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December 2006. This year has been a wash out as Ian has been ill for a fair bit of it so here's to 2007 and hoping we get back out even if it only at the end of the year. May 8th 2006. We managed to get some time last week to put the new roof on the van just to see how it fits. Once it is in paint you would never even know the difference. There are a few edges to file out so it fits flush but apart from that it was looking good. Ian has been out on a few shopping trips trying to get all the fixtures and fittings he needs to install the new floor, which he managed to pick up, but unfortunately he then couldn’t actually get the aluminium sheet he wanted so it has put us back a bit. The floor is going back to as it was, in aluminium, as we are hoping to have the final version done in carbon which will probably be for next year now. This time round we have purchased a nice set of aluminium tubs to see if we can eliminate some of the smoke that fills the cab after the burnout either that or I need to purchase a WWII gas mask!! May 1st 2006. Okay so for the last week we have concentrated on taking the final component of the new roof for the van. We had already got the mould made from laying up 4 layers of fibre glass and then strengthening the back with some wood struts. We then spent some more very fume filled times in the barn laying up the final component which only has one layer of fibre glass and one layer of Dylon cloth which meant a lot of getting stuck to the floor and getting aggravated when bits don’t stick the way they should do but after all that we managed to crack the mould off yesterday. We are glad to say that we now have a very nice fibre glass roof weighing 20 lbs and it doesn’t take two people to lift it unlike the old one!!. We have no idea what the original roof weighed but we know we have saved one hell of a lot of weight here. In the meantime the engine came out last week as well ready to be checked over as it has not been running since last year. With all the weight saving that Ian has managed to do so far and with still more to come, I can now go off and enjoy a big slab of double chocolate fudge cake with no worries!!!!! April 27th 2006. As you can see from my lack of updates and I have been keeping quiet waiting to see how things have panned out but things have started moving now so my updates will start to be a regular weekly event starting from Monday 1st May. Also from the 1st May I will have a small selection of merchandise on offer including Baseball Caps, Beanie Hats, Teams Race Shirt with T-Shirts, Coats and many more products to follow shortly after this. If you are interested in anything then please just drop me an email. 
TLR Merchandise So with 4 weeks left until the Main Event I think Ian has finally stopped taking things apart and might if I’m very lucky start to reassemble the van, well one can but hope can’t they!! We had planned to do so much during the off season but what with one thing and another delaying us, we had basically decided to have the year out until we started watching the NHRA Drag Review. We knew then that there was no way we could be spectators for the year and now things are starting to get back on track, sort of!! 
4 WEEKS? YEAH RIGHT!! Friends have said that they have seen the van in a lesser finished state and yet we have still managed to make it to the race even though it means some very late nights, early starts and a few plans put on hold until later in the season. The Trans Brake has arrived back from Florida and there is nothing wrong with it!!! Oh why oh why does it not work. April 19th 2006. Today see’s the first instalment of ‘Memoirs of a Drag Racer’ in Fast Car Magazine which is my story of the vans rebuild and the race season from my perspective and also there is Q & A section if you want to get involved with the fun. We had what we thought was a fairly easy plan for the off season rebuild - just make a couple of fibreglass wings, freshen up the motor and then get a bitchin' paint job. However, as normal plans always seem to change when you start. Now nearly the whole van is going fibreglass, well, except those bits that are going carbon of course. We did not get to start the work on the van until the start of 2006 so we were already behind with our plans and so we started off the year with a visit to a local fibreglass manufacture, got a quick lesson in making moulds and purchased all we needed from them to make a front bumper and a pair of wings. Cutting the weight to go faster was the name of the game and as we saved a massive 16-lbs just on the front bumper the project quickly expanded to the rear door, rear bumper and then the ROOF. Yeah that’s right Ian wanted to make a glass roof, he had been on about changing it anyway to get rid of the sunroof and find one that did not need as much filler in it so a donor van was found and out came the 9” grinder and in the blink of an eye the new roof was sitting in the workshop. It was filled and primed and a mould taken to put with the rest of the moulds, we did managed to find a one piece fibreglass back door and rear bumper off the good old internet but they don’t fit too well so they will have to be altered plus I’m not to keen on the rear bumper so like the front one Ian is going to make a one off design for it. 
Terri Topless 
Glass wing and mould 
Very funny who buried the van? All this work just to go in a straight line!! Well that’s what they say isn’t it? January 16th 2006. Well time has come to give you an update from the Terri Lee Racing camp. Where do I start? In November we had a very nice visit to the new offices of Fast Car Magazine where we met Trevor, the assistant editor, to talk about having the van featured in their magazine this year. We are very pleased to say that not only are they going to do a feature on us but they will be doing a month by month update on what we are up to and how we do through this year’s season. More details coming soon on this. We have also had a very fruitful meeting with Sparky from Wacky Shack at the beginning of December with regards to a new paint scheme. We went in with one idea and have come out with a totally different one. Sparky is now just putting pen to paper to put the ideas into real time for us and then we will have to wait until March when the van will be handed over to Sparky for him to work his magic, I can’t wait. Developments have been made on some of the new body panels for the van. Richard is currently working on a new scoop and also a carbon fibre bonnet to try and eradicate some of the weight from the van and Ian is currently making moulds for a new front bumper and front wings. We have also obtained a one piece fibre glass back door which shed just over 30lbs of weight and a second hand roof which is a lot straighter than ours so we can get rid of that sunroof and a lot of the filler in it. (How the smoke is going to get out after a burnout I really don’t know!) Some of our earlier plans have also changed and the basic hydraulic cam we have always run will be staying with us for another year and I will have to wait another year for my new pistons as Ian has ditched that idea as well and now we are concentrating on shedding weight and some more aero dynamic modifications for the van after last years tests were such a success. Richard & Ian are currently also designing and building a co2 charge cooler with the help of Steve Wells to lower the intake temperature which hopefully should mean I will be able to up the boost on the supercharger. And yes we will get that bloody Trans brake to work this year come hell or high water. So the clock is ticking and we still have a hell of a lot of work to do before we give the van to Sparky in 6 weeks……6 weeks I wish I hadn’t counted that!!! Thanks this month goes to Nigel at Seamless Promotions for setting up the meeting with Fast Car you can contact Seamless PR on 07966024244 and also to the hardest working crew Richard & Helen who work just as hard off season as they do on season. Cheers Peeps. October 3rd 2005. There is a new addition to the latest news section where you can now listen to the interview that I had with Nitro Fm at the European Finals at Santa Pod. This will then lead you nicely on to the report of the National Finals. The National Finals at Santa Pod and the end of the season has now been and gone and unfortunately we didn’t even get to the track. No….not because of our great English weather but due to our tow vehicle blowing it’s big ends some 25 miles from home on Friday on our way to the track. Everyone in the team was so looking forward to the weekend (especially as it was mine and Ian’s tenth wedding anniversary as well) and we were hoping to finish with a season and personal best from the van as we are no where near in the running for the championship. A decision was made late on Friday night after the tow vehicle, van and caravan had been recovered back home that we would still leave early Saturday morning and become spectators for the weekend and enjoy ourselves. We saw some excellent racing on the Saturday then on Saturday night we had the privilege of meeting Gordon Smith and crew chief Dave Bryant from the Top Fuel Funny Car, Shockwave. These guys then very graciously invited the whole of our crew to spend the morning with them on the Sunday to see what it is like running a Top Fuel Funny Car, needless to say we were up with the larks on Sunday morning, despite a heavy session with Nigel and Jules from Nitro FM in the bar the night before. We had an excellent time with the Shockwave team and I actually got to sit in the car with and without the body on (watch out Gordon it was a good fit!!)……awesome!!!!! What started out to be a really awful weekend then turned into a great weekend as my dream vehicle to drive is a Top Fuel Funny Car. 
Steady as you go Picture courtesy of Richard Potts 
Picture courtesy of John Seymour 
No Gordon I am not getting out Picture courtesy of Richard Potts 
Yes this grin stayed on all day Picture courtesy of John Seymour 
Picture courtesy of Richard Potts 
With the lid down Picture courtesy of Richard Potts So as tradition on the Terri Lee Racing website I always finish with thank you’s and these are not in order of merit!! But I have to start off with the Shockwave Top Fuel Funny Car team for letting us poke our noses around to our hearts content and getting in their way. Very much appreciated guys! Thanks to Nigel from Nitro FM for doing the introductions with Shockwave. 
(left to right) Helen, Nigel, Ian, Terri, Jules Picture courtesy of a drunk Richard Potts Thanks to Steve and Jayne Wells with the Ford Pop Pick Up, the Southern branch of Team Orange, for offering to come and pick the van up late Friday night. And as always thanks to Richard and Helen our crew for yet again dropping everything to come to our rescue on the Friday when we broke down. Cheers guys and thanks for a great weekend. Now’s the time to think of the winter projects that need to be done and many late nights. Any news we will post onto the website but until then here’s looking to a great new season in 2006. September 15th 2005. There was great excitement in the Lee household last week in anticipation of the FIA European Drag Racing Finals at Santa Pod on the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th September. We had just done a write up on Eurodragster to say how well the Webster Engineering Test Day had gone and that the van was getting consistent…………oh how wrong you can be. We arrived Wednesday afternoon so we could get set up in the pits and get the van through scrutineering and we didn’t have any real problems with that. Our crew were arriving early Thursday morning so we kicked back our feet for the rest of the evening. We had an entertaining visit by Naughty Nigel of Nitro FM (the on site radio station) and shared some ideas and a cup of tea. Nice one! Thursday came and it was warm, we were up for our first qualifying run at 9.30am, as ever, with the Pro ET class having the largest entry list. Ian and I were heartened to be joined in the fire up lane by Richard and Helen who had just arrived and we got down to sorting out the dial in. We had invested earlier in the year in a TAG system and we had entered data into it so we could start using the prediction programme. However these things are only as good as the information that you put into them and I think what we have got in it ain’t that good. We had five runs throughout the day and the closest we got was 0.073 off. Friday – yet again we were out first on the track at 9am this time. We had two chances today but little did we know that this first run would be our last run due to a big oil down. This meant that we would be going straight into eliminations on Saturday with a very poor 29th qualifying position. However you must always look on the bright side, we had not broke and we had at least qualified into the 32 car field. However the English weather as it is let us down and we did not turn a wheel on Saturday. Sunday came and the weather had not improved, at 2pm despite the valiant efforts of the track crew we decided to call it a day and head on home. We are not in the points chase if we were then there is no doubt we would have stayed, but we packed up a very wet pit area. As always we have some thank you’s. Firstly to Nigel and Jules at Nitro FM who had the arduous task of keeping everyone entertained throughout the downtime, it made the time go a lot quicker. As always thanks to the track crew for the valiant attempts of drying the track even though you did wake us up at some ridiculous time on Sunday morning with the sweepers to try and get it done in time. Thanks to the Rat Poison pit’s for letting us lasso our gazebo down to their weights and for entertaining us with the ‘quick get the new marquee down before the wind takes it away session’. Lastly but not leastley thanks to Richard, Helen and John for their time to help crew for us, we know you would have had plenty of other things you could have been doing than sheltering under a gazebo for two days in the rain! June 29th 2005. Last weekend started off with our attendance on Friday at the Webster’s test day. Full of enthusiasm and our aim to get 5 runs in so we could get some good data for our new TAG system was washed away without any runs due to our lovely English summer weather. Anyway Saturday at the Summer Nats didn’t start off that much better with qualifying not starting until the afternoon despite the valiant attempts by the track marshals to dry the track. Our first run saw us with a 10.454 on a 10.49 dial in which was again another personal best; we are just sawing away at the numbers this year! We managed to get in one more qualifier which was six thousandth of a second off our dial in (10.436 to a 10.43 dial in) that took us to number three qualifier out of twenty eight cars. Very nice!!! Sunday came and we were given our third qualifier however we made no betterment on our time running a 10.461 on a 10.40 dial in. With the rest of Pro Et having their last qualifier we ended up fifth overall. Unfortunately, yet again, my foot in eliminations was all too eager and I pulled a rather large red light against John Atkinson and gave him the win. I was gutted especially as I had been pulling real good lights in qualifying. June 14th 2005. We had a great time at Santa Pod for the Main Event. Friday saw us with five qualifying runs and the temperature was hot. Not the kind of weather to try out your new Simpson suit in! Anyway our best run was an 11.025 on an 11.00 dial and no red lights. The heat added over ½ second to our times. Saturday saw us with three runs and completely different weather conditions with one hell of a head wind but we made no betterment on our dial in and qualified 14th out of 31 cars. Sunday was the start of eliminations and lucky for us but not so for Gino Bernadine with his Ford Escort already on the trailer, so we had a bye through to the quarter finals (would of looked a good race with the two escorts together). Sunday afternoon and we met up with Kevin Slyfield in his Plymouth Belvedere. Kevin pulled a good light and I broke out by 1000th of a second running a 10.569 on a 10.57 dial in. We were more than happy losing at that (well me, Rich and Helen were not quite sure about Ian!!). We’d had a great 3 days racing. We have some thank yous as always. Firstly to Butch and his wife with their 55 Chevy, Rat Poison who we were pitted with, thank you for the loan of the generator when ours decided to give up the ghost. Thanks to Steve and Jayne ‘Wheels up’ Wells for their support and the loan of their weather station. Thanks to Santa Pod for some great new tarmac in the pits and to the start line crew and marshals for getting us the run’s in that we were due. Many Thanks!!!!! A hello to Naughty Nigel from Nitro FM for playing our tunes!! We will see you all at the Summer Nationals on 25th & 26th June at Santa Pod Raceway. CAN’T WAIT April 6th 2005. Well the start of the season has been and gone and I have not quite got used to doing the old web updates so sorry for the delay. Easter was, shall we say, interesting. With our new set of slicks on the van felt as solid as a rock going down the track, not a wobble in sight! However a few shifter problems, like no third gear, made our first run null and void on the time front. But good things come to those who wait and wait we did for our second run where we pulled of a personal best of 10.49 at 128mph. But as usual in the Team Orange pits it is soon forgotten and we are again chasing the numbers. This weekend was supposed to see the first run of our Trans Brake however although the gizmo seemed to worked in the garage back home now she was at the track she does not want to play ball. So disappointingly I am still taking off from idle at the start line. Also I had my first night race…….scary or what. None of us even thought about what this meant. But what it meant to me was that I was blinded before the finish line by the shift light and had to let off anyway and when you did get on the return road (once you had found it) you couldn’t see bugger all anyway (especially when your van has no lights!) What with me pulling reds most of the weekend and especially in eliminations meant our racing came to an abrupt end. However at least we were present, took part and came home in one piece. We were visited in the pits by the southern branch of Team Orange, Steve and Jayne Wells who unfortunately could not take part in Super Gas as Steve had a bad crash at testing the week before Easter not leaving a lot of the Pop Pickup to use. We wish him all the best with his rebuild and hope to see him back on track later on this year. Well its back to the drawing board with the gearbox and we hope to have it all sorted for the Main Event in May. March 5th 2005. Well the new season will soon be here (at last!) we are all looking forward to the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod on 26th March. Work has recently been done by Ian to rectify our gearbox gremlins from the last race of 2004 and I am glad to report that the engine and box are safely back in the van (breath sigh of relief). Unfortunately the poor old girl (that’s the van not me) has suffered some cosmetic damage through the winter with her foundation looking less than attractive at the moment. However no time for a new paint job! New slicks are on their way and will hopefully be on for Easter, let’s see if we can get those 60 foot times consistent this year. We do have a race against time to get a new tow vehicle though as some lovely little upstart stole our Jeep and put it through the front of a shop demolishing not only the front of the shop but writing off our Jeep. So only just having been paid out by the insurance company we have about 3 weeks to find ourselves a vehicle. October 8th 2004. Well the National Finals have been and gone in a whirl of wind and rain. Not the best way to finish off the racing season with the eliminations being rained off. However that was not without a valiant effort by the Santa Pod crew yet again. From the Euro Finals in September we had made a couple of changes with the addition of a rear wing and a front splitter. No this wasn’t so we had somewhere to put our coffees whilst queuing in the fire up lane! The van always got very light at the top end and was becoming more and more of a handling job to keep straight. So the wing was added to see if it would give us the down force to keep the rear on the floor. The first run on Saturday at the National Finals proved that was exactly what it needed with our quickest time ever of 10.55. She handled like a dream, I came off the top end with a smile on my face. However, as always in the Team Orange Pits elation never lasts long as although it was a PB we had totally broken out of our dial in which was a 10.63. The rest of Saturday was spent getting wet and cold and eventually firing up the BBQ in the gazebo to keep warm and to dry off. Sunday came and we got in a 2nd qualifying run however this time we only ran a 10.65. We had lost all that we had found yesterday. And unfortunately that is where it ended with a rain off. Thanks to the crew yet again for giving up their free time to spend in the cold and damp. Thanks to Jayne Wells from the Southern branch of Team Orange for bringing in the extra blankets. They come in handy when you are sleeping in a tent! Congrats go to Carla and Rick McCain for winning the 2004 championship. Thanks to all in PRO-ET for yet another great year of drag racing at it’s best!!! We will try and do updates throughout the winter with what is happening. We do have a few jobs to get done, hopefully nothing major this time though. September 18th 2004. We went to the European Finals at Santa Pod full of enthusiasm and hopes. Over the last 2 months Ian has been working feverishly to complete what should have been a winter project on the van. The chassis under the cab has been redesigned and now we have the floor running underneath this and right through to a new bulkhead. A new high stall torque converter and trans brake have been acquired and installed all this was done with no time to test and even less time to prepare. Wednesday 8th Sept - Today started off bad, as we were on our second journey to the pod with the van on the trailer (having already delivered the caravan earlier in the morning, we received a most unwanted telephone call from Helen to tell us that Richard had been involved in a head on collision on the way home from work. Thankfully he came out of this in one piece apart some very attractive bruises and lots of sore and tender bits, this put us in a somewhat sombre mood. Thanks to everyone who came and enquired about Richard's health over the meeting and thanks also to John Pickering for stepping in to help us over this four day event. In the evening Ian was just finishing off some last minute jobs when he put a screw through the fuel line whilst securing the back panel of the floor. Something else we could have done without. Thursday - Pro ET were down for 5 qualifying runs today. The first pass did not go well for us, I had trouble getting it through the gears and ran a 12.512 this turned out just to be a case of the trans fluid needing a top up. 2nd run and the line lock stayed on after the burnout which meant we could not move the van and it had to be trolley jacked out of the way. 3rd run we tried a run without the line lock and therefore did no burnout, we ran a 10.717 but we were told that we were not allowed to do this as we were dragging stones onto the start line. So we missed the next 3 runs trying to rectify the line lock problem at first we could not see a problem with it so we phoned a local firm and went and bought a new one which we fitted and it leaked like a sieve so we took another look at our old one and Ian realized that when he had installed the new bulkhead he had put it on upside down!!! Friday - We only had 1 run today. The line lock now released correctly but the run was like driving on marbles at the top end and I let off the gas before the finish line where the van then decided to die and I coasted off the track with a tow back to the pits and a pitiful 11.496. After checking that we had fuel pressure and a spark and had had a good look round the carburettors, we fired it up again and there were no problems at all. One of those head scratching moments. Saturday was eliminations day and on with our new team shirts, we had just made it into the qualifications in last place, number 32. There was a very strong head wind today so no personal bests would be run by us. We were grateful though to be able to have another run. The van ran well, I had a good reaction time of .037 and won by two tenths of a second. This was just great. The 2nd and last round of eliminations for today and again a good reaction of .045 and my opponent broke out which put us through to finals day on Sunday and into the quarter finals. Sunday - We had a long wait until the afternoon for the next round and unfortunately this time I red lit, but I know what I did wrong and can only learn the hard way by my mistake. We did however run a personal best of 10.630 still with a strong gusting wind and our best 60ft of 1.529. There’s more to come from us yet!!!!! Thanks go to: John Pickering for becoming a fully fledged member of our crew in double quick time. Mark Ramplee for his help and industrial battery charger to recharge our Jeep which was dead as a Do-Do on Sunday Morning. Malc and Marcie of Spellbound Racing for the constant help and encouragement throughout the event. Steve and Jayne Wells, the Southern branch of Team Orange Racing. The new sponsorship from my employers, EMPIRE WORLD TRADE, for our very smart team shirts, fleeces and baseball caps that we now have. To all the Pro ET drivers and crew that came and offered us help and advice with our many problems again. To all the people at Santa Pod that made the weekend possible and to all at Eurodragster for there outstanding contribution to our sport. To Martin and B our new neighbours for putting up with all the noise over the last few months. And finally our love and best wishes go to Richard (who can be seen below!!) who is off work and at home recovering from his injuries, I hope that you have a speedy recovery and can join us at the National Finals on October 2nd and 3rd at Santa Pod Raceway. July 5th 2004. Back from the Summer Nationals at Santa Pod. The weather on Saturday was not too good and although we got in a good first qualifying round with a 10.65 on a 10.60 dial in that was it for the rest of the day. We again had a lot of interest from people visiting the pits so we didn’t go too bed too disappointed. Sunday we got in another qualifying run but this time we were way off running a 10.75 on a 10.64 dial in. We have not got the equipment or the data to know how the conditions affect the van. We now know that the wind does affect it quite a bit. So in the afternoon we were in to the first round of eliminations. Again I do not have the experience of enough races under my belt to know exactly how to play these things. In bracket racing unless you can dial you car in well there is a lot of cat and mouse play at the top end with backing off and braking. And I have just not got the hang of this yet. I lost by 300th’s of a second. However the weekend was not all bad I have been pulling some decent reaction times against the tree so I was very pleased with that. We will be next out at the Finals in September at Santa Pod. June 3rd 2004. We arrived at the track Thursday afternoon to get ourselves sorted out. Thing's didn't get off to a good start, we unloaded the van and I drove it over to be scrutineered this is when we discovered that we had dropped some cylinders four infact, the whole of the even back were gone on tickover but returned if you reved it!! Thinking it was electrical we set to work trying to find out what was wrong, people were coming over asking what was wrong and they also thought it was an electrical problem. It was now getting close to the nine oclock curfew and we fired it up one last time, lucky for us the temperature had dropped and when I fired it up it backfired and someone noticed some smoke come from the inlet manifold area. We removed the supercharger to find that the inlet gasket had blown between 2 & 4 and 6 & 8, so we set to work changing the inlet manifold gasket and completed the task at about 12.30am, Thanks to Wayne and Gary for holding the torches. Friday morning and time to fire up Jake and see if all was ok, but alas we were now firing on 6 cylinders, a quick check to make sure we had not made any silly little errors in the darkness of the night before but all seemed ok. Pro Et were being called up and we were still only running on 6, we tried different plugs but no joy and then we decided to take two leads off of 2 firing cylinders and swop them with the 2 non firing ones to see if the problem then moved with the leads, but hey presto problem solved and we had 8 cylinders. We had missed the first qualifier but were still scheduled for a further 3. Well the day ran smoothly and we managed to get 4 more qualifiers in and finished the day in 13th out of 28 cars and also managed a new PB of 10.63 so a good day was had by all. Saturday came round and we had 2 more qualifying runs and we got a bit closer to our dial in and moved up to 12th. 
Richard hard at work COUNTING SHEEP!!! Sunday was eliminations day. Round 1 and We won!!!!! but I was concentrating so much I missed the drivers win light and I had no idea until I got back to the pits and met my crew. It was fantastic. We didn't care now. Round 2 and guess what we won again. This time I saw that light and screamed. I came back to a very happy crew in the pits. We went to bed that night extremely pleased with ourselves that we would still be running on Finals day at the Main Event. Monday, finals day, everything changes, track conditions, weather, oh well we never thought we would get this far so let's just enjoy it. Round 3 came and round 3 went with yet another win!! Oh happy days. But all good things sometime's have to come to an end and it did in Round 4 the semi finals. But me and my crew could not and would not be down heartened. Just want to say a big big thanks to the Terri Lee Drag Racing Crew, Richard, Helen and John. We could not of got through it without you. Last and no means least to Ian, we had some testing times but this just made up for everything. May 7th 2004. This is a very late update, my apologies. So to fill you in on the last couple of months.......... We were present at the Obsessions Motorsport Xtreme Wheels show at Alexandra Palace in London. This was our first time at an indoor show and we didn't really know what to expect. We didn't however come out unscathed as on the way down, on a borrowed trailer, we managed to wreck the fuel lines. The best bit was taking my mother there so she could see the van on show. Alexandra Palace is only down the road from where I was born and therefore it meant quite alot to me to have the van there. The icing on the cake would of been to have my late father there to see it as well. When I was a teenage, with the van on the road, driving pass Alexandra Palace I would of never of thought I would one day be showing the exact same van as a dragster there. Proud?.....I was chuffed to bits. 
Picture courtesy of uk1320 From there we then booked onto a Webster Test Day at Santa Pod. These days are arranged by Webster Race Engineering for racers to obtain much needed track time and a wealth of knowledge. Unfortunately no one turned a wheel due to the awful weather. However we did get enough dry time to set the timing up and to give Jake a good run up. Once we were home Ian decided to check over the engine, however things didn't look too good when a plug was taken out and water was found in the cylinder. Unbelievable just as you think you are there we have yet more problems. We took the heads off and traced the problem to some damage that was caused from a previous blown engine. Therefore the heads had to be skimmed and 'o' ringed again. We could not get everything back and re-built in time for the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod and so we went just as spectators. But we have the power to rebuild him (again)!!!!!!! and Jake was ready to be fired up on Easter Monday. Let me tell you it was music to my ears. We were then looking forward to the Ford RS Owners do at Santa Pod. However the van didn't even leave home as it rained all day. So we booked another Websters test day and what a day it was. Remember I have not been behind the wheel since August 2002. I have butterflies and I really am dreading the first burnout and launch. I needn't have worried. We did a half pass first and did a plug check at the end. Everything looked okay this time. Absolute relief. Second run and I am allowed a full pass this time but I only ran a 12.01 as I could not shift into 3rd gear. After a quick pit stop to alter the shifter cable and I was out again. I got 3rd gear this time, had a little bit of a driving job which was very unlike the van, hit the limiter just before the finish line and pulled off the track. Now I just wait for the my crew to arrive as you have no idea what time you have run. They pulled up all smiles but they took their time in telling me that I had just run our first 10, 10.995 to be precise at 126mph. Absolutley fantastic. We had done it. I thanked everyone and gave my husband, Ian, a kiss for making it possible but I whispered to him " but I want to go faster". We had another 3 runs that day and ran better each time with a final run of 10.737 at 130mph. At home we just ran a few checks on the engine again and everything looked fine. We were now ready for the Excitement Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. The weather was awful. On Saturday we stayed in the caravan all day. Sunday was damp but by the afternoon we were called up for our first qualifying run. We put an optomistic 10.50 on the back and ran a 10.735 & 131mph (Another PB). We had 10.73 on the back when we arrived, we should of never of touched it. We were then later called up for eliminations as we were one of the largest classes and it was nearing track closure time. Unfortunately I red lit big style and put us out of the competition. Yes if I could of I would of kicked my own backside!!!!!!!!!!! 
Picture courtesy of Ivan Sansom 
Picture courtesy of Eurodragster A big Thank You to Richard, Helen and John for their help and support. Look out for the next update after the Main Event at Santa Pod which is on 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st May. If you are there pop to see us at our pits!!!!!!! January 6th 2004. Sorry it has been such a long time since I last updated my web site but our old computer went west and when we did manage to get a new one we found that we were still unable to update the site, but finally this has been sorted Thanks to G'dad and Dr John on a computer forum we found. Thanks also goes to the people who have been sending me e-mails asking how things have been going and even Jake has had a couple of emails himself which pleased him. Well I hope everyone had a nice Crimbo and a Happy New Year, as you may have read on Eurodragster on Christmas Eve we were hoping to fire Jake up for the first time on Christmas Day but unfortunately this did not happen due to the hole we normally use for the oil pressure pipe was not the same on Jake as previous blocks so we had to wait until the shops were open on Saturday to get an adapter. But on Saturday my Christmas wish came true and Jake took his first breath which was a LOUD and strong one. It was lovely to hear the sweet sounds of a rumbling blown V8 in the workshop again after all this time and now I can't wait for the season to arrive so I can get back out on the track. We only have a few jobs left to do as we are in the throws of fitting a new radiator as we used to struggle a bit with the temperature running an Opel Kadett rad but we have now got a diesel Transit rad to mount. We did a little experiment and the Opel rad took seven minutes to get to 200 degrees on tickover where as the Transit rad took fourteen minutes to reach the same, another job is to give the chassis a fresh lick of paint and to wire up the fans with a seperate feed to the main ignition so we can have these on between runs to cool him down a bit quicker. We have also spent a couple of weekends down at Steve Well's where Ian has been giving him a hand with the Pop which is coming along really well, he has done a great deal of work to it and it is looking really good and when he gets all his new mods sorted it is going to fly. We also have the Xtreme Wheels 2004 show in February which we are looking forward to, even if it does mean that we will have to get the polish out and give the van a good wash as it has collected alot of dust sitting here dormant for a year in the workshop. We have never done a show like this and I am not sure what to expect but I am hoping it will be good. Our first race is the Easter Thunderball at Santa Pod at the start of April but before then we want to attend one of John Webster's test days, I don't know what the dates are for these yet but we will keep our eyes peeled to Eurodragster as they are always first with the news, I hope you have voted for them on the internet site of the year . Well I had better stop there and get back to the workshop other wise Ian will be wondering where I have got to. So until next time take care and have a great 2004, see you all soon (Hopefully in my rear view mirror.) September 16th 2003 
Yep. Meet Jake our new block. I will never forget when we took the Rover out of the van to put the Chevy in it. Ian said "It's cheaper to build a Chevy!" Well it was the first time............... and the second..........., but now we are up to the fifth go, I'm not so sure. Yes you might have noticed I have decided to name the engine Jake (after Jake Blues, Hope I don't need Elwood!!!) to see if it feels more like part of the family. You never know it might stay together for a bit longer this way........ Also we are changing the name of the van from 'BLOWN IT' to '?????' Don't know yet. Ian has finally caved and agreed to the change, I like the name but I think it is cursed. So we are trying to think of a new name as well for next year. So the work is all gonna start again. I very much doubt if I will be out this year, but you can bet you will see me at the start of next season. So Team Orange can go back to being a two car affair. We have a fair bit of work we want to do before next season, we did not want to start any of it just in case a block turned up earlier. You can bet I will keep you all up to date with what we are doing. And finally I want to say a big THANK YOU to Richard & Helen (my crew), John Pickering and Simon Foyle for their help in getting this block. Good luck to everyone going to the Doorslammers this weekend and I'll catch you soon. 
How the van looked in 1995 Terri. xxx August 16th 2003 Well Hi to everyone, I'm back. The van isn't but it will definitely be coming back. After going to just one race we decided we had to have another go. Thanks to everyone for all their kind words that weekend and on other occasions and for all the e-mails of support. So we are going for engine number 5. Yes that's right number 5. A lot of people we have spoken to didn't realise how many hick ups we have had in our short but eventful racing career, because we only started the web site last December a lot of them have not made it to these pages. People did suggest taking up another hobbies such as dominoes, table tennis and someone even suggest ballet!! Hi Rob, but why give up the greatest sport in the world. So I am on the look out for a block, 350 Small Block Chevy, 4 bolt mains, 2 piece rear crank seal and dipstick on the right. (Viewed from inside the cab) I run 30 thou over so if it needs a rebore that's not a problem but NO LINERS and NO RUBBISH please as I would like to get back out there!! If you can help please e-mail me. On a lighter note it's nice to see that Pro-ET is still the biggest class and the best. There are many web sites cropping up in the class so please check them out. Steve Wells & his wheel standing Pop Pick-Up. Rick and Carla's with the Heaven and Hell Camaro. Malk & Marcia with the Spellbound Moggy. Well that's it for now, if your off to Shakey next week I will see you there, if not until next take care, July 21st 2003 How could I ever consider giving up the greatest motorsport on the planet. Full update coming soon. May 22nd They say a picture paints a thousands words................. Well here are the pictures! 
Sunday at Santa Pod 
Monday night in workshop!!! The van made it to Santa Pod for the run what ya brung on Sunday. Looking at it now we are glad that it rained most of the day so we couldn't run. Reason being is that after starting her up for the second time off the trailer we had white smoke coming out of the exhaust from cylinder 3. We loaded her back up and took her back to the workshop where on Monday Ian found that the block has actually cracked between cylinders 1 & 3. On building this engine we had decided that this was going to have to be the last time and whatever happened we would not be able to afford to carry on and believe me on Monday night as far as I was concerned my taste of drag racing was over. Therefore once again we will be at the Main Event this Bank Holiday weekend but it will only be as a crew. We have a lot to sit and think about. Therefore the website may be a bit quite for a while until the future of Blown It is decided. Many thanks to everyone this year who has helped in one-way or another. WILL WE BE BACK ????????? For the next exciting instalment tune in next week......month......year...... May 12th 2003 It's now a count down until this Sundays Run Wot Ya Brung at Santa Pod and we are aiming to have the van there to get in our first test of the year. I have not been in the van since last August and I really need to get in some practice before The Main Event at the end of the month. Since the Dyno we found our fuel connections to be wrong and therefore we have had a rather large and unexpected outlay for all new connections and pipe work. We have also found the correct gearing for the rear axle and lucky enough my brother in law Steve has come to the rescue on that one as he had the exact gears we needed sitting in his workshop. Cheers Steve!!! So its time to give the race suit an airing and keep everything crossed. Here's hoping that we finish everything In time and if we manage that, that the weather is dry on Sunday. Until next time take care and remember, May 7th 2003 Alot has happened in the last week. We collected the engine from Steve's and brought it home and finished off a few minor jobs to have it ready for DYNO DAY. It was 12.30 am when we finally got to bed after getting it all ready and loaded into the trailer. Then a few hours later Ian is making me get up. Feeling sick and with it tipping it down outside, Great, the engine is in a small trailer getting soaked. We arrived at Knights at 8am and a couple of hours later the engine was all bolted onto the dyno. 
Engine running on dyno. With Peter Knight at the controls and Malcolm being the poor old soul shut in with the engine running keeping check and making alterations. And with Ian pacing up and down like an expectant father and smoking for England the engine was fired up. As soon as Peter pressed the button the engine immediately started and was taken straight to 2500rpm for 20 minutes to run it in. I have never seen an engine on the dyno before it was amazing. 5½ hours after it first fired up the engine was turned off for the last time and with all the changes to the jets, timing etc we had achieved 532.2bhp and 488.2lbs of torque with the supercharger at 10% under driven giving 8lbs of boost. Yes we did try to up the boost on the supercharger but we can only afford to run super unleaded and it started to detonate on that. Peter did put some C12 racing fuel in and try that for us, but even that started to detonate, so it would require C16 race fuel.........anyone interested in being a sponsor??? 
Peter Knight in control 
Ian revs the engine to 3000rpm so Peter can set timing. So after a great day at Knights the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend was used to put the engine back into the van and do numerous other jobs. Richard and Helen came up and had their work cut out, everyone pitched in.  Richard and Helen renewing the inlet manifold gaskets. 
The van finally taking shape. So Thanks go to Peter Knight, Malcolm, Richard and Helen for all their work and also Bert for making the new pulley adapter for me, but the BIGGEST THANKS goes to Steve Wells for everything he went through building the engine for me and that long wait he went through waiting for me to text him to say everything was OK. I have some parts for sale to try and help me get the van done for the Main Event. They are on Eurodragster Swap Meet under parts for sale. Until next time take care and remember, ^ BACK TO TOP ^ |
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