A week's a long time in Motorsport

One step forward…..

Sunday I was back from a week’s travel and Richard was free in the evening, so we had a productive session on the Beast. Shiny new windows were carefully drilled and riveted to the frames, with a thick layer of black silicone to try and keep the occasional rain out. Exclusive Acrylic had used some rather sexy fasteners to fix the rails for the sliding section to the main window – but they weren’t really suitable, and we decided that some button-head screws and locknuts would be more secure. These were duly added to the shopping list, alongside a new hub stud for the front wheel and a new battery. (Yes, the battery had decided to pack up.)

Richard (bless him) produced some very fetching red insulating sleeves for the HT leads, which really add a touch of class to the engine department, and hide my previously described HT lead surgery.

And what a joy it is to be able to see through the side windows for a change!

..and a giant leap backward

Sunday night I put a spare battery on charge and by Monday evening it appeared to have its full quota of ergs, so I slapped it on the Beast and gave it a quick spin round the block. Clunk…clunk…clunk it went. (The Beast, that is, not the battery. The battery hardly made any noise at all.) The sound appeared to come from the front axle, it hadn’t made its presence felt the other week at UAQ, and it sounded expensive. Bugger. Back on the trailer with it, and by first thing Tuesday the Beast was back in its second home, Saluki Motorsport. Tuesday came and went, and by midday Wednesday Robbie admitted that they weren’t going to get a round tuit this week. Bugger, and more bugger. A day and a half left till Friday and a race I really need to run. What to do? WHAT TO DO?

…followed by a lurch forward (we hope)

Find another garage, you hopeless plonker!
Oh yes! I almost forgot. Al Quoz probably has more garages per square km than anywhere else on earth. And the one two doors from my office had just done a rather stonking bit of cosmetic surgery on my Merc, and were clearly angling for more work. So when they said they could look at it straightaway, I rushed back home, picked up the trailer, rushed round to Saluki, picked up the Beast, and rushed back. (After all, I was in a bit of a rush.)

The verdict as of this evening is that it needs a new diff, which is painful but not entirely surprising. More surprising is that they will have one in the morning and have pledged to fit it before close of play Thursday. Oh, and they’ll replace a couple of bushes that they’ve discovered have crapped out as well. This in itself shows that they are reasonably switched-on, because I hadn’t asked them to give it a once-over, but they clearly did it anyway. So a big-up to Nangjel Garage so far, but let’s see if we have a working Beast in time for Friday’s bunfight in UAQ before we get too excited.

Watch (as they say) this space…