It is a truth universally acknowledged, to cruelly twist the words of Jane Austen, that there is no such thing as cheap motorsport.
Unfortunately this is particularly true when you're trying to create the world's fastest street legal car, and the world's first street legal, NHRA/FIA pro-modified car - the PH-supported (check out the smileys on the bumper), 3000bhp-plus Red Victor 3 of drag racing legend Andy Frost.
RV3 was at Santa Pod Raceway last weekend for the first time and, bowing to popular demand, Andy (who was originally only intending to display the car) decided to give the car its first run on Friday... when the camshaft promptly went 'pop' in the most spectacular way.
"Obviously the team are devastated with what has happened over the weekend," says Andy. "Not only because of the cost of the repair, but because we let down our loyal fans and followers by not being able to run up the track to show them what the car was capable of."
Andy and the Red Victor team, for whom the word 'shoestring' does not do their budget justice has now been left with a, er, long repair bill, including:
Engine block inc machining for a bigger cam core, deck height and boring to size £5000
Or engine block repair if it can be done £1500
Heads repaired (new beryllium/copper seats, welding and machining), circa £2000
8 x titanium intake valves £1000
8 Inconel exhaust valves £500
1 x billet roller camshaft £500
16 pushrods £400
1 set of lifters £700
16 x valve springs £700
16 x spring retainers £300
16 x valve locks £80
8 x custom-coated pistons/pins £1600
1 set of piston rings £300
8 x aluminium rods £850
1 x timing belt £130
all new bearings (if needed), seals, gaskets £600
Which, according to our PH calculator, comes out at a little over £16k. Ouch.
As we've said, Andy is a small fish in a big pond. But we can help - and a few PHers have expressed a desire to help Get RV3 back in rude health (Andy has not asked for this). So if you want to be part of getting RV3 and the PH smiley back on the strip, you can throw a bit of your disposable in the way of Red Victor's PayPal account*, not forgetting to make it clear that your donation is a gift (so as to make sure fees aren't involved).
Go on - get involved. Let's get RV3's 3000 horses back on the drag strip.
*if you don't have a PayPal account you could also e-mail Andy Frost via his PH profile and he'll give you an address to send a cheque to.
Thanks to Central for the pics