Street Rodder News Issue No. 11 - October 1997
Street Rodder News Issue No. 11 - October 1997
In 1994 we purchased our Tudor. It was powered by a 350 Chev, Powerglide & Centura diff. We decided to have a break from our transport business, and we arranged to go to the 1997 Nationals. Before going, we decided to do some modifications to the Tudor.
The engine was upgraded with Endilee injection to produce around 450 hp. The glide and torque converter also had some treatment, and an 8 3/4 diff fitted. (Also a billet steering column was installed.)
Dianne flew to Sydney, which left me to drive over by myself. As it was time to leave and the Tudor wasn't quite finished, it meant there wasn't time to stop for motels.
I had a few trying times on the way over. To begin with, the engine wasn't tuned, and was only getting 2 kms to the litre (my Kenworth truck does better). Everything was going smoothly, until at Woodna, S.A., a coilover shock broke at 2:00 am (it was cold too). I started to jack it up. Halfway up, my jack retired, so that was it. I thought I'd go to bed, and check it out in the daylight. I couldn't sleep, it was too uncomfortable, plus the fuel tank had developed a leak, and the fumes were making me feel nauseated. Luckily a lady came along about 1 hour later, and stopped. She was delivering a camper van back to Adelaide. I used the headlights of her vehicle and her jack to have a look at the damaged shocker. I could see that when it had pulled out, it had come down and cut the brake line in half...Great!
Now the hand brake wasn't flash, so I thought the best thing to do was unload the Tudor into the campervan and head off to Port Augusta, as it was a big town, and a good place to get parts. So, with one side of the body sitting on the diff, and no brakes whatsoever, we headed off to travel about 250 kms. When I was driving through Port Augusta, a car pulled in front of me, which left me with two options, either hit it, or ark it up in the 'R' gear. I took the latter, turned some heads too! After loosing 3/4 of a day, I headed off through S.A. I arrived at a road block, and decided to have a sit down meal, and a walk through the 'rain room'. I stayed a couple of hours, yacking as most truck drivers do, then headed off, but didn't get off the driveway, as the shifter jammed (then there was another hour fixing that).
All the truck drivers said the roos were everywhere between Mildura and Hay, so I decided to get a motel in Mildura at about midnight, as I hadn't been to bed for two days. No such luck. It was all booked out. I wasn't feeling real flash, (I was actually coughing up blood from the fumes), so I decided to tune the computer, to see if I could get it to run better. You guessed it. I ended up losing the whole programme, which meant the car didn't go at all now. So, out with the computer manual. I finally managed to get a programme into it, but in doing so, boiled the radiator, and blew the top radiator neck off. So, that was it. Sleep in the car until morning. After pulling the radiator out and repairing it, I finally got going. I was 12 hours out of Sydney, it was 12 O'Clock Wednesday, and I was expected at Ian Sutherland's place in Sydney that night. So, into it. Luck was with me as there were no more dramas.
I was lucky to have old friends like Ian & Grace Sutherland in Sydney where Ian is a local drag racer. We worked together in the North West of WA back in the early '70's. Ian played with the engine during every day of the Nationals, but we still couldn't get it to run right. We ended up taking the injection off, and put a carburettor and manifold on to get me back to Perth. It was great to be part of the 1997 Nationals. I would like to thank Ian & Grace Sutherland from S & M Blown World, and his band of contacts who tried to help me. THANKS.
Eddie Roberts.
