WASTED STAR CAR INTERVIEW
33 The LEGEND'S BUICK AEROBUS ESTATE WAGON
If it wasn't car of the year from 2003 then it was certainly the biggest as 33 Simon Reed left the crowd almost speechless at the annual Ipswich Gala Night session with his simply epic 27ft long Buick Aerobus Estate Wagon which he used in superb style not only getting the massive beast around the raceway in impressive fashion but gettin well stuck in to the opposition before it was finished in fine fashion. Not bad for a car which nearly got away from him.
The prize for the years biggest car to grace a banger track goes to 33 Simon Reed and his simply epic Buick Aerobus Estate Wagon that wowed the gigantic crowd at the Gala night bash at Ipswich on November 8th.
The car was quite similar to the monsterous Pontiac which 591 Simon Ballard raced at Blockbuster a couple of years back although it was safe to say that Simons example was not quite so rotten.
But in a strange turn of events it looked at first as though the car would get away from simon when someone else outbid him for the machine at a large auction in Hull.
The 41 year old Wisbech racer explained "There were around 250 cars in this auction. They belonged to a farmer who collected cars and made models of them.
"He had died and so the cars were all for sale. I had my eye on the Buick but it was sold for �650 and i was only willing to pay �400 for it".
It wasn't until Simon returned to pick up some other cars he bought (a mk10 Jaguar, Austin 3 litre, Cortina and an XJ) that he also came into possession of the Aerobus in an amazing story of perfect timing.
"While I was loading my cars up the guy who had bought the Buick was picking it up". "The thing was he only had a car and trailer and he had winched it all the way up to the back of his tow car and the rear wheels of the yank were not even close to being on the trailer". "It was obvious he hadn't really thought the whole thing out very well and there was no way he was going to get the car home so in the end he sold it to me along with an XJ he had bought for �600".
But getting the car back to Wisbech was even hard work for Simon. The Buick was an incredible 27ft in legnth and his lorry was only 23ft long so the back end of the beast still hung over the end but he made it back ok.
To make his collection trip to hull even sweeter some cheeky antics also saw Simon pick up two Cadillac Fleetwood hearses he had been outbid on.
He said "On these two hearses someone had written in the dirt that if the owner wanted to sell them they should call him, so i rubbed his number out and put mine there instead as a joke. A couple of days later the guy rung me and asked if i still wanted them and i bought them aswell".
Getting back to the Buick Simon told WASTED that the paperwork which came with the car revealed that the previous owner had forked out �650 on import duty to have the car brought across the Atlantic from New York.
It was back in May when he bought the huge machine and he quickly singled out the Gala night bash at Ipswich as its final destination.
He said "Quite a few people said i should have taken it to the firecraker but i felt if i raced it there i would get a bit lost with all the other cars and it would have a better effect at Ipswich.
"I used to do that meeting when i raced before and i always enjoyed it because it was packed and there was a great atmosphere. Also because Ipswich is so big i thought i would have a better chance of getting the thing around".
So began the process of building the Buick but Simon said because the car was in such good condition it wasn't too dissimilar to building any other banger exept it took longer because it was that much bigger.
He decided to leave the original engine in place, an 8.1 litre lump no less. "When we got it back to the yard it fired up straight away so we left it in place and i think it was a good decision. The only problem was that it drank so much petrol. I spent �32 on petrol during the meeting!"
Onto the meeting and as expected the car attacted an incredable reaction from those in the pits.
"As we drove into the raceway you could almost see people's jaws fall open and swear to themselves about the car and how big it was".
"We had a couple of things to do on the car when we unloaded including changing the exhaust but because there were so many people around it we just had to leave it and do it later".
Once on track the car performed much better than many, including Simon expected. He said "I didn't expect it to be as fast as it was and i could not believe how well iy handled. It was brilliant to drive".
"I stayed close to the armco so if anyone tried to spin me i would have a chance of getting out of it and i had some good hits with it, but i tried to be sensible with it. The last thing i wanted to do was show off and wind up hurting someone so i didnt go in as hard as i could have but it still did alot of damage".
One of the highlights of the evening for Simon was when he was lining up for a race and he could hear a noise which he mistook for something for something vibrating on the car. In fact it was a number of small children cheering him.
In true Simon Reed style he waved back "One thing i can't stand is when you see kids cheering and the drivers don't respond to them. It doesn't take a lot and i hope it makes them enjoy the meeting even more".
"When i was stationary everyone had a go at it. I was like a dying zebra being attacked by vultures but the Buick took the punishment quite well".
"The biggest problem was that when it was dead Spedeworth didn't really have the pick up vechiles to move it so they had to leave it up against the fence during the Rookie Banger final and the DD. But Roy Eaton did ask me if it was ok and i appreciated that because another promoter might have just left it there and it was quite funny seeing the odd rookie bounce of it".
Simon extended his thanks to Mick Gedney, Noddy and Jobie for their help in collecting and preparing the car and he also added that we would be seeing him on the track for a while yet.
"When i packed it in it was because i was doing too much racing every week and i just got sick of it".
"I am really enjoying being back, picking my meeting and trying to race special cars. At the moment i not only enjoy racing but also preparing the cars so i think i will definatly be around for a while yet".
THANKS TO WASTED MAGAZINE FOR LETTING ME USE THIS INTERVIEW
Thanks to WASTED magazine for letting me use the article on the site !