30 November 2011

Just a small update a few things added/changed that you probably wont notice, also a few more pictures have been added to the gallery.

20 November 2011

Orange Pop will be appearing in the upcoming edition of Drag Racing Confidential, Edition 13! You'll be able to read it all here.

Find out How and Why the Orange Pop came about, and an insight into the team and team members, see what makes us tick and what keeps us going! It'll also contain details about the new Orange Pop build. Dont worry, we'll keep you updated when its out, it should be a great read!

19 November 2011

Welcome to the new Orange Pop Racing team's website, the reason for the recent transformation of the website is so that our fans are able to track our successes... and failures.

Simon Barlow was born and bred in the wonderful City of Derby and has always enjoyed being a 'petrol head'. One day in early 2000, a friend took him to Shakespeare County Raceway and there Simon saw for the first time, the Outlaw Anglias racing and he was hooked on the spot. What attracted him was that the category appeared to be 'affordable' and was close enough to be 'nearly street' for ordinary folks like him to have a car and to get involved.

Simon's first task was to look for a mid-fifties Ford Popular and after a little initial frustration, he discovered one that was 'just the job' in the Midlands Auto Trader. It was in good nick and was powered by a venerable Rover V8 engine, and was painted a vivid Orange Colour - thus "Orange Pop". Simon snapped it up and instantly took it down to Shakespeare County Raceway and had his first few runs. Well, that did the trick and he then fell for the line "How do I make it go faster?" - an expensive thought at the best of times! Over the next couple of seasons, Simon decided to take the plunge and have the chassis sorted by John Webster Race Engineering, so that the car could take any amount of horsepower and safely get it onto the track.

 

That done, the next thing was to re-do the motor and transmission in the go-factor department. Simon had already built a working relationship up with the legendary Andy Frost of Penn Autos in Wolverhampton - an outstanding motor engineer and master of the automatic transmission. Andy fixed up Simon with a racing 350 Small Block Chevrolet V8 engine and turbo 400 transmission. He was soon wizzing down the quarter mile producing safe and regular 10 second runs - not bad for a '54 Ford Pop!

After racing through the 05 thru 08 seasons in this trim, Simon decided that the those 10 second times were now ready to come down to 9 seconds or preferably quicker. There was no way that the existing motor setup (now equipped with nitrous) could do the job and in a moment of rashness, Simon ordered a crate racing motor from the New York Chevy guru, Scott Shaffiroff and the crate arrived at East Midlands Airport within a couple of weeks. Simon eagerly rushed the motor to his workshop in Alvaston where willing helpers thrust the motor under Orange Pop's hood. At this point, Simon realised that the transmission department needed to be stepped up and he prized out of Andy Frost one of his precious 2 speed PowerGlide transmissions all equipped with a Neil Chance Torque Convertor. Now Simon was really in business.

9 second runs were instantly the order of the day and the rest of the Outlaw Anglia racers, noted with worry, that Simon was moving up the Anglia food chain and was becoming a regular in final round appearances. Mid-way through the '10 season, nitrous oxide injection was added and Simon finally dipped into the 8 second zone - a barrier which will be bettered with more tuning and development.

Whatever next? An Orange Pop Pro-Mod? Just kidding! ......or are we....?