A year ago today, I took my ex-Works car to the Chateau Impney Hill-climb near Droitwich in the UK to compete in wonderful surrounding with a really eclectic mix of historic & classic cars. To add some pressure, the organisers had kindly featured the car in the event Programme, which was really nice.
Having never done a hill-climb in the car before and it setup for circuit racing, I really was not sure what to expect of the car as the gearing was too high and there was need for 1st gear on two corners of the course.
However luckily I had taken some 10" wheels with Dunlop CR70 tyres which gave me a slightly lower overall gear ratio, which enabled me to exit these corners in 2nd gear without almost stalling !. In the end the car did well and was faster than some sprint/hill-climb cars of the same capacity, just !.
In the picture my friend Mark Hales, who having not seen the car before, discusses its gear-change. Mark is a very well know Motoring journalist and Historic racing driver having driven just about all there is in Historic's.
Also supporting the Unipower marque was my very good and old (🤣) friend, Tim Wright, who campaigned his Unipower GT in 1988, winning the the HSCC Historic Road-Sports Championship. A very quick paddler and Top Gun pilot !.
Regrettably the organisers and owners of the Chateau Impney Hotel have decided not to continue the event after five successful years. It will be sadly missed by all that took part.
Comments