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This brightly coloured Prefect four door was running in the Run What Ya Brung on Friday.
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This blown Rover powered five window coupe is running in the Custom Car Invitational Run What Ya Brung. As well as running today there will be a field of 26 tomorrow and 17 on Sunday.
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The high riding Sprite is driven by owner Mark Bull who shares it with Stephen Gotz. Mark has had the car for three years and it is powered by an iron 327ci SBC with Mondello 12:1 compression heads and PG gearbox. Stephen said 'Mark bought it as a half completed project and we got it to a best of 10.66/125 and then the rear end broke. So we replaced it with a Ford 9 inch, took some weight off such as wheelie bars, and are looking forward to three days of test and tune this weekend'.
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This Mustang is owned and driven by Kieran Smith who has had the car for 11 years and raced it for the last two. He said 'Someone else built the chassis but sadly they were killed in a bike accident and I inherited the car and completed it. It has a 460ci BBF engine with BLP carburretor, Pro Comp heads, C6 gearbox and Strange rear end'. Kieran has a best of 12.342/104 here, and shares the driving with dad Graham 'Whiff' Smith who has gone 12.65/94.
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This '66 Chevelle 'Mr Mouse' is owned by Dave Shelley. He said 'The car has a best of 10.37/131 but we had a transmission fluid leak, so we drained it, fitted a new gasket and managed to get into today's RWYB on a rain-off ticket'. The car has a Steve Schmidt 540ci BBC naturally aspirated with a TH400 three speed gearbox. 'It's our third gearbox in a year', he concluded ruefully.
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Another Chevelle from '68 was making shakedown runs in the RWYB but we won't be seeing it for the remainder of the weekend.
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This Firebird usually seen in outlaw Street action, belongs to Gary Semper who has a 400ci Pontiac engine and TH400 gearbox. It has a best of 13.1/103. Outlaw Street which required street tyres and mufflers, ran at other tracks in the UK and the members can be seen in RWYB action.
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This Beach Buggy went down the track in RWYB mode, bringing back memories of the VW chassied vehicles which originated out of fibreglass moulds for the first time in the late 60s.
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This three window Ford '32 coupe was in Outlaw Street and is owned by Pete Jackson. He said 'I built it from scratch 21 years ago using a Chris Boyle body. Originally it was a street car but I have upgraded it to join the racing madness. It has a 461cu in Bill Mitchell Man O'War engine with a 1050 Dominator carb and naturally aspirated. The gearbox is a Ford C6 and the car has done a best of 9.98/132. I can still drive it on the street but it's not pleasant!' Support comes from Mark Wallington of WASP, or Wisbech American Street & Performance in full. The car was featured in Street Machine a couple of months ago.
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This Opus HRF roadster has been in the hands of Adrian Sidwell for almost 45 years. In this time he has used it on both street and strip and has made upgrades such as moving the rear axle back so he sits forward of it, and bolting on a Allard Shorrock supercharger once fitted to the Allard Dragon driven by Colin Pattison in the 1960s.
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Former Warbonnet Opel GT of George Greatholder has been bought for restoration by Ian Hart and Ruaridh Hart will be driving it when complete.
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The Ex Don Schumacher, Stones and Mike Allen Cuda first seen at SPR in 1973 has been in storage at Santa Pod Raceway for many years and this year is on display in the Nostalgia marquee. Could a restoration deal be on the cards?
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Ian Turburville's True Blood Donovan engined slingshot, built in 2010 and now a cackle car on 80% nitro, will be fired up at the BDRHoF marquee. The engine block, serial no. 144, saw service in Dennis Priddle's Mr Revell and STP Avenger Funny Car, Swamp Rat 21 (driven by Dennis in 1977), and Mickey Naylor's Medicine Man.
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Swedish funny car restorer extraordinaire Janne Johansson has brought six of his historic collection to SPR in a huge Peterbilt transporter. The Bubble Up 1977 Pontiac Trans Am was campaigned by Gordie Bonin and Jerry Verhuel and was one of the first in the class to exceed 240mph, famously giving that speed to Gordie as a nickname. The body has been restored to show condition by Janne who works as a paint inspector in Sweden. You have to see the cars at the track to realise the fantastic quality of workmanship he has applied to them.
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The Flygvapnet funny car raced at SPR in 1980 and 1982, running a best of 6.38/212 at the Big Go in May 1982. The body is on an ex Piano and Matsubara chassis used by Lee Anders,
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The 1977 Monza body of Joe Pisano and Sush Matsubara has been restored by Janne Johansson to an exact replica, involving having the Pisano family verify the paint colours used and Revell signeage being copied exactly.
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Björn Ardin's DEX Volvo 343 Funny Car from 1979 has been immaculately restored with the chassis stripped, and sandblasted before primer and paint, and the body the same deep candy apple red that fans of a certain age remember. The alky engine is also a work of art. The car ran in Pro Comp here in 1980 and 1981.
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This Austin A40 was running high 12s at 110mph. It is owned by Adam Beavis and runs a 351cu in Ford Cleveland engine with stock heads and a C6 gearbox and Ford 9" rear. Adam drives it on the road 'as often as I can' and is a newcomer to strip action, this being his second event. A nitrous kit is fitted and Adam says he will make use of it in a future event.
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The Chi Town Hustler of Troy Martin has been raced in the US since 2004 at match races. It has the same livery as the car in which Frank Hawley drove the car to back to back NHRA Funny Car championships in 1982 and 1983 with the original team, of which only Austin Coil is still around. Now owned by Paul Harris of the UK, the car came out for a checkout pass but looked as if the throttle linkage had broken as it idled down the track with the engine sounding great.
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It's good to see the Time Warp funny car back with the usual team headed up by Paul Stubbings and Wendy Baker. The car will be cackling on Saturday but we can only hope the retirement announcement in the event programme doesn't transpire.
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Brian 'Star' Savidge, longtime team member for Dennis Priddle, has an immaculate '32 Ford Roadster which he will be running in the Invitational over the weekend. The car, painted five years ago but looking like new, has a best ET of 10.74.
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Wild Bunch racer from the Netherlands Maxim Spaans has a 23T altered with a 350ci SBC engine. Maxim is a former crew member of MPM Oil Top Fuel team with Lex Joon as team owner.
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