At the start of the year, I was the proud owner of a 1989 Nissan Micra that was just like the one I had for my first car. I enjoyed revisiting that experience of having my first car again but found it to be a lot like when people tell you, you shouldn’t meet your hero’s. I didn’t get as much enjoyment out of it as I thought I would. Sometimes things are best left as good memories and stay firmly in the past.
I put some new wheels on my Volvo, something I had wanted to do for some time, they were a set of BBS replicas, I’m not sure of the actual brand but I think they looked pretty good with new fake bolts and the centres painted gold. They really set the car off and made it a bit of a head turner.
While working on the micra and Volvo at the start of the year the mini took a bit of a back seat. I had taken it to a cars and coffee event at Donnington Park in November 2022 and broke an engine mount. So, the two of us fell out.
In February I decided that I ought to get some work done on the car. So, I set about relocating the pedal box and bringing it inside the car. That went reasonably well, although it didn’t quite turn out as good as I had hoped but worked. Once the pedal box was modified, I took the car to a few shows and then had a bit of a moment of thinking: now what? It’s all well and good going to shows but it not a show car, there isn’t much to really look at. What do I do.
I’ve been a fan of drag racing for a long time watching from afar, mostly US racing on YouTube and some live streams of racing at Santapod. My favourite form of drag racing is drag and drive. Drag n Drive is where you race at a track and then drive your streetcar to the next track and race again and so on for as many days as the event runs for. For example, hot rod magazine drag week and sick week are two good ones that run over a full 5 days. Santapod announced the first running of Street Weekend here in the UK which is a drag on drive race weekend. Friday started at Santapod to put in your best time on the track, then on to Melbourne raceway for Saturday to run an 8th mile pass and back to Santapod for Sunday to race the ¼ mile again. I decided to enter with the mini. That was huge for me as I’d never done a single pass on the drag strip. So, work started getting both me and the car ready for the track. I didn’t have a lot to do by that point, a new steering rack and to fix some oil leaks was about it, and I needed to buy myself a helmet.
Street weekend came around quick. I had the best time I’ve ever had in a car. It made me wonder why I go to car shows and why I haven’t tried drag racing sooner. From there I was hooked I have since had a weekend at Melbourne raceway and done two RWYB days at Santapod. I was feeling keen to start to do some competitive drag racing, so I looked at lots of different classes and race series and decided to join outlaw street for the 2024 season.
Late on in 2023 I decided to make some small changes to the car, as I’m keen to move toward more drag racing. I took some weight out of the car by removing carpet and sound deadening and sound proofing saving a decent bit of weight. I also tried out some 13-inch wheels with slicks on, which while they felt good, they really changed the gearing. Then I swapped in a closer ratio gearbox to try again. I think that may have resulted in too shorter first gear making it hard to get off the line.
I finished 2023 drag RWYB season with a ¼ mile PB of 15.99 and 1/8th of 10.30. My fastest MPH in the quarter was 85.
As the drag racing season came to an end my attention turned back to the family. We found ourselves looking at buying a caravan which meant I had a hard decision to make regarding my Volvo. My Volvo is my favourite car of all the ones I own due to it being my dad’s old car that he gave me before he passed away. As good as the old Volvo is it is no tow car. It’s a big car with only 111bhp when it was new 30 years ago. So, I decided to find a more suitable tow car. I plan to make a video about how came to the decision of what car I was going to buy but in short, I chose a 2011 BMW 520d. Then the caravan purchase came along, and I have to say the BMW tows it perfectly. I might make some caravan related video in the new year as I have some work to do on it, mostly maintenance etc.
With having a caravan on the drive at home and a new daily driver I had to work out what to do with my Volvo. I didn’t want to part company with t so I have put it away in dry long-term storage for the time being, I sold the alloy wheels and put it back on its factory steels.
I think that sums up the year with my cars this year, it’s been a busy one but one I have very much enjoyed.
I’m really looking forward to 2024, I want to build up a store on the website, I want to write more blog posts and to make more videos. I have signed up to join Outlaw Street for the 2024 drag racing season and I will be entering street weekend again in June (if I don’t break the car before then.).
Thank you for reading this and I hope the new year brings you happiness.
