Author Topic: Australian Belly Tank  (Read 3171290 times)

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Offline Stainless1

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #645 on: March 16, 2009, 09:31:14 AM »
DocG and Rev, I have one more for your to do list  :|

"The car goes and sounds good I take it to four grand in second ( we start in second gear)"

If you can roll it off the line in 2nd, you are going to need a little re-gear work to go 200... and you guys are gonna go 200...  :-D
Stainless
Red Hat 228.039, 2001, 65ci, Bockscar Lakester #1000 with a little N2O

Offline Seldom Seen Slim

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #646 on: March 16, 2009, 09:41:43 AM »
Dr. G --

You're hired as the reporter for landracing.com.  Great story -- nicely written, fun to read, and brings enough shivvers to my back that I had to take a look to see just how much longer 'til we get to go racing. 

Good thing Maxton's first event in less than three weeks away.

Congratulations to both of you for records.  Cool. . .
Jon E. Wennerberg
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 (that's way up north)
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Offline ol38y

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #647 on: March 16, 2009, 11:33:04 AM »
Doc G,
  Awsome report and congrats on your first runs. It's great to see pics of your ride on the salt finally. Sounds like it's time to change gearing.  :cheers:
Larry Cason
Bakersfield,CA    It's a dry heat!

2010 BUB 1350 M-PG record
2012 Speedweek  1350 A-PG record 169.975
2014 El Mirage Dry Lake  1350 A-PG  172.651

Offline hitz

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #648 on: March 16, 2009, 12:26:06 PM »
Congratulations! What a fine start for your long endeavors. If I do half as well on my first runs, I'll be satisfied. Good show gentlemen!

Harvey

Offline Sumner

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #649 on: March 16, 2009, 02:22:41 PM »
Wow!!! Congrats guys and you ought to be mighty proud of what you have accomplished.  Ruth and I are mighty happy for you.  I hung the picture of the two of you and your lakester up by the door where I go out of the shop and into the house.  It is the last thing I see as I turn the shop lights off and it is an inspiration to me.

Way to go,

Sum


Offline GH

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #650 on: March 16, 2009, 04:31:02 PM »
Sounds like after all the hard work they are having a lot of fun.

Offline Milwaukee Midget

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #651 on: March 16, 2009, 06:22:59 PM »
After last year's disappointment, I can't tell you how happy I am for both of you.  Much respect, and congratulations! 

Record holder - savor that one!

Chris
"Problems are almost always a sign of progress."  Harold Bettes
Well, I guess we're making a LOT of progress . . .  :roll:

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #652 on: March 19, 2009, 06:15:05 AM »
The gap between my feet and Terra Firma has finally vanished, the real world is back ....I'm still wearing the red driver's wristband that you get when you pay an entry and I won't be taking it off for quite some time ....much amusement at work , no-one has ever come back from a "holiday" looking so trashed....the weeks leading up to and the one at the salt were so tense that I ran up a sleep debt that is going to take a while to repay....I was sitting at my desk on Tuesday and my supervisor walked in and said amid much laughter .."do you want me to get you a pillow matey?"...right now after the time we had nothing seems urgent or for that matter important.

Tonight I hoisted the tank up onto it's stands and removed the lower bodywork so as to get the salt out of it.There was about a cup full in the front tub most of which entered via the soles of shoes we did our best but it's unavoidable. After the "Man of Cloth's" last run when he got lost behind the island the car wouldn't start and had to be towed back to the pits ,I steered and it was a particularly rough ride, those in the Troopy said it looked like a yacht going through light chop because the pressure ridges were so high in that part of the lake and salt was "splashing" away from the front of the car, I was thinking at the time if anything is ever going to rattle off the car it's gonna happen now, it felt like a combination of Demolition Derby and Stacks on the Mill..........anyway when I took the front tub off tonight it turns out that it got beaten up at the very front and the very front part of the flat section of the floor has been bent up...nothing tragic but I'll have to beat it and that will mean a re-fit to the car, bummer. There's nothing else I've found busted although a lot of body screws were loose.....the car has been towed 750 miles home though and I'd suspect much of that is from then.

Haven't yet bothered trying to start her after the electrical hassle we had.......there's even a possibility it ran low on juice, I had noticed that it needs half a gallon in it or it runs rough despite my best efforts to stop the pump cavitating the tank , right now I'm out of diagnostic mode.

Now I'm taking the opportunity to say thanks to everybody. First of all to Jon Amo and Jon Wennerberg for running the landracing.com site that carries this great forum, we have learned a huge amount from this resource and it has kept us inspired. In general thanks to everybody for taking us seriously, we weren't born to lake racing families but we really feel like we've been adopted and what we were doing needed a wider source of info and support than we could find just here in Australia. We fell in love with the look of the early bellytanks and wanted to build something that carried the beautiful heritage that had been created over the last 60years since Bill Burke had his "lightning bolt" moment but at the same time we had a tank that as far as we were aware hadn't been used before. I've said it before but it bears repeating , Dik and I are the kind of guys who think they can do anything , when we found out how hard this was we were too stubborn to give up. It took a lot longer than we ever thought , and cost more than six times what we thought it would , I don't regret a single part of it. I have learnt things , I have combined areas of knowledge that I had that I thought were disparate and I have  developed and used skills that I thought were the preserve of the expert tradesman.This however wouldn't have happened without Dik , the beautiful car we took to the lake was drawn by him , the proof is that avatar next to his Reverend Hedgash name that he created five years ago. His attention to detail , refusal to cut corners and incredible eye for line and style made the little tank what it is, thanks mate you're a genius.Sure we've had our moments but here we are.

Thanks to all you guys who've tipped in with advice. Sum , the indefatigable , you are a point man...your collation of info and design points is a priceless goldmine of info for anyone building a lake car. Stainless, to the point ,proven ,and humble I'm flattered that you dig our thing.Most of all Dolan, Jack you gave us pearls of wisdom and the results of years of experience that made us really feel like it was all worthwhile, important even that we did what we were doing ,come back this place needs you.

Thanks everyone.
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.

Offline lady Hedgash

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #653 on: March 19, 2009, 08:13:50 PM »
Well Done Graeme, Dr Goggles, Rev. H ( honey) and everyone who has contributed their knowledge and experiences into this build.
I am so impressed on so many levels.
I couldn't be there this year as I was busy building a belly tank at home, but I am mighty proud. I was scared....
you never want to stop a mans dreams but sometimes the timing is a bit shaky..... but well, I held onto faith in the guys,
and in all who had advised and assisted them along the way..... wow!- what a result!!
Good luck to everyone out there inspired by this years events to spend another year in the shed!
Lots of love to Sum and Ruth too.
L. Hedgash and Egg xx

Offline fredeuce

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Re: Front end
« Reply #654 on: March 19, 2009, 08:53:23 PM »

Hi Doc and Rev ,

I finally hopped on board this site and have just read and enjoyed your epic log of "The Adventures of Doc and Rev and the Belly Tank affair". I expect there have been lashings of beer in lieu of ginger beer as well . I query if there is also a "Timmy" the dog ?

That image  of the Canberra Bomber on page 1 is one that is familiar to me. That is my cousin Lincoln's as we discussed at the salt. Very small world. What's that thing about the six degrees of separation? Might be something in that.

Cheers,
Fred
Fredeuce

Offline Sumner

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #655 on: March 19, 2009, 10:13:32 PM »
Hey you guys and the female support team are the heroes.  You had a vision then a plan and the going wasn't easy and then to get rained out and all the other problems that reared their heads and never giving up or even getting a bad attitude about things, wow we are all proud of you and you have been an inspiration to all of us.

c ya and thanks for taking us on your journey,

Sum and Ruth


Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #656 on: March 19, 2009, 10:26:47 PM »
Thanks Fred , yes an amazing coincidence indeed( in case anyone missed it Fred is a DLRA member and it turns out his cousin owns the Canberra bomber pictured on page one of this thread from which our tank originally came from). It is but one of the many examples of serendipity or coincidence that have happened during the build of the car. For example , on the way to the salt his year I borrowed a Landcruiser from my sister and in the rush of just swapping the trailer onto it and leaving I neglected to find out how to switch over to the long range fuel tank. Later that night we found ourselves still on the back roads in the western district of Victoria and very low on diesel. We stopped at a country pub that was jumping and asked the barman if he knew where we could get some diesel...he said "sure I'll make a few calls" we ended up knocking on the door of the closed service station in the main street. a guy came out "yeah sure , he rang , you're lucky because I was about to go home"...as he was filling the tank he asked where we were headed , so I told him. He held out his hand and said "Bernie Kelly ,member number 11". He took us inside and showed us the Harrow transport museum that included the xxo/gl entry they'd run for a few years and the 307 Biscayne that he'd towed it there with and then run 108 mph in...he had photo's from meets in the early nineties and there were plenty of guys I could identify although they had a lot more hair and a lot less pounds........as we drove off I thought to myself , there's always someone looking over us  Oh Great God of Speed........... :wink:
« Last Edit: March 20, 2009, 07:00:09 PM by Dr Goggles »
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.

Offline Reverend Hedgash

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #657 on: March 20, 2009, 12:07:56 AM »
Don't forget the great gremlin of speed either though...

Somehow in the course of three weeks the Spirit of Sunshine team lost four wheels and one tyre on four different vehicles!!!

None of us had ever lost a wheel before on a trailer, and the four wheels lost were all trailer episodes, 1 on the trip to the salt, two back.

Some kind of spooky gremlin has regularly boarded the truck whenever I visit the SA border too.

Anyone know an exorcism that works?


rH+
ps It is also a surpise to me that the lady H found us here... we need to hide some other web forum elsewhere now...

Offline Freud

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #658 on: March 20, 2009, 12:46:47 AM »
They just kept walking toward the bright light and one day that was the salt flat. You buggars is fantastic.

I'm so proud of the way you persevered and now "next year" can't get here soon enough. The danmed goal

will always extend 'till next year.

Good Go, Mates,

FREUD
Since '63

Offline maj

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #659 on: March 20, 2009, 08:45:40 AM »
Dik it wasn't just your team,
lost my first one near Mildura monday morn at 1.30am and the second just after Nonning many hours later.