been quiet here at the Spirit of Sunshine laboratories ...the Speedweek cancellation was a blow and we've taken the opportunity to catch up on some much needed work elsewhere , I've been working on my gut and also my unfitness ( as opposed to working on my fitness)......but I did get back the steering wheel that I made from our fitter and turner mate Vaughn who finished the center cap for it



I made it out of half inch plate with a hole saw a jig saw a drill press and a grinder ...I've got all the hi-tech tools

[Drewfus]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

but I did get back the steering wheel that I made from our fitter and turner mate Vaughn who finished the center cap for it


I made it out of half inch plate with a hole saw a jig saw a drill press and a grinder ...I've got all the hi-tech tools

Your obviously not married with kids........that must have taken yonks to do.....job well done

Cheers,

Drewfus

[Brootal]

You made the steering wheel and you couldn't do the centre cap?

I'd hate to think what you could build with a lathe! LOL

[Dr Goggles]

Sheesh , I tried to post a response to Boris aaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnddddd....boy o' boy did I stuff up...apols to anyone who copped what I posted ( I cut and pasted something from my email by mistake) ....it was probably the fastest ever edit/delete in HAMB history....of course what I was trying to post was the long winded explanation of how I made the steering wheel...of course that was gone ......I'll get to it...

[Brootal]

I hope you understand it was a compliment... of sorts.

Don't you hate it when you type up some lengthy response to something and then something weird happens and you lose the lost. It's happened to me a bunch of times and I can never quite get across the original meaning second time around.

[grumm441]

Don't you hate it more when the response you type is to something completely different and you have to quickly delete it before anyone sees it
.
Oh and hi all.
I'm the short fat bloke in the cap holding the walkie talkie in the black and white photo in Goggs post

Grumm

[ceegrey]

You know Life really is a do it yourself thing and you have really done it. Congratulations hope to see it at the lake one day Regards C.G

[Dr Goggles]

Thanks CG ...I have to get some more stuff posted here, I have to admit it's been a quiet year on the tank but we're slowly building up steam again.....I'll get some stuff up soon.....are you building something for the lake........

[nexxussian]

Glad to hear the tank is still progressing, looking forward to more pics.

I left Pops unattended at B-ville and he bought a Berkeley, so looks like I'm going to be working on a straighliner myself .

[remingtonbox]

this is badass! What does a good tank cost? I might start a project like this in my spare time

[nexxussian]

Originally Posted by remingtonbox

this is badass! What does a good tank cost? I might start a project like this in my spare time

What's that?

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by remingtonbox

this is badass! What does a good tank cost? I might start a project like this in my spare time

I was gonna start some rave about how much time and money went into this but then ....who the hell wants to hear that...and who the hell on this board ever built ANYTHING cool that didn't take a lot of time or effort or money or skill or all or any of that combination.

Sure ,someone is going to get up on their hind legs and say "my next door neighbour/cousin/dad/sister's boyfriend's best mates mechanic built the coolest rat rod one weekend from parts he found in a field and it'll whup yo ass".............. The truth is there are only a couple of things in life that are fun and free ,or even cheap......

When you start building something like our bellytank you have some basic assumptions , then the fever takes hold. Next thing you join victim-support groups , you start finding yourself amongst bad company...the kind of people who'll do things that you never thought you'd stoop to, the kind of people who see what you used to think was decadent and extravagant as commonplace .Your judgment is affected , you're gone.

We don't care. It cost at least five times what we thought it would. It took five times as long and it's not properly finished.We have only driven it on one day for a total of four( or six I can't remember I was so excited) times.We've made almost every single part by ourselves,in the back shed, there is no other bellytank the same.

There is no catalog, no template, no bunch of bitchy ,sneering "that's not the correct-ol'-skool-back-in-the-day-way" bunch of high school peer group types.... it has opened up a mad mad world of do it yourselfer types who couldn't give a flying f what anyone thinks because they're having the times of their lives....and we're in there with 'em.

go for it Remington'

[johnk320]

Very, very cool!!! I've been talking to my son about building a belly tank after I finish my gasser. Found a site that sells fiberglass tanks and SCTA certified frames for a reasonable price (http://www.hotrodssuperstore.com/p38beltanfib.html). Looks like this might be an affordable way to get started. Our goal isn't to set records, just to have fun. Thinking an inline 6 cyl backed by an auto trans. Haven't got past the dreaming stage. Will be keeping close tabs on your efforts. Good luck from Erie, PA, USA.

[Dr Goggles]

Wayno, who signs on here( and landracing.com) as Elmo Rodge sells 'em...he posted on this thread so look him up and tell him I sent you .

the Dr

[johnk320]

Thanks, Doc. I'll do that....

[Drewfus]

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

I was gonna start some rave about how much time and money went into this but then ....who the hell wants to hear that...and who the hell on this board ever built ANYTHING cool that didn't take a lot of time or effort or money or skill or all or any of that combination.

Sure ,someone is going to get up on their hind legs and say "my next door neighbour/cousin/dad/sister's boyfriend's best mates mechanic built the coolest rat rod one weekend from parts he found in a field and it'll whup yo ass".............. The truth is there are only a couple of things in life that are fun and free ,or even cheap......

When you start building something like our bellytank you have some basic assumptions , then the fever takes hold. Next thing you join victim-support groups , you start finding yourself amongst bad company...the kind of people who'll do things that you never thought you'd stoop to, the kind of people who see what you used to think was decadent and extravagant as commonplace .Your judgment is affected , you're gone.

We don't care. It cost at least five times what we thought it would. It took five times as long and it's not properly finished.We have only driven it on one day for a total of four( or six I can't remember I was so excited) times.We've made almost every single part by ourselves,in the back shed, there is no other bellytank the same.

There is no catalog, no template, no bunch of bitchy ,sneering "that's not the correct-ol'-skool-back-in-the-day-way" bunch of high school peer group types.... it has opened up a mad mad world of do it yourselfer types who couldn't give a flying f what anyone thinks because they're having the times of their lives....and we're in there with 'em.

go for it Remington'

Rule No. 1 - build it, passion should not be directed by practicality or rational reasoning....every time I hear someone say "you spend all that time and money but only race once a year...." I know that they just don't grasp what you're doing

More progress Dr.....do tell

Cheers,

Drewfus

[Dr Goggles]

here's a photo' from The DlRA's Speedweek 2009, we ran the car and there's a story below which has been put up elsewhere....hope ya like it all...



OK, the week started with rain,we got in Sat night and copped it as we tried to erect the tent. A miserable night with on and off rain and blustery winds. Sunday there was a general feeling of disarray as we all wondered, walked back and forth to the lake to check the situation and chit chat went on on the UHF , the good thing though was that it was blowing a southerly and it wasn't raining. There was grumbling as word went around about a film crew who'd shot a car ad and apparently dumped thousands of litres of water at the entrance ramp to the lake when they washed their gear the day they left.

Come Monday the situation improved again and the word was that we could get onto the lake on Tuesday.We headed out and set up our pit, unloaded the car and got everything organised.There were a couple of hitches. We'd never attached the canopy with the tub on the car and that proved to be a hassle as we weren't in any hurry to hoist the car onto the stands,after we'd done that we went looking for the third fire bottle that Grumm had brought from Melbourne, it was the wrong size. Our fire system supplier had sent us a new one when one failed a test.It was too big and wouldn't fit into the spot where it was supposed to go, technically we could run without it as we weren't going 200 this year, so we removed the mount.In a happy ending another crew had a non-compliant fire system and the bottle we couldn't use got them through.

We were the last car scrutineered on Tuesday, apart from a few small issues which were noted in the log-book for attention we cruised through. It was a strange feeling as they handed us the sticker and said, "congratulations boys , you can go racing".

Wednesday morning we started early and took the car to the test track.I got in , belted up, fired her up and took off. The test track was very rough and our car has no suspension and less than two inches of clearance . It was immediately apparent that the clearance on the cheek bars in the cage were too tight and the rock hard SFI padding was transferring vibration to the helmet, I couldn't see, anything. It felt as though there were two people using my head as a speed-ball.I got back to where everyone was waiting and flipped the canopy up..." it's f***** , I can't see "........it was a very low feeling .Apart from that the car seemed great , it wanted to go, sounded good and felt right. We took it back to the pit and pulled out the SFI padding on the cheek bars and put in the softer "you'll go to hell" red stuff and went straight back to the test track. This time I could see , I had to concentrate on trying not to lift my head up and try to see over the tacho, that made for less vibration....it stepped out nicely as I gunned it back towards the crew.

"Let's put it in line" , it was about 4pm before we were called in our group of ten to the start line. From the marshalling area I drove straight into the crunchies and couldn't see... we are too low to easily see the graded areas and once there is fine vibration the cones are hard to spot, fortunately the guy behind me drove past....I followed him to the start line keeping my distance as he seemed to be able to brake a whole lot better than me.

The vibration issue had me deeply concerned, I had the worst case of pre-gig jitters I've ever had and was at that point convinced I was going to struggle to see well enough to avoid taking out either trackmarkers or timing gear, I decided that I would abort if it was too severe ,my guts were churning.

Next thing I'm on the line, it's really hot and my sunglasses are fogging so I push them to the end of my nose, I'm trying to remember a million things at once...there's banter going on between the starters and Cookey the timer "it's Dr Goggles for his inaugural run....give him a pat on the head for me "......then Cled the chief starter gives me the rolling signal.

The car goes and sounds good I take it to four grand in second ( we start in second gear) and shove the stick forward against the lock out , grab the front stick and it snicks into third ..............as I get into it I realise there is no vibration ,the track is as smooth as a baby's bum. I've got the shift light set at 3750 which should be 125 in top gear, it blinks as I change into fourth. It comes on again as I pass the mile marker.

The quarter trap is at the 3 mile, the start is at the one so I've got a mile of this before the lights .I settle in , I listen to the motor as I hover around 3750, make a note that there are fumes and that I may have burned the clutch on the trip to the line. I'm sticking to the right side of the track looking out through the screen to the right of the tacho and watching the little cor-flute markers zing by.....at one point there was a bollard that was a little too close for comfort but the car was right at home,it felt like a kiddies ride. 30 degrees of steering castor make for something that just wants to go straight , no shimmies no drift in the wind...it was tame.

The 3mile came up , the light went off briefly so I kicked it a bit. I stood on the clutch pedal and rolled for a few seconds before I shifted back to third the car slowed gradually over the mile and I turned out after the four , I got off the return road for a bit into the crunchies , at eighty miles an hour it's pretty severe, found the road again and headed back to the pits where I rolled up to the end of the staging line. Grumm lifted the canopy ...."nice one , you did 114". A huge weight had been lifted, the car that we built in the back yard , went, it did what it was supposed to do, it had no bad habits, it wasn't broken and the vision aspect wasn't an issue on the properly prepared track.

Next it was the Reverends turn to do his 125 pass , he was to run in Fuel class which has never been contested at Gairdner.Just as we were called to the start line the battery refused to start the car , we towed him there and did a battery change at the start line area, there is no "idiot light" so the alternator wasn't charging under 2000rpm We wound the shift light up to 4000....I'd left the gearing charts at home and the 3750 figure was from memory. Due to the number of entrants it was 24 hours after my 125 pass before he got to run...me behaving like a dad at junior sports day the Rev at his Zen like best...wandering around seemingly unconcerned about anything...." get in the bloody car Dik".

Off he went. It was an indescribable feeling to see the car speeding away from me and although it’s a V6 that’s still very stock it sounded sweet. He too ran 114 which as a matter of course was a record, when he got to the pits it was straight onto the end of the line . We were number 22 when the course was closed for the day.

My 150 license pass had a little sweetener . No-one has run an E class Gas Lakester since 1998 and the record was set at 145mph. Within the stipulations I could run to 165 for my license which is what I intended to do. I left the line and the car felt great , I got into it a little harder than I had and was pulling 138 after the first mile and the motor was singing with the speed climbing steadily. I got to the three mile at 160 , the GPS was showing 162 163 when the car began missing ……momentarily I thought “Dodge, don’t let me down now” when I remembered that I hadn’t flicked the fuel pump over-ride and the pump was cutting out at 5200 rpm.

I got to the pits and again Grumm opened the canopy and said “congratulations you did 161”, once again the car was a pussycat , straight as a die.

It was Friday and there were thirty cars ahead of us, word went around that if the competitors stayed to help dismantle the track equipment that everybody in the line would get a run.

The Rev was suited up , the signage on the car changed to E/FL and off he went on his 150 pass , a bit of an over rev on 3 to 4 but the car sounded sweet. We set off in the chase car as the radio announced he’d run 152 , a quick check over the pits as we passed to make sure he hadn’t beaten us there as we headed out the return road…..no not there, about two miles out we saw the “Taxi” headed toward us …he’d run after the Rev…..we turned around..”he must be in the pits” just then Grumm came along on a scooter” where is he?” …”we couldn’t see him in the pits”….OK “ “I’ll go back and check again , you go on and call Northern rescue”…..we called the rescue guys” Support crew for the red and white Lakester , we cannot find the car”, they came screaming toward us with lights flashing and as they got closer they pointed out towards one of the islands….There he was , a mile off into the crunchies.

As we got to the car I hung out the window with a thumbs up “Heeeeyyyyyyy”……but he wasn’t in it, he was nowhere to be seen , and there were no footprints. Standing there with puzzled looks on our faces we made jokes about him being abducted by aliens…..then another support vehicle turned up , he got out with a huge grin on his face, he’d missed the five mile turn off, got the sixth but promptly lost sight of the road and after being belted around inside the car his knee broke the back off our kill switch and the car wouldn’t start.

That was the end of the week , we’d achieved everything that was possible in the time we had , the car held up we were all still friends and we’d had one hell of a time.

[Dirtynails]

Such a good read I felt like I was reading it Twice!!!

[Bobby Green]

Fun,... Ain't it ?

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by Bobby Green

Fun,... Ain't it ?

sure is Bobby... love your tank........

[Tarlo]

Well done. I was there too mate, my first time out there with a mate who's been there since day one, and it was a truly life changing trip. I'll put up a huge post of shots when I get my chip back from my traveling companion... I've got shots of your car in there too, plus amazing landscapes and various other killer stuff.

[nexxussian]

Bitchin!

[X38]

Good work Dr Goggles - and the tank looks fantastic!

[hotrodjeep]

Awesome awesome awesome.
My wife and I were in Australiala in Feb. and Mar. of 2007, I knew about speed week but did not attend. We did visit a gentleman’s farm north of Broken Hill ( I forget his name ) and as we were walking towards the barn we passed the garage and inside was this: (first couple photos)

About a week later we caught these pics at a hotel in Broken Hill. Sorry for the dark pics we were returning from the pub at a late hour (last pics)

We also went to the Silverton Hotel, great place ( my wife passed the pub test ) I talked with a group of guys about Ice biking here in Iowa, (dirt bikes, and motorcycles with studded tires on frozen river tracks, fun to watch but cold!!!!!) We will be back at some point, hopefully to see the salt. And have many many beers. Last on in my wife in front of the Silveton Hotel

[hotrodjeep]

Oh I forgot to say how much I love your post and your build.
More More More

[73roundlight]

Nice Tank!

I noticed you forgot something on the check list so I took the liberty to add to it...



Oh and this thing looks like Mad Max drove it! Very cool!

Originally Posted by Dr Goggles

Hey Gary being a Chevy guy , when you said you liked the yellow car I hope you meant the 239 bellytanker and not the 131 Ford Coupe......just kidding , I'm a GM guy but I love that coupe .......it's an XA much the same as the Mad Max or Road Warrior car.....

[Kiwi Kev]

Good stuff! cool car! congratulations on a succesful trip.

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by hotrodjeep

Awesome awesome awesome.
My wife and I were in Australiala in Feb. and Mar. of 2007, I knew about speed week but did not attend. We did visit a gentleman’s farm north of Broken Hill ( I forget his name ) and as we were walking towards the barn we passed the garage and inside was this: (first couple photos)

That would be Trevor Clare's place,he owns that bike with Chris Fraser who is the Publican at the Silverton Hotel, just yesterday I was speaking to him. In that shot it has a scoop like the one on the interceptor( the black Ford there that is built up as a copy of the "Mad Max/ Roadwarrior car), that bike used to have a 6/71 on it, dunno if you noticed but it has a torque convertor in it.

Originally Posted by hotrodjeep

About a week later we caught these pics at a hotel in Broken Hill. Sorry for the dark pics we were returning from the pub at a late hour (last pics)

That streamliner was built by and belongs to Lucky Keizer he used to have a drag bike with the front two pots of a Merlin, he got the 'liner through two license passes at Speedweek this year

Originally Posted by hotrodjeep

We also went to the Silverton Hotel, great place ( my wife passed the pub test ) I talked with a group of guys about Ice biking here in Iowa, (dirt bikes, and motorcycles with studded tires on frozen river tracks, fun to watch but cold!!!!!) We will be back at some point, hopefully to see the salt. And have many many beers. Last one is my wife in front of the Silverton Hotel

Chris and Jo's son Cec' ran at the meet this year at the ripe old age of 15, great place Silverton....you might have even met my mate Tiny.

Thanks to everyone else, Nexx good to see you've bought that Berk, Tarlo get those shots up, roundlight, that's one item we never forget,Dirtynails ..maybe you were seeing double

[radar33]

so cool!!!!

[parksquijada]

when does the blower go on?

beeeeeauuutiful car!



if you need any help over here...pm.......we'll be your wingmen

[mr.smith]

great bellytank, keep up the tradition

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by parksquijada

when does the blower go on?
beeeeeauuutiful car!
if you need any help over here...pm.......we'll be your wingmen

I just need to get down to Aluminium dealer, root through their off-cuts bin and find a sizeable piece of 7/16 plate.

The intricate part of the process then begins where I seek out some extreme grade cardboard as a modelling medium, I might even go completely crazy and lash out on some cor-flute. I still have one stock manifold left and frankly getting flanges made for the inlet just sounds like a whole lot of hard work that I don't want to do, so, I'll chop the top off the stocker as low as I can and lay the walls out at the steepest angle I can in an effort to get a bit of volume in the plenum and still keep the blower low.. Somehow I'm going to have to find the room for the throttle bodies, I'm hoping I can just fit them on top.Another quantum leap we might make is extra injectors...but at this point I'm starting to feel a little light headed with option anxiety ......back to the blower manifold.

Make the plenum parts I want out of cardboard concentrating on symmetry, then fashion the mount for the blower itself ...our main issue is fitting it all under the cowl so we're looking for low profile.It's best if this piece is made from at least 7/16 AL plate or there are going to be sealing issues.....Once the design is kind of happy and the pieces are all "normalized"( straight edges, symmetrical,) then I cut them out with the jig saw .....band saws are for the upper classes...there's little need to bevel or chamfer except for where pieces meet square.It's a wonderful thing the mig, tack it all together add a few more....then blaze away. It goes against smart procedure to weld in continous runs but the sealing is much better.The plenum is welded from the inside then the top plate is welded from the outside .

Anyway, that's how I do it....there's probably a better way

[Brootal]

Wow, that turned out nice.

Congrats on a successful debut.

I have recently decided that DLRA Speed Week is going to be my 'Boys Weekend' from now on. My wife gets together with her friends once a year, so I've decided me and some mates will have to make Speed Week our once a year outing.

See you next year.

[Dr Goggles]

yeah yr right.

[nexxussian]

Doc, that's a sweet shot.

And at least we know you won't die of thirst.

[Brootal]

Originally Posted by nexxussian

Doc, that's a sweet shot.

And at least we know you won't die of thirst.

If you're willing to drink Carlton Draught! LOL

[vectorsolid]

Awesome stuff!

[Dr Goggles]

Hi All, been pretty quiet on the 'tank front lately. This is I guess the "holiday part of the year, but that is/has come to an end, we had our first "tank day" for the 09/10 racing year. So far all I'd really done was take the body off , let the tyres down and give it a bit of a rinse. On the weekend we did the job properly. We also went in search of the fuel pump problem that stopped the car AFTER the last run, we'd worked out soon after we got home that the pump wasn't working either it was burnt out or jammed. we dismantled the tail section where the fuel tank, fuel pump and filters are. Once I'd emptied the fuel out of the pump( Bosch 580 044) I hooked some wire up to it and lo and behold it works. I think that a piece of the epoxy liner had fouled it . I wrote on the pump " died '09 keep as spare"....we'll buy another even though it has only done about 30miles..........We'll revisit the filter pre and post pump but the main thing that gives me the shits is the fuel tank. I spent a lot of time building the Aluminium tank, then got it epoxy lined. What I should have done was make it from stainless , or even mild steel and made an inspection plate and then used an "in-tank" pump from a road car , the closed tank and external pump have proved to be a time consuming expensive hassle that has bitten me back.

Otherwise the car looks good, we didn't find anything that had broken, the heat shields all worked and nothing seems to be cooked, there are things we could have done differently but as it stands we're happy .

For next year there are a list of things that we have to do to satisfy the scrutineers such as the fire system capacity , losing the Front-runners , a NRV on the fuel system breather and fine tuning the 'chute system .

Then there are the things that we want to do to go faster. There are a few here. We want to build the blower motor( M90 Eaton) and we are also looking into changing the rear end to a 10 bolt so we can go numerically lower.

Finally there are various "tidy up" jobs we'd like to do, there are a few issues with the body fitment, the way the canopy hinge works and there is also steering column, instrument and brake issues that we'd like to improve ......but like I said all in all we're pretty happy.....

One last thing , our good friend Frank Kletschkus ha finally finished his website and there are a bunch of great shots of the car ( and of course heaps of his other stuff) available to see, feast your eyes!!!!!


www.frankkletschkus.moonfruit.com

[Docco]

I was just thinking about this car the other day! I did a search but got sidetracked with other belly tankers.....Thanks for the update

[nexxussian]

What's with ditching the front runners? Is there a reference in your thread on the 'other' site?

Is it speed specific (ie, you went faster than they like to see the FR's go?).

[Dr Goggles]

Yeah, they don't want you going over 200 on 'em.....so right now I have a straight six that I bought from another club member who did 159 with it on FleaBay so we can buy some more Eagles.

Hope yr well Erik.

[Drewfus]

1. shout your mate that did the photo's a coldie for me, AWESOME.....although, all those 'mug' shots of you guys certainly made it a challenge for him...

2. Great to see the development of this little monster, credit to you guys.

Drewfus (member of the 'Stans')

[nexxussian]

Thanks, I figured that was it, but didn't know what speed they got pickey about them (sounds like roughly the same speed SCTA does, go figgure ).

I'm as well as can be expected, plugging away on the Berk.

Hopefully I'll get to see some of the prettiest summer we've had in the last 5 or 6 years, without it being framed by a garrage door mechanism.

Of course when we get it to the salt, it will all be worth it (as long as we haven't screwed up something that keeps us from passing tech I sure hope not).

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by Docco

I was just thinking about this car the other day! I did a search but got sidetracked with other belly tankers.....Thanks for the update

just checked out your blog, noice.....have you ever come across a rockabilly outfit called the Purple Drippers up your way?

adios

[Dr Goggles]

here's some re-prints from our build diary elswhere....we're back into it for this years meet and we've got heaps to do, but it looks like we're on track so far..

We've been at it and things look like the almost on schedule...for the benefit of those that don't visit landracing.com( and because I'm lazy I'm gonna reprint some of the recent posts from our build diary there...

I bought two big bits of fuel foam a few weeks back...today I cut the top out of the fuel tank. Just to recount, the tank is Al, and epoxy lined.....I didn't have a sock filter in it but did have a deep cross piece over the outlet to try and defeat vortexing. So anyway I hooked a hose up to the outlet, filled it with water and cut the top out leaving a 1 inch border.Lo and freakin behold, when we look inside there is about a pint of epoxy sitting in the end where the outlet is...the tank has been left to sit on a 45 degree angle before the goo has gone off , completely covering the cross piece, and filling the "sump" area of the tank........then a drill bit has been run up the outlet......top effort....
The Colonel is going to make a gasket and screw down the plate we've made for the top, and then attach the piece with the filler neck to that, stuffed full of foam we should be fairly confident that it won't cavitate... We're buying a slightly smaller pump than the 044 which is bigger than we need.
I cleaned up and touched up the paint on the wheels, just a brush , rough as guts because the wheels have discs on both sides.
We found that the last surviving 1.5kg Cold Fire cylinder had carked it...corroded through. We're going to run one 4 kg cylinder for the fuel tank, sump and upper engine bay nozzles and keep a single 1.5kg cylinder for the cab.
We have decided to change the way the chute release operates. At the moment the doors are loaded by the drone spring pressure, this runs the risks of the doors opening accidentally and also means that sometimes the catch jams. We have decided to try and use a strap arrangement to retain the chute and drone and have the bay doors kept closed by magnets, when the pin is pulled it will release the strap allowing the drone to open the doors and pull the chute out.
I gave the screen a cut too with some 800 1200 and then 2000, I'll finish that when I run a buffer over the car as it goes in the trailer.
We also began to work out a better way to organize the canopy hinge....the current arrangement is made so that if the car is upside down the canopy pins can be popped and the canopy removed, but it tends to come of the ferrules which keep the pivot points aligned and allows the canopy to fall too far forward..

Back to the issue at hand which is "Australian Bellytank" .As my byline says we run a 3.8litre Buick based V6, it was extensively redeveloped by Holden at the time they first used it.The very first model they used it in was the VN Commodore. For some reason they used different cranks in the manual and auto models( they are referred to as the "six bolt" crank), the crank boss was bigger in the manual....so, you can't bolt a flywheel to an "auto" motor. When we first built the car we used a VN motor and as you can imagine the auto's were more numerous by about ten to one.So, of course the motors we bought were "autos".Come time to organise a flywheel ( yeah and they want a left nut for them as you can imagine) , we got a cast iron one...yeah I know, but the motor was stock with a rev limiter on it. rather than buying one of the available crank boss adapters I had one made( hey, you all would too)...however because of concerns about the positioning of the counterweight I got the shop to drill another set of holes so the flywheel could be rotated through six positions, rather than the asymmetrical pattern that only allows it to be bolted on one way JUST IN CASE there was an issue with the balancing when it went on the auto crank.
Then, we got a one owner car from my brother which was the next model along ( the VP), by this point they had decided that that it would be a good idea to make the cranks the same...., great lot of help that was , this motor is known as the "eight bolt crank" so of course the flywheel we had didn't fit.That was the motor we ran at the 2009 DLRA meet with a home made dual throttle body manifold,nicely ported heads, heavy springs, some big home made headers and little else....I ran 161.4mph on the 150mph license run before we had to go home.
At last years meet Scott Taylor a local magazine writer and sometime drag racer offered us a VN motor ( if you're follwing ...this is us going BACK to a six bolt again) that he had raced on the quarter and written articles about the build on, he'd run it with a turbo and run it like a yo-yo for a few years.He loved that we were running a V6 and was , with many others surprised at how quick our car went with an essentially stock motor. He'd built a new motor for his( as it was known) "blown VN" but soon after retired the car and sold all the ancillaries off the motor, living in a rural area he couldn't get any takers for the bottom end because of the freight cost and offered it to us at a great price.This motor has 9.6:1 pistons, a deleted balance shaft and now a new cam (http://www.landracing.com/forum/inde...c,862.800.html) we are using the same heads, manifold and exhaust. Today I bought a new cro-mo billet flywheel for it....problem being we need to fit it to the adapter, because of course it's a bloody auto motor. The adapter doesn't have the holes matched to the mount holes on the flywheel but rather the new set we had drilled so it could be rotated..........the new flywheel doesn't need a counterweight because the crank is balanced..........so now I have $750 worth of steel lying around and am nervously trying to work out whether we drill the extra holes in the new billet flywheel or drill another set of holes in the crank boss adapter( which already has six holes in it and not a lot of room left)
Here are the two six bolt flywheels , the cast with the extra holes ( on the larger diameter circle)drilled is on the right , the new billet job is on the left.

next is the adapter , first is the crank side.....allen head screws go in from this side into the flywheel

then the clutch side showing the holes for the crank bolts....

why am I bothering to show you this dumb tedium?
because it shows the tiny details and the infinite detail that you have to deal with just to get the car to where you want to be......and our car is basic, really really basic...to any of you who are watching, but don't race take it from me ........IT AINT ALL BEER AND SKITTLES some of it is a complete pain in the seat.
The Colonel starts bolting the motor together on the weekend. We'll see how go from there..............if we're lucky, and lets face it we have been so far, we'll do what we hope to and get to 200 this year......

[quote author=Milwaukee Midget ]

Any adapter is, by it's very nature, a weak link - I'd be cautious about swiss-cheesing it.
I see 33% more RPM in your future.
[/quote]
Ya Know, when I read 33% there was an immediate clench. I'm not the worlds greatest engineer, yea, I'm not Plymouth on an engineer's boots.....but at anything above 7500rpm I'm thinking we're booked in for some sort of catastrophic failure, full stop.I hear the reasoning about putting more holes in that piece...however they are to be neatly spaced where you can see some circular marks between the outer ring of holes in the picture at the bottom in my last post, and it's , well, the way we're doing it now. The whole shebang(should I have used that word?) will of course need to be treated with some respect through the changes but there is a lot of metal in that thing still.
The Colonel and I set it up yesterday after double checking the cast flywheel with the adapter bolted to it on the motor we, yeah OK the Colonel ,is building, the starter motor meshed ok so I took it home . I checked that the pcd pattern matched the flex plate pattern(remember we are using an "auto crank") and that the counterweight was in the same place(..I've made sillier mistakes) and then marked the center of the holes by using a drill press with a bit the exact size of the holes in the flywheel( this is of course all happening on the iron flywheel). It would be very difficult to maintain concentricity if I were to drill the moly flywheel to suit the adapter as neither of them have a center................... I did have one of those moments after i'd marked the holes , freaked out, "oh no, oh Subaru, you idiot"...then I took it off, lost my spot, then when I'd calmed down sufficiently to have another look I put the adapter on backwards as I tried to line the crank holes up.....so, when I got to the seventh position my brain started working..."six bolts, seven tries and it still don't fit , there MUST be something wrong"...... I took a few deep breaths, sat down , set the flywheel up on edge with two G clamps and concentrated, second position..it all lined up beautifully, the counterweight in the right place . Then I went to the case where I thought I'd put the set of crank bolts from the first motor we had...as if by magic there they were, things were starting to flow dude.........
Yesterday I also managed to source all the bits required to change the fire system lines to steel....speaking of engineers , BSP/BPT anyone?
The adapter is 3/4 inch thick..... It's taken 4 hours, I Subaru you not ,to drill and tap the six holes and dress the whole thing, that included a quick trip to get some more linishing belts, the new holes are the ones with the arrows, as you can see they are a pattern rather than the other outside ring holes which are symmetrical.As you can see I put a much finer finish on it

the good news is the Gods of Speed were in a good mood and it bolted up without the need for ANY coaxing, the bolts ran in by hand. I deburred everything so I could confidently stick my pinky in and turn it .
Now, to be candid I did very much think to myself that I may be better just getting another one made. I was in the blue corner , and I was in the red corner..... Like the battle I had over the fuel tank I paid special attention and respect to the possibility that the next one I made may have it's own problems, and cost money that should be spent elsewhere. Of course there was the obvious possibility that I stuffed it up and had to get to one made. In the big picture we could have had a whole one piece flywheel made( but it would have had a slip on ring gear rather than the machined teeth that are on the one I bought) but it may have cooked up it's own issues AND we would have had to get it balanced...as it is we have spent nearly $800, had I somehow got the measurements wrong( it has happened) we would have been stuffed.
As for the fuel tank the Colonel is half way through setting riv-nuts around the access plate we cut out of the top and cutting a gasket for same, then we'll stuff the foam into it and bolt it up again....
on we go...yea verily
Pushed on with other stuff, have cut the seat in order to fit the bigger fire bottle next to it, worked out how to fit a small bottle and it's attendant remote release at the back of the firewall and have also made provision for a camera mount on the top of the cab.........right now the 4am wake up is taking it's toll. Am currently trying to figure out a quick way to lengthen the brake pedal , the list is getting shorter.
We miscalculated a little with the frame during our build and there is a frame bar that runs across what should be the front of the seat but it turnmed out that I ended up with my coccyx resting on it and at the end of Speedweek I was real sore....here it is with the floor plate in place, the flat section to the right of the aluminium has a half inch thick neoprene pad that is supposed to be the seat squab, my backside tended to end up on the curved section in the middle of the shot....

here is the bar itself, the groin belt mount are through it...., the belts mount to the left of the bar

here I have sectioned a piece out of the top and then welded in some 3/16 flat, we'll modify the floor plate as well next weekend.

I also lengthened the brake pedal by an inch and a half Colonel, now we'll be able to lock 'em up and flat spot the tyres.. :roll: :roll: :roll:
All in all it's been a good day.
[quote author=wobblywalrus]
Really critical parts like connecting rod bolts are installed new and tightened down once. They are not loosened and retightened a second or third time. Over the years I have seen other critical bolts treated in the same manner. "One use bolts" we call them. It may be a good idea to use the old bolts to check and make sure the adapter fits and use a set of new good quality bolts to install it.
Imbalance can be a problem with homemade items that rotate very fast. It is caused by parts that are out of true (not concentric), a weight imbalance, or both. If available, it is a good idea to run the tank on a dyno to make sure everything will hold together and not shake apart.
If you like your new setup, it is worth it to have a new flywheel made and balanced after this year's Gairdner runs. Shift slow and easy.
[/quote]
Absolutely, on the flywheel bolts, they'll be unused items.The ones I mentioned are new 8.8 allen heads that have the knurling turned off and are a very close fit in the adapter so they are a flush fit.we never used the six bolt motor we first had.
The adapter was made by a gear shop specializing in well, gears, if you read the detail, it was made so as to be able to be rotated, so a symmetrical bolt pattern was put into it and a new set of holes drilled in the flywheel. I didn't want to drill the cro-moly flywheel I have just bought but used the old one as a template...anything can happen of course but I'm confident it will be balanced.
We'll be moving to a different motor next year so whatever happens it will be a different set-up.
Tonight I saw a friend who has an engine tuner based next to his factory who has an engine dyno , he's seen video of the tank and wants to help with our mapping and EMS.
....that's gonna be handy :cheers:
[quote author=wobblywalrus ]
Rolled threads give a bit of added strength as compared to cut threads Provided there is enough room around the bolt heads, the flanged hex head bolts work well for this application, and I use them where I can. Also, an unthreaded shank except for the portion in the female threads works best, based on my experience.
You'all seem to be on track and doing well. Running the belly tank is an accomplishment regardless of the speed. That setup is completely home built using "applied engineering." Have the best of luck.
[/quote]
Carroll Smith's great quote..."never, EVER, make a bolt" is pertinent here...I don't know it word for word but I have read his chapter "Why Things Break" lots of times.The strength of cut threads doesn't come anywhere near that of rolled threads due to the grain.

Funny thing , when we got the eight bolt flywheel we used at last years meet it came with a set of factory bolts ,I turned the head off one of them at less than half the recommended torque setting, and yes I had run a tap through the crank holes just to make sure they weren't crudded up.It just came off like a cheap garden variety bolt head , when I undid the others and lifted the flywheel off I could wind the rest of it out with my fingers. The people we got the flywheel from insisted they had to be used and charged no small sum for them, it was a worry that one was so defective

[Dr Goggles]

Hi All ....we got back last week from Speedweek 2010 here.....we had a pretty good result....here's a story I put up on landracing.com about the week we had......

We left Sunshine at about 10am on Friday the 5th, the Rev and Colonel arriving together before PJQ and Frank who were in the Land Cruiser( the "Troopy") which tows the tank in Pete's(PJQ) trailer, Pete had had a little drama in peak hour traffic with fuel system and had had to bleed it on the side of the road. I'd trailered the car the night before and finally finished the sorting and packing of spares and tools ....but as always there were things that I wish I'd done as well.

It's a left turn at the end of my street and then 450miles before we leave the Western Highway at Murray Bridge. The Troopy pulls fifty to fifty-five so the two station wagons went ahead. The train spotters will be interested to hear that my 3.8V6 with an older style fogger LPG system and a canvas top trailer got exactly the same fuel economy as the Colonel's 5.7V8 with an injected LPG system pulling a slightly bigger slope front trailer.... and I mean exactly the same, er, except when it used more..........it might be down to driving style :roll:...

So we turn off at Murray Bridge and head toward the Barossa Valley one of Australia's premier wine districts where we were going to stay with our mate Dirty Dave , plumber and bike nut. Dave and Christine turn on a feed with the best t-bone steak I have had in a very long time....also there for the night was Brett de Stoop with his 1000cc waterbottle in tow and his mate and early DLRA member Nigel Begg who was one of the founders of Deus ex Machina the Sydney custom bike business .

We head off the next morning after an early night , we miss the highly recommended organic farmers market and stop in Nooriootpa for fuel and the Reverend asks" where is the aeroplane museum?"......it's a few miles out of town. We find the place and get out of the cars for our first meeting with WH700 the Canberra bomber that our "bellytank" came from...the plane has two tanks on and we are still unsure as to why the one we have was separated from her but the build plate indicates it was one of the originals manufactured for the plane.We take some "family snaps" and get back out on the road for the four hours to Port Augusta.

In the "Gutta" we shop for food and buy a few things we've forgotten, then we go to the bottle shop :-o From the Gutta to the Lake is 130 miles, the first thirty five are sealed then it's onto the dirt....Saturday afternoon is generally busy and so it was , after passing a bunch of buses and slower moving tows we settle in behind Gnome Racing's Torana being towed behind a turbo diesel and they were hammering ,we made it to the Lake in under two hours and the road was generally good, dust was severe but the corrugations weren't as bad as they have been.

I drive straight out onto the Lake to claim a pit , laying out a tarp and dropping most of the tools and stuff off , a very very strong southerly wind is blowing. I head back up to the lakeside camp and we set up the "Casa del Canvas". Pete and Frank arrive with the Troopy and we send them down to the Lake to drop the trailer, Pete looked real tired , we owe him the world for towing our car these last two years, Pete decides to camp down the end of the campground with a view of the lake while we for some reason are in the boonies, our site at least was flat. We've barely eaten but after the massive meal we'd had the night before it wasn't surprising...we fixed a couple of gin and tonics, it started to spit.

It was a cold , blowey, and yes ....wet night....estimates of between a half and an inch of rain ....exactly what had happened last year, the sun rose with doom and gloom on the UHF, the Lake, was closed. At least this year we had the car in the pits. We walked down to the Lake and out to the pits which thankfully were a good mile and a half closer to the shore than usual, the stream which runs around the southern shoreline was flowing fairly quickly to the east but there was between one and two inches of depth and it was at least a quarter mile wide. When we got out to the pits we found there was a quarter of an inch covering the whole area, visibly flowing south east toward the shore and the stream, it was miserable. We opened up the trailer and got the car out and started getting organised.........the wind was blowing , the air was warm and the sun was starting to peak out, this was going to get better, the salt was rock hard, it might have had a covering of water but it was like concrete. There were already quite a few spectators walking out to the pits and taking photos and asking questions....we need to build a little box with a button and speaker because my jaw got sore telling people about the car, I reckon i told fifty separate people what we'd done to the motor in about an hour, always ending with " I'd better get on with it". We buttoned the car up , made everything weather tight and headed to the canteen.....we were in the middle of nowhere, out of contact with a bit of time on our hands and there on the hill was a little shack that sold food and beer......it was time to let our hair down a bit...truth is we were stuffed, I think we hit the wall at about 10pm and bedded down.

Monday morning was a better deal again, the air was dry, the clouds were gone .....we walked out to the pits and the surface layer of water was gone, the stream was only half as wide, this was going to happen. We set up the shade and the annex on the trailer and did all the fit up in the car, the seat, computer and harness, did the "wheel alignment" mentioned above , polished the screen and got the car ready for scrutineering....there were mixed message about when this would happen so the last thing we did before walking off the lake was to push the tank into the line for tech, we were number four.

I got up at 6am and went for a shower, they are cold , and it was....I yipped as the water hit me...there was an old bloke laughing in one of the cans.." you're a braver man than me Gunga Din" I got on the push-bike and rode down to the pits, yep they were gonna start scrut'. I got the suit , helmet and log-book and unbuttoned the necessaries on the car. The Rev arrived just as Gaz finished . He picked us on a few things. We don't have a master kill on the extinguisher system to take out the hot side of the battery, he wanted more drainage holes in the bodywork, he picked a few bits of wiring that could be better protected , they will all be rectified for next year.

I left the tank sitting near tech until Rod Hadfield came over and asked me" how long are you gonna leave that there for James?"......I was pretty keen on being right on the spot when they opened marshalling.....we pushed her back to the pit about a quarter of a mile away and then hung around trying to work out how to swing it. The drivers' meeting was confirmed for 3pm, to be followed by the track drive....before the drivers meeting we rolled the car back near tech, the moment it finished we pushed to the marshalling point, we were fourth in line.....we went on the track drive with Simon Davidson photographer from Street Machine , he's a great bloke even if he is from Sydney and drives a Ford.

We get back from the track drive and it's all systems go. Its four o'clock as I drive straight into the crunchies from marshalling and everyone else drives around me...just like last year..this is the first proper drive I've had with the new motor...we elected to steer clear off the test track as it looked even rougher than last year, and I couldn't see then so we skipped it. The graded areas were rougher than last year we think because the salt was so much harder, another factor was that rather than using the club's old Dodge truck much of the work was done by tractors and some believe that the towing speed may have been too high giving a less satisfactory result.

So, here I am at the start line area for the second year. Last year the car ran 160 odd and felt like it was on hotmix and required almost zero steering input, we had a new motor ...I was itching to go. There was a succession of minor hitches with the clocks, then the first guy off the line was an altered 125, who stated he would be running a record, well, he ran the long track and they couldn't find him.......Speedweek 2010 was on.

I sat suited and belted in the car for nearly an hour, I'd had a small bowl of cereal and nowhere near enough to drink since dawn....I was feeling impatient....it turned out we were to run eighth.

With a rolling push from a few guys I took off and the car felt strong, but I hadn't got my posi right ...the change to the seat base meant I was sitting lower....I shifted into third and was getting hammered while struggling to get a good view AND keep my helmet off the cage. The track felt rough and the cross wind was strong.

The start line had been moved because of the wet to where it was only about 1 and a quarter mile to the quarter trap. The two mile mark was coming at me when I checked the GPS, this was a 175mph license and 'chute pass , I was pulling 138....at that moment I hit a patch of track that threw the car and caused me to back off momentarily, I got back into it and was immediately hit by a gust that pushed me from close to the right side of the track to hard on the left, once again I backed off , when I stepped on it the rear end broke loose causing me to back off....as I hit the first clock I glance down to see I was doing 155, I left the quarter at 165 and pulled the 'chute. It hit hard and as a consequence I clutched and hit the throttle at the same time giving her an over rev. I pulled off at the four mile worried that I hadn't made the cut.....I stopped about a mile off the track and waited for the Troopy.....the return roads were rough and the cones were scarce making it difficult to drive back unaccompanied and also for the first time there was a second track and I didn't want to risk the possibility of getting lost near the end of it. I followed the Troopy back going over the run in my head....while I was driving I kept hearing what I thought was a clatter from the motor, and then I began to notice that she was feeling unresponsive, nothing at part throttle and then blast off, it made it a real handful. We took it straight back to marshalling, I rolled the last few hundred yards, the Colonel was there...." how did it go?"...."there's something wrong" I said, "it doesn't feel right, i may have hurt it"......we fire her up and it's running on five, there is a clatter, after about ten seconds the Colonel kills it with a wry grin on his face and points at the left rocker cover and says "yep, there's something wrong, there, I can see a push-rod hitting the cover"............They announce that marshalling in closing so our number is taken and we roll back to the pit. On the way the Colonel says to me...." so, you've got that spare rocker gear with you?"....truth was when I elected not to bring the spare bottom end and a spare head the parts that I had with them were left behind too.

We waited with baited breath as the first cover came off. There was the rocker sitting there , a tiny bit of swarf but nothing else...the bolt had simply backed out. Seems the Colonel had undertorqued them. We checked the push-rod for true and did it all up again, then the other side. What a relief that was.

We hit the canteen , when people asked I confessed that I was disappointed, that I had been in a bad frame of mind, that I was impatient and that I had a bit of brain fade for the first fifteen seconds of my run. We had a great feed of roast chicken( no JN ,much better than it used to be) knocked over a few beers and had another early night, a camp near us kicked on til really late but we were in race mode.

As we were going to sleep the Rev said ....." fourth gear is forward right?", .."yeah, fourth is forward".........Come Wednesday morning we were up at sparrows and down to the lake .In the pit we checked the basics and rolled her up to marshalling. As usual the Rev was everywhere but hanging around the car , I got him belted in, with the general adjustment of the harness better than we'd had it the day before with the catch centered better for the slightly lower seating posi. I stressed to him that he needed to "get into it early"....I didn't listen as he left the line, I raced back to take the Troopy......due to a change of arrangement at the last minute there was no way to avoid driving through the pits on the way to the return road...When we got down there the Colonel was waiting , " I think he broke it, he only pulled a hundred" ....we found him at the end of the GPS track, lost on the crunchies....he was very dull..." i put it in fourth, by the time I realised what I'd done it was too late so I got out of it and rolled through" he was shattered , I felt his pain.....we'd both driven three shades of shithouse and our pretty little car with it's new motor wasn't looking so great....... We went straight back to marshalling

As I sat at the start-line area I thought hard about what had gone wrong on my first run and what I had to do to. I had just scraped in on my 175 license so at least I could use the long track now....The seat felt better and I moved my head around trying to find a sweet spot off the roll bar padding and the head rest, most importantly I decided that I had to concentrate on staying in it, that I had to steer out of any wind effect and NOT back off, the peakier motor and no suspension mean that squirting the throttle means wheelspin and an unsettled ride.

I left the line and was on it from the get go, the car pulled very strongly and I made the gear changes cleanly.....this time I was over 170 when I left the quarter and the car was pulling well with the speed increasing evenly. I passed the five mile and the GPS read 193, then 195 then 193 then 189...I had my foot in it still so I took this as a sign to get out........... I made it a mile or so off the track before missing a cone and going crunchy...I stopped and got out....the GPS read "top speed 195mph"...I was soup...exhilarated and exhausted ,I felt like yelling......but why did the motor go away , there was no noise, no oil light just a rather quick loss of power.

We thought about it. If it was windage and excess crank-case pressure we would have seen a rev-limit effect rather than the loss of power. We feel that the standard valve train is the cause as the hydraulic lifters will only handle 6250rpm for so long and then pump up holding the valves open. Other than that the ride was a little more "interesting" than it had been last year. Last year the track was really smooth and the car ran like it was on rails. This ride had a bit of wind in it and the track was much harsher. I fought the whole way down constantly steering back to the right in what felt like long carves with my foot on the floor……..

We whipped the cowl off and gave it all a look over when we got back to marshalling, it was AOK, it sounded good……we were fifteenth in line when they closed for the day.

The next morning the Rev told me he thought it would be better if I made another run for 200 rather than he repeating his ‘chute run , then he would go and if there was time have a crack at 200 himself. Anyone who shares a car will know that this was a fairly noble thing to do.

At the line for the third time I reasoned that I had to get going even quicker than I had the day before, to keep the ET down and see if the difference would get me over 200 before the lifters let us down…… I sat at the start and really concentrated, I paced a bit with my right hand going through the gear change routine……the night before the battery had given up, a motorcycle Odyssey type it was three years old, and dead….no-one had one with anywhere near the CCA we needed so the Colonel put an antenna base on the outside of the car as a hot contact so we could jump start her on the line without removing the cowl…… It all seemed to happen in a real hurry….one minute we were tooling about, next thing I jump in, we do the harness and then Cled waves us to the line, and signals me to go……. I nail it and aim for the right hand side of the track , the motor is wailing as I go into third at about 4 and a half, I change to fourth at about 5 grand and try to settle. The wind is strong and I feel like I’m crabbing….just as I hit the quarter trap my visor goes funny, like it was badly scratched, I think it may have been a bit of salt water from somewhere in the cab dripping into the air coming through the nose vent, whatever it was it meant I couldn’t see the GPS, or read the tacho…but I could see the track markers …..this was a pretty wild ride, I just kept my foot in it and steered her in long arcs fighting my way back to the right, in a straight line I had the steering quartered…I just figured I’d stay in it til the seven mile and so I did, I didn’t feel the power go down like I did before but to be honest I had a bit on my plate and some of the subtleties were lost amongst the noise , vibration and hairiness (NVH)………..Somewhere between the seven and eight I hit a rough bit of track and I think I got airborne, braked momentarily and got a little out of shape and then when I couldn’t see any cones I took the decision to pull off, then I saw the eight mile exit road, I lost track of that very soon after …the motor roll started once and then wouldn’t so I stopped…………I got out of the car and took my helmet off, the GPS read “top speed 195mph”….exactly the same as the day before, the clocks gave me an extra mile per hour, I reckon because I’d topped out a little earlier …..the Rescue crew took about a minute to reach me, they won’t tow or push so one of them helped me roll the car…I think he was a rugby player because he was as strong as an ox, we pushed the car about 400yards at which point I said “mate ,I’m going to die in a second”, then he ran back to the rescue vehicle and they called clear track….. I sat on the car , my adrenaline ebbing I realized we’d found the limit of the motor for this year…….it took about six minutes for the Troopy to catch up after various directions as to where to find me……….this time towing home I sat on top of the car with the canopy open….we had managed to keep the cab completely salt free but riding it like this meant the wind blew the flick up into the cab…but at least it was sort of bearable…..being towed over some of the return roads the day before had been excruciating……….. As I rode back sitting like a rodeo rider it occurred to me that I drove a shorter distance to work each morning.

As we pulled into marshalling again I noticed a drip of oil under the car and a smear of it coming from the front of the cowl, action stations…… We took of the cowl to find the front of the motor wet and the source seeming to be the front seal, where the oil pump is. The Colonel said ….” It’s all over, pack her up”

I felt awful for the Rev who’d handed me another drive at his expense and now we were packing up and he’d had one unsatisfactory run……

We’d put 32 mph on our best speed from last year, we hadn’t hurt the motor and we had plans for next year. It would have great to get to 200 but it was only our second year and lots of cars that had been knocking on the door got their 200 this year so it seems right that we wait…We met hundreds and hundreds of people, lots of them were fans of the car and had been following these build diaries, it is very touching some of the things people come up and say, we appreciate every bit of it .

The Reverend and I worked our guts out for years building this thing but there are two people particularly that we need to point out have been instrumental. The Colonel makes it all work, keeps our feet on the ground and provides a necessary balance in the team between our personalities . Pete (PJQ) is our immaculate transport, he is there providing support and anticipates everything, we couldn’t do what we did without him and I’m never sure how to thank him.

We left first thing Friday and drove for thirteen hours, for thirteen hundred kilometers to my brothers house, we got home to Melbourne at 11am Saturday

[Drewfus]

As usual, a great read, and whilst I do know the pain, it is bittersweet.

1. get some taller rear tyres, and/or more gearing.

2. that extra 35mph might not feel like much on paper, but a great achievement considering the few runs you've actually had, many others have struggled chasing those last few mph, just look at the Moe boys as an example, and they kick butt.

3. How'd everyone else go? Stan (Bob) and the boys?

Cheers, and thanks again for the great read,

Drewfus

[Dr Goggles]

Hiya Drew, Bob ran 204 plus in Don Hudson's Cutlass...results are here

http://www.dlra.org.au/2010.htm

I'll try and get some photo's up soon.

[X38]

Two thumbs up! Thanks for a great report.

[Brootal]

Great read, Dr G.

Hopefully next year will be even better for you and the team.

[Drewfus]

Just to bring this back to top, for the tank photo's look here.....great stuff

http://twixt-two-wheels.jalbum.net/S...of%20Sunshine/

Cheers,

Drewfus

[nexxussian]

Sounds good doc.

[de Kuijer]

Hey Stu, Dik, Great work guys, it looks the goods.
Sounds like you had a great time at the salt, haven't spoken with Pete since, but he keeps filling me in on your progress.
Cheers Kyle

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by de Kuijer

Hey Stu, Dik, Great work guys, it looks the goods.
Sounds like you had a great time at the salt, haven't spoken with Pete since, but he keeps filling me in on your progress.
Cheers Kyle

Thanks Kyle
that means something coming from a guywho's donated skin to the cause, I need to talk to Ryan as I have a Telecaster that requires some pin-striping....

why you no been to Gairdner lately?

[Dr Goggles]

Here's some shots that have come in from Frank Kletschkus ( http://frankkletschkus.moonfruit.com/#/speed/4533837790 ) ....on his site are some absolute beauties....

these are all light-hearted....hey we can never be accused of taking this all too seriously.......

On the Sunday after a big downpour on the Saturday night , up to when the lake was dry as a witch's tit, lucky thing though was the salt was still as hard as concrete...at this point there was about 3/16ths of an inch of water running away from you in the picture.....


Packing the 'chute, the Rev, Nigel, the Colonel and ...hey if I hadn't them out you'd be able to see my tonsils.....



Laundry hung out to dry on the return road.....



Heading back to the pit , the Rev as beast of burden,Nigel Begg riding , Dr Goggles in undies on the push bike and Big Gaz( Aussie Jaguar build) in the DLRA top.



Next we're on the line , The Reverend tucking me in....That's Cled Davies our starter and new Pres and PJQ our immaculate transport and good friend...



On the way back on the return road from the eight mile, it's a long trip ( and, I have to tell you a darn sight more comfortable riding like this)and one tends to get a little peckish, those are barbecue shapes.



Next we have a moment in the pit when after driving back on the return road I was sure I could hear a clatter, when we started it again at the marshalling area she was missing badly, at that point the Colonel said "turn it off I can see something hitting the cover, right there!"....we waited til they closed the track for the day so at least we had a spot in the line then headed back to the pit.....here we have us all looking on while the Colonel does a little Zen thing with his eyes closed as we wait to see what was revealed ....turns out the rocker stud had just undone itself, no damage other than a little swarf.....phew

Looking straight down the gullet, not much room for anything else in that engine bay, striping by Ryan Ford..........



Thanks for the T-shirts Stainless,that's me the Colonel and the Rev'




The Rev may well have been nodding attentively at this point but I pretty sure whatever I was saying would have come out as "mmmmmmble oomph blllblllrdd "...just like anyone talking fast with a helmet on and the visor down...... the hand motions are critical.

[X38]

Great shots. Nothin' wrong with BBQ Shapes!

[Brootal]

BBQ shapes. Racing food of champions.

Great pics and it looks like you guys have the right attitude.

[kurtis]

Originally Posted by Brootal

BBQ shapes. Racing food of champions.

I wanna be a champion too so i'm gonna get me some BBQ Shapes as soon as Coles opens in the morning.

[RDR]

Fun read and great reporting on your Speedweek 2010.....thanks for all us U.S. guys.... Randy

[Dr Goggles]

Been busy the last few weeks with organising some parts from the US and buying some heads for the motor...

The Torsen centre I bought is sitting in Arizona with Bill "Sparky" Smith, he's marshalling a housing and some 2.41:1 and 2.56:1 gear sets and will take 'em to Bonneville where some mates of ours will bring them home....then we'll swap our Ford axle tubes onto the 10bolt pumpkin, and slip in the 28 spline Ford axles I just got on Fleabay for 50 bucks.

Yesterday I bought a pair of stage three heads, whopping valves, roller rockers, a rocker girdle , O-ringed with a pretty greedy porting job where the short turn radius has been hoed out.. Our bet is they were built for a turboed motor , we don't need much bottom end so they'll be good for us and still good when we go to a blower.

So this year it fell over at 6275rpm with the lifters pumping up or collapsing we aren't sure ....so we'll be checking on the oil pressure relief and adding another vac-u-pan AND drain backs for the rocker covers.If we see 7000rpm with the current rear end we'll be just over 210mph, when we go to the 2.56:1 diff that would be in the high 220's, with the 2.41 it would be around 240...that is presuming no wheel slip .

The real issue this year was that we were only putting on 12mph/per mile.....if we gear it up we need to increase the power to maintain that figure or better, these heads might be just the thing...

[Dr Goggles]

Hi all,
here's a new video that Scotty Taylor edited from footage he shot at the tanks first year out in 2009. Yeah it's running like a bag of shit off the line, but it gets up and goes by the 3 mile. Scotty sold us the bottom end that we have in the car now , he used to run it with a turbo on the quarter mile.

I've been really busy trying to sort out what we're going to use for rockers and solid lifters with our new heads...it's taken a while but I'm getting there....anyway here's the vid....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQtW-eMPnto

[geezerkat]

Wasn't there someone turning out glass "tanks" a few years ago? Wish I'd of bought one.

[Dr Goggles]

Originally Posted by geezerkat

Wasn't there someone turning out glass "tanks" a few years ago? Wish I'd of bought one.

there still is, Elmo Rodge on the board here has a line on them...