My history, some spots UPDATE March 2023

[purplebargeken]

I have until now not actually been able to keep up with the freakingly amazing quantity and quality of prime autoshite that you have been in possession of. 

 

I am almost speechless. Thanks for sharing the piccies.

 

Wish to fuck that I had such a pictorial record of the 300 plus cars I've owned. Bugger.

[fordperv]

For another one, this time in Ghia spec. Her indoors liked it, but I didn't. It seemed a bit woolly, vague, and generally tedious.

was sold to a friend of Bro's parents, who had it for about 9 months when it shat a core plug, and was sold to a Ford breakers locally.

tonight Matthew I'm going to be.....

[Nev]

Evening chaps....

 

Anyhoo, as some of you may recall, I was after a trailer recently due to recommencement of my Superstar racing career, so, here's what occurred today, at a "practice" session....
 

[Nev]

4

[Pillock]

Whoopsie! Fixable?

 

Your original pics were hosted on facebook, and when you paste the address it says "url signature expired" so it might mean your privacy settings don't allow photos to be displayed outside of FB?

[Nev]

Thanks Mr Pillock, brother said to put them on Photobucket, but obviously* I know best......

 

It's nearly fixed - well, straightened - , courtesy of a Porta-power, a fork lift and a skip lorry....and it's cost me a few bags of chips so far....booked in to race easter Monday, just need to get the front end set up again...reckon i'm going to get there early and get a few practice laps in.

 

[danthecapriman]

Shit! At least you've been able to fix it though.

 

How did it happen? Was it a car or the wall that did the damage?

[Nev]

A combination of cold tyres, heavy right foot and ego.

 

Came out of the bottom bend, and it's understeering a bit, so i planted my right foot to correct - too much on cold-ish tyres and a cold track....big ol' tankslapper, then off into the armco. You can see the trail of fluids as it came to rest on the centre.

 

It's been a while since i've driven one of these, and i'd forgotten how much crashing into walls hurt. I haz bruises. It was bound to happen at some point, I just feel a bit of a dork for doing it all by myself!

[danthecapriman]

At least you didn't hurt yourself badly and the cars going to be able to race again. A shame though, it was looking pretty good before to damage! Looks like it's destroyed one your alloys though unfortunately.

 

I don't know how the banger racers do what they and walk away sometimes. Some of the hits and follow ins look absolutely brutal. I bet that makes you ache for the next few days!

[Nev]

Yep, that hurt....well, ached like a bitch Saturday pm....and that's a reason I didn't fancy going back into bangers again - to quote Danny Glover "I'm too old for this shit"....If anyone has met Bro' (Outlaw118) you'll see the scar on his elbow, and if you ask him nicely, you can have a poke at it, and feel the metalwork in there 

 

 

Anyhoo, race day today, so I was there at Arena Essex bright-eyed and bushy chested, raring to go.

 

Seem like the little shunt was almost a blessing in disguise, after everything was put back together again-ish, we had a look at the general set-up, and a decision was made to play about with the arse end a bit, and take a bit of suspension travel out of the nearside and try and stop the understeer that helped with the crash in the first place.  The car now sits a bit higher on the back end, but lower on the offside, as racing clockwise, it needs to be flatter.

 

Off i went for a few practice laps - slowly at first, tyres heating up nicely, so after 3 laps I gave it some beans, and it was flying. A bit oversteery perhaps, but all good. Then 8 laps in it stopped with an alarming clattering noise.

 

BALLZ.

 

Recovered to the pits, we whipped the rocker cover off to reveal a snapped camshaft.

 

GR2.

 

Quick dash back to the yard - oddly enough we didn't have a spare with us - this has never happened before - and then some frantic activity by my head mech and a mate Ginger who had turned up in a clean T shirt and jeans (schoolboy error) got her back out for the second heat. Due to a piss-poor turnout of bangers and a distinct lack of wrecking, the race card was being whizzed through, on any other day, we'ed have been able to have another few minutes to get out for the first one!

 

I started from the back, thinking, i'd ease myself in, so i tagged along behind another driver, already dubbed "Milkfloat" by my brother, and I couldn't keep up with him. I planted my foot down, and there was a massive flat spot. It didn't clear itself, it was now seeming to be missing as well,  and as I was now having to take to the outside after only 3 laps due to being blue-flagged, I decided that things weren't going to improve and pulled onto the centre.

 

Back in the pits, after some fiddling, we realised that the engine had been set up on the rolling road using the old cam, and this new one was probably a different profile, and this, hopefully was the realon it was running like a bag of spanners. Lets hope that's all it was....

 

Handling wise, it was lovely, just everything else was pants.

 

Oh well, I didn't hit anything, nobody hit me. Every cloud eh?

 

Three weeks to get it sorted.

[Nev]

Just realised I've not updated this......

 

Had two meetings since the "cam incident".... first one, I finished both heats that I entered. Last, but I started at the back. car handlng like a basket of pigs, no traction, and understeering like a bastard.

 

Engine sounds like a mofo, all spitting fire and grumbly. I likes this.  Plan is to drop the arse end, cut the arches a bit, get some camber on the OSR wheel.

 

Second meeting, decided that I'd have a practice....much banging and spinning happened. OMGDIFFAIL. BAALS>

Fitted spare diff, but it's not locked, and didn't have time to fix before race one.

 

Started last, finished ninth. Two points!! Started at the back for the other two races, got a few points there too, but ruined both rear tyres due to OMG BERNOUTZ every time I planted my right trotter. Seems to be pushing on a bit, and locking OSF wheel under braking.

 

Diff will be locked for next meeting - June 5th. Probably going to try a heavier rated spring on the front too, try and push that wheel in a bit harder, and try and stop it from locking. 

 

Fingers crossed.

[Jim Bell]

That could be an extract from Michael Shoemakers autobiography if you read it in a German accent. Best of luck with the tweaks dude. YOU'VE GOT AN 8TH IN YOU. I KNOW IT.

[Nev]

@ Mr Wilson.... you were right.... 8th, 10th, 9th.

 

Uprated spring(s) still hasn't turned up at Polley Motorsport, the bunch or hopeless wankbaskets.

 

Engine still good, straightline pace isn't a problem, diff now welded, so i've got traction. I'm going to make the car write "I MUST GO ROUND CORNERS BETTER" 500 times, until it learns. I've tryed everything else.

[Nev]

Springs here, all fitted, camber etc all changed, engine tuned, here comes sunday!!

[Nev]

Just realised I haven't updated for a while - I ended the season with mid-table respectability, after a gearbox shitting itself incident.....this is what happens when stuff breaks.... and a win in the final meeting.

 

This year, we've had two meetings so far, meeting one, a DNF because of this...then a couple of decent results, this weekend a 3rd 6th and 9th..

[Nev]

Who wants some more piss poor photos?

 

Probably one of my favourite photos from the good* old days when i raced bangers. 124 my mate Fester was having issues with his car, it wouldn't start, despite it being fine back at the yard, so we just chained him to the back of mine and hoped for the best. After 9.5 laps it sprang into life, clipping the back of mine, then the inner kerb/ wall, and flipped over. Not wishing to throw away 3rd place, I kept my foot ion, and dragged him across the line as you see below. Soon it was time for the final, and we got followed in by a Granada / Allegro combo, and Fester didn't get out of the car. He was fine, gave me the thumbs up, so I let him get on with it.

On return to the pits, unbeknownst to me, he beckoned my brother over, asking for some wire cutters. Turns out the turning turtle incident had broken his harness buckle so instead of saying something, the stupid fat fuck tied himself in with cable ties.

 

He is currently still alive. 

[Nev]

A picture of two out of 3 of my Lightning Rods; the light blue one was bought pretty much ready to go. The rooves get painted according to your points, white, yellow, blue, red, then various variations on red, stripes etc, and in some cases you'll get a gold for becoming Top Dog.

I started with the light blue on yellow, and after two meetings progressed to blue. First "blue" meeting was the European championship, (which is like the USA World series) couple of drivers from Holland showed up, and a few from Incarace and Spedeworth promotions. We decided to go and have a practice on Saturday, the old girl was flying. Went out for a final blast to scrub in a new pair of front tyres, whereupon one of the pistons decided that it'd had enough and exited through the block.

It was 3.30pm, the car was loaded onto the trailer, and as I had a prior engagement that I REALLY couldn't escape (B-I-L's wedding) I threw myself on the mercy of my "crew" (The aforementioned Fester, @outlaw118 and my favourite apprentice from work). 
They then proceeded to remove the borked engine from the Rod, then strip off the head and ancillaries. They then whipped the engine out of a written-off Transit that we'd bought for Big Van Bangers, strip that, put my spare head on as the original couldn't be trusted, stick my carbs, cam and manifold on, and plonk it into the Rod. They finished at 4am. When I got to the yard at 9.00 they admitted that they'd had some chemical assistance and still hadn't been to bed, instead choosing to wash, wax and detail the whole car.....

 After a 3rd in the first qualifier and a fourth in the second, I got put 3rd row inside for the final.  The rebuilt lump was properly grumpy at low revs when cold, however once I got a few laps in all was well. During the final, I overtook the 4th place bloke round the outside after some "rubbing" and set off for third. The leading 3 were having their own little battle and slower than me, so didn't take long to catch them. Fortunately (for me) the second place driver went for a rash move up the inside and outbraked himself and ran wide. collecting some expensive looking damage from a back-marker. Yay! Up to 2nd. The leader had buggered off into the distance by this point - Mark Liszowski, great driver - so I was content to just defend. Alas, a back marker span in front of me; I went to the outside, and 3rd place bloke went inside, and I lost the place. 5 laps to go, and I got right up the chuff of Mr 2nd place - his car was damaged from the earlier incident, and smoking both from bodywork rubbing and oil burning. I kept the pressure on, tried inside, then outside until with the last lap signal I decided that 3rd place was better than nothing, in a car with an engine that cost next to fuck all, behind a legend of the sport and a money-no-object car, so I got 3rd.

Then went up to red roof in the space of one meeting.

I "retired" at the end of that season as I fancied doing proper circuit racing, and the soccer team I was player-manager for took up too much time. Oh, and I had kids too.

 

 

[Nev]

A day licence and the offer for someone else to build a car was sufficient for me to un-retire and go and have some fun* at Dover Raceway a few years back.

Mk3 Escort 1100, not suitable for scandinavian flicks, likely to bust engine mountings if piloted by an idiot. All the things that should have been said to me beforehand. Oh well. It didn't rain.
 

[Nev]

Skud Missiles - VRS frenzy

The chronological order went Red, Black, Yellow, Black....I think....the Fabia was bought for Mrs_Nev

 

 

 

[Nev]

Short termers..... you know when you buy a car, and it just doesn't feel right? Both of these come under this heading, the ST was bought for the Mrs, within 2 weeks someone had keyed it and nicked the wheel centres, kept a total of 3 months, and the Focus... bought cheap, and as soon as my private plate arrived, I wanted to get rid.

[Nev]

When my mate Lumpy decided to emigrate with his folks to Lanzarote, he asked me if I'd like his one family owned, no expense spared E320. 

The deal was done, number plate transferred, and I began to daily it.

Got a postcard from him after about two months, "Having a great time, really missing the car, glad it's gone to a good home, I know it's being looked after".

 

 

Yeah, about that....

 

[Nev]

Another day, another Merc, ex-private Ambulance, owned by an insurance company for "European recovery". Had absolutely mental miles on it so it was cheap. kept for 6 months, sold at a profit to a bloke at my local car wash who was going to drive it home to Bosnia.

[Nev]

Last pics for now, the car that I kept the longest, and one that a number of shiters will remember from Chumley.

My C43. As fixed by @KruJoe, leered at by @chaseracer @alcyonecorporationand probably others. She's been sold now, I couldn't justify having a C43 and C63 so as the 43 needed a few bits doing (welding and paint) that are out of my comfort zone I sadly sold her to someone in the AMG fanpage./club.

[chaseracer]

Sounded rather good, as I recall ?

[Nev]

Forgot about this, bought last year as a project for me and Nev_Jnr. MG ZS 180 Trophy Yellow

[Nev]

Just found this photo of my ALFA....IT'S A MODERN, BUT BEING italian and automatic AND diesel, it probably qualifies....

[Nev]

My 3.0S has recently resurfaced, looking good, but now out of my reach financially.

Was auctioned and reached £20646, now for sale again for £27995. No mention of the Specialised Engines 3.1, and he's changed the wheels and tidied her up a bit since I sold him, but still, a lot of cash.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1273147

[Nev]

One of the current members of my stable, one of the true essex man yob mobiles, but it is a great drive signifficantly played with over 300bhp

 

[Nev]

An arty photo of an utterly ridiculous car currently owned, just under 600 brake in a 3ton motor

[Nev]

And the latest edition, poo brown inside, poo brown outside 80's heaven