HOT ROD Drag Week: The British Invasion! - HOT ROD Unlimited Episode 20 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

Watch HOT ROD Drag Week: The British Invasion! - HOT ROD Unlimited Episode 20 - MotorTrend on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00 I saw drag week as you're driving from there to there,

00:03 not really realising how big America is.

00:06 So there we are in a foreign country.

00:09 To be honest, I didn't even know what state I was in,

00:12 where I was, which direction.

00:14 We got no GPS.

00:16 I got a friend just outside LA.

00:17 That was the only person I knew in America.

00:20 And I'd got the parts in my van, me and Deb.

00:23 That was it.

00:24 (soft music)

00:26 Imagine coming from another continent

00:32 to run Hot Rod Drag Week,

00:34 where we run five different drag races in five days

00:37 and drive 1400 miles along the way.

00:39 This is someone who put an incredible amount of effort

00:45 to actually be here.

00:46 This is someone who really gets what we do.

00:49 Someone who has heroes here that he was dying to meet

00:54 and who had him cracking up the whole time,

00:56 despite the fact that no one can understand

00:59 a word he's saying.

01:00 So let's bring up all the way from England,

01:05 Wacky Mick Wilkes.

01:07 (crowd cheering)

01:10 - My full name is Mick Wilkes.

01:12 I'm from England.

01:13 Smack bang in the middle called the West Midlands.

01:16 I decided a few years ago to try and enter Hot Rod Drag Week.

01:20 (car engine roaring)

01:24 My vehicle is a 1978 Vauxhall Viva Van

01:29 or Bedford Viva Van.

01:31 Vauxhall is the UK name of General Motors.

01:35 The vans were originally designed in '65, '66.

01:40 Mainly we used by government for post office, railways,

01:44 army, things like that.

01:46 But also public people had them as well.

01:49 The engine and transmission was a Vauxhall Viva.

01:52 The engine and transmission that I've now transplanted

01:54 into the van, it's the predecessor

01:56 to the two liter Eco Tech that you run in your GM cars

02:00 out rear in the US in like the Cobalt and cars like that.

02:05 Originally the engine was a front wheel drive engine

02:07 and we've swung it round to drive the rear wheels,

02:10 which then transfers through a custom built T5 transmission

02:14 and then through into a narrowed Ford nine inch rear end

02:18 through to some little 13 inch wheels and tires.

02:22 I run a precision turbo, it's a 62/62

02:26 and at the moment we're running about 28 PSI.

02:30 Last time it was dynoed, it was dynoed at about 435

02:35 at the wheels without the nitrous

02:37 and then with a 50 hit of nitrous

02:39 it was making just shy of 500 at the wheels.

02:42 (car engine roaring)

02:45 (car engine roaring)

02:48 My car to be honest has surprised me

03:02 'cause originally when we were coming out

03:04 the boat got called a week early.

03:06 So we lost a week of prep work on the car.

03:10 We shipped the van into Galveston in Texas.

03:12 We then drove 600 miles up to Oklahoma to Tulsa

03:16 for the first round of drag racing.

03:18 - On the very first day I saw Mick there with his van

03:20 and hung out and talked to him for a while

03:22 and I don't know, it's a four cylinder with a turbo.

03:25 It's a freak show, I didn't really know what it was

03:27 but it's just so cool.

03:29 He built it with his own two hands, a lot of ingenuity.

03:31 - I was expecting it to break down every 10 feet,

03:35 literally.

03:36 The suspension works to put the tires

03:38 into the ground very hard,

03:39 which then caused me massive tire shake

03:41 on my first proper pass, which broke the turbo.

03:43 - You know, Mick got some help himself on the road.

03:54 Jeff Lutz welded his turbo housing.

03:57 - But after that now I topped it up with oil

04:00 'cause it does use a bit of oil

04:01 'cause of the clearances on pistons

04:03 and basically I put fuel in it

04:05 and I think for the full 1400 mile,

04:08 I did nothing else except fix American cars

04:11 for the people.

04:12 - Drag Week veterans know about the spirit

04:16 of Drag Week Award and many of them will walk up to us

04:19 and give suggestions throughout the week

04:21 and constantly in 2012, everybody was coming up

04:24 and saying, "Dude, you gotta go check out

04:27 "the Spinal Tap guy, you gotta go look at the Englishman,

04:29 "you gotta go look at that dude with the little van.

04:31 "He's helping everyone, the guy is hilarious

04:34 "and he really just is doing Drag Week the right way."

04:38 - I see a racer at the track broke, I try and help.

04:40 It's just, that's me, that's what I do.

04:43 Somebody's broke down at the side of the road,

04:45 half the time I'll stop at a garage or whatever,

04:47 I'll try and help 'em.

04:48 It's nothing I don't do out of the ordinary.

04:50 - Yeah, Drag Week was waiting at the side of the road

04:54 for Mick 'cause he was helping everybody.

04:57 He was tiring, I took some photographs of him talking,

05:00 just them all standing there talking

05:02 and looking at engines as usual.

05:04 But yeah, he was sitting in the car

05:07 with no air con as well.

05:09 - I didn't realize how long I would be driving

05:11 without a break and just the lack of sleep.

05:15 You know, it's to a point where it's crazy dangerous,

05:19 but it's so much fun.

05:20 - So with all that input we got from all of these people

05:23 and all the times we saw him helping people

05:25 at the side of the road and in the pits, it was unanimous.

05:29 Wacky was the Spirit of Drag Week guy for 2012.

05:32 - When they actually said I'd won Spirit of Drag Week,

05:35 you know, I just, I thought they were joking at first.

05:38 I think even before I'd even got to the stage,

05:40 the tears were running down my face,

05:41 you know, I just couldn't believe.

05:43 - Spirit of Drag Week means the world to him,

05:46 I should think.

05:47 Yeah, he's really proud.

05:48 He's probably up there somewhere

05:52 and he'll probably flout down back

05:54 when he gets back to England.

05:56 (upbeat music)

05:58 (sirens blaring)

06:01 - After they had landed and driven 600 miles to Drag Week,

06:09 then driven 1,400 miles at Drag Week,

06:11 they packed up that little van

06:13 and hit the road for Route 66,

06:16 all the way to the finish.

06:17 (upbeat music)

06:21 (sirens blaring)

06:23 - I've made so many friends

06:32 and so many people have made me feel welcome.

06:34 You know, that's why I put the little thing

06:35 on the bottom of the van.

06:36 I just can't thank all of you enough

06:38 and I'm just absolutely blown away.

06:41 This is like the bestest thing I've ever done.

06:43 Like Deb said, and I've said to a lot of people,

06:45 it's the worst thing we've ever done,

06:47 but I'll guarantee it's the best thing we've ever done.

06:49 (audience applauding)

06:52 Thank you.

06:54 Good job, good job.

HOT ROD Drag Week: The British Invasion! - HOT ROD Unlimited Episode 20

Category

Transcript

Recommended