Well finally a lifetime dream has come to fruition. Just an article to advise on how things went and what the future hopefully holds and also to thank a few people.

Thursday 20th I worked until 12.30 p.m. and then went home and picked up James Bendall, crewman/painter extraordinare, picked up the truck, loaded the esky, headed over to RGS and picked up Zachary and James and I shared the driving to Nerang. We arrived at about 11.00 p.m. that night and found Noel Smith hard at work with Nathan, Dave Coles and Ron Dormer. For those of you who do not know Dave, he worked for quite a number of years for Ken Lowe and in fact would have done most of the work building the hot rod for the initial owner - Kev Schurrs.

Initially I would have to thank Kev for having the vision to build the hot rod, especially since Kev was unhappy with the first body and decided to have his own mould built. We have in fact purchased the second body so we have a spare, touch wood.

My dream is to have one body for Nathan and the other one for Zachary and painted differently so that they can have their own identity with the fans.

Secondly I would have to thank Dave Coles. Dave finally had enough and found the strength and the will to go it on his own. With the help of Ron, he initially started sharing Ron's workshop at Jupiters Plaza - Nerang. For those of you who do not know of Ron, he is the carbon fibre man. I would say we would have the first carbon fibre nappy on a blown engine in Australia and it worked very well on the weekend, not that we put any legs out of bed but we certainly blew enough radiator and coolant out and it did an excellent job of catching that and also the automatic oil when we had to change the shaft.

Dave has put over a month solid work into transplanting the Lexus quad cam 871 super charged engine, built by Greg McDonald - Go Mac Engineering - Sydney. Initially the engine was built for a boat. It has only been on the dyno twice and Dave made a lot of special brackets to make the engine fit and considering the hot rod is built to accommodate a Keith Black we had to raise the engine up to get it to fit in between the chassis rails as the V on the Lexus quad cam is extremely wide.

We ended up arriving at Willowbank at 4.00a.m. after a bit of trouble with the trailer. The electric brakes locked on and rolled the axle and we did not find that until we got to Willowbank. At 5.00 a.m. Kelvin Bell turned up to start track preparations so after less then 2 hours sleep we were driving in at 6.00 a.m.

At approximately 8.30 - 9.00 a.m. Greg McDonald turned up with his son Beau from Sydney and his other son Jeff from Brisbane. Jeff is now part of the crew and he is just like his Dad - half crazy and a real tappet head.

Nigel no friends the ignition man from Sydney turned up a little bit later and we had a few teething problems getting the coil packs wired in. Without a doubt, the assistance from other races, even at this early stage of our career, certainly helped. Robert McKiterick - fellow super charged outlaws competitor and his son were certainly of assistance with the initial problems on Friday.

Eventually we got the coil pack sorted out and it hummed like a bird. It sounded strong, started easy and everything was looking rosy. We still had two hours of track hire, the ambulance ready and the safety personal there, we put it into gear, nothing happened. Put it into reverse, nothing happened but no matter which way, no drive. It turns out we did not have the turbo 400 shaft in and it was just spinning in the middle of the converter. Thankfully it did not take any metal out and it did not hurt anything as the gap was big enough.

We sent the ambulance and the fire crew home because by the time we went all the way into Brisbane and back with the right shaft, it was too late.

At 5.30 - 6.00 p.m. Nathan was driving it up and down the return road, giving it just a couple of light squirts. We finally put all the gear on and that is the first time everything has been on it and it was ready to go.

Saturday morning after a decent nights sleep, thanks to the 2 hours the night before, we were up early and Nathan did the first of his three licensing passes. To say that I was nervous was an understatement.

At 10.40 a.m. he did quite a strong burn out and it certainly got up on the rev limitor, set at 7000. I initially thought we had the burnout limitor set at 5 and 7 for the run but it turns out it was 7000 as the burnout limitor is not hooked up yet, but it certainly revved to 7000, he staged, sawed the tree down with a 1.128 reaction time which I had a bit of fun with because when I did the Ken Lowe school that was about as fast as I ever got.

It seemed like an eternity, he hit second and he was only suppose to go to half track and we thought for God sake hit the chutes you only have to do half track, when the bottom radiator hose came off, showering him with glycol and water and sent it side ways - probably at about 120 MPH but he corrected. He must have went close or just over the centre line, popped the shute and still run 11.26 ET at 103.4 MPH.

The first 60 footer was 1.321, 330 at 3.751, 660 at 5.888. Considering that he carries the front wheels for the first 100 feet or so, we were wrapped.

We went back to prepare the car for the second qualifier, got onto the rev limiter on the burnout, the starter shutting us down before it could even start backing up, she had blown the top radiator hose off this time. By this stage we put gyco and water all over the track twice so they were not impressed. We went back and Darren our other Brisbane based crew member had finished work and arrived with the small radiator clamps. Ron went to a lot of trouble to put them on but we all got nervous and decided to dump the water out of it and run it dry so we could at least get down the track. We will never know whether it would have worked or not because we continued to run it dry for the next two runs.

At 2.31p.m. he put in his first full track and reaction time was .642 and 60ft at 1.27, 330ft at 3.569 and 660ft at 5.533 with 7.253 to the 1000 ft and finally 8.775 at only 141.82 MPH or in new peoples language 228.23 KPH. Considering it was on the rev limitor from about 900ft we were wrapped. So loaded for bear, rev limitor set at 8500 RPM, we ended up back for the last full pass to obtain the license for the car and driver at 4.30p.m.

They had already seeded the supercharged outlaws so we could not have raced Saturday night anyhow. he did a good burn out again - .632 reaction this time. First time he has ever raced without a delay box. The 60 ft close to the same 1.275, 330ft 3.646 (a little bit slower), 660ft at 6.582 and the car just kept drifting towards the concrete left hand barrier. Wisely Nathan turned her off and went through at 14.115 ET and only 53.5 MPH but we had a car that starts well, leaves hard and is in one piece to put back in the trailer.

In closing, we have decided to pull the engine and (hopefully at Easter when Dave is on his way to Mackay) send it back to Greg in Sydney, O ring the block and put a receiver in the heads and probably put a big overflow, bigger catch can for the fluid to see if we can fix the water problem and be back Sunday prior to the Winters so that Nathan can complete his license pass.

I could not have done this without Heather who lets me spend the obscene amounts of money that you need to do what is a passion that I have had since I can first remember. I can still remember buying the first issue of Rod Sports, the predecessor to Dragster Sports. It has been a great time over the years to sponsor cars and certainly to be associated and be involved with Noel and Dave in the dragster and modified, but I have always wanted one of those that has a breath in between strokes and once you have played with a blown car, it takes a lot to beat it.

Special thank you to Darren Piddington who freighted his helmet down from Townsville as Nathan's did not turn up from the States.

Final thank you to Zachary who grew up a lot on the weekend and was an excellent part of the crew. I would watch out Nathan if I was you, because Zac is itching to get in.

Another thank you to Mark Eves who came out Friday to give us a bit of his insight having formally run a blown car and he lent us some jets and also to John Payne who calls in on Saturday with some advise. To Ray Bernard from Western Suburb Diffs for a job well done. To Perry Hearnden - Store Manager of REpco - Rockhampton who has given us help with parts. Joe Kearney from Castrol, my Rotary friend and supporter. To Mark Brew from Pro Force for teching the car and by the Winter Nats we will have the soft lines on the injection which Mark is doing up for us.

Thank you also to Sue Emslie at Willow Bank, Graham Slapp - Zoom man and to Paul Wheel from PWR who finally got the radiator right.

If I have missed anyone I am sorry. I have to slip off to the blood bank now to give blood for the 20th time, because after the 50th Birthday party this weekend, it will be contaminated too much to give to any poor normal people.

Thanks one and all.

PETER A PEIRANO.