The Cunning Coupe

Looks like my car was well received and I would like to thank all that came up and said they liked it, most of all “So do I” Taking it off the trailer and seeing it alone with a big space around it, it looked so small and low.
Starting with Thursday, in the morning painter Jon brought in a car for a test, he said he thought the car would look better with red fogging rather than the black. He was meant to be spraying a truck that evening. He phoned me up later and said that as it was raining he had put that off and would be up my garage at 5. We got the car complete with trailer was put into the MOT bay and just used the plastic sheeting to mask the body up. We dried it all off (No rubbing down at all) and Jon stuck on a coat of primer, he had already mixed up the red and gave it a dust coat while the primer was still wet. He asked if it was enough and looking at it I said “No” so it was another dust coat, then another until I said to him “Just paint it” So two coats later it was RED.
I had to get in early Friday to get the car back out of the bay and back down where it lives in the yard. After work it was parked just in front of the bay doors so after I had my dinner and shower, I could just come down the hill, hook it on the van and drive it up the track.
I got up the track to find that Dave & Linda had managed to keep me a space next to them, I took the trailer off, parked the van up and after taking the car off and parking it pushed the trailer onto the grass behind out of the way.
Paul was on his rounds so I asked him if he could give it a once over, I told him there was a wheel nut missing but then Norm and Herb arrived on the scene. Paul notice I had put a normal washer on one of the steering joints and it was binding, I had forgotten to refit one of the misalignment washers, so I went and got one from the back of the van and changed it, also the special nut was fitted and Paul gave me a ticket.
There was still a couple of things needed to be done before I could put it down the track, first was that the tyres rubbed on the inner arch’s and I had bought some fasteners to hold them the side panels, I had also left the breather bottles up Steve & Lesley’s the weekend before and they needed fitting.
Saturday morning I was up at 6.30 and by the time I had signed on at 7.20 I had had my breakfast, had both the back wheels off and the panels marked ready for drilling.
After Paul and myself had scrutineered most of the cars and I had a few minutes, I went and drilled the holes, had help getting the body off, marked, drilled and fitted the inner fixings. (The fittings are the Dzus ring type.) The body was refitted and the fasteners were fitted, with the wheels back on, I can now just reach under the arch’s to fit and take them off.
In another break, I drill a hole each side of the front motor plate and fitted the catch cans behind. I also set the rear tyres at 12.5 lb.
At about 2.30 I asked if I could play and told the start crew what I intended to do, this was put the car in 3rd drive around the water, stage and on the green drive it down the track to see how it handled.
Before I went down to the track, I had Tom Hawkins (Bob’s son) to tow me around the pits to see if the steering was straight, it was just to one side, so getting back to my pit I adjusted it.
I got suited up and Tom took me down the pairing lanes, unlike my Mini there is no way anyone can help me do up the harness, it is a bit hard to do, but I can get it really tight. When I was at the front of the queue and my turn, I started it up and drove it to the line and staged, after a reaction time of 1.49 sec’s I drove down the strip. It was quite flat leaving the line and all of the sudden kicked in and making the car bounce a couple of times, It when straight as a die and I just kept my foot on the throttle getting a 13.08 @ 110.92 timing slip.
I have to say, for those who were down the bottom end the first time and the first turn off the second, I suffer badly with cramp in my legs and was not just doing funny walks. The first time I could not get out of the car at first and the second I ended up laying in the grass in agony, so thanks to Wendy from the medical team for sorting it out. (When I got back to my van I took a couple of my cramp tablets and that was that sorted, I wish I had taken them before)
After the first run, it was straight around and try again, this time it was for a full pass. I did a second gear burnout, but every time I put the car in reverse the engine cut out, after the second time I found I was knocking the ignition switch off with my arm so the next time I made sure I was not near it and got back behind the line, Dave took out the dragon from the chute and I staged in first this time. It spun a bit off the line and even when changing gear stayed straight (Unlike the mini) I pulled the chute and felt the pull, I then knew I was not going to be able to get right down the bottom, so I braked hard and pulled in the first turnoff. I could smell the brakes but did not think anything of it, but it was not until the crew came down, they found they could not push the car and the brakes had stuck on. I was called to the tower and had a lift while they sorted out the problem. This run was a good 11.45 @ 114 mph.
I had been asked to be part of the flag starts, but when I got back to the pits, Dave was on a run and I had to wait until they got back, by this time, I could push the car so I thought they had solved the problem. We got down in time and I got ready for the run and waited until it was my turn. They had taken the tree out of the way and there was a young lady with a couple of flags, the only way anyone could stage was that the two on the startling foot staged the cars & bikes, they just lifted off their foot when the flags went up, so I don’t count the time for this run.
Anyway, I drove through the water and gave it a quick spin to get them wet, then I went to the line in second and when she lifted the flag just floored it, I felt the tyres spin and off it went, stuck it in third and crossed the line @ 117.67mph (My best so far) Dave sat in the car on the way back and I could hear the brakes were playing up again.
After I had finished on track for the day, it was back to my pit, get the body off and see what was wrong with the brakes, I thought it was the master cylinder so this was checked out first. After a while I still could not turn the wheels, so I pumped up the brake and thinking that if it was the cylinder, when I open a bleed nipple it would give a quick spurt of fluid and the brake would be free, nothing came out and I still could not turn it. I remover the R clips from the brake pins and pulled them out, I just could not get the pads out, I had to use a pry bar to at first get the inner one out but it was harder to get the outer one out. After replacing the inner pad, I pumped the outer piston out as far as I dared, pulled back the rubber and found quite a bit of rust. I cleaned it up and sprayed it was WD40 and worked it in and out until it went back in all the way with no problems. I did the same with the inner one and after fitting the pads I could pump the brake as hard as I could and it would release as soon as I let it go. (I repeated it on the other side but found they were not so bad)
With all that sorted, the car was put back together ready for the morning and that will be in the next episode. (As it’s taken me over a hour just to do this)