Imagine my surprise when I woke up at 8-30. Oh no, I've slept in. Well it was a late night entertaining our visitors and a lot of beer, champagne, port, beef stroganoff and chocolate coated ice-cream had been consumed the night before. We didn't hit the horizontal position until well after midnight. Anyhow it didn't matter that much as the car had been packed as usual with 4 cars and everything required to run them the afternoon before.

I even remembered to put my wide brimmed hat in to try and protect and slow down the gradual deterioration of my facial skin.  It's an irreversible condition, helped by years of surfing, sailing and just being an Australian. As kids we would try and see who could get sun burnt the most. Looking back it was a competition of self destruction. Dad would rub butter onto the burnt parts. (well he didn't know any better, he thought he was helping), Sometimes methylated spirits was gently rubbed onto the red burning meet that formed the outside coating of my body. We just didn't know any better back then. Melanoma was virtually unheard of. Now I'm paying the price. I even remember as a kid out in the hot Australian country districts of Tamworth and Werris Creek, we had competitions to see who could stand on the blue metal covered tar road out the front of our house the longest before giving in and jumping into a bucket of 'cold' water. Last man standing on the 'hot-plate' won. What stupidity, but we were kids.

Today, Mother Nature presented the world with an overcast morning, you know the ones that are conducive to sleeping. As I made the first cup of coffee yawning many times during the process I contemplated the day ahead. A quick breakfast, and to win a bet made the night before, I ate the left over ice cream before the toast. (maybe we never grow up). And then I was on my way to the park. We have had a lot of rain and the country-side is glowing in it's greenness. Brown cows were eating the grass as I stole a quick glance across a paddock, listening to The Trogs, The Easy-beats, The BeeGees and Elvis.

At the Park everything was as normal. A reasonably large turn up of tethered car enthusiasts were already there. Kelsey Farmer, Allan Barnes and Doug Sinclair were the first ones to say hello. As I unloaded the gear from the car Tony Peacock and Mark Osborne also said hello. Ric Munro was already well established as was Glenn Bransby in the company of Craig Tulloch who didn't run a car this day. It was about 25 C and still very overcast when the first couple of cars ran. A Class cars always attract an immediate response from the paying public and in no time we had a large group of onlookers.

I was still setting up when Karl put a very old engine in front of me. It was the fifth one of seven he made during his early days at the Ashfield track. A 10cc engine with Zimmerman disc valve, drum valve through the crank and reed valve induction. Note the brass thread inserts for the cylinder head bolts. Karl was well ahead of his time as the McCulloch Corporation didn't start running piston port inlet combined with reed valve induction until many years later, before the Italian disc valved engines took over and totally dominated the sport of Kart Racing.

Karl melted down McCulloch chain saw pistons for the metal.		K.A.S 10	Casting is about 25mm high.

The second engine was based on a McCoy design and he started building these in 1961. Then he produced another casting, and another and another. Beautiful workmanship from a man doing his castings in his own back yard. The 10cc with the letters K.A.S. standing for 'Karl Andrew Sepetauc', was totally his own design but with a few other makes mixed in. The front and end covers are also clearly seen. Investment castings were used for the 10cc home made engines as lost wax process gives much greater accuracy than sand casting.  He then produced a tiny 1.5cc engine block that he had cast by the lost wax method. Note, before you can make a wax pattern you have to have something to cast the wax into. The toolmaking for all of the above castings is truly incredible for a man in his home workshop.

So my cars didn't go that well today. The rebuild of the Aussie Built which consisted of virtually remaking the engine completely, well, that's an exaggeration, it was only the crankshaft, piston, connecting rod, main bearing support cover and the new reed valve cover and reed valve that had to be made since the earlier blow-up 2 weeks before that had to be remade. It was difficult to start and when it got running it was far too rich. When it ran a bit leaner it showed more promise but I feel a thinner valve might prove better. It's 0.006" at the moment in spring steel that will be easy enough to surface grind to 0.004" to try again.

The Nova Rossi, the leader of Scuderia Mansell, tossed its back axle circlip and was driving through the crown wheel via a friction drive from the flywheel. The rear screw holding the body on came out and the body, under centrifugal force moved outwards toward the safety fence. This prevented the fuel shut-off valve from actuating. A most embarrassing moment for the writer given his latest protestations with regard to proposed shut-off valve lever height rule modifications.

Rain interrupted play prematurely before the lunch break so we adjourned to the club house for more coffee, sandwiches, buns, cakes and a good dose of man sized bull shit over the table. Everyone seemed to be looking at what Terry had provided me for lunch. 2 cream rolls, a peach and a great big bun filled with salad, meat and large doses of love and kindness. We resumed activities after a bit of blow-drying of the track by Mark Osborne. That's when I ran the old 87M, 3.5cc Thunder Tiger car. It did 154.5 and although not up there I was pleased with the result. It was still very humid and everyone's times were under par. It's interesting that even though the Nova Rossi only did 162 it was done with friction drive as mentioned above.

I discovered why the Nova Rossi was not going so well. Its amazing after the smoke settles and everything cools down how much damage can actually be observed. It was a broken b****y axle. New one will be in 4140. It's only 8mm diameter, poor thing.

Mark Mansell is a member of the Sydney Society of Model Engineers down under. He has written a series of articles for the Australian Model Engineering magazine detailing his design and making of tethered cars. The above picture is of his Bantam Midget.

Plans can be obtained from the Retro Racing club in the UK or direct from Mark.  email: mmansell@bigpond.net.au

The Australian tether car association encourages newcomers by having an Aussie only built class and a 'M' class which has rules as follows:

'M Class is an Australian class that was developed to attract new members with a limited budget. The design rules are simple, it is restricted to a 3.5cc displacement engine. There is no suspension allowed, no tuned exhaust pipes (also known as expansion chambers), the wheels must be outside the body and the mass of the car, ready to race, cannot exceed 2,000gms. Apart from that, go your hardest!'                            

Australian tether car assoc is www.trcaa.org  

So if your planning a holiday down under why not give them a visit.

©copyrightMarkMansell2008