Well, blessed with more sunshine and a really good event full of nice GTI’s. Can’t believe its mid October and we are having wonderful sunny days. Scheduled for two runs and the first at 12, we were on the start line ready to do our show on time. Everything was left from the previous event to see what, if anything was the problem with the car having a low terminal speed. Our startline show was not the best in the world( and at this point I had an idea what the problem was from the previous run) but the crowd was appreciative and the car launched but the burner went out and around 30ft out and had to be re-lit and this affected the ET only 6.07 @ 262. Back in the pits the problem was identified and hopefully rectified and will find out on the next pass which is scheduled for 3pm.

At the starline our show was back on the money and the burner was strong considering the weather conditions. The car left hard and it ran good all the way through with a 5.92 @ 273mph.

Our next event is the Flame and Thunder in two weeks and hopefully we will have good weather for our season finale.

Nearly at the end of another year with only a few events left before it’s rebuild time, the off season’s get shorter and the work load seems to get bigger.

The National Finals was a liitle windy to say the least at times on Sunday. Saturday was fairly good with sunny intervals and a overcast sky. We were only scheduled for one run each day, around lunchtime both days. Saturday was hopefully going to be decent run off the back of the JapShow Finale and it was ok with a 5.95 at 267mph. I think the car would have gone slightly quicker if I had not had so much fuel left in the tank at the end of the run. Will learn for the next day, use more fuel on the startline show.

Sunday was windy, a strong cross wind at times. Our show was good on the line and trying to get the fuel down to a minimum for the run is sometimes a balancing act as running out before the finish line is not good. The car launched hard back into the 1.0 sixty foot but as the car got prgressively down the track the wind started to move the car over out of the groove and I clicked it off early around 1100ft ending in a 6.00 at 265mph.

Hopefully the car is back behaving itself and will end the year consistantly running sub 6 sec passes.

Our next event is the Saturday Night Special on 1st October and lets see the numbers back on the board.

Firstly, many apologies for the lack of updates over the last few months due to workload and a few unforeseen lengthy problems along the way.

Number 3 has had some very inconsistent events with the car losing the edge of it’s performance and running low 6’s instead of the expected 5’s. The time spent trying to resolve this issue was prolonged due to some of the scheduled runs being rained off. The priority is always to put on a performance for the crowd, even a 6 second run is better than no show. We are disappointed when the car does not perform to it’s full potential but the crowds are always appreciative.

During the car’s lack of performance, parts were made ready for the appropriate time for testing, only small changes were made to ensure we didn’t forfeit a show. The testing therefore took longer than it would have done, had we have had a free weekend. The cause of the problem could not be easily identified and a lot of head scratching went on.

Occasionally the car dipped into the 5’s and we thought we had the problem sorted and the next run would see a 6 second run and it was back to the drawing board. Last weekend at the JapShow Finale, I think we finally got to grips with it all and ran 5.88 and a 5.90 consecutively for the first time since the end of June. Hopefully at the National Finals, weather permitting, we can back out 5 sec runs up and get some consistent runs back under our belt.

With the 2011 season coming to a close and 2012 on the horizon, plans are in process.

Martin and the team

We knew from the start that this weekend was going to be trickier than usual and make for an interesting few days. Rich, unfortunately had fractured his foot and consequently was in plaster, meaning that he was restricted when working on the car. Luckily, he was still able to hobble out onto the startline and do his ‘frontman’ routine, albeit he had to limp quickly into the other lane prior to launching!

Friday saw us in with one run around 5pm with a steady run of 5.86 @ 271mph.

Saturday was fraught with issues on the track and this resulted in a long delay in getting the track scraped and ready. Our scheduled time of 11.30am disappeared and after a tiresome wait in the fireup lane, we eventually got our run at around 3.45pm. The car ran a 5.96 @ 260mph with a strong headwind?

With the race schedule so far behind, our 4pm run was delayed until the last run of the day at 7.20pm with a 5.93 @ 268mph.

Sunday was overcast with the strong headwind remaining and the delays from yesterday lingered also. This meant another long wait in the fireup lane and our first run being even later than the previous day at 4.15pm instead of 11.30am. With a 5.95 @ 268mph, the car was maintaining it’s performance. The final run of the day was at 7.30pm with 5.94 @ 271mph. Another long and tiring day.

Monday brought nothing but rain, rain and more rain so all racing for the day was cancelled.

With Richard taking a well earned holiday, it was just Horace and myself for this weekend. With two runs on Sunday scheduled at 11.30am and 2.30pm an early start was needed and one of us does not really do early starts (and no guessing for which one). On the start line things seemed strange without the familiarity of the Front man strutting his stuff or rather the sight of him hobbling around waving his crutches in all directions to be totally ignored by all in attendance. The run was good and straight with a 5.84 @ 271.39 and heading straight back to the pits to start on the between run maintenance. The car was back down on time for our second run and hopefully another good run was scheduled. The car launched hard at hit 208.84 at half track but just started to move slightly around the 1000’ mark so was clicked off and resulted in a 5.877 @ 263.62, not too bad at all.

Back in the pits the car back up in the air and a quick once over and a nice cup of tea.

Back to a full crew but with Rich still in plaster, the one scheduled run for Saturday became two runs. The first run at around 2.30pm and a welcome sight of Richard back out in front orchestrating the show and back to normality with everything settled in and a 5.899 @ 274.70 a good run for the first one.

The second run was an additional as one of the exhibition cars due to attend never made the appearance and we were asked to fill the gap. We naturally obliged and performed our startline flame and vapour show followed by a great 5.866 @ 274.67 to the delight of the crowds.

Sunday, as predicted, was a wash out and our run did not go ahead. We were all playing in the puddles or rather trying to keep the water out of the awning. Looking forward to next week,and the Japshow.

Our next outing is JapShow

FireForce 4 Update

Sorry for the lack of updates on the progress of FireForce 4, but with so many events scheduled for every weekend, we have fallen behind with our reports.

We are pleased to have the body back from Custom Painthouse. Andy and Tom have done a great job of repainting the body, so many thanks guys for your hard and prompt work. Thanks to Tom for providing us with some of the photos of the car throughout the paint job.
With the body now completed, it’s just the job of getting the chassis fixed now. It is booked in for repairs and modifications for the beginning of July and we hope to be able to start testing at the end of July (all being well)

Thanks to Missb Fotos, for sending us a disc of photos taken at the track on the day of the incident. They are some of the only photos that actually show that car at the top end and have helped us to identify what we had origianlly thought the problem to be.

In the meantime, FireForce 3 will be running at the scheduled events. See the full events list on the scheduled events page.

Thanks for your continued support

Martin & the Team

We hoped that after the last event, the Saturday Night Special, all our problems had been sorted and the car was back on top form, not quite is the answer.

Our first run on Friday evening was good, a very presentable 5.93 @ 265mph and all seemed well and backed up the previous weeks data.

Saturday’s first run around midday was not as expected. After our startline show the car was brought into stage and launched only to experience the after burner going out and on re-lite it went out again. 6.7 @ 234mph a little embarrassing as more had been expected. Back in the pits it was found that one of the fuel pumps was not delivering enough fuel and a solution had to be found quickly. We decided to restrict the after burner fuel and fit one of our old manifolds that did not flow as much fuel to make sure that we made our next run at 5 pm. The parts did the trick and the car managed 6.00 @263mph without any hassle. The decision was made to leave all the settings and run with it for this weekend till we could get to the pump and do the modifications for the following weekend.

Both our runs on Sun were 6.0 around 265mph, bracket racing here we come. All together you can not be sure of anything and hopefully with a bit of hard work we can be back running the numbers.

After the fitting of a modified pump and static test in the pits we were sure that the fuel delivery problem was sorted and our larger manifold was re-fitted.

On Saturday the track was in good condition as it was hosting the AER day which saw a varied array of vehicles all powered by alternative means. The only problem was a very strong cross wind which was gusting up to 30mph. Our decision was to run 1000’ on the side of safety. The car was launched hard and clicked off just after the 1000’ mark, 5.93 @232.46 mph with a good 207 mph at half track. Looks like our hard work had paid off and the car was back on top.

Sunday was still blessed with very strong cross winds and would restrict our efforts again. The first run of the day was 5.80 @269.88mph which is very near to our personal best of 5.79. The temptation was there to full passes and try to better our times but with the cross winds we all decided to play safe and keep to early shut off’s.

The next run was a little slower, 5.83 @ 265mph, shut off a bit too early but the car was safe and damage free. Our next meeting is the Main Event at the end of the month so weather permitting full passes will be made and let’s see some 5.7’s on the board.

All is going well with the repair of FireForce 4. The body has been patched up and it is now in the paint shop. Custom Painthouse have been doing a grand job of getting the paintwork sorted and re-sprayed. We have a couple of pictures of the paintwork so far, so in comparison to the ‘before’ pictures, the body is now looking in great shape. Our thanks to Andy and Tom Scott for all their hard work!