Gurston Down Hillclimb July 2015So it's been a while since I was there but I've not been at work for a while and hence had no reason to slack off on i2f...
Here is a video from the School Day that I did at Gurston Down back in May -
https://vimeo.com/127864819 , but this time I turned up to go competition a go! Apologies... in my excitement to compete I forgot to pack the gopro.
Just outside Salisbury is the countries only hillclimb that starts with a downward slope, this means you run up a ton of speed heading into that kink and the first big corner. So much so infact that it ended up causing a bit of damage... more of that later. Here is a picture of the basic course layout from one that was taken on the school day - the course actually bends to the left in this photo (the steep road on the right is used by tractors for the farm when the course is closed). Then hooks up a corkscrew type affair and along the top of the hill before a long drag up the left of the treeline (on the upper left of the picture)
Pretty happy after scrutineering and looking forward to the rest of the weekend
Being lined up at the start for the timing beam.
Just off into the downhill start straight
This runs into a little kink before a swift left hander that runs along and into the bottom of the corkscrew bit..
To illustrate how steep the central section of this is, here is a picture taken on the school day I did there.
The final corner after the hairpin, before the long drag up to the finish line. - this gave a lot of wheelspin on the inside wheel when throwing green car in at speed, I think a Quaife LSD is on the cards!
Finished second in my class (did I mention there were just two of us in Sports Libre - National B Licence...) - to Pete Steele in his Mallock - the yellow racer on the left there! Incidentally he thought I was taking the piss when he saw it in the paddock until he saw it squirm off the line infront of him. Considering he was running a purpose built flyweight hillclimb car with a super high revving motorcycle engine I don't think we did that badly coming in about 8 or 9 seconds behind him over that mile and a bit. I certainly had a HUGE amount of fun.
And the casualties of clipping the racing kerb in that first long fast corner:
A pretty bent steering arm.
Christ knows how I drove it from Salisbury back to Plymouth with the steering juddering whilst turning in one direction only - i even stopped twice and jacked it up to wobble everything - pretty silly but I just couldn't pinpoint the exact cause first... a gentle drive it was...
The track rod end slot in the hub had widened itself up after the drive home - so that was fixed with a hammer.
Ohh also, green car was the only car to drive there (not trailered) and the only ones camping (not in a massive motorhome)... motorsport basics!
Little bird gave us a hand putting it all back together.. although I had just fitted a cage to her Jap drift car.
After all this the only new bit Green car has received are these custom inlet silicone hoses and the enormous piper cross filters - although these are all just temporary before the supercharging.
