Wiscombe Hillclimb May 2011

Some Dellows await their turn by Wiscombe House. They do as well on tarmac as on the trials sections, just adding to the confusion about trialling and hillclimbing. A little rain on the Saturday post meridian put nobody off and was the exception rather than the rule despite dire weather forecasts. I think the moral here is use your classic machinery in the way its creators intended and the gods will smile.

The plan had been hatched months before the event by Pete Low and me for a trip up to East Devon for the annual VSCC hillclimb in this wonderful part of the world just inland from Branscombe. It was a trip down for Pete, though, because he lives in Essex, an area where there are few hills worthy of climbing quickly in a mechanical contrivance, and we camped at Wiscombe so that we wouldn't miss out on the derring-do.

I prefer two seater sports cars to the GP monopostos but F3 bolides appeal hugely to me. Any bigger, though and it ought to seat two. It's good to share but with only 500cc it pays to be selfish.

On the Saturday the entry list featured motorcycles and the Formula 3 500cc single seaters that are like four wheeled motorbikes anyway.

It doesn't matter what you've got, it's what you do with it

Take off yer indicators, put on some crash bungs and see "what'll she do, mister."

On the Sunday, the Vintage Sports Car Club were out in force and many were there both days, not being able to get enough of this sort of thing at Whizz-combe.

I could be wrong but I have a strong presentiment that the rider of this machine may have been a young woman - it's so difficult to tell with the helmets and leathers. And gender is irrelevant when it comes to blasting up a hill

The weather on the Saturday got progressively wetter as the day wore on and the forecast promised worse things overnight. Over our pub supper in Sidmouth, we mentioned going home early if it tipped down on the Sunday morning but this proposal only got a very brief airing and was purely as a fall back position if the worst came to the very worst. Pete was in his tent and I was in my van and the night passed noisily but quickly under the trees in the top paddock, where many of the younger VSCC members were also staying.

With the weather brightening from the east, Pete demonstrated his Border Bomb, a petrol powered camping stove that you can keep in your pocket and looks like a simple carburettor. That morning proves memorable for me because that was the first time I had black coffee and enjoyed it. Fair trade coffee and Pete's Border Bomb really did the trick. Then we had the full English breakfast bap from the caterers in the paddock.

But not before I'd done my good turn for the day.

A quick check of the plugs proved that we'd flooded it and that the engine didn't actually need me and my cushion

While Pete took down his tent and packed it onto his Armstrong ready for the journey home, one of our neighbours asked me if I could help him start his car. But what a car - a supercharged 2.5 litre Riley! All I had to do was act as choke by holding the seat squab over the three - yes three, count them! - SU carbs that fed the blower.

A sniff of high octane stuff, a do-it-yourself mechanical dawn chorus, that breakfast bap (with egg running down your stubbly chin) and let the racing commence...

Little and Large prepare to wake up the neighbours - on the left the W12 Napier-Bentley and on the right the engaging 4-wheeled Morgan that is the RIP Special.

By midday the grass had dried beautifully and we lazed on the lawn in the sun just up from the start line enthusing about - well - everything really.

One of the crucial issues was V12 aero-engined Delage or V8 aero-engined Amilcar? The answer, of course, was both but the Delage broke down approaching Bunny's Leap after a vigorous start and the rumour around the pits was that it had lunched its back axle. So maybe for circuit racing we'd chose the Delage and for hillclimbs and twisty stuff the Amilcar. Both sounded gorgeous on their open pipes and as Pete pointed out, close your eyes and that's an aeroplane flying overhead. This effect was especially profound with the amazing W12 Napier-Bentley, which is now something of an old-friend and still impresses with its power delivery out of the Sawbench hairpin.

Good to see Mrs Jo Jo in action again, Vintage Thing No.19 But where's the matching helmet? Or is this one black on the far side?

I was particularly pleased to finally inspect the RIP Special, a four-wheeled Morgan three-wheeler, if you get my meaning. Many years ago I saw a photo of this car in John Bateman's book Vintage Specials and liked its minimalist spec, road registered status and, last but by no means least, dope and canvas bodywork that ends in a metal spike. Four-wheeled Morgan three-wheelers have often been said to not have the performance that a three-wheeled Morgan three-wheeler may offer but with a youthful crew attending to its every need the RIP's vee-twin engine was often in fork. The support crew were kept busy, though, constantly running after it, either down the hill to bumpstart it or (more slowly) up the hill to bump it again if it hadn't caught and fired by the time they'd reached the starting line.

A slight rain shower late in the afternoon didn't catch out No.207, Alistair Dent in his Formula 3 Hornet. He just hung the tail out beautifully

A split second later and he's lining it up to floor the throttle for the penultimate blast

The weather was far better than we'd been led to believe by the poor forecast - poor in outlook and poor in accuracy - so the sunny conditions on Sunday was a bonus and showed all the competition machinery in its best possible light. Remind me to buy more shares in the manufacturers of Solvol Autosol.

Ye Gods! It's Spider, possibly the greatest of all Shelsley specials, now in the care of the Leigh equipe. And lean into that corner

It is more than likely Pete and I will be there again next year but what we'd really like is to have a go ourselves. A vintage sportscar is probably beyond even our collective means but hillclimbing has to be the way to go, either on 2, 3 or 4 wheels.

Whizz-combe Park - great surroundings, the right crowd and no crowding with the very best of vintage machinery doing what it's supposed to do and being mended if it doesn't.