Engine Punk

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 bu...

This year's Vintage Sports Car Club meeting was cold - so cold the batteries in my camera expired, one set after another. I tried warming them in my pockets and this helped a bit but eventually they all cried enough. If you scampered up and down from finish line to paddock - like I did - you could forget the cold but for the marshals and the guys on the gate who had to stay put, it was perishing. The machinery, though, was as diverse and fascinating as ever. I went to both the Saturday and Sunday events and camped in my van (VT No.44) with an Arctic-spec sleeping bag. The picture above shows Terry McGrath in his 1100cc 1928 Amilcar CGS special and several well wrapped up starting officials. On the Saturday there were the Formula 3 500cc racers from the fifties and although I can't usually work up much enthusiasm for single seaters, I really like these little things. They are so cute you could wear them as a badge. Number 64 is a Norton powered Martin and is a great example of a...