Post by Admin on Aug 22, 2010 9:30:05 GMT
NEWS STORY IN SUNDAY HERALD TODAY
We turned the hotel into a garage ... but it just wasn’t enough’
Jim McGill
There’s one thing never in question when it comes to Scots and sports: the desire to win in the face of adversity.
So it should come as no surprise that on the eve of their bid to break the 1000cc world land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, the Speed Scotland team turned their hotel room into a temporary garage.
Ultimately their efforts were to end in heartbreak on Friday when, on the team’s final run, as they edged closer to the current 313mph record which has stood for 12 years, the car’s engine dropped a valve as it cruised past 270mph.
But pessimism isn’t in the blood of Derek Palmer, 59, the Lesmahagow engineer and the man behind the successful ProMotorsport team which runs the Speed Scotland campaign. For him, Friday’s run is only the first attempt at the record. He has vowed the team will return stronger next year.
“This was a big disappointment – we were within touching distance of the record,” said Palmer, back at his Lesmahagow base yesterday.
“When you consider the size of some of the other teams, costing multi-millions of pounds, which have been put together to break world land speed records, we’ve almost done it on a shoestring. We got so bloody close.”
The Scots teams spent about £200,000 on the record attempt, and part of the budget was spent by the six-man team – which included Derek’s son, also called Derek, aged 23, and driver, Swiss-based Londoner Rick Pearson, 35 – in the last 48 hours before the record bid jetting round the States tracking down spare parts to carry out repairs.
Having spent the early part of last week adjusting the 22in-wide, methanol-powered Streamliner car – christened Flower of Scotland – to the technical demands required for a world speed record attempt, the team’s progress was halted abruptly on Wednesday when the chain-drive broke during a 270mph run.
“We had the highest quality of chain fitted to the car,” Palmer explained, “but these things happen. Thankfully the damage was restricted to the car’s transmission case, but it set us back.”
It also catapulted Palmer into a logistical nightmare. Stranded in the middle of the Utah salt flats in temperatures of 120F (about 48C), the team had to embark on sourcing rare and highly-specialised parts for their car.
The Scot traced a transmission case which was available in California and Pearson flew to Los Angeles to collect the part in person after the owner worked overnight to machine it to their required specifications. Derek Jnr was dispatched to South Dakota to collect a new crankshaft and bearings, while Palmer himself picked up a new gearing system which he had FedEx’d to Salt Lake City.
The crew had to work overnight. While the engineers beavered away in the welcome cool of their hotel car park, upstairs in the hotel rooms, beds were covered in sheets as tools, gears and transmission cases were prepared for fitting to the car.
“We did what we had to do to make sure the car could run on the Friday.”
In the end, all the midnight oil was to prove frustratingly worthless. After a couple of runs to bed the car in, on the final record breaking run it dropped a valve as it accelerated passed 270mph.
“It just shouldn’t have happened,” a deeply disappointed but philosophical Palmer said. “The engine and the car were running beautifully smoothly and we were accelerating comfortably towards 300mph when suddenly it broke. That was it: game over.
“We’ll be back next year – that’s definite. This was always a three-year project and, perhaps with hindsight, we got a bit greedy thinking we could break the record in our first year. Next year we’ll break the record. Promise.”
We turned the hotel into a garage ... but it just wasn’t enough’
Jim McGill
There’s one thing never in question when it comes to Scots and sports: the desire to win in the face of adversity.
So it should come as no surprise that on the eve of their bid to break the 1000cc world land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, the Speed Scotland team turned their hotel room into a temporary garage.
Ultimately their efforts were to end in heartbreak on Friday when, on the team’s final run, as they edged closer to the current 313mph record which has stood for 12 years, the car’s engine dropped a valve as it cruised past 270mph.
But pessimism isn’t in the blood of Derek Palmer, 59, the Lesmahagow engineer and the man behind the successful ProMotorsport team which runs the Speed Scotland campaign. For him, Friday’s run is only the first attempt at the record. He has vowed the team will return stronger next year.
“This was a big disappointment – we were within touching distance of the record,” said Palmer, back at his Lesmahagow base yesterday.
“When you consider the size of some of the other teams, costing multi-millions of pounds, which have been put together to break world land speed records, we’ve almost done it on a shoestring. We got so bloody close.”
The Scots teams spent about £200,000 on the record attempt, and part of the budget was spent by the six-man team – which included Derek’s son, also called Derek, aged 23, and driver, Swiss-based Londoner Rick Pearson, 35 – in the last 48 hours before the record bid jetting round the States tracking down spare parts to carry out repairs.
Having spent the early part of last week adjusting the 22in-wide, methanol-powered Streamliner car – christened Flower of Scotland – to the technical demands required for a world speed record attempt, the team’s progress was halted abruptly on Wednesday when the chain-drive broke during a 270mph run.
“We had the highest quality of chain fitted to the car,” Palmer explained, “but these things happen. Thankfully the damage was restricted to the car’s transmission case, but it set us back.”
It also catapulted Palmer into a logistical nightmare. Stranded in the middle of the Utah salt flats in temperatures of 120F (about 48C), the team had to embark on sourcing rare and highly-specialised parts for their car.
The Scot traced a transmission case which was available in California and Pearson flew to Los Angeles to collect the part in person after the owner worked overnight to machine it to their required specifications. Derek Jnr was dispatched to South Dakota to collect a new crankshaft and bearings, while Palmer himself picked up a new gearing system which he had FedEx’d to Salt Lake City.
The crew had to work overnight. While the engineers beavered away in the welcome cool of their hotel car park, upstairs in the hotel rooms, beds were covered in sheets as tools, gears and transmission cases were prepared for fitting to the car.
“We did what we had to do to make sure the car could run on the Friday.”
In the end, all the midnight oil was to prove frustratingly worthless. After a couple of runs to bed the car in, on the final record breaking run it dropped a valve as it accelerated passed 270mph.
“It just shouldn’t have happened,” a deeply disappointed but philosophical Palmer said. “The engine and the car were running beautifully smoothly and we were accelerating comfortably towards 300mph when suddenly it broke. That was it: game over.
“We’ll be back next year – that’s definite. This was always a three-year project and, perhaps with hindsight, we got a bit greedy thinking we could break the record in our first year. Next year we’ll break the record. Promise.”
