Status as at March
TOSS#1   rusting merrily at TOSS HQ.
TOSS#2   The 'winter rebuild' started in Feb after I'd got my sister's Morris Minor 1000 MOT'd. A bent exhaust valve has been replaced, all valves reground, chambers and pistons cleaned. Then I made a 5 link onto the Capri LSD axle, it was good to rip off the soft leaf springs and trashed shocks (I didn't realise that the axle had crushed their casings while it tramped.) I hope I knew what I was doing, but it seems to work. Aside from a minor rozzing and the exhaust grounding on cats eyes on the M6, it ran up to the Drivers' meeting in Blackpool without any hassle.
TOSS#3   The engine barely runs and there is a large rust hole in the rear bumper. Aside from that 'we are expecting good things from it this year.'

2 April - NSCC round 1

Dave was on holiday!
The meeting was rained off.

Test & Tune - Avon Park 16 April

I (James) took the short run down to Avon Park in the lovely sunshine that we were so lacking two weeks ago. On the debut run I proved totally incompenent, failing to stage and missing the green light. I can't really explain why. After waiting 40+ mins to run I wasn't too happy to earn a 20s timing ticket. On my fourth and final run, I just crept into the 13s again with a 13.935 before an armco incident stopped the track. It was a great shame to see the previously well presented yellow Ford Customline get a mangled front and rear quarter. Thankfully the driver seemed ok. It had been a busy day at APR, with a wide range of vehicles, including a large Wild Bunch contingent. There's a full report on Eurodragster.
As I came to leave I realised that having given my tools and gear to a friend who had already left - I'd have to drive home with open exhaust as he had the blanking cap. Luckily I didn't get stopped.

19th April - NSCC Round 2

At this round TOSS were represented by the Sierra and Cortina once again. The Sierra had been dug out of its rusting place the previous Wednesday and taken 'up north' via the Monterey Meet, leaving TOSS#3 where it stood. The Cortina now has slightly larger nitrous/fuel jets fitted to give 100-120hp boost.
Although looking fine, the track presented problems to everyone adding half to one second to ETs. Unusually for us we both made round 2. James by actually being faster than the off-par Herald and Dave got lucky because Chris McC missed a gear. In round 2 James was beaten by .421 by Moose, with a 1-2 car length gap at the top end. Dave had an unlucky pairing with HRG73? a quick yellow Capri that had an easy win.
Also, after my quips about round 1, in round 2 Pete Atkinson showed what his car can really do by running some good low thirteens and Mick Rogers was down at the Pod running low elevens.

21st May - NSCC Round 3

A lousy day for TOSS. The Sierra was in pieces in Blackpool as Dave replaced missing sections of floorpan and thus was never going to make it to York.
After standing around all morning in the rain, when we finally did get the signal to race it was all happened too quickly and the marginally grippier 185 tyres didn't make it onto the Cortina until after a disappointing 16.3 one shot qualifier. The first elimination saw a pairing with Keiron Tatlock which looked like a foregone conclusion - as he has run 12s? before. Although waiting an extra 0.4 on the line, Keiron was then off like a shot compared to James, but by the full quarter he was only 0.2 ahead and actually 10 mph slower. I'd got my strategy wrong - just approaching the line I hung on in 3rd pulling 6500+ rpm and getting misfires as the nitrous retard worked too hard. If I had changed up at 6000 then maybe then gap would have been closer... but it wasn't and he won.
At this meeting the PDRC brackets began with somewhat better fortune. Qualifying was tricky as again it was a one-shot affair and the track was drying out making those dial-ins even more guesswork than usual. I also made things more difficult by running NSCC with nitrous and PDRC without - this ensured I had no idea what times I'd be running. I qualified somewhere low down as I broke out 15.9 vs 16.0. In round 1 some careful backing off gave me the win by 0.02 over Russ Pursley. In round 2 I played the back off game again but too early and allowed Gary Haworth to storm passed winning by 0.05 - by the time I realised he was going to pass me I'd already blown it - damn! Next time maybe.

20 June
After enthusiastic removal, the Cortina currently has no axle, no rear chassis rails, no fuel tank and no wheel arches. This is a problem as it is Monterey tomorrow and two rounds of racing at the weekend... better get welding instead of typing!
The Sierra has also had its problems with a failed radiator at the Mopar Nats but hopefully that is resolved now.

21 June
After some frantic work the car just made it to the Monterey meet. Although the fuel tank was a can of petrol strapped into the boot and the inner wheel arches were simply tacked back on.

24th/25th June - NSCC Rounds 4/5

Dave made York at around midnight, sensibly taking a caravan to make the weekend's proceedings a little more civilised. Meanwhile James was still hard at work rebuilding the Cortina - finally arriving at 5am after a minor motorway breakdown caused by silicone sealant blocking the fuel filter.

Saturday was a lazy day with qualifying not starting until lunchtime. There were many familiar faces in the NSCC camp although quite a few regulars were not to be seen. The day started on a high for James with a NPB of 13.72 on the first run out. The Sierra wasn't on top form only running to 16.0 despite the track conditions being the best this year (i.e. it stayed dry at last.) Both cars progressed through round 1, James beating Phil in the Zodiac and Dave losing out. James nearly didn't make it as the fuel filter had found yet more silicone sealant. Another suprise in round 1 was Mick Rogers pulling a red light - rather careless as he was number 1 qualifier. Round 2 unsuprising saw both cars knocked out although only just - Rick Swan's immaculate and fast mk1 Capri cut out between burnout and stage and nearly didn't restart, the startline crew were just about to send the Cortina off to an unopposed victory when Rick got it running and then made an easy defeat by a 2 second margin.
Now eliminated it was time to play : so the Cortinas fuel and nitrous jets were drilled out a little with some help from the Gasman. A few more passes still hadn't beaten 13.7 so it was left for the morning. We also got a few practice runs in for the bracket racing on Sunday. Dave was now limping around having twisted his ankle somehow while watching Rick Swan struggle on the startline.

On Saturday night we shared the party with the VW event also hosted at York, well except James who wimped out at 11 after the 'week of crisis.' The rest of the HRG crowd enjoyed many beers and enough silly dancing for a year by all accounts.

Sunday dawned dry again with a bit of sun too. Times looked ok for the Street ET with 16.0 and 14.4 dialins respectively. (The Cortina is run in ET without the gas, 14.40 being a NPB on petrol alone.) Qualifying for NSCC put James and no.11 and Dave somewhat lower down the field as the regular slower cars had still stayed away and had been replaced by lots of fast ones... Street ET qualifying went ok. Round 1 of NSCC saw James against Phil again (sorry mate) and Dave against ? Graham Bell ? The Sierra couldn't match the Mustang, but once again the Zodiac lost out. Round 2 saw James face Chris McCullough who had scraped a bye run after the 11 second Pontiac suffered electrical faults and no showed. Leaving carefully and avoiding the red light Chris was still beaten, the next round saw a pairing against the Moose aside from sabotage there was little possible to beat him. Dave suggested checking the oil which was a damn good idea as there was none on the dipstick. Having carried out this most basic of service items, staged with no burnout and pulled a moderate .752 light to Moose's 1.115 it felt as though that it was 3/4 of the strip before Moose inevitably passed and won by .399 recording 12.497 to a losing 13.260. So, TOSS was out but a NPB of 13.26 - wow! A later RWYB pass saw the 13.26 backed up by a 13.345. Was it the gas or just the oil - until next time, who knows?

29th July - NSCC Round 6

The week preceding this round was frantic wagon surgery (car work.) Dave was in Lichfield dismantling the old faithful 10 quid caravan and then doing some work on the Olds and James was in Solihull working on the Cortina. The plan was to have the Ford 9", 10x15 Centrelines and 275/50x15 Hoosiers (cheers John) fitted and running for improved times at York. Laziness in getting up, driving miles for parts, a lads session at Dave's on Wednesday, wasting time looking for an ammo box to house the nitrous bottle and a couple of visits to Wolverhampton for nitrous didn't aid progress. With help from Dave on Thurday afternoon (work didn't actually start until 3pm) the axle was bolted up and the car was sitting on the new set up for real. On Friday Dave was doing some work to make TOSS#3 MOT worthy and James continued on the Cortina. By lunchtime on Friday it became apparent that the desired length of the propshaft had been incorrectly specified and the new prop was too short. Luckily this mistake had been made on the previous prop and a 1" spacer was sitting the the garage for just this situation. For some reason the spacer didn't quite sit down correctly but this didn't manifest itself just yet. The Friday pub session was forgone to continue with the car and it wasn't until 8pm Saturday after making a new panhard bar mounting, handbrake mounting and various other stuff that the car could actually be driven. Cautiously driving the car round the block the axle howled like hell, the tyres scraped on the arches, the LH rear brake disc was binding and the prop shook.

By 22.45 some of the problems had been fixed and the rest were ignored: James set off for York. After only 1 junction of the M42 the oil filter had shaken loose and directed oil EVERYWHERE at 40psi. Having fixed this the rest of the journey was completed at no more than 60 mph with a continuous deafening howl from the diff. (Yes there is oil in it.) With thick fog surrounding York, the final 12 miles took 3/4 hr at max 30 mph - arriving at about 3am.

Dave couldn't make this race meet as he was working as Classic American at a show down south somewhere. So James was the only member of TOSS present.
Although adjustments had reduced the prop shake it was still a bit scary. But to make matters worse, having missed the first qualifier for fixing the prop, on the second and final qualifier the nitrous solenoid stopped working to record a 15.4 (slowest for ages) when the previous test run without gas had yielded an equal gasless best of 14.4 without trying too hard.
Things went downhill from there on being knocked out in the first round of NSCC and the brackets. This was the first and hopefully last race meeting I didn't enjoy. On the NSCC points side of things it seems certain that Moose will move back into no.1 position (but it isn't over yet matey!)
Quite a few people were having problems, some far more serious and also expensive. Rick Swan's most unfortunate engine death was certainly a shame and must put a large dent in his pocket.
The winner of the day was Steve Neimantis who had suprisingly stayed away from the Street Eliminator and consequently beat us all, up at York.

The plan now for TOSS2 is to swap back to the Capri LSD axle and then work out the problems with the 9" setup. Maybe by the October race those cool looking Hoosiers will be showing once more. The 3.0:1 gearing of the LSD should help ease the pain in the wallet of the Power Tour in August - 1000+ miles with 4.5:1 gears doesn't sound too good.

5 Aug
Dave got the Olds MOTd and it is now up for sale.
A small bit of work in Solihull. With the desire to make the Sierra run quicker (even a tenth would be nice) a trial air scoop to fit onto the air box was made. When racing the bonnet will be off and the scoop fitted (unless everyone takes the piss.) The Cortina has the Capri axle again. The nitrous solenoid was faulty and has been replaced.

12-13th August NSCC rounds 7 & 8

The weekend had great potential : two NSCC rounds, the annual Street Racer, Saturday cruise to Leeds, the NASC Great Northern Run (Hotrod show), PDRC brackets, Mopar Muscle and the Wild Bunch.
The intention was to arrive on Friday pm in reasonable time and enjoy a few beers. We were almost there, Dave arriving in good time but passing out two hours before James arrived sometime after one - but no worries as the beer was still flowing until just before three.
Saturday dawned to a good turnout of racers for NSCC and the Wild Bunch. The show area fielding some muscular Mopars.
tbc..
By a good luck and others' bad luck James ended up in the semis on the Sunday which was a suprising first. A fast Neimantis ensured he didn't progress to the final which was itself won by Moose making damn sure he got the full 2000 points for the meeting.

24th September NSCC round 9

The track conditions were poor adding a second to most car's ETs - we were lucky though as the Pod and SCR were totally rained out. In round 1 Dave was eliminated by Coco Connection which was unlucky as it was retired with low oil pressure after that run. If only they had retired 1/4 mile earlier. James progressed against Gary Leece but then met Moose in round 2. A 13.6 on a gradually improving track was still no match for a slower than usual 12 something. In the PDRC brackets there was a miracle result when James won the Street ET, ending up joint third for the year.

15th October - final NSCC round

With a damp track and misting rain at 10am, the track wasn't open until just before 2pm. Despite everyone efforts to dry the track I don't see how a handful of blokes with brooms is any match for rear end Ronnie in drying efficiency. It came as no suprise that when the track did open traction was somewhat laughable. Even without nitrous the Cortina sat spinnings its wheels at 6000rpm on launch and squirmed about in second.
The qualifying order was largely unaffected by the conditions although times were well down.
In the first round Dave and James met. Just to be extra smug no gas was used but Dave still lost (sorry mate.) In round 2 James met up with Biff in the freshly flamed ex-SG Camaro. It was a close race and despite a poor wheelspinning start James took the win over Biff's misfiring pass. Round 3 was a familiar sight of Moose beating James. No change there - 0.9s advantage to the big block.
However, James wasn't worried as he'd already won the NSCC!

Cheers