This team started as a result of too much beer followed by a lot of testosterone and a for sale article.
Doug was having a quiet beer with a long time friend when an advert was discovered offering a Altered race car for sale for about $15.k He immediately got on the phone to another friend and asked "what do you know about race cars, drags in particular" the reply was "not a lot but hey, we will have ago at anything". Before we knew it we were looking at our very first drag car, a little ugly but you have to start somewhere. This machine had a small block chev in it and was running on methanol thru an enderle stack injection system. The gear box was a two speed power glide beefed up to take the 450 hp this engine delivered. The original car was a Houlihan build and was constructed from mild steel tubing.     

 

 

We licensed at the old Ravenswood track which, as some of you may know, was not of the same standard as the new Kwinana Motorplex.

We went on to run this car for two seasons before we decided (blew the motor) that running low nine second passes was really not for us. We purchased a big block Chev from Darrell Horley as he was selling his car and fitted this to the modified chassis. We were now running in the high 7 second bracket. A data logger was added, and tuning continued to the car resulting in us taking the track A/MA ET and MPH records at the time. As a race team we strive to always run a reliable car so if there was any issue with components, or the gear was not up to the task, then it got changed.

 

One day whilst the rest of the crew were overseas on a project for a mining company, Doug and Mal being left to their own devices stumbled across a super charger for sale. Well this was snaffled up along with a clutch can and clutch which I might add had seen  better days.

The idea was to bore the big block out to add some cubes and a blower and go racing in the high sixes to low sevens. Then it all got silly. Over a few more beers we decided we should purchase a brand new car, fabricated out of chrome moly. At least this chassis would handle the additional horsepower.

 

 

We set about and had this new chassis built. It was fitted with a chrome moly sheet metal rear end with Mark Williams centre, Weld Aluma Star front runners and matching bead lock rear rims. We fitted a 3 speed lenco gear box and purchased the blown big block chev from O'Rourke Motorsports out of Debs TD.

We were now set to go racing. The car was delivered to us in December of 2003 so we missed half of the season. The old car had been sold in pieces. Darrell Horley brought back his engine and Steve Raven purchased the rolling chassis.

 

Doug took to the new blown altered with ease managing a 6.41 licencing pass.

During the first few races we experienced engine problems. We had valves hitting the bores causing head damage and rocker gear getting broke every time we ran the car. After persevering with the heads and changing to titanium valves we were still suffering the valve train problems, but by this stage the season was over.

In August of 2004 we went to the states for the US nationals in Indianapolis.,Whilst we were there we hired a car and drove around to all the drag car suppliers in the region and went on a shopping spree.

We visited Crower and purchased several complete clutch sets along with the pedestals to make or clutch a 3 plate instead of a 2 plate. We then went to Racepak and brought a data logger as the Aussie made one was unreliable. We did the customary visit to Brad Anderson Racing BAE and although we went close to buying a Hemi we decided to stay with the big block Chev.

 

 

We visited a lot of places and ended up with some good gear.

Prior to going to the USA we commissioned Jim Oddy to build us a new set of heads. We had worked out that the previous set were actually moving under heat loading and therefore the valves were moving in the heads and contacting the bores. This indicated that the aluminum had softened.

We caught up with Jim and his team at Indy and ordered some more new bits.

Upon our return the parts were fitted up and we went racing, off the trailer we ran a 6.40 second quarter mile in good air, not a bad effort and the reward was a great time, proving we were moving in the right direction.

 

Towards the end of the 2004/05 season we experienced some minor problems, one being the block. After making the A final at the previous meet we were unable to take the lights as we discovered a broken valve in one of the cylinders. This was caused by a lifter failure. During the between meet tear down we found we had split 3 of the cylinder bores so out went the block.

We commissioned Oddy to prepare an M series dart block and in the meantime we air freighted a Merlin in from Melbourne to fill the gap for the last three meets.

So with one more meet in the season we will see how we go. We are now moving to square the engine and start working on the ET's.

 

 

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