There is something about drag racing which means sun burn. You could go to Santa Pod in the middle of winter, in fog so thick you can't see your hand in front of your face, at midnight, and STILL get damn sunburn. V8Lee and I went down to Gary's picnic on Sunday at Shakey and goddamnit I got sunburn dispite the fact that it was overcast all day and raining for much of the morning.
In fact that rain was almost enough to deter us from going. Almost. But not quite. We're British so sitting in a car eating sandwiches in the rain at the seaside is genetically coded into us. Delete sandwiches, delete seaside and insert deathburgers and muddy field next to drag strip. Ahhh, don't get much bedda dan diss.
We caused a little consternation with the parking. My normal habbit is to get as close to the pits area as I can without actually parking in there (rude, if you're not racing, supporting or whatever) but the large area near the pits entry was marked off as "Association of American Car Clubs, Show and Shine" so I dragged the ol Caddy up on a grass verge near by as I am neither a member of the aforementioned club nor is the ol' Caddy a show & shine queen. Well, I'd hardly got the key out of the ignition when an official of said august body was tapping on the window telling me to move into the roped off area. Meh. The Caddy's a driver, I don't get all showfield about it and it always surprises me when people think it should. Same really applies to just about anything I have ever owned when it comes down to it. I'm just looking for the parking which gives me the shortest walk to the showfield. This is why I never "get" why people get so upset about not being admitted onto the showfield in their near-stock or wrong-era or whatever cars or about getting negative comments about them when they do. Its just a parking space when it comes down to it.
Well, we'd decided to pass on Wollaton Autokarna, the Southwell Ford show, the NSRA event at Billing and the like - all of which were on over the same weekend - on the grounds that we get quite bored of static shows quite quickly. The irony that the weather was at severe risk of turning this event into a static one also was not lost on us!
Gary's Picnic has been going 30 years now, there were even t-shirts for sale proclaiming this - which I did not buy - and its always been one of those events I just have a soft spot for. Its never too busy, if you bring a car you will get reasonable track time with it, and because theres shiny shows elsewhere the same weekend you tend to find its the real deal cars that are there rather than the posers, polishers, oiks, chavs and the like which can pack out the bigger busier events.
In the end the rain wasn't so bad and we were able to while away the time listening to the anouncer over the tannoy saying how there was more rain at Santa Pod... So we strolled through the pits and checked out the machinery, well, the machinery that wasn't under car covers anyway.
There were some excellent machines there. the Taz racing Fiat 126s seem to have been breeding as there were 3 in attendance. A few cars which I recognise from shows or magazines features or event coverage or just from my fettid fevered imagination maybe.
Once the weather cleared the action started on the strip with some surprising runs put in by some surprising cars. An unassuming looking 100E (with a 427 in it) clicked off a 9 which was a nice smile moment as it was quite unexpected and a lass in a '76 Gran Torino, never the lightest of Ford's products was getting deeper into the 13s as the day went by.
Now I know we have a few "dubbers" in the parish so I have a question for them which has been purplexing me for some time. Why is it that when, say that nitrous T bucket goes to make a pass, it drives up, alone, does a burnout and pulls to stage and then wooooof. Gone. 9.2 thank you very much. But when the Beetles and KGs come out, theres a parade of like a zillion guys and gals all over the place and often the most amazing amount of to-and-fro while they get themselves sorted out.
No wonder they tow some of them up the fire-up lane with T2 busses, theres an army of "helpers" to get back to the pits after each run! ;D
If I had been down there with money in my pocket there were at least a couple of decent cars to spend it on. First up (and the most likely recipient of my pennies) would have been the yellow '68 Plymouth Sport Satelitte. This seemed to have a bunch of good mods, and hadn't been re-dressed as a roadrunner clone or anything, and was in an antisocial shade of yellow which I found most pleasing. At £7500 it seemed good value although I didn't see a hard run out of it all day (he seemed to lift off on the two runs I saw)
Also with the tempting papers in the window was a Chevy S10 Pickup. Nice lightweight little truck with a 500 Cad lump (8.2 of your metric litres) topped with a Predator carb (kinda like a giant square SU really, a must have performance do-dad in the mid-late 80s but one which people really struggled to tune effectively so quickly fell from favour). The carb was my favourite bit of this one, although I'd have had the motor for my Caddy quite happily. Its full of KB forged stuff and the like. I was intregued by the way that the dual batteries and the fuel tank were mounted right at the back of the bed to help weight transfer. Either the guy who originally built it didn't envisage it doing any street miles or he'd never seen a Ford Pinto.... It was up for £7500 and seemed a well sorted drag truck with hot street potential. Matt-blacking it was a mistake IMO. Makes it look like a £3000 truck.... You have to look past that to see the inner beauty hidden under a horrid paint job.
One car I really liked was this old Pontiac Bonneville coupe. Its just all wrong. Its too heavy to be a fast car, its too ugly to be a show car but whack a huge engine in it and primer grey the thing and its cool as anything. Its one of those "so wrong its right" jobbies. Both Lee and myself were really into this one. It was running in the 12s which isn't a bad job for a full size cruiser....
Landau top stil in place
Little and large show
He might have been the slowest car of the day, but kudos for being out there while I was sitting on my ass on the "grand" stand. This Mk2 Cortina could have packed a secret punch to be the ultimate sleeper. But it didn't. It ran a 19 when I saw it go. But I liked it.
Now here's a Q: that green '59 Bel Air (which wasn't at the strip, but gets everywhere else) which basically seems to be a rotter dropped hard on a set of fancy big-inch rims. Well, this would be its antithesis. Shiny paint, period alloys, old school stance. So which would you take....?
Anyway, loads more pics to follow, but not tonight. Thought I'd try split them up a bit to avoid the huge long load times and the like. And I'm tired and this PC is crappy and driving me up the damn wall.
In fact that rain was almost enough to deter us from going. Almost. But not quite. We're British so sitting in a car eating sandwiches in the rain at the seaside is genetically coded into us. Delete sandwiches, delete seaside and insert deathburgers and muddy field next to drag strip. Ahhh, don't get much bedda dan diss.
We caused a little consternation with the parking. My normal habbit is to get as close to the pits area as I can without actually parking in there (rude, if you're not racing, supporting or whatever) but the large area near the pits entry was marked off as "Association of American Car Clubs, Show and Shine" so I dragged the ol Caddy up on a grass verge near by as I am neither a member of the aforementioned club nor is the ol' Caddy a show & shine queen. Well, I'd hardly got the key out of the ignition when an official of said august body was tapping on the window telling me to move into the roped off area. Meh. The Caddy's a driver, I don't get all showfield about it and it always surprises me when people think it should. Same really applies to just about anything I have ever owned when it comes down to it. I'm just looking for the parking which gives me the shortest walk to the showfield. This is why I never "get" why people get so upset about not being admitted onto the showfield in their near-stock or wrong-era or whatever cars or about getting negative comments about them when they do. Its just a parking space when it comes down to it.
Well, we'd decided to pass on Wollaton Autokarna, the Southwell Ford show, the NSRA event at Billing and the like - all of which were on over the same weekend - on the grounds that we get quite bored of static shows quite quickly. The irony that the weather was at severe risk of turning this event into a static one also was not lost on us!
Gary's Picnic has been going 30 years now, there were even t-shirts for sale proclaiming this - which I did not buy - and its always been one of those events I just have a soft spot for. Its never too busy, if you bring a car you will get reasonable track time with it, and because theres shiny shows elsewhere the same weekend you tend to find its the real deal cars that are there rather than the posers, polishers, oiks, chavs and the like which can pack out the bigger busier events.
In the end the rain wasn't so bad and we were able to while away the time listening to the anouncer over the tannoy saying how there was more rain at Santa Pod... So we strolled through the pits and checked out the machinery, well, the machinery that wasn't under car covers anyway.
There were some excellent machines there. the Taz racing Fiat 126s seem to have been breeding as there were 3 in attendance. A few cars which I recognise from shows or magazines features or event coverage or just from my fettid fevered imagination maybe.
Once the weather cleared the action started on the strip with some surprising runs put in by some surprising cars. An unassuming looking 100E (with a 427 in it) clicked off a 9 which was a nice smile moment as it was quite unexpected and a lass in a '76 Gran Torino, never the lightest of Ford's products was getting deeper into the 13s as the day went by.
Now I know we have a few "dubbers" in the parish so I have a question for them which has been purplexing me for some time. Why is it that when, say that nitrous T bucket goes to make a pass, it drives up, alone, does a burnout and pulls to stage and then wooooof. Gone. 9.2 thank you very much. But when the Beetles and KGs come out, theres a parade of like a zillion guys and gals all over the place and often the most amazing amount of to-and-fro while they get themselves sorted out.
No wonder they tow some of them up the fire-up lane with T2 busses, theres an army of "helpers" to get back to the pits after each run! ;DIf I had been down there with money in my pocket there were at least a couple of decent cars to spend it on. First up (and the most likely recipient of my pennies) would have been the yellow '68 Plymouth Sport Satelitte. This seemed to have a bunch of good mods, and hadn't been re-dressed as a roadrunner clone or anything, and was in an antisocial shade of yellow which I found most pleasing. At £7500 it seemed good value although I didn't see a hard run out of it all day (he seemed to lift off on the two runs I saw)
Also with the tempting papers in the window was a Chevy S10 Pickup. Nice lightweight little truck with a 500 Cad lump (8.2 of your metric litres) topped with a Predator carb (kinda like a giant square SU really, a must have performance do-dad in the mid-late 80s but one which people really struggled to tune effectively so quickly fell from favour). The carb was my favourite bit of this one, although I'd have had the motor for my Caddy quite happily. Its full of KB forged stuff and the like. I was intregued by the way that the dual batteries and the fuel tank were mounted right at the back of the bed to help weight transfer. Either the guy who originally built it didn't envisage it doing any street miles or he'd never seen a Ford Pinto.... It was up for £7500 and seemed a well sorted drag truck with hot street potential. Matt-blacking it was a mistake IMO. Makes it look like a £3000 truck.... You have to look past that to see the inner beauty hidden under a horrid paint job.
One car I really liked was this old Pontiac Bonneville coupe. Its just all wrong. Its too heavy to be a fast car, its too ugly to be a show car but whack a huge engine in it and primer grey the thing and its cool as anything. Its one of those "so wrong its right" jobbies. Both Lee and myself were really into this one. It was running in the 12s which isn't a bad job for a full size cruiser....
Landau top stil in place
Little and large show
He might have been the slowest car of the day, but kudos for being out there while I was sitting on my ass on the "grand" stand. This Mk2 Cortina could have packed a secret punch to be the ultimate sleeper. But it didn't. It ran a 19 when I saw it go. But I liked it.
Now here's a Q: that green '59 Bel Air (which wasn't at the strip, but gets everywhere else) which basically seems to be a rotter dropped hard on a set of fancy big-inch rims. Well, this would be its antithesis. Shiny paint, period alloys, old school stance. So which would you take....?
Anyway, loads more pics to follow, but not tonight. Thought I'd try split them up a bit to avoid the huge long load times and the like. And I'm tired and this PC is crappy and driving me up the damn wall.
I like the car but as a "WIP", which sadly I suspect it is not.
