KS's hillclimbing odyssey
Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 3:09 pm
I should warn you, this could get seriously boring, in which case, click away from here now...
Having just competed in my final hillclimb of the year – my first season in hillclimbing – I thought (probably erroneously) that it might be of vague interest to some folk considering taking up the sport to do a retrospective of the seven events (plus a school day…) I've competed in.
As some of you may be aware, I competed in drag racing for several years, winning three championships and setting a few class records along the way. Whenever I get the chance, I still race, driving other people's cars in Europe or southern California. But I've not seriously raced a car of my own since 1994, and I miss the buzz of motorsport. Cornwall's a long way from anywhere as far as drag racing is concerned but as I don't have a race car any more, or the funds to build one, that's fairly academic.
Not long after moving here, I fell in with a bunch of reprobate Porsche owners, among them our very own jwhillracer and 914-6, aka Jonathan Williamson and Ian McMath. Drunken, bun-throwing PCGB Christmas dinners with this lot and their fellow hillclimbing brethren sparked my interest in a sport about which I knew very little. Anyone who took delight in throwing a bread roll across the room and hitting a snooty black-tie-wearing PCGB knob squarely on the head mid-meal was fine by me...
It wasn't long before I was enticed to Wiscombe Park to watch jwhillracer, 914-6 and yellow491 (Paul Howells), and other local Porsche racers in action. But I was happy to stand on the sidelines and enjoy the spectacle. However, JW's repeated hints that I should have a go kept gnawing at my subconscious and after several years and several Porsches, I was running out of excuses.
At this stage, my 914 was running the 2056cc engine with dual 44IDF Webers, SSIs etc and showing 130bhp at the flywheel on Rawspeed's rolling road. The brakes were stock with the suspension running Bilsteins all round, with factory front and rear anti-roll bars, all with a good geo by Williams-Crawford. Tyres were 195/65 Dunlop Sport Blue Response on 6x15 Group 4 TT rims.
The other alternative, of course, was sprinting, of which there are several opportunities to compete down in the south west. I had done one embarrassingly unsuccessful sprint at Brands Hatch in my old '74 Carrera 2.7 backdate, where I spun in front of a large audience and was greeted by a round of applause as I drove back to the pits, and was persuaded to give it another go by Adrian Crawford (he of local specialists Williams-Crawford), himself an extremely experienced and highly competent racer with a long history of competition on both sides of the Atlantic. I entered a sprint at Portreath in September 2020 in the 914 but I have to admit I didn't take to it – driving a course marked out solely by cones didn't come naturally as I had a problem judging braking distances, etc.
Video:
https://youtu.be/hitW1aLwGgE
So that left hillclimbing…
And here endeth 2020.
Having just competed in my final hillclimb of the year – my first season in hillclimbing – I thought (probably erroneously) that it might be of vague interest to some folk considering taking up the sport to do a retrospective of the seven events (plus a school day…) I've competed in.
As some of you may be aware, I competed in drag racing for several years, winning three championships and setting a few class records along the way. Whenever I get the chance, I still race, driving other people's cars in Europe or southern California. But I've not seriously raced a car of my own since 1994, and I miss the buzz of motorsport. Cornwall's a long way from anywhere as far as drag racing is concerned but as I don't have a race car any more, or the funds to build one, that's fairly academic.
Not long after moving here, I fell in with a bunch of reprobate Porsche owners, among them our very own jwhillracer and 914-6, aka Jonathan Williamson and Ian McMath. Drunken, bun-throwing PCGB Christmas dinners with this lot and their fellow hillclimbing brethren sparked my interest in a sport about which I knew very little. Anyone who took delight in throwing a bread roll across the room and hitting a snooty black-tie-wearing PCGB knob squarely on the head mid-meal was fine by me...
It wasn't long before I was enticed to Wiscombe Park to watch jwhillracer, 914-6 and yellow491 (Paul Howells), and other local Porsche racers in action. But I was happy to stand on the sidelines and enjoy the spectacle. However, JW's repeated hints that I should have a go kept gnawing at my subconscious and after several years and several Porsches, I was running out of excuses.
At this stage, my 914 was running the 2056cc engine with dual 44IDF Webers, SSIs etc and showing 130bhp at the flywheel on Rawspeed's rolling road. The brakes were stock with the suspension running Bilsteins all round, with factory front and rear anti-roll bars, all with a good geo by Williams-Crawford. Tyres were 195/65 Dunlop Sport Blue Response on 6x15 Group 4 TT rims.
The other alternative, of course, was sprinting, of which there are several opportunities to compete down in the south west. I had done one embarrassingly unsuccessful sprint at Brands Hatch in my old '74 Carrera 2.7 backdate, where I spun in front of a large audience and was greeted by a round of applause as I drove back to the pits, and was persuaded to give it another go by Adrian Crawford (he of local specialists Williams-Crawford), himself an extremely experienced and highly competent racer with a long history of competition on both sides of the Atlantic. I entered a sprint at Portreath in September 2020 in the 914 but I have to admit I didn't take to it – driving a course marked out solely by cones didn't come naturally as I had a problem judging braking distances, etc.
Video:
https://youtu.be/hitW1aLwGgE
So that left hillclimbing…
And here endeth 2020.