Wednesday 1st June 2011

Setbacks For Red Victor Three

PH's very own 'world's fastest car' goes bang - but RV3 will be back

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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.

See the RV3 build thread here

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}

[RudeDog]

I need money to make my car faster, can I have an advert with my paypal account too please?

[ian_c_uk]

I thought VXR were "backing" this?

[oilit]

he should sell his roof for advertising - remember that person who sold small micro squares for advertising logos and it made them a million http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4585026.stm

[Wammer]

inkiboo said:

The man has a point. Donate to make a car go faster or give the same money to Eddie Kidd. Don't think it's a hard choice.

Why has this suddenly turned into a charity case. Im happy to support the lemans racers yesterday with the money going to macmillan but im not going to support this. How dare Pistonheads ask us to support this and write a whole piece about it. We dont see Mclaren asking for hand outs if something goes wrong. This is plain rude.

[HowMuchLonger]

Wammer said:

Why has this suddenly turned into a charity case. Im happy to support the lemans racers yesterday with the money going to macmillan but im not going to support this. How dare Pistonheads ask us to support this and write a whole piece about it. We dont see Mclaren asking for hand outs if something goes wrong. This is plain rude.

This is a reaction to lots of people asking if they can donate on the RV3 build thread. It is PH the company reacting to requests from PHers.

You can hardly compare Mr Frost and co with McLaren!

Whilst you might object to this request you can hardly claim to have contributed as much to this website as The Red Victor crew. It is a bit like you complaining about the government when you don't vote.

Edited by HowMuchLonger on Wednesday 1st June 12:20

[AndrewW-G]

RudeDog said:

I need money to make my car faster, can I have an advert with my paypal account too please?

Had you posted a detailed thread, of interest to almost everybody on here, showing the whole process of you building it from start to finish, you may have a point . . . . As it is you don't.

[Porkie]

Jesus.... PH is not demanding you pay. They are only asking.

I have had a HUGE amount of pleasure following the whole build. The thread is amazing and has a lovely 'family' or 'team' feel to it.

Was gutted to hear about the breakage and will happily give £20 to the cause. If you dont want to... don't!

Good luck Andy and the team in the rebuild.

[Davey S2]

If you dont ask you dont get.

Bit of a pi$$ take though IMO

[FWDRacer]

RudeDog said:

I need money to make my car faster, can I have an advert with my paypal account too please?

Agreed - there must be plenty of financially compromised racers on PH in similar circumstances. Smacks of desperation. Your in competitive motorsport. Your engine has just lunched itself.

Sorry lads - Suck it up.

[Mr Gear]

Could have been worse. This is one of Andy's competitors in the Pro Mod class: http://eurodragster.com/santapod/live/2011fiamaine...

[TonyHetherington]

Some surprising reactions, but if you've not had a chance to follow Andy's build up to this moment then perhaps you can't see the full picture and as such, the reactions are understandable.

To put it in perspective - Andy is a bloke like you and I, who happens to have a hugely fond love of his Victor. (I didn't intend for that to sound dodgy, honestly). Anyway, he's been a part of PH for many many years, has written the whole build thread and kept people up to date the whole way. A lot of PHers were genuinely excited at the first run, nervously hitting F5 on their keyboards to see what happens.

And then, through no fault of their own, they had a problem. After all the build up and all the work it was a massive blow. As such, many people on the build thread wanted to offer a little help.

You don't have to. It's not required. But PH obviously felt on this occasion they'd love to share Andy's story and let people know that, if they wanted to, they could help out.

I will be, but you don't have to if you don't want to. But that's not rudeness.

[J4CKO]

Could they not sell a few demo runs, or at least a voucher for such that can be used once its working again, suppose it depends on the seating arrangements and insurance but I am sure a few people would pay handsomely for a run in something that does a quarter that quickly.

[Porkie]

FWDRacer said:

Agreed - there must be plenty of financially compromised racers on PH in similar circumstances. Smacks of desperation. Your in competitive motorsport. Your engine has just lunched itself.

Sorry lads - Suck it up.

Read the thread... people OFFERED first.

Andy never asked.

[TonyHetherington]

J4CKO said:

Could they not sell a few demo runs, or at least a voucher for such that can be used once its working again, suppose it depends on the seating arrangements and insurance but I am sure a few people would pay handsomely for a run in something that does a quarter that quickly.

There is talk of a raffle for a passenger ride (and any donations now would be put into that raffle if it came off) but, according to the build thread, they're just trying to plan exactly how/what/when that would be.

[Wadeski]

Umm...not sure about this one? Engines go bang in drag racing, its kind of par for the course?

[robinessex]

ER, maybe you ask the camshaft manufaturer to 'donate' to the cause. Or ask them why it broke in the first place.

[Wammer]

HowMuchLonger said:

This is a reaction to lots of people asking if they can donate on the RV3 build thread. It is PH the company reacting to requests from PHers.

You can hardly compare Mr Frost and co with McLaren!

Whilst you might object to this request you can hardly claim to have contributed as much to this website as The Red Victor crew. It is a bit like you complaining about the government when you don't vote.

Edited by HowMuchLonger on Wednesday 1st June 12:20

Well i do vote in the elections and i do support Andy in what he is doing. But if i was to give him money i would want something in return. Like i said he isn't a charity and Motorsport costs money. If he set it up so i could buy shares and i could then make money from it i would be interested but just to ask for money for no return in this cash strapped time is frankly unbeliebvable. Dont get me wrong im all for supporting charity and the worse off than me but Andy frost is not worse off than me so why should i support him?

[AndrewW-G]

Porkie said:

FWDRacer said:

Agreed - there must be plenty of financially compromised racers on PH in similar circumstances. Smacks of desperation. Your in competitive motorsport. Your engine has just lunched itself.

Sorry lads - Suck it up.

Read the thread... people OFFERED first.

Andy never asked.

I was one of the people who suggested the idea to Andy, having watched the car progress from drawing board to drag strip, I felt that even though he hadn’t asked, he would appreciate some help in getting this season back on track . . . my company also sponsors drivers in other forms of motorsport, so this sort of gesture for me is normal.

I guess for some people on here, altruistic behaviour is a foreign concept and I apologise to Andy if my suggestion has caused him any embarrassment as a result of some of the more pathetic responses to this thread

[rev-erend]

Sorry to hear this .. sounds like the engine woes continue.

[Wammer]

AndrewW-G said:

I was one of the people who suggested the idea to Andy, having watched the car progress from drawing board to drag strip, I felt that even though he hadn’t asked, he would appreciate some help in getting this season back on track . . . my company also sponsors drivers in other forms of motorsport, so this sort of gesture for me is normal.

I guess for some people on here, altruistic behaviour is a foreign concept and I apologise to Andy if my suggestion has caused him any embarrassment as a result of some of the more pathetic responses to this thread

Is Andy a charity? No Case closed