Hi all, after a somewhat tricky Springspeed due to one reason or another, here the NFAA championship standings:

NFAA Championship Points Totals

Here are some pics from behind the scenes at camp Xtreme!

Ready to run

One of three offending broken valve springs, that the crew replaced saturday afternoon

Mole getting down & dirty

Matt's workstation - doris central

New converter seal going in! Rich and Lee getting it back together.

Midnight saturday night

Working hard till late

NEW valve springs in the cupboard, 8 now in the inlets!

Out with the old BBS CH, in with the new BBS CK!

Erm, where to start?! After 4 days at the pod there is quite a bit to pack in, but I want to really keep this as brief as possible…

I guess the best place to start would be to comment on the success of the NFAA at easter, and more specifically the Wratten, Draper and Lotsapower stickered Dirty Harry Topolino. The boys done good, and put in consistently quick qualifiers, sitting out one round of qualifying only and taking the winning trophy at the end of the weekend in fine fashion with a 6 second pass. Well done guys, keep em coming! I know you’ll be hunting down that new PB at the next meet, hopefully the track will be a bit warmer and you can get the job done. Bob and I would like to express how sorry we were to see Lawrie’s Chaos in such a state after Gary Page’s impact with the wall. After some violent tyre shake Gary hit the left wall pretty hard and was considerably shaken up, luckily he was all ok and thankfully after a hospital visit and check over Gary was back to the pod with the rest of the team. Joe Bond and the Nuthin Fancy team put in a superb pass, of 6.62 and 205mph which was a new PB for Joe. He was off the pedal for some direction adjustment in that time period too, so there is certainly a 6.50 in there to be had! Unfortunately things ended a little badly for Joe as the engine decided to send a rod through the block and cut short his weekend of fun. Not down about it, Joe insisted he would be pretty quick to get things back on-track and hopefully get the car repaired for the Summer Nationals all being well. Jon Best, Bill Felsted and the rest of the crew worked tirelessly all weekend to get a pass in, but just couldn’t get the car down the track until the very last opportunity, a gifted pass into the last pairing on Monday afternoon as 5th qualifier. If races were won on audio then Jon would be celebrating now because the car sounded cracking and there were a lot of positive remarks about how mental it sounded. After a storming start to the run, the engine unfortunately decided to bite back and began systematically throwing a rod or two south until the team were left with four jingling around where they shouldn’t be. Tony Betts had been testing his new car, and after a super smooth 60ft launch, which Tony reported back was ‘beautiful’ when he crossed the line, a tack weld on the steering side broke and the car saw some damage as it veered into a gate at the top end, hurting the new body and the fuel tank.

I would like to thanks all the teams and drivers for their support, attendance, and communication over the weekend, it was the first weekend of the slightly revised NFAA point structure, and it ended up being somewhat of a task due to the nature of unpredictability and the number of cars that ended up hurt and unable to make the final 4 pairings on Monday. Everyone was fantastic and the weekend was a pleasure despite all the heart ache and troubles individual teams suffered.

Our team didn’t escape the gremlins and we actually managed number 6 qualifier in the 6 car field. This was achieved by being the only car in the class to not make a pass, or even get into stage all weekend. With 5 trips down to the startline and 5 burnouts, we just couldn’t get the car into reverse and then subsequently forward gear. We all worked so hard to fix the problem, Lee, Mark, Richard, Bob, myself and with assistance from other racers including our A fuel com-padre Derek Flynn we spent all weekend trying various things and tinkering, unfortunately the car was perfectly well behaved up on it’s stands in the pits and worked perfectly, however when we got on the track…. things played out a little differently. We have whittled it down to a transbrake issue with our Bruno Lenco, however we can’t be sure, as it does seem to work perfectly when in the pits, so we will be investigating further down at Xtreme HQ, Steve Wright’s Hangar in the west country.

Thanks to all the crew for working so hard over the weekend, your efforts were well appreciated, and it was great to cheer Pete Walters along into his first Super Pro ET final! Thanks Derek and Fiona for all your help with the Jetsize DOS magic of Bessie, she did good!! Shame we didnt get to put it to good use.

Thanks to Santa Pod for the support of the NFAA, and hopefully we can come back stronger at the summer Nationals after our next round at Shakespeare county, the Open Sports Nationals. Thanks to the eurodragster team for the coverage and anyone who came by our pit and threw in some technical support over the weekend, particularly Kev Slyfield,  Andy Robinson and Paul Stubbins.

National Finals 2009, photo by A. Wilsheer

Well the Santa Pod Easter Thunderball 2010 is almost upon us, with 4 days to go before we head up to the track, the car is tucked up safe and sound in the trailer and we are ready to rock and roll.
For those that don’t know, we ended the 09 season on somewhat of a high, with back to back sixes, an event win, and our new PB of 6.79. Bob was off the throttle before the finish and shifting roughly 200 rpm short of where we wanna be with it too! So I guess it’s pretty safe to say that we are aiming to better that at the forthcoming easter meet… but if we can repeat the sixes and get back into the groove with things then we will consider it a successful weekend.

The guys at J&W have been busy over the winter, and we can’t thank Rich and Lee enough for all their help in getting the car ready for another year of racing. Modifications included a new puke tank which has been repositioned, relocating our computer system, ditching the 09 dash board and instead fitting a small shift light. New valves and some head mods (see ‘Head Aches’ post on the xtreme blog), re-assembly of the motor with lots of fresh bits, a fire-up and loading the car into our new mode of transport a DAF box lorry. Bob has spent many a weekend down at Steve’s hangar (Xtreme HQ) fitting cabinets, a remote winch, tools and various other bits, while Rich and Lee helped get the truck mechanically up to speed. It’s a very smart truck and should hopefully do us proud over the next season. Thanks to Steve for his help and also storage of said truck throughout the winter, he also kindly donated some of the materials that went into the interior build! Catherine (my mum) has been hard at work stitching an awning for the side of the Lorry and she has done a sterling job, and we look forward to testing it out properly at easter and getting some photos on the Xtreme blog. Using as much clear material as possible, it gives a very open spacious feeling and should be a nice place to work when we get to the track and get the car out of the lorry.

Shawn Brown at Davenport kindly helped us with a new software code for our Full Race Software Jet Size program after our race lap top suffered an internal battery failure after being stored all winter, their customer service is superb and I can recommend their Windows version of the program as it is easy to use, clear and helped me to really get a handle on tuning the car. I’d like to personally thank Derek Flynn for all his help last season in this area, he was always there on the end of the phone, or with quite possibly the most robust PC in the world as back-up when our modern lap top was left flagging. He helped me gain a good understanding of our computer program and the davenport software, and we managed to progressively tune the car last year to the point we reached at the National Finals. With Lee and Mark reading the signs on the engine I think it was a great team effort and the entire crew were over the moon when we got our first six. Despite being up to his neck crewing on his son’s (Pete Walters) car, Rich was always there when he could be, ripping the engine down with us and putting it back together if we had encountered any major problems. The whole team worked so hard all year and we really do have the best of friends at the track crewing on our car and as part of the Xtreme team, so thanks guys!! I’d also like to publicly thank my girlfriend Leah for her support at the track and all the hard work she puts into coming racing and looking after us all along with my Mum and sister, the Xtreme drag racing catering and facilities are unrivaled in my eyes!! Oh and thanks to George Foreman.

Our first six second pass - 6.79!

Thanks to Tog and the team at eurodragster.com for all the coverage, and all the publications that featured wild shots of the car over the 09 season, lets hope we give you some exciting results to put into ink in 2010.

~Matt Glassup

Lawrie Gatehouse (left) & Ollie Burns

Well, i’ll try to keep this fairly brief, but I think it is an important post to make in a way…

For those that are not aware, the NFAA was the brainchild of Lawrie Gatehouse, and with help from Ollie Burns (The Mob), Lawrie managed to establish a class, create a set of rules and rally teams together to get these wild altereds back on the track together in a heads up class that allowed for some great racing and wild passes! Lawrie dedicated a great deal of time and money to the Nostalgia Fuel Altered association, and the class grew steadily, from four cars, to it’s current membership of fifteen for 2010. Towards the end of 2009, Lawrie approached Bob with a view to handing the reigns over for the forthcoming season, as Lawrie had work commitments on the horizon and after that, a much needed break. Well I can say now that my father will do all he can to help any racers, and he always seems to go above and beyond the call of duty in the favour department, but this was quite a commitment, so we agreed that doing it together, myself and Bob would be able to fulfill the tasks Lawrie had previously taken care of. With an announcement made at the NFAA dinner dance Lawrie stepped down as coordinator and is assisting us this year and giving general advice from his years of experience to date with coordinating the class. I must say it’s been an interesting experience already and we havent even had the first round yet! All the teams and drivers came together at the end of last season and opinions were aired about the class structure, and changes to the points system and various other tweaks were agreed to hopefully see 2010 as another great year for the class. It was fantastic to see just how many people made it along, it was around 50 people in all.

I would like to thank Lawrie for all his advice so far, and all the teams for their support and input into the forthcoming championship. It was great to have so much positive feedback, and in my case it was great to meet some of the racers and crew members I previously hadn’t been introduced too. Phil Evans was especially helpful in organising a rule amendment for 2010 and his support and assistance I found invaluable, so thank you Phil. Thanks to Dom Romney for all his help organising the NFAA calendars which sold out and look fab!

Gerry at Shakey and Darren at Santa Pod have been great in helping me confirm our rounds etc (thanks guys) and I can’t wait for the season to get underway now, all the pieces are in place, with just an exhibition round to be confirmed for the Nitro Olympix at Hockenheim (which would expose the NFAA to a massive audience and a totally new one too). I think this will be an exciting year for the NFAA, one of change, but hopefully from a spectating point of view, you shouldn’t notice much of a difference. Luke Bennett of Bennett Racing has updated the team profiles on www.nfaa.info, so click on the link for team photos and a more in depth car spec for the 2010 championship participants.

If I have missed anyone, apologies, it’s 2.09 am and I may well be forgetting a thing or two as I type this. It’s a daunting task ahead, keeping tallies on the runs and accurate scoring etc, while tuning our own car and being hands on with Bob, Lee, Rich and Mark on our altered. I don’t doubt it will be fun though and I am kind of looking forward to coming out of the bubble you sometimes find yourself in when your racing where nothing else gets noticed besides what your team is doing, and focus is directed entirely at the performance of your own car rather than monitoring the class as a whole. Instead of shooting up the return road to collect the car, i’ll be firmly planted at the start line enjoying yet another pair of wild Fuel Altereds tear up the quarter mile, now that doesn’t’ sound too bad at all…

~Matt

Talk about inspiring, take a look at some of these porsches from a RWB Meet – I have quite literally had my mind blown.

Full link here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/crazyskylineuk/welt.htm

More interesting Inspiring car related stuff available at: http://g-werksblog.com/

Over & Out

~Matti

And there she is….

It’s a random image every time, but what an awesome shot this one is!

Check out www.eurodragster.com for the latest news and info.

Well, I’ll keep this brief, but with the purchase of a nice new shiny set of Titanium valves, the team set about changing them over around 2 weeks ago. Off came the Brad stage 5 heads, and on closer inspection, crew man Lee spotted some hairline cracks that needed some attention… After some ringing around and a bit of leg work, the heads were quickly ferried up to Basingstoke to be left in the capable hands of Mr Andy Robinson for welding duties.

Around a week later, another team member Mark picked them up and took them over to Wormley near Guildford to have the relevant machining done. Well the good news is the heads were collected today and they are looking ‘Bad-ass’. With some extra teasing from the latest machine work they are now ready to rock and roll and it’s a case of getting them back down to Xtreme HQ in somerset (Steve’s Hangar) to get them back on the car and the car loaded into the Lorry for Easter.

It really does seem that no matter what you do, the car can sit there all winter and you think it’s all in order for the first round of the season, and then you find something. A last minute hurdle and it’s a mad panic to get things done and not miss the season opener. Well thanks to Rich, Lee, Mark, Steve and of course Bob, the team managed to get em off, get them fixed and they will be back on the car in time. Thanks to Andy Robinson Race Cars also for fitting us in during a busy time, and doing such a great job on the turn-around. Only a week to the Thunderball now… Oh yes!

Our car at the European Finals 2009.

The NFAA Altered with a pb of 6.79 to date.

The Dragster piloted by Bob and Matt in 08, ready for 2010.

Spec features a Mike Bos Chassis to TMD spec, with Blown BBC & 2 speed power glide, full float axle.

Ford Capri Mk1 with Chevy 355 ci power.

Four Link rear end, with Centreline wheels.

Holley's mk1 16v on carbs

Now sporting a roll cage and Recaro seats.

Read more

Hi all!

So this is it, finally we have managed to find the time to set up a blog for the Xtreme team and while the flash site is nearing completion, we have a way of keeping the world up to speed with the race cars and the street cars in our Xtreme family. Also we have loads of things going on with the return of the Xtreme wheels show and we certainly will have lots to blabber on about if we are organised enough to find the time to blog it!!

I want to say  MASSIVE thanks to Dan Welberry of 3T Creative who handles all our PR and web hosting etc, with Simon the New Media manager at 3T, they sorted out this blog hosting and got the blog heading I designed online and updated the landing page with my amended design. It is much appreciated chaps! Check out www.3tcreative.com for more info on what 3T do.

Hopefully, Bob can blog some driver accounts of his no-doubt wild runs this 2010 season, Holley can keep people updated as to her mk1 golfs mods, her latest shoes (joking sis) and the rest of the crew might find time to add to the blog too. I’ll be taking pictures of behind the scenes of the NFAA altered and of the vw projects we have plodding along in the background along with the capri street car and the dragster rail – This is the plan anyways.

Well I shall refrain from rattling on too much, I promise some new photos will find there way up here soon, if you havent checked it out so far, log on to the xtreme show website and have a look at what we have got in place for the show already – www.xtremewheelsshow.com

Cheers for reading!

~Matt