It is the last scheduled event for the Nostalgia Funny Cars, the National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway. Two cars were entered for the event in the shape of the 2 British nitro cars: Tim Garlick in Apache and Wendy Baker in Time Warp.

With the sad events surrounding the Saturday with the crash of Graham Ellis in the Pro Mod, the cars were limited to one run. Both teams elected to run these as bye runs and to get a time on the board. First away was Apache, a nice straight run and off the loud peddle at about the 330' mark, clocking an 8.47 at 103.03mph, the team getting some great data to tune the car further.

Next around the corner was the Time Warp car with a huge burnout! A strangely soft launch and onto a time of 7.24 at 207.23mph. Upon getting the car back to the pit a poor seated valve was found to be the cause of the languid 60' time. The crew set about pulling the engine back, making the suitable adjustments ready for the Sunday.

Sunday came and with blue skies the teams set about readying the cars to put on a show for the fans.

First under the famed Santa Pod gantry was the Mustang of Wendy Baker. The adjustments made by the team helped get the 60' time down closer to where it should be.  Wendy went through the traps with an improved time of 7.085 at 202.35mph.

Apache followed on with another controlled burnout, Tim really getting to grips with piloting the nitro burning funny car. The car launching hard and Tim off it again around the 330' area. The car breaking the lights at 8.172 and 108.98mph. The car is really putting in stout 60' times and when the team are happy to go the full 1/4 expect some fantastic times from this beautiful car.

The teams had taken the cars back to the pits and stripped them down ready for the final session for the funny cars. Both cars had warmed up and were sounding strong, the final tweeks doing the job, but after shutting down Time Warp the crew noticed an issue with the car. Although the problem would be an easy fix the team would not have enough time to effect the repairs to make the session, leaving Tim the track to close out the weekend for the funny cars. A sideways funny car burnout looking great in the afternoon sun. Another hard launch and the car was under power, for the first time the engine note dropped down the track meaning one thing, Tim was feeling comfy enough in the car to try a gear change. This being a big deal to the team who in their first season with the car had ticked more boxes than they were expecting and are already looking forward to coming back next year stronger and faster!

Thank you to Julian Hunt for all the fantastic photos, see more of Julian's work at www.julianhunt.net

What a year for the Nostalgia Funny cars, some great new cars hitting the tracks, some established teams making good progress. Hopefully everyone has been entertained by these fantasic cars who try to put on a show where ever they go to entertain the fans that make their way to the track.

So, what does 2014 hold....... more cars are under construction and will hopefully see the track next year, with a rumoured 3 nitro cars aiming to debut. With the established cars getting some laps under their belts we shall see some more racing with wild side by side smokey burnouts and more dry hops to make sure the photographers are on their toes!

Hope everyone has a great "off season" and is looking forward to another great year of Nostalgia Funny cars!

Here we have some pictures of Apache in the hands of Tim Garlick tesing at Santa Pod, the team are working on burnout and launches today, getting ready for the National Finals, also at Santa Pod.

Many Thanks to those lovely people at www.eurodragster.com for supplying the photos.

Well August is upon us and that means the pilgrimage to Germanys Hockenheim track for the annual Nitrolympx. The cars were invited over to run in the nightshow, and as opposed to previous years the class was on towards the end of the show, when it was very dark indeed!

We had the head to head of the methanol cars, Wild'r at Heart of Ramon van der Weurf and The Stinger II of Mike Mugrauer.

Kirsten pulled both cars forward from the water box for a pair of side by side burnouts, the cars guided back by Sabine and Kirsten, much to delight of the crowd, both cars dry hopping up to the line. Ramon was away on a flyer and despite the shift light causing vision issues a 6.80 came up on the board, well done Ramon! In the other lane Mike headed toward the centre line and had on on/off the gas 9.00. The crowd loved the sights and sounds of these 2 Mopars heading down the track, and the girls backing them up of course!!

Next up we had the 2 nitro cars, Tre Kronor in the hands of Stig Neergaard and Time Warp driven by Wendy Baker.

A pair of smoky burnouts later and on the reverse Time Warp was spitting nitro flames from the headers into the darkness. All this proceeded the dry hops, and to my knowledge Stig hadn't dry hopped before. Needless to say he took to it very well bouncing the Plymouth up to the start line.

Wendy was away first and the car dug in and went hard, Stig up into tyre smoke and a brief peddle before getting back on it, but Time Warp was long gone to an impressive 6.96 (with an early of the gas due to fuelling issues), the first time in the 6's since the damage suffered at Easter 2012. Stig made it down the track in 10.86.

All the cars put on a great show and received a great ovation from the German spectators!

picture by www.julianhunt.net

Saturday saw 2 cars take to the track, Ramon in the Wild'r at Heart Charger and Doc Stinger in his debuting The Stinger II. Ramon laid down some impressive runs in the heat of the day with a couple of 7.0 runs, considering the lack of air these were fantastic times. Doc, who hadn't run this car before, was getting a handle on the clutch resulting in a couple of bouncy runs before the bugs were ironed out.

Saturday evening saw the arrival of the Apache Firebird of Tim Garlick and Perry Antoniou, and what a stunning car it is!

Sunday came and Tim was the first funny car on the track in the new Firebird, soon the air pulsed to the sound of nitro as he pulled around to the line and performed his burnout before leaning the motor out and shutting off, stage one complete!

Next around under the tower was Doc in The Stinger II against Wendy Baker in the Time Warp Mustang, and what a pair of side by side smokey burnouts they were! To quote Stu Bradbury (former chief starter) 'that's the way do it!' Doc away first but soon the nitro pony caught up and went past for the win. The Time Warp team had alot of new parts on the car and were looking for a nice safe A to B pass, expect faster times from this team. Considering this was Doc's first weekend with the car what a showing he put on, huge burnouts, dry hops and PB's every time out, an awesome showing!

Next up was surprise entry number 1 with Andy Raw in his VW Beetle funny car, normally a runner in super pro and VWAE, but a very welcome edition to the Nostalgia Funny car scene. The move over to a pro tree didn't phase Andy at all with some great reaction times! A selection of new parts and timers left the team chasing solutions, but what a great showing from Andy and the team.

Andy was running against surprise car number 2 in the shape of the Draper Brothers beautiful Corvette funny car, which hardly anyone knew would be turning up to run in the class! Ignition woes had the team stuck with a bouncing tyre shaking run so the team have sent parts away to be bench tested before refitting to the car ready for their next assult on the 1/4 mile.

Sunday evening just before the track closed the 2 nitro cars towed down to the line, first up was the Time Warp car, another stonking burnout before a run pretty much the same as the morning. With the set up in the car being the same as the morning the team know where they are for a good base line setting, expect things to be turned up a bit next time out for this established team.

Next around was Tim Garlick in the firebird, stage 2 was on the agenda, so burnout completed Tim brought the car into stage and launched hard for a cracking 60 foot time, this truly will be a car to watch out for in the future.

Sadly missing from Sundays line up was Ramon in his Charger, the runs on Saturday had taken its toll and parts were sacrificed to the aluminium God.

Check out all the runs from Sunday by hitting this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQsSrLiyEPc

So that was the weekend, with 3 brand new cars hitting the track the times were probably never going to be amazing, but it shows the growth of this class and next year when the teams have some laps on their machinery expect some great things from the old school fuel coupes!

Next stop for these 3, plus one more to be named later, Hockenheim!!