Hill Climb - Werrington - 5 May 12 - Al Brown
Words by Al Brown
Published: 21/05/2012
After a midnight repair session on the Friday, to replace the turbo with an eBay ‘el-cheapo’, unit we arrived at the beautiful venue tired, and with a large oil leak!
Some rapid PTFE bodging got the leak down to a tolerable level. We warmed the car up in the paddock, with an unknown turbo, got the sticky tyres fitted, dropped the suspension to ‘tarmac spec’ and signed on.
The AM consisted of two full speed practice runs which showed that we could only make 12 psi of boost (around 150 bhp) and that the actuator was defective. Normally a healthy 22 psi is used for rallying and 24psi for extremis (around 260bhp) through the old 1400 8v push rod anchor we call the engine.
This was my first hill climb and I soon realised that there was only one way to compete; with full commitment from the start line, and to hope and pray that a brief wheel spin in the tyre warming area was enough to be able to hold the first corner flat out! My practice runs were a full 4 seconds off the pace and we were well down the field, but I was making time each run.
During lunch, and after a brief pit stop to feed the twins ….
…we managed to fudge the actuator sufficiently to make 14psi and the car was much more responsive. We also ‘lightened’ the car by removing as much non essential ‘rally spec’ equipment as we could. All this paid off and the first competitive run of the afternoon saw us leap up the field to third place, and knock 1.5 seconds off our previous best time.
For the last run of the day it was time for the red mist to descend over my eyes and to fit the lead boots. This saw a 4 wheel drift flat, in 3rd,round the first opening 90 right, touching the grass on the exit and raising a cheer from the large crowd who were enjoying the sunshine! We took flight briefly over a crest just after a very slippery cattle grid at about 110 mph before full cadence braking for a sharp 90 left. With a bit of a ‘tank slapper; the car entered the corner on what felt like 2 wheels (it probably was…!) and I held my foot in up the rest of the hill to get over the line in 42.1 seconds. That was enough for second in class, and only 1.9 seconds off the pace of a Satchez 205 with £10s of thousands sunk into it!
All in all a great day out, and a great result, with lots more to come if we can get the power back up to a decent level, and perhaps push for a class win next year!
