Springfield Flyer.

[kiwi belly tank]

Realistically Mike, neither of our liners should exist. The general consensus for quite some time has been that building a competitive streamliner had gone way beyond the Joe Average & his backyard shed. Growing up on the wrong side of the track so to speak molded me into a "build something from nothing" kind of person just like yourself but the big difference is I have a lot of years experience in streamliners & salt racing but you have never even been near another liner so to me your accomplishments are so much greater & I salute you. Battle on Mate!
My battle is now affording to run my impossible dream to it's maximum potential without selling the shirt off my back or my spare kidney.
  Kiwi battler out!

[tauruck]

I get you. You were with Al and you're based in the right country. All the experience.
Something about Kiwis and South Africans. Good battlers. It shows in the rugby.

I'm a determined guy. More than most. I'm that black sheep you don't want around at Christmas.
I tell it like it is. I don't do family. A real "racer" might cosy up to them because they have unlimited funds
but I'm not entourage material. I came in alone and I'll go out alone with my boots on and no silver spoon borrowed from anyone.

I got lucky on God given talent. Most of this stuff comes naturally so all I need are the sponsors, hard graft and a bit of luck.
Time is short and it's go time brother. 🤛🏻

[tauruck]

I got the cold side turbo flanges pressed on and we'll weld on Friday.
I'm not into these V band clamps.

[tauruck]

This post is for my bud Sid.

These boys in South Africa have some nerve.
A guy I have known since I was 14 who is involved in the most high end race shop in the country contacts me about getting work done on the only BMW M3 from the late 70s.
The car is owned by a billionaire real estate agent who is ailing right now but has an offer from BMW HQ in Germany who want it for the museum.

All the way there and back the guy is buttering me up. Lets cut to the chase.
He says he knows I need the work and if I do the job before Christmas it will open doors for me.
He offers me R100/hour which is about $5.

My answer was "hey Ted!!!!!!, I'll do it for 50 grand and you'll pay up front. Plumbers charge a standard rate of R800/hour but the going price is R1,200. I'm not a plumber and the last job that was supposed to open doors for me has been taking up space in my shop for 5 years. For that one you better bring 5 grand for storage or we'll cut it up and put it on the kerb for Friday morning garbage".

Total gentleman I am. Clever too. I waited to break the good news to him about half a mile from my home. Now he's dealing with the old girl but she's the real deal. She won't give an inch.
I can go long periods without eating and I'll hunt birds to feed my dogs before I get used by these operators.

This is the stuff I deal with while trying to build a liner. 

[kiwi belly tank]

$5 per hour is an insult to somebody of your talent Mike. Golden rule "If I want to work for nothing I'll work on my own $hit!"
I get that kind of promise from trucking companies saying "we can get you lots of work! We have X amount of trucks coming through there & we've been doing it for X amount of years". My response is, I've been here for 25 years & this is the first job I've done for you guys so I'll give you a big fat break on the next one!
  Sid.

 

[tauruck]

Sid, the boys from the old hood know me.
You can't bring the street into business so I humour these operators.
Give them enough rope and they eventually hang themselves.

That 530 BMW was butchered. I could have fabbed the wrecked part in steel no problem
but the guy knew what the real fabricators would have charged so he "assumed" the poor guy was an easy target.

I laugh because they brought me another Beemer a few years back and tried to tell me how to do my job so I said if that's the case do it yourself.
The guy was micro managing like a school teacher so I never let him through the gate.
After the job was done I didn't get any feedback so I asked. It went 2sec quicker and they broke the class lap record.
I have a connection in Europe that was a designer on Schumacher's F1 car at Ferrari so I asked him what 2 sec was worth in F1?. $400 million.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The joke is I never even put all the good stuff on. Wait until uncle Ted comes back. He's buying me a Liberty gearbox like George has.😁😁😁

The life and times of Mikey. Hilarious.

I love that you give them a break on the next one. Way to go brother.

[tauruck]

Been off my head lately.

I told Tom Burkland I was canning the liner.
I told Sid I was too. He said walk away for a bit.

I'm taking a chance by saying this but I've probably done more than most in life.
All the different sports, military and work plus adventures (some dangerous and unscripted).

NOTHING ever got my blood flowing like the long car!!!!. I was being scouted to play Junior A in Canada and an American guy that was setting up the TV stations was prepared to take me to the States, house me, school me and let me play. 16 and mom said no. Army, top of my class. Boxing, never defeated. Supercross 23/24. F2, won every race I finished (14). If it ran all the way we won against guys with money and trailers!!!. I borrowed. Not boasting here. Facts. I never enjoyed F2. Posers with bucks.

I get into LSR due to anger which was justified.

Here is a sport and a project you can have 3 hours sleep and run into the shop in the morning for. Total excitement. Learning by the minute. This is the HEAVEN on planet Earth people speak of.
Never seen a car live but I probably love it more than all you put together. Total commitment!!!!!.

I prayed, got lucky, prayed some more and kept getting help. It was off the charts.

Right now I'm depressed with no answers. I'm not even sure if this was meant to be anymore.
Local advice was find an American partner. Guys have their own projects and I'm in Africa. Never going to happen.
I'm done, probably looking like a fraud behind my back. So many helped me here at home, all you guys pitched in and even with all that I hit the proverbial brick wall.
I'm still a dreamer but everything I touch goes south. No breaks.
Got my hands and head. Never shirked a day in my life. Trying to be the best human I can. Where I used to be judge, jury and executioner I'm letting stuff fly over my head.
Without a long car there is no life. You all said it's the journey and not the destination. I took that in like a sponge and now my hands are tied. Crying wouldn't help and I'm
all out of ideas. I pray and have faith but I'm not getting younger.

Any advice you boys come up with would help. Maybe I'm just feeling sorry for myself and when I read this post later I'll be embarrassed and want to delete it.
Tell me what to do??.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[Stainless1]

Mike... if this $hit was easy everyone would be doing it.... you've heard that from me before. 
I was planning to build the Bockscar 2.0 for 5 years before Johnboy wrecked the original... the wreck just make me do it faster if I wanted to keep racing.  I learned the first meet after the crash that I wasn't a good helper or spectator... even though I was involved with racing someone elses car I missed racing. 
You don't have the privlege of living where LSR is a minor sport... you live where no one knows it even is a sport! 
I agree with Sid... stand back a bit... there is no quick fix for LSR... and unless you have a crew of 18 building your long car full time it's not going to happen quickly...
How do I know... My liner is stalled a bit as I evaluate my plan for the forty eleventh time...  It takes time to make sure you haven't painted yourself into a corner.
So don't take the chop saw to it yet... or to yourself... There are lots of us with lots of time in a dream...
You are the only guy in SA building a long car... 

[manta22]

Mike,
I think if we were all to be perfectly honest, there were times during our building of our cars that we were convinced that our efforts were hopeless and that the whole project was going down the drain.
Believe me- this is just a common symptom of "burn-out" due to long hours of work and worry. What worked for me is to get away from the project for a while; it may take a couple of weeks or months but you need to focus on other things. After this "vacation" you will find that things are not hopeless at all and you will find other creative ways to solve problems that seemed insurmountable before. You will prevail!

[WOODY@DDLLC]

Mike,
Listen to Sid - take a break - try something you've never done before! 
Don't delete your post - you'll look at it later and wonder who that guy was! 
Besides no one here will let you forget it! 

[floydjer]

Everything worth having takes time. Carry on, JB

[ronnieroadster]

 Mike what your building is the ultimate when it comes to earth bound high speed vehicles. Here in the U.S. your what I call the ultimate back yard Hot Rodder you chose to build from the ground up with own hands in a Streamliner that even the best of us here on this forum find overwhelming. Don't give up on your dream as others have written take time off and give this a rest for a bit. When your ready to get back at it you will be refreshed and looking forward to going back on figuring out the next challenge. I have no doubt once you return to the build what ever detail is next to complete you will figure it out and then be ready to move on to the next detail.

    For all of us here as Stainless wrote this is a minor sport in our country. When I tell someone I meet about my crazy addiction land speed racing most have no clue as to what I'm telling them. Why anyone of us are involved in this is pretty simple we have a desire to go fast and build our dream to accomplish the task.

 And there's also that other detail the feeling of one day actually making a pass on the Bonneville Salt flats a place many of us call Mecca its a religious experience.
Knowing what we just did after that first pass ever and the history of the others who did this as well before us is very emotional. One day your going to fell this as well.  Don't give up just take a break and things hopefully will sort out.

  Hopefully this will bring a smile.
   We all know what the initial's SCTA stands for of course.
 However the initial's also stand for Senior Citizen Timing Association. Many of us myself included fit into this category Senior Citizen it took old age and many years of dedication to get to the salt. 
  Ronnieroadster 

[tauruck]

Locally I count 4 guys as true friends.

I'm dead serious when I call you all my best friends. North America and I have this thing.
Call it a spiritual home if you will. I get you guys and by the look of it you all get me.
Maybe I was meant to join this forum just to meet you guys?.

Thousands of posts and not one negative comment. That says more about you than me.
The generosity, advice and motivation is overwhelming. God Bless you all.

I got into this because of a "coke head" rich guy who commissioned me to build Carbon body work for his gazillion HP BMW land speed car.
He was at fault but blamed me. I was so angry I told my crew I'd chop my Ranchero's roof and rake it to smoke the fool. One kid smirked so I showed them.
He never came back to work on Monday!!!!.

I was going with a NA truck and some fat slicks on Aero NASCAR wheels. They mention fools in the Bible. Pick me. Then you all taught me about tire width.
That never panned out because Goodyear SA reneged on the tire deal. Totally my fault for not getting it in writing.

Someone suggested a liner because MT would come on board with the rubber. I dived right in.
I'm that kid who sat in a hockey changeroom with men and heard "if your sport interferes with your job then leave your job". A joke but to me it was gospel.
I just played hockey until the army got me. There they bent us all out of shape in basic training. No disrespect to any other countries but our basic was close to spec forces.
Then they wanted volunteers for even crazier stuff. None of it was for glory. I was testing me. I'm the most knowledge hungry guy you'll ever meet.

This has been a steep learning curve for 2 reasons. I'm a one hundred percenter. I get into something and I get tunnel vision to the point that I neglect important things.
Second, I was making good money when I started out and the economy took a dive along with the exchange rate.

All the advice here is so appreciated and absorbed.
I can build this liner on my own. Finances are the killer in racing. The head of Mercedes AMG said even if he had enough money it still wasn't enough.
I have normally aspirated engine components in boxes I can't use. Some rare Cleveland stuff like TRW unfinished pop up pistons. Guys here tell me to
sell everything. Who wants it?. Even if it was SBC stuff they'll come like vultures and offer peanuts because "you're desperate" and it's common in South Africa.

When I asked the local experts on EFI and turbo they said get 8 x 2200cc Bosch injectors. Bosch obliged. Now I NEED 16!!!!. The Fueltech FT350 is inadequate because it doesn't have EGT sensors. Stuff like this. I built a steering wheel from Carbon for the ECU. All wrong because the FT500 is larger.

No faith in these guys.

In the time I told Tom and Sid I was done things were still in the works and Scott Bader has come on board with 35 gallons of high performance resin.
Spanjaard is an automotive and industrial supplier of lubricants, degreaser, copper compound and marking blue to name a few. They're ready to bring cases of products
I need. Honingcraft is busy making the full spool, the direct drive collar and a bunch of parts I need. I had a problem there though. My so called go to guy belittled me big time
because of my pencil drawings. That was the last straw. I don't have huge micrometres and verniers to measure. The CAD guy I know couldn't draw because I couldn't give dimensions.
It all came to a head. Even last year I might have reacted badly to the insult and got into a bind. I said God Bless you brother and ran to the car.

Been watching a lot of YouTube content. Darin Morgan in particular. Richard Holdener, David Vizard, Billy Goldbold and others.
The Australians are bosses on the Cleveland and it has a crank oiling timing problem and they found out it's at 120* when it should be 180*. Their Band-Aid is fully grooved bearings.
If I add the things I need up it comes to crank, cam, roller lifters, springs, pushrods and a tranny. The block needs partial filling too.
The upside is I have two awesome turbos. I could risk it and run with what I have but we all know it will grenade.

It's been said before here that I should build it to the point that it rolls and has a body so that the inexperienced will jump on it. All I can say is that before I got to breaking point
every rep that came and saw bought in.

I feel a lot better after reading all your comments. There's this loyalty thing where I took materials and products from companies. I can't do like some others and throw in the towel.
In my country people will rip you and sleep better than before.
I'll figure a way.
This isn't over.
God Bless you all. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻✝✝✝✝