1999 News and Results

Who could drive a car without the odd breakdown? A tale of many Cortina incidents and a reliable Sierra

We made a false start on the 21st Feb, thinking it was RWYB but the telephone message had the wrong date, it was also raining. This is the closest Alex's Rover 220 Tomcat has got to being raced on the strip. (dig dig)

It began on March 14th at the first RWYB at Santa Pod - my first chance to run the mkII down the strip. In my excitement of 5000rpm in D (true 110mph) up the M6, I managed to chuck my fanbelt and pull a lead off the coil in the process. The next 2+ hours were spent driving around in the Sierra searching out a replacement fanbelt.


We finally got to the pod after 1pm. I ran some low 16s suffering from fuel problems at the top end as the fuel pump wasn't up to the job. Dave ran steady 16s.

The first race meeting at York was Sunday 4th April. Late in the day after a quick fuel pressure adjustment (new pump fitted since last time) I didn't close my bonnet securely and... well it got wrapped around my windscreen just after the eighth. Thankfully, bonnets fit in the tail area of estate cars so I could drive home with no bonnet, unfortunately it poured with rain.

In May I pulled out the engine and box and replaced with a different engine and a 5 speed manual. Before fitting the new engine we'd got it running on the ground - in the rain as usual. I wasn't too happy when I had to cut the trans tunnel out again.

For the June meet Dave had arranged to tow up a Vauxhall VX that he was selling.


We took it to the Leeds cruise where many seemed baffled that the race car was actually the tow car... After a good day's racing it seemed a fuel saver to drop the Cortina onto the trailer and pull it home. No problems there. A couple of days later, I rolled up at Dave's in my mkIII Cortina saloon to tow the mkII home as it had lived at Lichfield until then. I'd used the same car and trailer to tow another mkII over Christmas without bother. However, this time it had super slack rear bushes and the trailer got into such a snake I thought I'd lost both cars. The oscillations were so violent that metalwork I was transporting in the trailered car has dented the roof badly. Somehow it calmed down and we were able to stop, unload (our pants) and then drive the cars home. This in no way helped the plan of trailering a mkI Cortina to its buyer. Rope towing a car with defective lights for 30+ miles of country lanes is no big laugh. I was so glad to get rid of the mkI that I forgot to ask for any money, but he remembered. A big thanks to Dave for being the mug in the towed car.

Having changed from auto to manual in May, I had fitted a standard clutch master which was rather close to a rocker cover, as time would tell... At one race meet most of the cylinder parted company with the mounting lugs leaving me without a clutch, in neutral and partway up the strip.

With expert assistance from Dave I was able to drive it home in fifth though.

Having replaced the cylinder in the interim and completed the cruise at the Essex Street Rod Nationals I was only feet away from parking the car when I melted the clutch flexi pipe. Another 2+ hour drive home using fifth alone.

Typical pits scene

Somehow September and October saw no more failures in the Cortina. However, having completed a whole season in his daily driver and raced the last race of the millenium at York against a 13 second Beetle, Dave's Sierra wouldn't start. We diagnosed that the fuel pump wasn't running and while tapping it with a jack handle to encourage it into action, the fuel line ruptured.


Thankfully Cath and Tig Napier were still at York to help as everyone else had already left. With some torchlight and jubilee clips the fuel line was repaired and then the faulty relay bypassed.

Over enthusiastic report of TOSS#2 at the final RWYB of the year at the Pod.

Final results

Out of over one hundred entries in the NSCC
8th - Dave
11th - James

We also competed in the Street Shoot Out:
4th - Dave
6th - James


At the Drivers Meeting James won a prize! (shock, horror) - 'Getting home in the face of adversity' - cheers all.

TOSS