Thanks for the wishes guys, And yes Deano there is a car shot or two. The guys nearly shot their loads when they saw the cars. It was quite funny. So they got some footage of me under the bonnet with a spanner doing F*&^ knows what. I know I'll laugh when I see it.
Mark

Hi All,
Been following the forum on and off over the past couple of months. Good to see the banter continuing.
 
Slowly working on the track car, doing only light tasks so the cardio rehab nurse doesn't wet herself.
Recovery has been slow but positive. Occasional bouts of double vision (would be cool if I was smoking something) and short of breath but apparently common with heart valve surgery.
 
For your info ABC 7:30 show aired the interview on Thursday 7th April. You can catch it on ABC iview.
The RS makes an appearance. Though don't ask me what I was doing under the bonnet!
Unfortunately we are on toward the end of the show (had to make way for Palmer, the sanctimonious turd)
 
On another note the RS was in with my auto electrician whilst I was laid up. The wiring (partly mine) was a bit of a mess and I figured, give it to him to finally finish the thing. Well when I drove it home wasn't I pleasantly surprised. Once warmed up I gave it a boot-full, and holly crap it went an' just kept on 'wenting'.
Before this, it kind of revved out when coming onto boost and forward propulsion ceased though revs didn't. I had always figured it was an actuator issue or the like? Phil Armour who is the Motec guru did the dyno tune and never noticed this?????
Anyway, my elec reckons it was probably a voltage drop somewhere, as some of the sensors run on fairly low voltage and there must have been a loss somewhere. Don't really care at the end of the day I'm just plain
 
The AP gear and the 5 stud alloy hubs that were long awaited finally arrived. Yet to fit up as the whole package is still 'heavy'.
Been working on the fuel system, and fabricating small ancillary bits. And yes Marty that bead roller is a gem!
 
Will look at posting a pic or two soon.
Mark

Well progress has been slow as I keep getting sidetracked. We made a planned trip to Echuca for the Southern 80. Been on my bucket list since my skiing days on the Hawkesbury river. Given my recent health hiccup I am not putting anything off.

Long story short I am restoring (yes another project) a previous race winner (1976) and seeing what the scene is like since I gave it away many moons ago. These turbo and blown big blocks (many Mercruisers) are absolutely phenomenal. No more V drives, they all run sterndrive legs.
My boat (last pic, as it was before resto) is a long lost Flightcraft Concorde SS. A pure race blueprinted hull, and again another Australian made boat which is no longer. Sound familiar?

I know this is a ford forum so I won’t persist in this vein
I will start a new thread on the track escort build once I get back (promise)
Mark

Hi Deano.
Well back in NSW and I've got to say I reckon Vic is a more progressive state. Just putting it out there
Your analogy is on the money, however Harada is definitely staying V drive!
Yep the unlimited guys doing around 180km/h is pretty wild to see. Especially as we used to ski or barefoot at less than half of that.
As for the skiing, a knee reconstruction many moons ago did not affect my skiing 1st time up but that was it for the rest of the day on the water, so I'm afraid that aside from a social ski I'll be pushin' the metal.
Mark