Wonderful Wiscombe (again)

Our nighbour in the camping area this year was the supercharged Rawson Riley

As usual I went to the VSCC hillclimb at Wiscome Park this year. I met up with my old mate Pete Low (he who constructed the Super Vee) and we made a weekend of it. The weather was wet but still better than last year when there were rumours of the meeting being cancelled - although nobody really took these seriously.

Besides the cool, dense air enhances power and the track soon dried out. In fact I even manged to get surnburnt on the Saturday.

Slippy slider in the wetty gripper as Mr Stanley Unwin might say

As usual, the paddock was bursting with interesting stuff on 2,3 and 4 wheels.

The sun shines on Miss Bacfire

I could stand and stare at the constructional details of Formula 3 500s all day, it seems.

It's always good to see RIP

An old favourite is RIP or the RIP special. Described nowadays as a four wheeled Morgan, it's going better than ever and Charlie Martin's derring-do through the esses among the tree was the subject excitement among the spectators who saw him. We missed this part of his progress but the RIP Special really lets - er - rip over Bunny's Leap and from Sawbench to Martini.

Early morning and there's a dawn chourus

That's the good thing about Wiscombe - there's so many good places to spectate.

This lovely Moto Velo looked a special blind of Italian and British machinery - but was largely Velo (sort of French then but made by ex-pat Germans)

The bikes are always good to watch and as usual in the late afternoon they had a ride off between the top riders. How they can focus on shaving a few hundredths of a second off a previously outstanding climb is quite beyond me. I can only assume they have tremendous focus and awareness of what they are doing.

Dappled sunlight

Or maybe they have a switch labelled "Balls out, Brain Off" that goes up to 11 when the need is called for.

This MZ outfit was brilliantly done! A trifle slow but there's plenty of scope for development...

On the Sunday morning I often look like someone who wants to help start supercharged dope-fed Rileys.

It seems my expression can be read like a book - the Rawson Riley was proving a little temperamental when it came to starting from cold. Under new ownership, it's been completely rebuilt and this was the first time we'd seen it at Wiscombe. Just like when the Riley 16/4 Blue Streak had a similar reluctance, I volunteered to be the choke. This time, though, I didn't have a seat cushion handy so simply used my hand to cover the carb intake. It nearly swallowed it! That motor certainly sucks well and on almost total dope it burst into life and wide were our grins.

A Riley between two trees

There was something of a Riley theme that morning as I bumped into some of my MCC friends who were marshalling at the top paddock. Sheila Poupard and Mike Overfield-Collins have been popping up at hills and sections for years and Sheila used to work for Roger Ugalde, the previous custodian of the Candidi Provocatores Allard that Binky (Mr Rob Robinson-Collins) and I campaign in the Exeter and Land's End Trials. I never new what a Riley enthusiast Mike was. He's got quite a collection and a number of projects awaiting his attention once he retires. He'd brought his four set Lynx tourer along to join the Crash Box Club display for the top holding paddock.

Sheila had her MX-5, another car I covet and probably one that's more in reach.

Gradually Sunday got drier and warmer but was a little moist as we perused the autojumble. I still regret not buying the straight-eight flathead Packard engine that was for sale here once. I do hope it found a good home.

Pete was getting more and more worked up about building an Austin 7 special. His initial thoughts were for a Shelsley-type special along the lines of GNAT, Wasp and Spider but the price of a suitable JAP engine tempered his enthusiasm somewhat.

Something like Simplicity appealed to both of us and on cost and availability grounds an Austin 7 special makes much more sense - if sense was supposed to enter into it, which I suppose it ought to if truth be told.

Simplicity leads the A7s out of the paddock

We'd admired the Salamanda special many years before and that was up for sale again but at £39995 it was firmly out of his price range. Cracking car though!

Over the course of the meeting, Pete hammered out a plan that involved him and his godson Michael making something they could for double drives at events like this.

Satin matt finishes are back in vogue. This Austin 7 has much to be responsible for.

But the more he spoke about it the more excited he got about having a blown Austin 7. So that's obviously what he should have!

The Salamanda went well on just twin SUs and with a weight of 350kgs but as they said in Two Lane Blacktop you can never have enough power.

Meanwhile, I bought some lovely old Whitworth ring spanners only to discover I'd purchased them from the Dommett brothers, who are known in classic trials circles for their Wolseley Hornet trails car. We had a long chat and admired their Humber.

This is a very early Humber, although not quite a Beeston Humber, made in Coventry. It belongs to the Dommett brothers of trialling fame

I noticed that it had the prefix BF on its registration plate. I read that BF was once a commonly known abbreviation for Bloody Fool and the licensing authorities issued a number of registrations - BF1, BF2 and so on - before there was a public outcry and the numbers had to be withdrawn.

I also bought a copy of MoreWheelspin by C A N May. The vendor assured me that it was from the Greenwell estate and that the heirs had no interest in the trialling associations of their forebears. This cop was a re-print by Greenwell Publications and features Rob's Candidi Provocatore Allard J1. Reading this re-emphasised what a piece of history Binky and I compete in. I will have to look out for a copy of C A N Mays earlier book.

Just look at those lines

Pete, though is on the look out for a blower to start his new project. I get the feeling anything could happen next.