Mopar EuroNats 2004

by **dave-r** » 28 Oct 2003 11:59

Fri/Sat 30/31 July & Sunday 1st August 2004 at Santa Pod Raceway.

My 45th Birthday on the Friday!

by **dave-r** » 06 Feb 2004 16:05

Web site for this event.

http://www.moparnats.co.uk/

(Please note! At time of writing this site is not finished yet so please keep checking back)

by **dave-r** » 01 Mar 2004 13:47

The Mopar EuroNats website has now been updated with LOTS of photographs and information.

by **dodgefreak** » 01 Jul 2004 18:17

dave, i'm planning to come to the nat's, but when is the best day? sunday?

by **dave-r** » 01 Jul 2004 18:36

The best day for clean shiny cars is usually Sunday because the trophy hunters will only get out of bed if they can go home with a tin pot. As long as that Sunday does not clash with any other major events or if there is any hint of rain.

The burnout contest is only on the Sunday if that sort of thing interests you?

Sometimes the Saturday has been better. But usually there is little in it.

Don't take the chance! Bring a tent and come both days!

I get there Friday afternoon. I don't like to miss a moment of it.

by **Fat Tony** » 26 Jul 2004 10:50

Hi Dave.I'm planning on going over Friday afternoon. I'll make sure to buy you a birthday drink !!

by **dave-r** » 26 Jul 2004 11:21

Cheers Tony!

by **418** » 27 Jul 2004 21:08

Happy Birthday in advance - always pleased to find a mopar idiot who's older than me (even by a little bit :wink:

)

I'm there Friday to Sunday. If I can identify you that's another drink.

by **Christer** » 29 Jul 2004 10:18

dave-r wrote: My 45th Birthday on the Friday!

Congrats in advance! I really hope that your birthday will be memorable (and that you will remember it too :lol:

)

by **dave-r** » 02 Aug 2004 15:01

Hey! Thanks for that Christer.

If only it way with the Chally.

Got there Friday lunchtime and set up next to Blue, MoparKev, Phil etc.

Saturday morning Linda and myself were at the start line early with Diana watching from the stands.

I had first shot.

It left the line stronger than I have EVER felt it leave before. Man it flew up the strip!

I shifted to second when the shift light came on at 6500.
When the light came on the second time I switched the overdrive on.
Then just as i was about ready to shift to third I was just making sure I had my foot on the overdrive switch when I accidently switched the overdrive off! The rpms went sky high. I backed off, shifted to third, then floored it again.
Ran a 12.3 something. Don't know the MPH. I forgot to collect the ticket later.

Linda then had a go.
But there was an oil-down on the track so we had to shut down and wait until that was cleared up.
Then when she came to launch the car it just bogged big time. In fact I thought for a moment it had stalled completely it took so long to launch. When it did launch it seemed slow and only ran 13.7.
I think the pump squirters had dried out while standing in the heat. But the next problem may have been starting by then....

My turn again.

Just before the burnout I blipped the throttle and the idle rpm suddenly went up from 900 to 1500rpm.
I did a burnout and it seemed OK but not as strong as before.
But when I launched it suddenly sounded VERY rough and miss-firing badly. I backed off and babied it up the strip to an amazing 26 second run! :shock:

Back in the pits I pulled the valve covers and found two of the right side intake rocker adjusters on cylinders 2 and 6 had backed off. The lock nuts were missing. There was no sign of the two pushrods or lifters either. :cry:

Metal fileings in the heads and on the rockers too.

So I spent all day Saturday and Sunday morning fixing the problem.

In the end we were able to repair the threads in the bottom of the rockers. The pushrods were more of less straight enough to get me home. We found the two lock nuts. One lifter was badly damaged but I decided it would hold together for the 250 mile drive home. I had recovery insurance if I needed it.

A big thank you to all the boys (and girls) that helped out and loaned tools etc. Special thanks to Trevor Young who spent a lot of time helping me. He was a cool head when all around (or maybe it was just me?) were loosing theirs.

The car made it home under it's own power and with style. I drove a constant 70-80mph all the way and although it was clattering by the time I got home it did not fail.

Time for an engine rebuild I think!

by **PaRoDy** » 02 Aug 2004 16:22

Sorry to hear that! But practice makes perfect, next time you'll fix it in few hours.
And hey, now you can tear the whole car apart. You have to test the new garage anyway :wink:

And lookin forward to seeing pictures and videos of the event.

by **dave-r** » 02 Aug 2004 16:30

It was nice to see Steve's car (and Steve) in the flesh. It is even better than in the photos I can tell you!

by **dave-r** » 02 Aug 2004 16:33

Not many cars for sale this year that I noticed. Here was a Challenger though.

by **dave-r** » 02 Aug 2004 16:39

Tim ran a personal best of 12.99. Well done Tim!

by **dave-r** » 02 Aug 2004 16:43

Duncan Watts was running both his Challengers this weekend. His Orange 'street' car runs low 10s and the other one runs consistant 8.9s. :shock:

by **dave-r** » 02 Aug 2004 16:46

Philthy Phil fitted these wheels and tyres just for the burnout competition. Then made a complete arse of it.

Always next year Phil! :wink:

by **dave-r** » 02 Aug 2004 16:47

Nice to see Jay Gilmore's car up and running at last.

by **dave-r** » 02 Aug 2004 16:49

French Connection Challenger got up and running again on Sunday despite twisting the propshaft up on Saturday.

by **dave-r** » 02 Aug 2004 16:56

Here are some more Challengers at the event. I only got around to seeing the other cars Sunday afternoon and some people had left by then!

by **Christer** » 02 Aug 2004 17:36

dave-r wrote: Time for an engine rebuild I think!

How nice it is with positive thinking people! :wink:

I have to admit that I would have written something like this myself:
Time for an engine rebuild I think! :cry:

The more I think of it - isn´t the following sentence more like you, Dave?
Time for an engine rebuild I think! :twisted:

?

Better luck next year hopefully! Nice pic´s by the way!

Fun that Tim made progress. Time to update your signature soon, Tim? (Old one: 13.40@102. Driven there, driven home. ) Feels quite good, doesn´t it?

by **trevor** » 02 Aug 2004 19:08

glad to read you made it home ok dave, are you putting your bed in the garrage for a while? hope you get it sorted as painlessly as possible, phillipe is phoning me tomorrow, cant wait for the deal to move forward, bye for now, trev

by **PaRoDy** » 03 Aug 2004 2:56

Wierd grille on the last picture.
And does that convertible have a history or something (second picture from the bottom)?

by **dave-r** » 03 Aug 2004 9:55

I didn't have time to read the board about the convertible. I was running around at the last minute just trying to catch a few on the camera before they all went home! I can tell you it is owned by a very nice chap called Chris.

Here are a few photos taken by Dave McBride. When he gets all his photos up on his web site I will post a link.

by **dyamondback** » 04 Aug 2004 10:32

hey,cool --ya made it back home Dave!!iwhat a great weekend huh-met up with alot of really cool people-and even managed to get some cars running in the first embrionic stock appearing sort of thing with the help of Tim Holmes-what a great guy

if ya ever wanna sing in a band Dave give us a call!!! :wink:

take care awl yous guys eh
chris

by **dave-r** » 04 Aug 2004 13:06

Always nice to see you Chris.

by **dave-r** » 04 Aug 2004 19:06

More photos from Dave McBride. I will let you know when he gets the best 100 of them up on his web site.

by **418** » 05 Aug 2004 8:46

Mopar Euro Nats Video Clips

by **Fat Tony** » 05 Aug 2004 9:49

WOW...What a BRILLIANT weekend

Check out the vid clip of me blowing the doors off a 10 sec Challenger !!!! Well , sort of !!! :roll:

Luckily he got his propshaft fixed and was running some serious times on Sunday. I couldn't get any traction with the stock Magnum / tyre combo ( best time was 16.0 and the car has run 14's before ) so I retired to the bar :twisted:

Can't wait till next year...

by **mopar steve** » 05 Aug 2004 9:55

Hi guys, great weekend, and good to see you Dave, if i'd known
beforehand, i'd have come and drunk some of your birthday beers!!
Looking forward to next years bash already, I new it wouldn't take much to get the racing bug back in my head!!!!

by **PaRoDy** » 05 Aug 2004 12:55

What was that? :shock:

http://www.barrister-uk.com/pod/kev%2004.mpg

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