ORIGINALLY POSTED December 19th 2015
As the days grow short and the weather grows colder the hillclimbs have all finished and there aren’t many circuit races left but the hardy souls of the Vintage Sports Car Club are seldom idle. Winter means mud an mud means trials.
In November I had a weekend off from selling books and stood on a chilly hillside in the Welsh borders watching people blasting vintage cars of no small commercial value through muddy ruts and up steep banks on the WELSH TRIAL.
I don’t do a lot of evets in the capacity of spectator these days – there are normally books in the boot of my car and a marquee to look after – this almost felt like skiving. The location was a picturesque and fairly remote valley with a farm yard at it’s heart.
Around noon a trickle of cars appeared from outlying sections, converging on this, the final part of the two day event. There were Austins in the farm yard, burgers and cakes in the barn, cows in the pen and a surprisingly large number of spectators, any having arrived in the ‘right’ cars – Derby Bentley, Alfa Romeo, Roesch Talbot, Frazer Nash… the car park alone was worth the trip!
Soon the field at the foot of the hill were filling up with competing cars the oldest (but by no means slowest or least capable) being a 1903 chain-drive 60hp Mercedes(below ) which was parked behind perhaps the oddest.
That was a Model A Ford with gothic style chimney on the roof from which smoke emitted…. it’s driver, in white boiler suit and bowler hat was Chris Williams who’s more famous mount is the 24 litre Napier Bentley which disappears in it’s own tyre spoke at events throughout the season
I enjoyed it all so much that a few weeks later I took my two daughters (ages 7 and 9) to watch the same crowd (plus or minus a few familiar faces) undertaking a very similar event based around Prescott Hillclimb near Cheltenham – The COTSWOLD TRIAL.
The day was dry but the wind chill factor was epic. Instead of charging up the famous tarmac hillclimb course, everyone took to the adjoining grassy slopes to slither and slide (and in some cases struggle) up sharp inclines, round trees and avoiding markers with the aim of not coming to a total halt untill the appropriate point.
Austin 7s of all shapes are the weapon of choice, the compact nature of the basic design makes threading through the markers look rather easier than it appears for the bigger machines which included a spectacular “WO” Bentley (below r), a 30/98 Vauxhall and various Model A Fords.
As the day progressed the mud got deeper and the climbs trickier. Most cars were open two seaters and often occupied by husband-and-wife teams but Winston Teague crammed most of his family into a hot-rodded Austin saloon (below) with wasp stripes on the bonnet and a snorting tuned engine beneath.
This he precedes to blast up every section with gusto, heaps of revs, lots of wheelspin and mud flying in all directions with his passengers all bouncing up and down in their seats at the first sign of any wheelspin.
My girls enjoyed the whole thing despite the cutting winds but they had a complaint…. the food available was just not up to their expected standard : Soup and a roll is not easy to consume whilst wandering around , especially when you are 7 , and the journey home had be routed via KFC in Ross on Wye to compensate. That safely consumed, and it’s reamins scattered in the carpet of my car… we headed home with both of them distinctly keen to see another such event in the future.
Result!
