Sat 17th March 2012 All fired up and ready to go
With the new season fast approaching here at the lonely drag racing outpost of Grimsby Team Thing of the Supercharged Outlaws have had a busy winter. The car has been stripped down to every last nut and bolt.
The chassis was put back onto the jig and checked out and we found a serious misalignment problem.
The back axle was way out of alignment this is probable why we were always fighting with the car on every pass. Hopefully with this now sorted the car should be easier to drive. (As best as altereds go!)
We then stripped all the paint from the chassis with the intention of putting the purple back on. Our plan was to have a base coat of metallic silver then a top coat of purple. After applying the silver we liked it so much we decided not to have the purple.
We did not have much work to do on the engine as we had rebuilt the motor prior to the Hot Rod Drags so a quick freshen up by replacing a couple of rod bearing was all that was required.

We had decided to revamp the fuel system and parts were ordered from Supercharged Outlaw sponsor Jim Maher at Good Vibrations in California.
With the new fuel system parts on the car we had a test fire up a couple of weeks ago and the fuel system worked exceptionally well all it will need a bit of setting up at the test and tune weekend at shakey.31st March 1st April were between 7 and 10 Supercharged Outlaws teams could be testing.
As seen in the spy pictures on eurodragster under the mirror mirror slogan the car has been updated with some mirror finish stainless steel tin work this was fabricated and fitted by Mark while Dave concentrated on polishing some of the other parts.
As we always pit next to lee Gallimore we thought it was about time we made our car as shiny as the Red Mist altered, if (when) the sun comes out and the body is lifted you will need some good sunglasses on it will dazzle you.
This year are targets are getting into the seven second zone at 170mph +
If we achieve this we will be happy people up in Grimsby
Looking forward to another great season with the friendliest group of races around.

Check out this intro for supercharged outlaws click here

Saturday 18th February 2012 Silver Lining
Chassis is now in it's new color metallic silver. I took the photos with my mobile phoneso they do not do the paint justice, The best one is the roll cage. We were not sure what silver would look like but after applying the laquer we are very pleased. I will take my camera down the workshop next week and take some better pictures.After I took these pictures we fitted the rear axle in. It is nice to start the rebuild ready for the test & tune at shakey in March.
Eddie continues to update the truck in prepration for the new season. If we carry on at this pace we should be ready to fire up the car in about three weeks.
More up dates soon

Sunday 12th Feb 2012 In Our Prime
Down at the workshop on saturday it was MINUS 10 degrees outside.good job we were in Imperial Commercials workshop with the heaters on.
Main job this weekend was to finish removing all the old purple paint from the chassis.Then to apply the primer.While me Dave Will and Mark worked on the chassis Eddie concentrated on working on the truck. Eddie fitted new lockers on the inside whilst also removing the outside locker.
When all the paint was stripped from the chassis Mark applied the primer.
Next week Mark should be able to apply the new top coat of paint but you will have to wait to see the color
Below a few pictures of Mark applying the primer

Saturday 4th Feb 2012 Update
Down at Team Thing workshop today we stripped all the purple paint from the chassis and managed to prime the front end. It was freezing outside luckily we were able to do this work at Imperial Commercials Grimsby in a nice warm workshop (when the doors were shut) Next weekend we are aimimg to complete the priming of the chassis. Then by the end of February we should be in a position to start putting the car back together.The only work we need to do with the engine is check the bearings and there is a small oil leak on the back axle wich will require a new seal. More news soon

Saturday 7th Jan 2012 Happy New Year
Back to the workshop for team thing today,main job to finish of the few reamining tasks on the car and then fire her up.This was achieved by 10-30 a quick leak down test on all 8 cylinders gave us some answers we already new. 4 new pistons will be ordered next week as one bank showed to much leak down while the other side was perfect. As we had renewed all the piston rings and had the bores honed and trued our worst fears were that the pistons were not up to it. And this was proved..
After the test session we then stripped the car down for the chassis to be repainted and the engine stripped to replace the pistons.
No more words today just a picture sequence from today

Sunday 6th November 2011 Presentation Night 201
Saturday 5th November was the Outlaws AGM and presentation night held at the Himley Hotel Nr Dudley.
The biggest surprise was for Dave who won the trophy for the wildest ride for an outlaw in 2011. Dave managed this on the first meeting when running alongside Brian Gandy the car got seriously out of shape at the finish line (check out the video footage click here)

Dave recieves his trophy from Lee Gallimore Group Picture of the outlaws at the Himley Hotel Photo's by Angus
The AGM set the calendar for 2012 and will be published on this site soon

Saturday 27 August 2011 A Ringer
As you can see from the pictures our engine block has now been machined and the cylinders honed out. we now have a freshened up block ready to assemble for the Hot Rod Drags.Sat morning and the crankshaft was re fitted and the stainless steel 'O' rings made.That was as far as we could go with the assembly because we are waitng for the new piston rings and gaskets to arrive from the states.We hope they will come this week so the rebuild can be completed next weekend and the car fired up ready for the hot rod drags.We have fitted the engine block back into the car though. this means we can re fit the pistons whilst the block sits in the car.If we do not complete next weekend we do have another weekend before we set of for Shakespeare County Raceway so every thing should be OK. We have welded in the new fitting for the wheelie bar which we broke at the Bulldog Bash. With all this work being done now it means we will not have any major work to do on our engine this winter (Unless we break it ). We do have some plans for the chassis and the look of the car for next season but I will tell you more about this in the autumn. Below are a few pictures from today.

Sunday 21st August 2011 More Grief
Here we go again at the end of the bulldog bash Dave did a leak down test on the engine and found that cylinders 1,3,5,7 were all down 3 & 5 were leaking across the head gasket and 1 & 7 were leaking past the rings. We knew that these cylinders were not performing but we have now reached a point that an engine strip was required. The engine was stripped Saturday morning 20th August and taken to Dave's works were they are to deck the block and machine in the new 'o' ring grooves around each cylinder. We have been using SCS titan head gaskets but they seem not to hold out for long so we are going back to solid copper head gaskets and stainless o rings in the block..A new set of head gaskets have been ordered along with a complete set of piston rings. All the main and rod bearings are OK.
We also looked at the broken wheelie bar and have fabricated a new mounting. When we get the block back next week we can start the engine rebuild. We hope to have this done the week before the Hot Rod Drags so we can fire it up and check it out ready.
If we are successful and do no damage at the HRD it should give us an easier winter with out a major rebuild needed.
with the engine rebuilt we should be back to full power and will step up the performance at the HRD looking for that elusive seven second pass.

Sunday 31st July 2011 Bulldog Preview
Are we ready you bet we are. Car already loaded into the truck.Just a few more last minute preperations to do like fix the passenger seat in the truck, Eddie lent back on it to hard and snapped it but a trip to the breakers yard and we now have a replacement. Dave & Eddie will fit this during the coming week. Mark has done all the maintenance on the altered so all we need to do at the track is valve lash and timing also train my new crew on the starting procedure. This is because Mark is away on holiday so we have rent a crew helping out. We are really looking forward to this Bash as it is the 25th anniversary bash and it is all looking good,it is also our good buddy Lee Gallimore's birthday (Big Party Time!!) We are hoping to have eight outlaw cars at the Bulldog to put on a great show for the bikers ( I might even ride down there on my Harley ) and let the crew take the truck. see you all at the track.Check out our entry list page to see who is attending the Bash and also the rest of this seasons Outlaw events.

Tuesday 12th July 2011Junior Dragster League
The SCR Junior Dragster League are pleased to announce that Webb Express Couriers and Classic Designs will be sponsoring the next round of the series at Shakespeare County Raceway’s July 23rd/24th Public Track Day weekend. In addition to the weekend’s racing there will be a Saturday evening ‘Bring Your Own Meat’ Pit Side Barbeque Party and a ‘No Excuses’ Fancy Dress Competition which everyone must partake! Prizes will be awarded to the best dressed Junior and there may even be one for the grown ups too. All Juniors, League supporters and Supercharged Outlaw teams are welcome to join.

For entry details about round 4 of the SCR Junior Dragster League stop by the SCR Junior Dragster Experience Facebook page or check out the new Junior Dragster web site at www.juniordragsters.co.uk. Entry forms and rules can be downloaded from the Shakespeare County Raceway www.shakespearecountyraceway.co.uk web site.

The 2011 SCR Junior Dragster League is proudly supported by Roy Wilding Nostalgia Race Cars, Peter Walters Race Design, CC Medical Services, the Supercharged Outlaws, Turboville.com, Motorshack, Fester Race Cars, Claron Graphics, Webb Express Couriers, Classic Designs, Alamo Car Rental, Tailor-Made Webs, LessTax2Pay, WG4, Team Just Smoky, Midland Tractor Pulling Club, Opie Oils, and GV Motorsport

Sunday 19th June 2011 Ready for the Nostalgias
It has been a good week down at the Thing workshop. Mark has worked extremely hard to complete the engine rebuild while Dave & Eddie have been working on the chassis and body.It all came together Saturday dinner time when the Thing was fired up and for the firsat time with our new (second hand) block. A squirt of petrol and spin the motor over fired up first time. We have backed the motor right down and intend to slowley come back up to full power. We are unsure of why we had handling problems at the last meeting so we are going to be a bit cautious until we are 100% happy with the handling. We have made a few adjustments to the balance of the car and checked out all the alignments. everything looks OK but the proof will be when we power down the track.One of the improvements is a new rear wing design this should give us more down force on the rear wheels. I have no pictures so you will have to wait until we unload the car at Shakey next Friday. We have made a few cosmetic changes to the car . to make it asthetically better.look forward to seeing everyone at the Nostalgia Nationals its going to be a big one for the outlaws
Thursday 9th June 2011 New Wing
Short update we are looking for a new rear wing for the altered as we believe this may be the cause of our handling problems in the second half of the race track. We may have found one but we are also in the process of fabricating a wing as well. The engine is well on its way to be rebuilt and we should make the Nostalgia nationals more updates after this weekend
Saturday 14th May 2011Thing gets a new block
After the last race we discovered that 2 cylinders on the Thing block had leakdown problems, with a crack in one liner and problems with another the block was past its sell by date. this left us with a major problem with no funding left to purchase a new block a search was on to fine a second hand one to get us back on track. Well the good news is we found one,and a quick trip up to Newcastle this morning (Saturday)and we are now in posession of a block which we hope will get us back running. There is quite a lot of work to do including machining the block to suit our configeration. We will start work on the engine on Monday and hopefully we will be in a go condition in time for the Nostalgia Nationals at shakey in June.
Monday 2nd May 2011 Flying High
Round 1 supercharged Outlaws at Shakespeare County raceway.We set of at nine Friday morning in the truck. On board were Dave Eddie Nathan & Wil .
Mark would follow up in the tow van later.We arrived at the track at 12-30 and a few of the outlaws were at the gate drinking tea. We stopped and had a coffee and moved onto the site. Set up was completed in a couple of hours. We then spent some time catching up with a few of the outlaws.Mark Arrived at tea time and we all had a few beers. Saturday morning race day 1, nice and sunny but very windy. the car was prepared and warmed up for the practice session we were due out at noon. We lined up in the pairing lanes with our old foe Lee Gallimore this was our first pass with a complete rebuild on the car Dave chose to run in high gear only running a 10.74 at 95.6 mph the car got loose so Dave lifted.
Round 1 proper came at 4 o clock we had a bye run, again the car got a bit loose and we ran9.22 at 146.36mph .
Sunday came round the sun was shining and the wind was still with us although not as strong as Saturday. Round 2 saw us line up against the Speed Demon car with Sam Freeman we launched really hard this time on the transbrake giving us a 1.2 60 foot time 5.6 at the 1/8th but lifting again slightly as the car moved about and at the line we were 9.04 at 145 mph Sam was long gone on a superb 7.772 at 175mph. This left us with one round to race at 3 o clock this time it was two altyereds as we lined up against Brian Gandy two great burn outs side by side and away on the lights the car launched really hard again with a 1.2 60 ft but an improving 5.4 at the 1/8th then it all went pear shaped, the car started to move about and I lifted slightly when I got back on the throttle all hell broke loose the car bounced got air born and when it landed moved sharply to the left and I braced myself as I thought we were going to roll over but the car came round and I was able to regain control and drive to the end of the track. All the time I was fighting with our car Brian was having the same trouble in the other lane but I never noticed as I was to busy with my own problems. (this lends to the question why do we drive ALTEREDS!!) great to watch heart stopping to drive.I have one picture click on the image for a larger view. It was taken by Pete Donaldson (Thank you Pete) vist Petes web site to view more of his excellent pictures at http://peterdonaldson.zenfolio.com/f905190183
The team would like to thank the safety team who were out within seconds chasing us down and checking that both myself and Brian Gandy were OK Again thank you