Cheers Glenn, thanks for welcoming me into the group. I'm really a newbie at this side of the sport, as although I've been going drag racing since the early 60s, initially I was on the organising side & first as part of Race Control & then Tech Crew at Santa Pod Raceway, although I actually helped set the track up in '65 before it opened in '66.
I stopped working there in '78 when my first son was born & we decided that having a newborn baby whilst working every other weekend at a race track wasn't the best enviroment (some may disagree!!). Still retained an interest in it though but eventually got heavily involved in rodding & still am. However about 6 or 7 years ago my good friend & team boss, Dave Gibbons, found his old altered that he'd built in the late 70s, out in Austria & asked me if I'd go out there with him in my Mercedes MPV to collect it, as it had a tow hitch & none of his cars did! Ever since then, I've been part of his race team in Super Pro ET, but as he's quite a slightly-built guy, he's the only one that can get in the altered!
Earlier this year, a fellow competitor decided to sell the little FED he'd bought 7 years previously & never run!! He spoke to Dave & mentioned it & initially Dave's thought was for us all to share in it & take turns to drive it. That plan was abandoned when both he & our crew chief decided they couldn't afford it really, but by then the damage was done, I was hooked!!! We went to view the rail & as long as I could actually get in it to drive it, I decided I wanted it!! So I made an offer that was accepted & that was that, my fate was sealed!
The car was originally built in 1973 to what was at the time, a pretty well-established formula for British dragsters, using a frame design by Harold Bull (the leading Junior dragster competitor), a BMC Mini / Midget A-Series OHV 4 cylinder engine bored out to 1293cc (79ci), supercharged (cabin blower) & injected running on methanol & up to 30% nitro. The trans is a BW35 auto, modified to 3 forward gears only, using an AP racing 4-plate slider clutch system for starts only, a heavily modified Minor rear axle with a Quaife LSD & modified Ford half shafts. The front end is based on Ford Anglia spindles & originally had Raleigh motorcycle wire wheels fitted. but due to difficulties in finding speed rated tyres to fit, these were changed to the alloy ones currently on it. The rest of it is traditional FED stuff but as it is now, the chassis is not taggable & with no reverse, it's not legal to run in competition here, so for now I will run it in RWYB & historic events & see how I get on. If I'm still in love with it in a couple of years time, I may well get Dave to build a new legal chassis & find a way of getting a reverse gear in it & go racing, until then I just wanna have fun (as the song goes)!!
There's lots of pics of it on my Facebook page & 3 videos of us firing it up (the first time in over 7 years!) & me driving it for the first time, it's best time was 10.93 @ 122mph running 30% nitro (Harold Bull got his almost identical rail down to a best of 9.75 & a top speed of 136mph before he retired!). There is also a thread about the car on the UKDRN nostalgia website, started 6 years ago, asking where the car was (it's called Spirit, by the way). Thanks for staying with me this long, hope it was of some interest to you guys, more news when we start the new season next year.
Maurice.
