It has been a little quiet here so far this year, although if you follow our Twitter account or Facebook page you will probably know that we haven’t been sitting on our hands doing nothing.

After pretty much destroying our B&J gearbox last year at the National Finals we have invested in a top of the line Lenco CS2 which was built for FIA Top Methanol usage so should be more than enough for us. We have also altered the rear end gear ratio and performed one or two other changes with the end result being that we were ready to test at the start of June, although are plans were pushed back a little due to some problems with seals and not wanting to play until we knew everything was right.

Come the Summer Nationals we were ready to take part in an NFAA meeting where we made it to the 3rd/4th place shootout but were shut off due to an oil leak caused by a rushed turnaround and insufficient time to run all the usual tests. We followed this with some tests at the Retro Show where we determined we were having issues changing gear - later found to be a combination of poor pressure from the CO2 regulator and incorrect tower heights on the gearbox itself.

With this corrected we set out to test again at Mini In The Park which rewarded us with an 8 second run at over 170mph. Looking over this run afterwards we need to put more clutch into the car to get it off the line better, and also raise the wheelie bar height as if you look closely you can see the car squat then bounce off the wheelie bar. We will be making this changes and are entering the Euro Finals in Super Pro, where we hope to run our first seven.

The team is at Santa Pod this weekend performing demonstration runs at Ultimate Street Car and since I cannot attend I am updating the website instead.

We have been putting some testing in today and have just run a 9.45 @ 131 mph, our best yet with the new car.

Adam tells me the car was sideways off the line causing him to lift and pull 2nd. The car went sideways again at the hit so he pedalled it and then the car hooked up.

If we can get the car too stick off the line we are shooting for an 8. Fingers crossed!

This review has been a few weeks coming as we have all been rather busy, but as anyone who attended the meeting will know there was not a huge amount to report on save an awful lot of rain.

Friday was largely dry and saw sportsman classes run through a huge number of qualifying cycles, which should have been good for us. However on warming the car up on Friday morning we discovered an oiling problem in one of the cylinders, which was hugely smokey, We had no option but to take the head off at this point with visions of holed pistons racing through our minds. With the head off the piston and valves were thankfully absolutely fine but it was obvious that we had head sealing problems which were traced to stripped threads in the block. It is a good thing indeed that we had the head off as running like this may have lead to torched heads.

As a precautionary measure we checked both heads and eventually fixed quite a few head studs with helicoils, checking valve seats and guides while we had the opportunity. By the time we had got the engine back together racing was done for the day, and after chasing some gremlins in the timing system the motor sounded great. We eagerly awaited Saturday to try it out.

Saturday came, and we still had a slightly oil cylinder on one sidde which we have put down to the oil control ring. We warmed the motor up and it sounded great, but on the track the performance was a bit lacklustre. Back in the pits we fired the motor and it sounded awful - checking the timing showed it was now severely retarded. We re-timed the mag and tried again, it was a bit better but not much. Back in the pits again it was obvious the mag is moving at the hit of the throttle - possibly even in the burnout - and throwing the timing out. Unfortunately this was the last run of the weekend, Sunday saw us do nothing ore than eat Roast Beef and watch Hot Rod in the back of the lorry and come Monday morning we packed up and went home, despite having qualified on the ladder. This turned out to be good call as the meeting was later called off.

We sat out the Summer Nationals as we had not received the parts required, and the motor is now being freshened for the Nostalgia Nationals with new rings and a beefier mag clamp. this should hopefully see Iron Dan perform to his full potential.

Videos from the Main Event are now online: Qualifier 1, Qualifier 2.

The Easter Thunderball saw an exciting event for Time Machine Racing - our new Big Block Chevy was christened ‘Iron Dan’ - now if anyone asks if you know Dan you can say you do.

Dan was not the happiest of engines at Easter though, seemingly grumpy at being woke from his hibernation so early in the year. I can’t see what he was complaining about though as the weather was some of the balmiest I have seen at Easter - rather than the normal snow there was sunshine and lots of it, even featuring shorts and t-shirts on one day.

We spent a while chasing down a problem in the fuel system only to find that when we thought we had sorted it the motor was running really hot and seemingly lean. A quick sanity check showed this to actually be caused by the mag clamp coming loose and allowing the timing to retard itself, shooting the spark while the exhaust valve is open and causing lots of flame.

This was a quick fix, but on attempting to fire the car we discovered two things - our starter motor is really getting worn out, and we had broken a bearing in the gearbox, putting us out of action.

Despite this we had a good weekend, and the event looks like going down in history as a classic. Congratulations to those running new personal bests, especially Frank Bennett and Joe Bond, and many many thanks to those who provided us with help all weekend, especially Martyn Jones and Crunch who made us feel very welcome in the Super Pro pits - I am already looking forward to the Main Event, our next scheduled appearance.

In 4 weeks time it will be Easter. Scary isn’t it? This year should see us competing a full season in Super Pro and we are very much looking forward to it. We may have a few surprises for you this year too - not only have we been rebuilding the engine after finding a broken lifter but we have been making a few subtle cosmetic changes to the car.

It isn’t just the car on the mend either - Darren is getting better after his recent stay in hospital.

More news soon, and see you at the track.