Hillclimbs

[hugh]

Hi everyone,

I hope no-one minds this post.

I don't know if any of you are into motorsport, but if anyone is, I wanted to recommend hillclimbs. When I got into marshalling I'd never really heard of them, but a mate persuaded me to go along with him and marshal one and I loved it. For anyone who doesn't know, it goes like this:

1. someone drives a twisty, narrow, uphill, tarmac course as quickly as they can
2. the next guy does it, until either everyone's had a turn, pheasants are on the course or the recovery truck is needed (and hopefully no-one's hurt).

Someone said to me once that it's a very pure form of motorsport, as the competitors never know when it's going to rain, what time the next guy will do, etc. In circuit racing on the other hand, if the leader is 20 secs up the road from the next guy who's 15 secs in front of third, people will back off to avoid risks, save tyres etc.

You see some incredible cars. Some of my favourites:

* a completely self-designed and built sportscar chassis with something that was rumoured to be taken from a helicopter to keep the turbo boost going (very successful)
* a Morris Minor V8 (can't buy those in the shops)
* Gould V8s - accelerating more quickly than a Formula 1 car
* amazing old classics like a concours condition 'E' type
* a guy who turned up with a 'D' reg Nissan and drove the nuts off it
* a lady driver in a Dodge Viper - I never spoke to her personally, but she was rumoured to have saved up her income from nursing to buy a house, then sold the house to buy the Viper and take it hillclimbing
* not strictly a car, but a guy's T shirt that had a picture of his car and the words "we interrupt this marriage to bring you the hillclimb season."

There are some cool characters as well. Like Tony Marsh, three time national champion and ex-Formula 1 driver in the 60s who still climbed his 4 litre, single seat Gould with massive wings well into his 70s or 80s and was very happy to sign my copy of his book. Mike Rudge, who always won his category and used to drive his Westfield SEi right on the ragged edge - you could see the back end trying to step out all the time and he always seemed to catch it. Steve Owen, owner and technical brain behind OMS hillclimb cars, who was always happy to chat to me about making cars out of carbon fibre (a bit over my head, but my engineer friend used to translate for me).

The best time to go is probably nationals weekend. The best bit when that happens is the top 12 runoff. The fastest 12 drivers (always the single seat, big engine guys) go again and the quickest 10 get championship points. I used to sit in top paddock with my ear glued to the commentary, listening to the split times (he's up a bit... he's lost some ground there... oh no, he's binned it - hopefully not). There was one guy called Trevor Willis who used to make the top 12 despite giving up a lot of power on the other guys. He won once on a day I was there, and was nice when I stopped him after close of play to congratulate him.

One of the best things about it is that it's a world away from all the glitz and glamour of franchised motorsport. Gurston, where I used to go, is on a farm and the single seat paddock is literally in a farmyard. All the drivers are pretty nice guys and are usually happy to chat. I spoke to one guy with an FIA homologated, mint condition 'E' type once. I told him that it was really nice and stacked up well against my XJ-S with its list of problems. He told me that even his car had its own list.

You can do a hillclimb training day in your own car for about £150 (2007 prices) at Gurston. I did it once thanks to the marshals' draw. I got quite a few runs up the hill in my Volvo 440 and the instructors said I did OK. At the beginning I said to the instructor that there was an intermittent squeak on the car, source unknown. He said "kill or cure, then." I went for it and it was fine (later fixed for £5 by local garage - exhaust mounts). They served a nice lunch as part of the day and genuinely the nicest Victoria sponge I've ever had.

It's only about £10 or £12 (2007 prices) to go to Gurston, which is near Salisbury. There are quite a few other hills around the country. If anyone wanted to try hillclimbing from the driver's perspective, all you really need is a rollcage, fire suppression system, electrical cutout, safety clothes and you're good to go (there's a bit more to it but those are the most expensive bits, IIRC). You could even drive the car to the hill if that made it easier (assuming it was still MOT worthy of course). There are so many classes that they'll fit your car in somewhere. A marshal I used to know used to climb Gurston in his son's old Escort. I don't think they set any records, but they looked happy when they finished. You might even discover you have a talent for it, and you're guaranteed to have a good time / excitement and meet some nice people in the process!

Thanks for reading and sorry for all the rambling.

Best wishes

Hugh

[Doggy]

Not quite the same thing, but we have been known to indulge.....
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20513

[hugh]

Looks top, would have liked to have gone to that. Sorry to teach to suck eggs.