Good things finally come to and end with better things to come.

This weekend was supposed to be Grudge kings and we had RIPSS set on kill.

Pre-Grudge kings Dion went meticulously over the car to ensure that it was ready for another weekend of racing for Maria. The Team was ready and as they left and a fair way down the road on Thursday, they announced it was cancelled. They kept going as there was a chance of private testing event if the weather was to clear up.Ready on Saturday and went to make a hit. Maria hit the burnout box with a nice 10,000rpm burnout and water was spewing out from the car. Abort the hit Turned out the brass fitting popped out of the thermostat housing. Quickly we tapped a thread and blocked off with a bolt and ready to go again.

Maria went to start the car and we heard a clunk. Something was not right. A quick removal of the top section of the timing cover revealed that the exhaust cam dowel had broken near the Vernier gears. This has then had a catastrophic effect by bending all the exhaust valves. A few calls were made to Melbourne to source a head from the workshop, and with the help of many good people it arrived safely in Sydney. It was installed and they had the car running just before the day closed.

Sunday morning, we were ready again. Many setbacks so far but finally ready to make a pass. First pass and the car took off and overpowered the track and spun the wheels around the 300ft mark and Maria got out of it and cruised to the end of the track. Second pass and the car launched and took off and seemed like it was on kill. However small peddle and seemed like the car was moving around somewhat. Was an oil down and Maria pulled to the right of the track, but the car was running fine.

Confused by all of this Dion and the crew went looking for a turbo line or something to have come off. They started the car only to see a stream of oil come from the side of the block.

People often ask how strong a Barra block is and how much they power can they handle. RIPSS only had a 16mm girdle.With around 30 plus passes at 2000+ horsepower at the crank and 60psi, these blocks have their limits. Even though there is a crack right down the side the engine, it still runs. I think we found the limit of the Barra

engine block.