Those of you who came along to our pitch at the Basingstoke Festival of Transport a few weeks ago will have seen the Black Pig Too slingshot dragster. It was built by my brother Brock, (Steve), & his good lady wife Black Pig, (Lesley). They've raced it before, but its been laid up in the workshop for a year or two while they worked on other projects.
After Lesley bought a new set of pistons for it though, they've been back out at the drag track. Not an official race report, but here's the email Steve sent me last night:
last weekend was OK. We seem to have solved all the bottom end woes and the balance issues, a bit of cutting and welding has sorted the valve train geometry and it all runs fairly well. The downside is that to achieve all that I needed another block and while I have about three sides of A4 covered in notes on clearances, the one thing I didn't check was the deck height which gives us a small problem with gasket sealing, apparently. At about a thousand foot down the track on full throttle during the first pass, the rear valley seal blew out and covered me in oil. Couldn't see a thing. Daren't lift my visor as it was still spewing out hot oil. Can't shut it down because I need power to drive through the bumpy bit at the end of the track. A bit stuffed really.
Luckily we were paired alongside our good friend Tom. He and I talk a lot so I knew his post pass ritual in detail. His car is vivid red and white so it was just a case of letting the car drift left until the red blur was central and follow it until it got bigger and then brake. A bit of a moment but could have been worse.
We bought the car home Sunday, took it out of the box Monday, stripped the top end, set some datums and did some measuring. I know what the problem is and have a solution, but Tuesday we re-stocked the truck and Wednesday morning headed up to Santa Pod. Just this minute got back in. We aim to fix the car tomorrow, (today), load it Wednesday, stock the truck Thursday, head to Avon Park raceway Friday & try again!
and now to bedHe drives a Chevy. He's my brother.
