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MotorTranscript
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.