ALON VELLA
ALON Vella’s mental aspo Capri once again proved untouchable, taking out his
third successive Pacemaker Radial Aspirated win. Al also placed an impressive
eighth overall, yet it was no walk in the park. “It’s good to win three years in a
row, but we worked hard and had a lot of issues,” he says.
Now to get your noggin around what goes into an eight-second aspo 450ci
donk, have a gander at Mill Of The Month in last month’s issue. “It’s pretty much
the same combo as last year, built by Damian and Mick at BG Engines,” Al
explains. “We’ve been teamed up for three years now. This time I ran the twin
Dominator 1150s, upped to a 7200rpm SDE stally behind the C4 and dropped
the nine-inch diff gears from 4.33s to 4.11s.”
For better driveability, Damian turned down the donk’s 960hp.
“We were determined to win,” Al says, “but we were up against it. The converter
had shit itself in testing, which meant we couldn’t test again before Drag
Challenge. So the car was well off the consistent 8.70s we’d been running all
year. The plan was to knock it out of the park on the very first pass; instead we
ended up doing six passes with the car still not running right.”
After two days of nine-second passes, Al finally cracked the eights at Swan
Hill, running his DC17 PB of 8.95@150mph.
Then on the way to Portland, rain hit. “We lost the left wiper first, then the right
one,” Alon says. “So, it was Rain-X on the outside with anti-fog on the inside,
and only one headlight was working. In amongst that we did the Ararat lookout,
with the trailer on. Climbed up there with the 7200rpm converter, no problems.”
Yet bigger issues were to come. Al sighs: “300km out of Adelaide we broke a
rocker on the exhaust valve, so we replaced that with a spare, larger-ratio rocker.
Then 130km out we did a lifter and were there until 2am fixing it. The camshaft
also did a lobe, so we sat on 40km/h the rest of the way. But that’s life, eh? It’s
what the challenge is all about.
“We’d hoped to turn it up on the last day if the engine had survived, but it didn’t,”
he continues. “On Friday I got out there as quick as I could to run just one pass,
then I was done. What a relief! We were very, very lucky to finish.”
What an incredibly impressive feat to limp the Capri into Day Five and still take
out top spot in the Pacemaker Radial Aspirated class! And it’s not dampened
Al’s spirit one bit. “I’ll be back, 100 per cent,” he says. “It was a really good event,
as usual. I have a few plans to change it up next year but I won’t let it out of the
bag too early. Our plan is to run 8.50s, so maybe 8.80s on Drag Challenge.
“I have to thank Stephen Micallef from Shift Right for the ’box and being part
of team – without him I couldn’t do it; Damian from BG Engines; Ray Edwards
for the carbs; Justin from ProWire Performance Wiring; John from SRC; Michael
from ICE Ignition, my brother-in-law John Maric and nephew Jake; Adam Hodge
for picking up the converter; and my wife Linda for putting up with me.”
WINNER – PACEMAKER
RADIAL ASPIRATED1971 FORD CAPRI
Class: Pacemaker Radial AspiratedSPECS
Engine: 450ci Windsor
Induction: 2 x 1150 Dominator carbs
Transmission: C4, Gear
Vendors overdrive
Converter: SDE 7200rpm
Diff: 4.11:1
Power: 960hpPrevious PB: 8.73@155mph
Best Drag Challenge Pass:
8.95@150mphALON Vella’s mental aspo Capri once again proved untouchable, taking out his
third successive Pacemaker Radial Aspirated win. Al also placed an impressive
eighth overall, yet it was no walk in the park. “It’s good to win three years in a
row, but we worked hard and had a lot of issues,” he says.
Now to get your noggin around what goes into an eight-second aspo 450ci
donk, have a gander at Mill Of The Month in last month’s issue. “It’s pretty much
the same combo as last year, built by Damian and Mick at BG Engines,” Al
explains. “We’ve been teamed up for three years now. This time I ran the twin
Dominator 1150s, upped to a 7200rpm SDE stally behind the C4 and dropped
the nine-inch diff gears from 4.33s to 4.11s.”
For better driveability, Damian turned down the donk’s 960hp.
“We were determined to win,” Al says, “but we were up against it. The converter
had shit itself in testing, which meant we couldn’t test again before Drag
Challenge. So the car was well off the consistent 8.70s we’d been running all
year. The plan was to knock it out of the park on the very first pass; instead we
ended up doing six passes with the car still not running right.”
After two days of nine-second passes, Al finally cracked the eights at Swan
Hill, running his DC17 PB of 8.95@150mph.
Then on the way to Portland, rain hit. “We lost the left wiper first, then the right
one,” Alon says. “So, it was Rain-X on the outside with anti-fog on the inside,
and only one headlight was working. In amongst that we did the Ararat lookout,
with the trailer on. Climbed up there with the 7200rpm converter, no problems.”
Yet bigger issues were to come. Al sighs: “300km out of Adelaide we broke a
rocker on the exhaust valve, so we replaced that with a spare, larger-ratio rocker.
Then 130km out we did a lifter and were there until 2am fixing it. The camshaft
also did a lobe, so we sat on 40km/h the rest of the way. But that’s life, eh? It’s
what the challenge is all about.
“We’d hoped to turn it up on the last day if the engine had survived, but it didn’t,”
he continues. “On Friday I got out there as quick as I could to run just one pass,
then I was done. What a relief! We were very, very lucky to finish.”
What an incredibly impressive feat to limp the Capri into Day Five and still take
out top spot in the Pacemaker Radial Aspirated class! And it’s not dampened
Al’s spirit one bit. “I’ll be back, 100 per cent,” he says. “It was a really good event,
as usual. I have a few plans to change it up next year but I won’t let it out of the
bag too early. Our plan is to run 8.50s, so maybe 8.80s on Drag Challenge.
“I have to thank Stephen Micallef from Shift Right for the ’box and being part
of team – without him I couldn’t do it; Damian from BG Engines; Ray Edwards
for the carbs; Justin from ProWire Performance Wiring; John from SRC; Michael
from ICE Ignition, my brother-in-law John Maric and nephew Jake; Adam Hodge
for picking up the converter; and my wife Linda for putting up with me.”
WINNER – PACEMAKER
RADIAL ASPIRATED1971 FORD CAPRI
Class: Pacemaker Radial AspiratedSPECS
Engine:450ci Windsor
Induction: 2 x 1150 Dominator carbs
Transmission: C4, Gear
Vendors overdrive
Converter:SDE 7200rpm
Diff: 4.11: 1
Power: 960hpPrevious PB: 8 .7 3 @155mph
Best Drag Challenge Pass:
8. 9 5@15 0 mph