FIRST POSTED July 2013..
Two days of tropical weather at Shelsley Walsh, the worlds oldest active motor sport venue, and by that I mean the mixture of searing heat and torrential rain! Luckily the latter arrived quite late both days but did we ever know when it did!
Entries on the hill were all pre 1980 and famous name guests included Sir Stirling Moss, Paddy Hopkirk and Barry ‘Whizzo’ Williams.
CLASSIC & SPORTSCAR magazine sponsored a rather nice Concours d’Elegance which attracted some rare and exotic machinery, all of which was thoughtfully arranges just in front of my bookstall at the front of the main car park . Well known motoring journalist and broadcaster Simon Taylor was the judge and the winner was…a Mini!
A French-registered Alpine A110 rally car made even the Mini parked alongside look big, while there were plenty of huge headlights and masses of chrome shining in the sun on an assortment of 1930s Alvis, Bentley and Rolls Royce.
The biggest head-turner was a Ferrari P4 replica(top image) . It looked spectacular and sounded lovely but what was under the engine cover? I think there was a kit-car ‘P4’ based on a Jaguar V12 .
Being close to Malvern, where they are built, there were, unsurprisingly, quite a lot of Morgans but by 4.30 the heavens opened and the brollies appeared. It hadn’t been a bad event for us, but the weather meant an early end – luckily the sun came out again as I packed away the marquee.
Chevron race cars made the three fastest times of the event but the crowd pleaser was a slightly bizarre Ford Zephyr Utility (pick up) which was some kind of factory prototype with a V8 engine and sounded amazing as it spun it’s lightly-loaded rear tyres almost all the way up the hill.
Thanks to commentator Chris Drewitt who gave us a good plug both days . He arrived in a rare 20 year old Subaru SVX of which only 200 entered the country when new. The sleek coupe boasts a 230bhp flat 6 engine and four-wheel-drive. Nice car and nothing like the usual boy-racer type of ‘Scooby Doo’ (in dark blue…) you normally see.
We should be back at Shelsley 17-18th August for the British National Hillclimb Championship round where 100 years of ASTON MARTIN will also be celebrated and the 2011 Le Mans Aston AMR ONE will be appearing.
(ORIGINALLY POSTED 31 July 2013)
