Flame & Thunder 2008
Written by: Crazy Fool
Mad people look rather normal, or at least that is that assumption I have made having spent a day with a young man who should be sectioned. You would assume that our man Top Fuel Digger, who goes by the alias of Jon in the real world, is a normal man, he has a job, a hair cut and a lust for ladies bottoms, but don’t be fooled. When I first met Jon, like most young men he was bragging about his car. ‘Yeah mate, I have a supercharged big block Chevy with NOS, it’s got like 3000bhp and does wheelies.’ Sure.
Well, this weekend I went to meet up with him at The Flame and Thunder at Santa Pod. His car is indeed a 3000bhp monster, and to hammer the final nail into his insanity coffin he sits with his nuts inches away from the diff and gearbox. A £60,000 vasectomy if it all goes wrong.
The warm up of his car was the closest you could get to it running. Spectators aren’t allowed to stand next to the Christmas tree (that light thing at the start). And for good reason. With header pipes only 12 inches long and the days fuel being about 10% less volatile than rocket fuel the car really does bark when it is, err, ‘barking’. ‘Barking’ by the way is what the dragster boys call it when they rev their car in the paddock.
The car is warmed up on petrol and produces a good meaty V8 sound that is pleasantly loud and normal. Then they add the Nitro, proper Nitro, the engine note changes from a nice burble at idle to a slow, loud and poisonous thwap. Louder still. It is poisonous because the exhaust fumes also change to a large yellow cloud of tear gas. Pity the fools stood 5 foot away from the fool sat in the car.
If you didn’t know already drag racing is one huge game of top trumps. Jon’s car, the Bassline has 3000bhp, consumes 19 gallons of fuel a minute at 4000rpm and should do sub 10 seconds at the scary side of 250 miles per hour. Unfortunately this wasn’t going to happen today, a rain shower in the morning and a couple of accidents had caused delays to the already slippery track. And the delays meant he didn’t get his first run in until he was expecting to get his second. The lack of grip affected all but the jet powered cars. The result is impressive, if impromptu, ¼ mile burnouts, but low and unimpressive times. Quick off the line wheel spin seemed minimal until Jon really opened the throttle; this caused more wheel spin that put the car more sideways than straight on.
The day didn’t go to plan, but it wasn’t the worse for it. Jon seemed pleased enough all things considered and I’m certainly the better for it. The day was brilliantly loud, smelly, and poisonous and every bit as good as he boasted. It quashed all my opinions of it being a boring American sport with no driver skill or passion. To drive that car in any weather Jon definitely has skill and nobody can argue against his passion.
So what’s next? A Top Fuel Funny car is planned for 2010 and at the age of 23 I can’t help but think he is on his way to becoming a big name in British Drag Racing. I doth my cap to a brilliantly insane man.
