WEEK SIXTEEN

Monday, 3rd March

Now it’s March and don’t forget the boys reckoned it would all be ready in 2 weeks time !! (Comedians) Lets now have a look at what’s still to do :-

Complete Cab Interior
Complete air brake system
Complete truck electrical wiring and lights
Cab interior & exterior to paint together with extra fibreglass body panels to design and manufacure, fit and paint.
Water cooled system for delivery to disc brakes.
Mounting of radiator, intercooler, diesel tank, + trunking + piping for the above to design, manufacture and fit.
The batteries to mount and wire up these to the cab and isolator at rear and incorporate the engine management electric system complete with brain and fly by wire throttle, all with no wiring diagram.
The front and rear bumper bars to manufacture and fit to protect the cab and rear and side of the chassis from heavy 6 ton truck impacts by myself or other competitors.
Still no glass in the cab, mirrors etc. Etc.

Could you do all this within a difficult set of regulations, with no margin for error, plus much, much more in just 5 weeks.?

When I look at Pav and Ben who appear comfortable and are talking about testing a week before Pembrey on 12/4/03 I wonder if one is Superman and the other a relation of Moses !! As this looks impossible !!

Intense work on front and rear bumpers and impact protection structures took place early in the week with Jim (will fix it) helping out as well, leaving only Gary to look after the road motors which thankfully behaved themselves all week. I will have to put Gary onto the racing project ASAP as well I feel to finish anywhere near in time !! But not yet as Kenny Kenworth and the transporter trailer are booked in for MOT 17/3/03 and if you don’t know she is a one of a kind antique being 20 years old this birthday, and will take some tender loving care to prepare for today’s modern Ministry of Transport MOT tester man who these days seem to like to issue PG 9’s like parking tickets, let alone the transporter trailer which is 3 trailers welded together, all on air, built for high speed travel in the dark and may have an odd percent or two missing when it comes to braking efficiently or imbalance as I do not like flat spotting my tyres when I reduce speed on the open road from 90 MPH to 50 MPH in a split second, with no ABS, so will it all pass 1st time !! I’ll let you know how we get on with her and the vehicle Inspectorate in week 18.

Around Wednesday I climb into the cab for a seat fitting for the first time to look around the interior of this beast we are making. Vision will be the problem as these new FIA approved seats have neck restraint wings which limit my field of vision considerably, which I feel endagers the drivers and not keeps them safer as I can't see out of the side of the cab properly whilst racing wheel to wheel. Like a horse with blinkers on - If I turn my head left or right I cannot see past the sides of the seat. Therefore the seat base has to go right back to the rear of the cab, and then up and up until I can see the near side mirror, through the ¼ light let alone the nearside window.

This will be my final seat position to maximise vision out of the cab, although already I realise I will need at least two internal mirrors to see behind halfway down my nearside window and more backwards, and sitting so far back in the cab will limit my vision, down at the front corners when I may clip them pulling out to overtake after getting a slipstream, and also vision directly ahead when I am following another truck close up under braking at the corners, keeping an eye on their rear crossmember dissapearing under my windscreen.

Anyway if all goes to plan I will be away at the start and gone, with everyone else behind me anyway !!

As I get out to leave Pav to locate the seat base, I see the front bumper guard is on and work going on to fabricate another section of bumper bar under the doors in front of the front wheels incorporating a pair of ERF tread plate steps so it will be easier to haul myself up into the cab to start "Rolling Thunder" for the races !! With a couple of nice little steps to put my feet into in a day or two.

The new facelifted front grille + plastic bumper has arrived and taped up in the hole while we get the first impressions of what the front of the cab will look like when we’ve finished her off.

A fibreglass man we’ve found is coming in the evenings to make up moulds to make the pretty fibreglass bits to skin her up to look like a racing machine. But I have made it clear I want the finished article to look like an ERF road truck made into a sleek racer. Not a hybrid looking snowplough, so we’ll see how it turns out, using as many ERF factory panels, corners and faces as we can.

Mid Friday I am asked to re-visit the inside of the cab again, with the seat position secured, it’s time for steering column and wheel position together with the pedal distances for my feet. To be successful in the racing I have to be in as comfortable position as is possible with all controls no effort to use !! The steering column and wheel position is chalked up in place so my left knee doesn’t get anywhere near the wheel whilst working the clutch, and especially if my hand comes round the wheel at the same time catching on my knee. My right foot is easy as I toe and heel it, so with the pedals 6 inches back from normal they are fine, but the clutch will have to come forward another 6 inches to allow me to get full travel on the clutch pedal - so chalk marks to decide positions and off back into the office I go again, until I was called late on the Friday night to check they have cobbled it all together in the right place for the driver to be in the maximum comfort zone, whilst working steering column and wheel complete with quick release + buttons to operate secret items all in arms reach and comfortable.

Apart from my right elbow hitting the cab interior metal framework giving me a dead elbow, have to watch that - right pedals still ok but left still can’t reach to the floor comfortably - so will have to modify the actual pedal to bring closer to my foot.

I thought I would play up a bit now !! And asked Pav and Ben for a pen holder so I could keep my pen safe after I filled in my tachograph chart, a chain hanging to pull my new air horn when I win, and my Ritz Paris ashtray superglued to the top of the cab tunnel so I would be comfortable when flicking the ash off my fag. It was when I asked for a towel holder and a place to put my wash bag when on a night out, I was thrown out of the workshop.

Saturday is here and the fifth wheel is being mounted within the rules - 1200 - 1300mm off ground. Top face 100 mm higher than anything within a radius of 2 metres of the centre of the pin, with a minimum weight of 100 kgs, with the capability of hitching to a standard semi trailer at any time. (see what we’re up against on any part of the truck we build)

It looks stupid stuck up in the air like a block of flats, higher than the engine, but thats what the rules say, so thats where it has to go !!

End of week 16 - 4 weeks to go and just to cap it off my race engineers now tell me the new race truck is approximately 1ft too long to fit on our transporter for the journeys to the track. So although 3ft over length already coupled up to the Kenworth we will have to add another couple of feet at the rear to make the whole purple outfit some 62ft long to negotiate around Europe !! Always in a hurry. Now I’m starting to worry especially with the road motor to MOT and modify the trailer all for the 12th April, to go on tour for the first race.