had a quick chat with paul ‘botch’ venners today. paul has styarted a new workshop in the oxford area. continuing on in the same tradition as the fabled ‘der botcheinvolks’ workshop in days of old.

all being well i will be rolling the bus down to the new workshop next week for paul and his partner joss to measure up and start bending pipe to fit in a cab rollcage. the cage is planned to reinforce the A and B pillars, acroos the roof with sideways triangulation behind the seats (but still allowing walkthru access to the cab). reinforcement across at floor, knee and head height with two longitudinal bars reaching back that will be bolt in/removable.

with luck i’l also get the gearbox strapping done and the cv joints changed and the gearbox leaks sorted.

the last race meet of the year, Flame and Thunder will be happening a few days after the bus is planned to be finished at pauls’ so i think that seeing as the bus will be stripped out for welding i’ll keep it stripped and see how much difference the reduction in weight makes to the time.

just between me and you i think that i might try dialling in at 13.99s and see what happens ( the bus best run is 15.54s so far but i hope with the gearbox work done and a good launch to get into the 14s. Jimby Kellas reckons that if i remove 200kilos i should be able to shave over a second off the time so maybe 13.99s is not too unrealistic.

🙂

watch this space. i’ll let you all know how we get on