With my Vitara nearing completion I was already thinking about the next project so started collecting parts for a small rear engined dragster. However this popped up for sale on the Santa Pod website so I went to have a look. I knew it was a old car, the guy I bought it off had had it for at least 20 years, probably closer to 30. He bought it, took it to pieces then put it in dry storage and didn't get it out until I bought it. On looking at the quality of the build and the parts that came with it I immidiately bought it and brought it home a couple of days later.
Here are the photos from the for sale advert.
I searched for hours online to find out the history of the car, made more difficult as there was another Gold Digger dragster from the 80s, in the UK and the chassis looked similar but not the same. Eventually the effort paid off as I found this photo of the car, unfinished, in the pits at York in 1977/8.
It was on a thread on the superb UKDRN forum, on page 134 of a 190+ page monster, with somebody asking if anybody knew who's car it was. A few pages later and the answer was revealed - it was built by Mike Sayers of Pickering, North Yorks. Mike had previously raced a series of dragsters named 'Impact' which was derived from them being powered by Hillman Imp engines. With an assortment of superchargers and running on methanol the cars were running deep into the 10 second zone at 130+mph. Further on it was mentioned that a guy called Chris Whitehead from Whitby had bought it, painted it, named it Gold Digger and ran it a couple of times in the late 70s/early 80s. A quick chat with UK drag racing historian Jerry Cookson and he sent me these 2 photos of the car racing at York in 1978 or 1979. I also found this race program from York raceway with the car listed from May 1980.
That's as much history as i've been able to find so far. I have no definite date of when it was built or when it stopped racing. At a guess i'd say built in 1977, first raced maybe 1978 and finished racing in 1981.
Here's a photo of me collecting it with the Dogging+ bus and a big trailer.
And now some photos of the car as it is now. Everything was custom made by Mike Sayers, and the chassis is incredibly light (I can pick it up with 1 hand just not hold it still enough for the camera).
And now for the parts that came with it. First the engine. It's a 90thou over Mk2 Lotus Cortina block with steel main caps
In that there is a short stroke Allen steel crank shaft to give around 1300cc, span by mechine Hepolite pistons on Vegantune Steel con rods. Valve movement is provided by a Cosworth A6 camshaft.
The head is a heavily worked 1500 Pre Crossflow, with massively oversized valves, Lotus double valve springs and steel rocker gear.
Air is pushed into the engine through a home made inlet/exhaust manifold and ignited by a Scintilla Vertex magneto.
Pushed? Well yes. Topping the engine off is a Godfrey Marshall Type 15 Cabin blower. Originally designed to pressurise aircraft cabin at high altitude, it's now used as a side mounted supercharger. Not only that, there's a home made fuel injector/throttle sat on top of it firing methanol down the bores.
It's a very special engine combination, from back in the day where aftermarket bolt on parts just weren't really a thing. This all drives through a home made (i'm getting bored of writing that already) aluminium clutch can, spinning a home made steel flywheel, attached to a aircooled VW transaxle. I'm not sure what's inside that yet as I haven't taken it apart.
Here are the photos from the for sale advert.
I searched for hours online to find out the history of the car, made more difficult as there was another Gold Digger dragster from the 80s, in the UK and the chassis looked similar but not the same. Eventually the effort paid off as I found this photo of the car, unfinished, in the pits at York in 1977/8.
It was on a thread on the superb UKDRN forum, on page 134 of a 190+ page monster, with somebody asking if anybody knew who's car it was. A few pages later and the answer was revealed - it was built by Mike Sayers of Pickering, North Yorks. Mike had previously raced a series of dragsters named 'Impact' which was derived from them being powered by Hillman Imp engines. With an assortment of superchargers and running on methanol the cars were running deep into the 10 second zone at 130+mph. Further on it was mentioned that a guy called Chris Whitehead from Whitby had bought it, painted it, named it Gold Digger and ran it a couple of times in the late 70s/early 80s. A quick chat with UK drag racing historian Jerry Cookson and he sent me these 2 photos of the car racing at York in 1978 or 1979. I also found this race program from York raceway with the car listed from May 1980.
That's as much history as i've been able to find so far. I have no definite date of when it was built or when it stopped racing. At a guess i'd say built in 1977, first raced maybe 1978 and finished racing in 1981.
Here's a photo of me collecting it with the Dogging+ bus and a big trailer.
And now some photos of the car as it is now. Everything was custom made by Mike Sayers, and the chassis is incredibly light (I can pick it up with 1 hand just not hold it still enough for the camera).
And now for the parts that came with it. First the engine. It's a 90thou over Mk2 Lotus Cortina block with steel main caps
In that there is a short stroke Allen steel crank shaft to give around 1300cc, span by mechine Hepolite pistons on Vegantune Steel con rods. Valve movement is provided by a Cosworth A6 camshaft.
The head is a heavily worked 1500 Pre Crossflow, with massively oversized valves, Lotus double valve springs and steel rocker gear.
Air is pushed into the engine through a home made inlet/exhaust manifold and ignited by a Scintilla Vertex magneto.
Pushed? Well yes. Topping the engine off is a Godfrey Marshall Type 15 Cabin blower. Originally designed to pressurise aircraft cabin at high altitude, it's now used as a side mounted supercharger. Not only that, there's a home made fuel injector/throttle sat on top of it firing methanol down the bores.
It's a very special engine combination, from back in the day where aftermarket bolt on parts just weren't really a thing. This all drives through a home made (i'm getting bored of writing that already) aluminium clutch can, spinning a home made steel flywheel, attached to a aircooled VW transaxle. I'm not sure what's inside that yet as I haven't taken it apart.
[*]
[*]
