ORIGINALLY POSTED 11 June 2015
The swifts flew low through the Teme Valley in Worcestershire on June 6th-7th while the hillclimb cars howled up the historic 1000 yard course at Shelsley Walsh much as they have done for the past 110 years.But faster.
Not quite at outright record breaking pace maybe, but en masse there can seldom have been so many cars taking so little time to reach the finish line way up that steep old hill. The pace was hot. And so was the entry. So many really quick cars and such diversity of engine and chassis combinations : V8s ( F1 or Indycar), V6s , 4 cyl turbos, 4 cylinder motorcycle engines, even a lot of V Twins among the older cars. Forces, OMSs, Goulds, Raptors, Pilbeams….
The variety was such that the closest thing to a ‘spec’ class was the Ferrari club championship runners and their healthy selection of Maranello’s finest road cars . And that was so diverse it even featured cars NOT painted red! Actually it was strange think that you actually heard people whisper “only another Ferrari…” .
It was sunny and blustery. Everywhere you looked there were swifts darting over hedges and across the open spaces, sitting on the roofs of marshall’s huts or on the wing, snatching the bugs out of mid air. I’ve never seen so many in one place.
The hot pace was maybe being exaggerated a little by a speed trap on the way into the tight esses. It used to be said that 120mph here meant fastest time of the day and 121 mph meant a trip into the tyre barrier. But Trevor Willis (below) was clocked at 146 mph … back in the paddock the word was that this car isn’t geared above 140 and thats on the faster section over the finish line so somewhere the trap was being fooled. Maybe one of those fleet little swifts had flown though a timing beam at just the right/wrong moment and helped massage the reading?
Trevor’s car, an OMS built by Steve Owen up in York epitomizes the top end of the entry. Beautifully made, lovingly prepared and stuffed full of all the electronic and aerodynamic bells and whistles you expect of a modern racing car. But there’s a tradition at Shelsley of home built ‘specials’ and here you are just as likely to see cars driven via chains, bodywork made of plywood and the most “individual” of design concepts. Running for the first time at the venue was the recreated FREIKAISERWAGEN (below)
the peak of such special building in the immediate post war years. Built by two wealthy Bristol enthusiasts with inspiration from German GP cars of the 1930’s it held the record on the hill in 1947 beating the factory ERA of acknowledged Shelsley-maestro, Raymond Mays. The recreation uses the original engine and assorted parts that were left after the car killed it’s talented driver Joe Fry not long after his epic record run…
A more modern takes on the ‘special’ is the wooden bodied, kart-wheeled SPECTRE or Karl Scholar (above) and the thumping 6 wheeled , supercharged Godden V Twin powered FARLEY (below) which has THE most mind boggling suspension arrangement…and also uses kart wheels.
But the best example of the type, the most accomplished and probably most successful, is the Gould-Hart (above) which won the British Hillclimb Title for Chris Cramer in 1985 and led to the designer David Gould producing his own off-the peg cars. Goulds have gone on to dominate the championship and win all but one British title since 1998!
The car was back on the hills at this event with it’s designer/bulilder at the wheel. It always looks just so thoroughly right in every way that it’s humble DIY origins are hard to reconcile. A very special ‘special’
TV antiques expert Philip Serrell presented the prizes. His wife Briony is a regular competitor with her Lotus 51 single seater(below) -always easy to spot with furry ears stuck to the sides of her crash helmet. Among the plethora of other historic cars in the field I confess I drooled over the immaculate Brabham BT35 of my friend John Green (car 196 below) who enjoyed a good 2nd in class by about 2/100th of a second. That’s all you need!
Another car to lust over was Roger Deans’ 1969 Lola T192 F5000 , the restoration of which which once featured on the TV series SALVAGE SQUAD (hosted by Suggs from the group MADNESS) but everywhere you looked there was just so much lovely machinery on display and being driven as intended( in most cases).
Back in the paddock I was selling books and enjoying the sunshine and the friendly nature of the whole sport and it’s followers. I lost count of how many people kindly offered me cups of tea , ice creams and the like over the weekend.
Over to my left was the 13th century church and located along to return road to the paddock is the part-Tudor Court House, recently reopened as a posh ‘Boutique B&B’ . The story goes that some of Guy Fawkes gunpowder-plotters were incarcerated there awaiting trial for treason in London …
