Bahamas Speed Week Revival 2012

[Frankenhealey]

Prelude

Earlier this year a few problems led me to dust off the old bucket list and having sold a load of stuff collected over the years for future projects I (more than tentatively) entered an event at No. 2 on the list and got in as the first entrant with a 'historically interesting vehicle' so the Healey went on a container ship and I would be reunited with her for the Bahamas Speed Week Revival 2012.

Dude where's my car



A little history lesson is probably necessary here to set the scene. Healey V8's have a period competition history both in Europe and in the States. Their biggest advantage was that bolting a smallblock Chevy into a reasonably nimble (for the day) Healey chassis gave the privateers something to frighten with the likes of Ferraris and Maseratis in the capacity based grids of the time. One driver, Bud Dana (my hero!) at the Nassau Speed Week (precursor of today's event) in 1960 had the works teams chasing his tail from the get-go after a stellar Le Mans start with Moss (yes, that Moss!) stalled on the start line.

Bud shows them a clean pair of heels from the Le Mans style start



Sadly race teams almost always beat privateers and Bud was overhauled and came in 1st in class but 10 laps behind the winner but not too shabby in this sort of company



The new Speed Weeks is a more relaxed affair than the old with a 'touring' contingent but there's still sprints and a hillclimb and there's also 4 car 'demonstration' races as the Bahamian government widen the track. I'd got my new Retro Rides stickers so they know where I came from

The event stickers also came in and I've got a few left if any sticker hounds out there in RRland want one.



How they did it in the old days. Bud Dana can just be seen getting in to No. 65 three cars from bottom of the pic.







How they used to refuel. Notice the cotton overalls, the large funnel, the sploshing petrol and the fuel spills on the the legs.



and the result

[Frankenhealey]

Part 1

I got on the big silver bird to fly to the Carribean knowing the car was already in place and hadn't been damaged in Hurricane Sandy. After an uneventful flight we landed in glorious 27 degree weather and all I could think of is 'she's going to overheat like a curse word'

The Venue

All the competitive stuff was based in Arawak Cay (pronounced Arawak Key), colloquially known as 'Fish Fry', just outside the capital Nassau, for the pursuit sprint and the hillclimb. The Bahamian government supported the event to increase their media presence and increase tourism hence the UK, USA, Swiss and Kart contingents. There are no circuits or dedicated venues on New Providence (or the rest of the Bahamas) so it was basically cones and street racing. Road surfaces were variable to the point that some goat tracks on the old Acropolis Rally were probably smoother. Just made it more interesting really. After Sandy had put the preparations back by 10 days the locals were working through the night to put up Armco and finish the circuit.

The Competitors

Both Stirling Moss (Event patron) and Derek Bell were in attendance. Had a nice chat with Derek who told me his first car was a 100 but mine seemed to be considerably quicker. From the UK we had Jonathan Turner's orginal Jaguar C-type that Stirling had rolled comprehensively at Silverstone in a previous life. Stirling was driving his Osca, Ron Gammons was there with his Devin and there was a Bristol Cooper. The Americans brought the BoCar XP-5, a Viper SRT10 with all tricks, a DeLorean that never managed 88mph (no Mr. Fusion either), a Daimler SP250 and a couple of Ferraris in their own semi-trailers (makes the Goddess look a bit sick). The locals produced a couple of 'continuation' Speedsters, an E-type racer, three Cobras, a wedge TVR. The Swiss brought some touring classics including a Merc 180SL, Healey 3000 and another earlier Viper. There was other stuff but you'll hopefully spot them in the pictures.

The non-competition bit

As the event was partly to promote the Bahamas we had 5 days of junkets before the weekend competitive sections. First thing to do was to sign on and pick up the magic BSWR number plates.

Official number plate



These would probably do as well ;D





The Bahamas Government issues these to all entrants which means that we were all road registered, insured and safety vetted (policeman came and slammed my tyres and kicked the doors) and this allowed us to all ignore any traffic laws (most Bahamian drivers follow
this course anyway). When asked about drink driving laws a policeman admitted that it was allowed. "So you can have a drink and then drive afterwards" I asked, "Yes" he replied, "You can also drink while driving". I can assure you that the Clerk of the Course was not
taking such a relaxed attitude when he saw me with a beer

Some entrants



































More to follow later

[dbizzle]

Blimey, what an adventure!

[waveman1500]

Literally awesome stuff!

[Felix]

Looks like a fascinating event, can't wait for part 2!

[mjsrb5]

Brilliant!! Some very nice motors there and an interesting thread can't wait for more updates.

[cairyhunt]

Ruddy 'ell! This could be epic! Well, it's already epic, but has all the sings of being epicley(sp??) epic!

MOAR!

[chevazon]

Already the thread of the year !
Keep it coming.

[Frankenhealey]

While my laptop is malfunctioning and Youtube is refusing to play nicely you may like to look here.

Also something may appear in Octane as I had an interview with a Brit-based photog who told me that there would be a lot of pictures around of the Healey as cameras locked onto the shark's teeth really well and it was easy to get pin-sharp pics.

[Frankenhealey]

Part 2 - The Junketing - Wednesday

Having arrived, I needed to get to work as before shipping the car I'd realised that it had an amusing but very annoying misfire. The quad Webers feed an awful lot of fuel into the cylinders and if you couple that with a dodgy plug then you get the mother of all backfires. On a test run before leaving I came off the gas to drop a gear to overtake a slower moving car (aren't they all ) and the misfire, which sounded like a double-tap drive-by shooting, panicked a group of recreational cyclists, according to SWMBO plus the guy I was overtaking didn't look too happy . Couple this with driving in a foreign country where the police can be armed meant that I had to get it sorted stat. Luckily the problem was identifiable to a single bank of cylinders so I carried 4 racing plugs and a plug spanner in my hand luggage just in case my tools went walkabout from the car during its trip. The nice man on security at Terminal 5 did grudgingly allow that the plugs and plug spanner really weren't weapons of terrorism but he did have to check, didn't he? So the next problem was changing the damn things. The SBC in a Healey 100 engine bay leaves little room to do work and changing plugs is about as difficult as a V12 Ferrari. Luckily it was the left bank (not in Paris) and it's fiddlable without dropping the engine.

That sorted we had to wash the car for the opening ceremony on the Wednesday.

The Bahamas Police Band arriving



The cars lined up at Arawak Cay for the ceremonial modified 'Le Mans' start i.e. we all sit in our cars until the signal and then proceed to pull out in order. Why you may ask, as we had come to race? Well, first there were a lot of spectators, photogs, stray dogs and Bahamian pedestrians and secondly the first 6 cars were worth approx $27 million and bump one of those and the organisers would have conniptions ;D


The Lineup



The centre of attention



Stirling with the girls



Bahamian Police conference



Lady Susie missing out on a ride round the circuit due to the Prime Minister nabbing her seat



They're off!













Had to sneak one of me in



We also had two Formula Juniors out for an event recce. The father and son team of Mike and Ash Waller driving their Keift and Poggi respectively





Then when the excitement of three parade laps were over we retired to the paddock, tried to cover the cars to stop the perpetual dust and grit from covering them once again. Here's a
guy with a can-do attitude to keeping dust off his classic



Due to rising wind he was using two blocks by the end of the week

Exhausted by the demands of the police and press we retired to a marquee for a traditional fish fry and curse word-up. To entertain us we had the local version of Carnival - Junkanoo. Look for some of the junior Karters (or rugrats as they were known to the seniors) at the end.

Caribbean dancing it's not

[chevazon]

SUPERB !

[rmad]

Thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks!

[Seth]

What a fantastic experience

[Frankenhealey]

Part 3 - The Junketing - Wednesday night / Thursday

After the Fish Fry party I got the message that the old nail had been selected as one of four cars to be displayed at Government House that evening at a party for the Speed Week plus the cream of Bahamian society and government ministers. So that meant washing the car again and I'd have to wear a tie . Try to find cleaning stuff in the Bahamas where they wait for it to rain to remove a few layers of encrusted dust. There was a guy with a bucket and dirty rag always hanging round the paddock but we slipped him a couple of dollars a day to watch the car and NOT wash it.

Turned up with SWMBO at the appointed time and it was decided that I'd go last in the 4 car convoy, not because they were afraid they wouldn't be able to keep up but because I had the only set of reliably working tail & stop lights. We had police outriders to clear the road and make sure we didn't take the long way round ;D

As the Chief Marshal had been angling for a ride, SWMBO made not much of a sacrifice to not co-pilot me driving at high speed through a city centre and let him have her seat. We then waited ten minutes for the C-type to sort out a fuse problem and my offer of a 5/8inch bolt to solve the fault once and for all was politely turned down. You can see in the video my self-appointed guardian angel held us up by pointing out that I hadn't put my lights on either!



Cars selected were the Devin, the DB5, the C-type and amazingly the Healey. Who said the organisers had no sense of humour?





This was certainly the only time the Healey has been protected by a Prime Minister's bodyguards. I did ask them that if there was an incident they didn't point their UZi's in the car's direction if at all possible. They said they would try



Thursday - The 007 Island Tour

I've had to 'borrow' some pics of Keith Blumel due to driving and talking rather than snapping. His full article can be seen here

This is the high speed blast across the island to go to Lyford Cay for lunch (If you are just a plain multi-millionaire then this place is probably too expensive to live there. We were more worried about which fork we should use to pick our teeth with and other matters of etiquette!). The route would have a stop at the Sir Harry Oakes Memorial (co-founder of the original Speed Weeks and general good guy) and at a Shell (one of the sponsors) garage before the stop at Lyford Cay.

A Bahamian Retro Ride. This was parked outside the paddock and had been used for selling Skyjuice before Hurricane Sandy. Skyjuice is a typical Bahamian drink with no official recipe but is usually made of coconut water, gin, condensed milk and sometimes coconut flavored rum. A bad Skyjuice session is a favourite local excuse for all sorts of misdemeanors



First stop, the Oakes Memorial



As I burn as soon as I look like going out in the sun, I decided to wear the flying helmet and goggles that are always in the car as a homage to the original owner, a US Airforce pilot. Thank God I didn't take the flying Jacket in 30 degrees



Stirling (yes, he has roads named fter him here) had another method of keeping cool but for the life of me I couldn't persuade the Speed Week girls to take up the same option









Next stop Shell garage





Nice support vehicles. I had a choice earlier in the day to either take the Healey or ride in the fire engine operating the horn (170Db). It was a tough choice.



Meanwhile the Healey was not enjoying the ambient temperature and was running at about 110 degrees C. There was also a suspicion of a fuel leak. Taking the bonnet off at the stops helped the temperature.



The drive to Lyford Cay was not as fast as last year due to the number of touring cars let go first in the convoy. The usual trick is to try and lose the police outriders but they were getting wise to the tactics being used. Max speed I saw was 95mph on an island with a max speed limit of 45mph but still the DeLorean didn't disappear

Lyford Cay Concours D'Elegance

This was a proper concours as the judges voted on those cars they thought were the most beautiful. They admitted that everything was subjective but you could understand that unlike the sort of concours where the judges measure the stitching pitch on the underside of the seat squabs. I was happy come come away with the unofficial 'Car Most Likely to Offend' title ;D

Welcome by Peter Vlasov (remember the name)



You can see it rained. In the Bahamas! I want my money back.



Winners



Champion - and my favourite







Fiat Jolly ( remember this car)







Certainly Mr. Bond



After a jolly nice lunch with not too large a fork selection, the whole day turned into a world of woe. With the car nice and cool at the start of the return journey, the fuel leak smell was beginning to be more prominent. SWMBO noticed that first and then that you could watch the fuel gauge drop. The high speed run of the return to Nassau was out and we had to pull out of the convoy to find some local fuel as there was no way in hell I was going back on a truck without a fight. We found a local petrol station but as the only 98 RON on the island was back at the paddock we had to settle for 86 RON which was not going to help the cooling. Thinking that the fuel leak was the old problem of sh1tty float valves I had SWMBO operating the fuel pump switch and monitoring the Air/Fuel gauge so we were running only on the contents of the float chambers and not on constant pressure. THis combination of mechanical and electrical co-pilotry was not popular with little fragrant flower as it left her with little time to criticize my driving. Now we had to get back to the paddock but there are no road signs on the island as everyone knows where everything is. Narrowly missing a BIG tailender and using my phone's compass plus dead reckoning we found ourselves in a traffic jam on the main road back to Nassau at school finishing time. The water temperature hit 130 degrees at times but we did not boil over however the engine was having a horrible time. After an eternity we came to the top of a hill leading down to some traffic lights and I made a bad judgement call to cut the engine and coast slowly in the jam down to the lights where I could do a bump start. It didn't work and the battery was so depleted running the fans and the water pump that we had to push the car up on the pavement and call the tow truck. The Bahamian people are lovely and I had many offers to get gas, come in my taxi and one of 'I'll give you a grand cash for that piece of sh1t'. The tow truck finally turned up and a quick application of jump leads and we limped back to the paddock.

Racing would start in 36 hours and I had only one spare float valve assembly and the nearest Weber parts shop was in Tampa, Florida. Friday, I had to fix the car or everything was down the toilet. I'd only come to race and the social stuff was an experience but not the reason I was there.

More to follow.

[rmad]

There's a small picture of your car at the rally in this month's Octane (#116 - Aston Martin on the cover) - page 20 IIRC.

[Frankenhealey]

Thanks rmad, I must get a copy.

[Frankenhealey]

So, Friday morning arrives and I catch the bus to the paddock with some trepidation. I only had a small toolkit with me and virtually no Weber spares, the US Ferrari boys would chip in with tools and the locals with banter and beer but I hadn't slept a lot the night before worrying. Got to the paddock to find Jodie Lowe, E-type driver and my current nemesis but the go-to guy on the island for classics, attempting to fix a broken valve spring on one of the Speedsters. He'd been at it since dawn and had the cunning plan not to remove the head but to bodge a spark plug adapter to pressurize the cylinder to keep the valve in position and then fiddle a new spring on.

Working Speedster



Sacrificial head



Working blind



In the end it didn't work as building a reduced access spring compressor out of screwdrivers, bits of wood and beer bottles was not successful so I moseyed over to my problem and started work. My modus operandi in these cases is to do everything apart from the simplest thing first and having eliminated the improbable and then the impossible I find it is something basic. This time was no different as having 4 carbs apart to check the float valves and the fuel height was wasted time when I finally found that three of the fuel feed banjo bolts had vibrated loose, not enough to be bleedingly obvious but enough to weep copious amounts of fuel. DOH!

Time to wash car for the Bay Street Roadshow that evening

Invite



Once again we had a police escort to the centre of Nassau where we parked up for a street party











We parked ourselves on the balcony of a Greek restaurant along with most of the marshals, who could always sniff out good beer and in 27 degrees you needed to keep dehydrated



The girls were out in force ;D



The girl third from the right only wears 1" heels so she's nearly the same height as the other girls wearing 5" heels. She's nearly 7 foot tall

An early night was agreed as tomorrow was the hillclimb. YAY!

[Frankenhealey]

Saturday - The Fort Charlotte Hillclimb

After a refreshing night of worrying if I'd cured the fuel problems I got up late and had to grab the first bus that came along to get to the paddock. What was not immediately apparent was that the 10a had a completely different route to the usual number 10. By now I was seriously late for the driver's mandatory briefing so I jumped off the bus and ran about half a mile to the paddock. On the way I saw a large group walking the hill route so I ran after them only to find it was the karters. Curse word! I then ran the rest of the distance to the paddock only to find they had just started. Managed to hear the briefing over my heart racing, got fuel vouchers to top up with 96 RON to replace the local 'fuel' I had to use on Thursday and then all sweaty and stressed out I wriggled into my firesuit for the day. Two noteworthy points are that a three layer Nomex suit can help you sweat off 4 pounds in a day even if trying to keep hydrated and the humongous spoiler on the back of the Viper SRT10 is very useful for changing behind and not letting the locals see me in my pants. ;D

Not a lot of photos today as I was in the car and the rest of team Frankenhealey were trying to blag themselves into the VIP area.

I'd been put in Batch 7 for the hillclimb and our times for the day would count for our grid position on Sunday for the sprints so it was vital to come out top in the group. The group consisted of me, Pablo de Souza in an Excalibur Cobra Rep, Jason Lorandos in a TVR wedge and Peter Vlasov (remember the name) in an Austin Healey 3000 BJ8 with the wild card being Jodie Lowe in his E-type.

First run



What was obvious was that the tyre recommendations from the guys who had been on the Valletta Grand Prix in similar conditions last year were paying off. Normally I'd be running my Toyo 888R SG's but the advice was to go with decent road tyres and reduce the pressures to cope with both the bad surfaces and the chance of tropical showers. The bad news was that I arrived in the top paddock with 130 degree water temperatures and fuel problems. The car didn't want to restart for the trip down so it was back under the bonnet again

Second run



What I'd learned back in the paddock was that I'd got no fuel leaks but the fuel was boiling due to the under bonnet temperatures. I quick grovel to the Clerk and I was allowed to dispense with my bonnet. On the second run she didn't go over 90 degrees and now I'm back home I need a new engine bay cooling plan. Back to the day you will hear the commentators discuss the lack of bonnet and one say that I should be quicker and he was right; I picked up 4 seconds that run 8 ;D. I had two more runs and improved by another second putting me level with Derek Bell, the C-type and most of the high end classics. Where we got rogered was anything modern, running loads of 3-letter acronyms and reduced driver involvement. The modern Camaro beat us by three seconds and the Viper SRT10 by seven seconds

Never mind tomorrow it was race day and my efforts had put me on pole in batch 7 8 -)

[waveman1500]

Legendary stuff, as always with this car!

It's difficult to judge on video, how fast were you going in the hillclimb? It looks like 3rd gear and sort of medium revs, so maybe about 80mph?

[Frankenhealey]

Taking a peek at the video it was between 70 and 80mph on the quick bit. The Healey is so narrow that I found on later runs that I could just take the chicanes straight and flat out. The Viper, Cobra reps and the Camaro weren't so lucky and cones were clipped. The Viper took out one chicane completely but no penalties were applied

Mind you on the fourth run I was trying to take the finish flat out and ended up going through the braking zone sideways ;D

Should have the final part up tomorrow