Even though the new race season always seems such a long time away during winter, it doesn't mean that nothing happens for the entire duration until the first meeting back; far from it! Any team will tell you that winter is an important and fairly busy time to get ready for the up and coming season.
That certainly has proved to be the case for Team Rampage, for the reason that the dragster required a new ring gear as the current one had a couple of teeth missing and was no longer certified. Alongside that, the gearbox also needed to be re-certified so that was sent off.
At the same time, the decision was made that it was probably a good idea to oil the entire chassis as the trailer had suffered a small leak in the roof during bad weather conditions causing some surface rust to appear in some places. Certainly looked a damn sight better afterwards and last time we oiled the chassis before a run we ran our personal best 7.96, so every little helps!
Once the gearbox and ring gear had arrived, it was time to get it all back together. Boy was that a job! We were plagued with a few problems along the way such as trying to re align the axel that we had to unbolt and move back so that the propshaft would clear the gearbox when getting it out initially. After some small adjustments that issue was solved.
Next up was lowering the box into position - using a pole and some belts, as you do! Trying to get the box to slip itself into position proved a pain, however after some 'gentle' persuasion it slotted itself into place. Lovely jubbly! After all the brake lines and pipes were re-attached and the brakes were bled, it was time to go outside and fire her up for the first time. There was a major improvement already in terms of how quickly the engine fired after cranking it over, whereas with the old ring gear it would take a few attempts because the starter motor wasn't making adequate contact to the ring gear.
A little something to replace the current rev counter already on the car is pictured; so that we can playback what the revs done on the run. That'll prove to be a neat little gadget to mess around with! Along with the new rev counter, we also have a carbon fibre dash going in that is currently being constructed by our good friend Dave King over at Carbody, Banbury.
Obviously, Easter comes early this year so once this short February month is out of the way, the Festival of Power will soon be on the horizon and we at Team Rampage cannot wait to get started! See you there.
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