19 August 2006

WENDOVER AIRFIELD - UTAH

Time: 20:45 (US)

Temperature: 30°C

Location: Wendover, Utah

Bonneville Speed Week is over and there are plenty of smiles among the team today. Work has been going on at the airfield base preparing the car for the FIA record attempt next week. During the morning both engines were hoisted out of the chassis and the fresh 750bhp ‘record’ engines removed from their Ricardo crates.

By late afternoon the new rear engine was already in the chassis and a long list of jobs was steadily being completed by the team. It was good news when an inspection of the gearboxes showed the gears “looked like new”.

The fabricators were performing “open heart surgery” on the leaking front oil tank with the aim of sealing it effectively. The speed of the runs this week has meant that the brakes have worked harder than planned so they have all been changed today.

A small crack in the windscreen and an annoying scratch meant that it needed to be changed this morning. On a lighter note, some additional minute cameras were added so the action can be viewed from more angles.

Mike Cook of the Southern Californian Timing Association took the broken parachutes away to confer with the manufacturer. The result should be two new chutes that are up to the job. An interesting aspect of parachutes is that the faster the car goes the smaller the chutes need to be otherwise the loads on the tethers simply rip the material apart.