UK Hillclimb vid

Just seen this vid from a British hillclimb. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kufacVXlSc YOu can skip ahead to about 1min 30 for the actual run if you want too. Wow, just wow. I've posted before about some of the wild single seaters they run over there, but this makes a balls out F1 quali lap at Monaco look like a gentle, relaxed drive with lot's of run off and safety room.

The car

It's 'only' got a turbo charged 1,400 Hybusa engine running in the up to 2.0L class, it's not one of the 'big' cars either!

I've seen some of these vids before and they make me go every time. The track looks like it's 7-8 feet wide!

IN berkeleying SANE

I saw this a few weeks ago... thought it was on fast forward until i found outside view of the car.

Sort of a real world equivalent of slot car racing, without slots.

Not a lot of variation in how you can take those corners, so you better know your limits.

Swank Force One wrote: I saw this a few weeks ago... thought it was on fast forward until i found outside view of the car.

Yeah, I thought it was sped up. Then I watched it again and timed it with my phone. WOW!!

Here's a good outside view. This E36 M3 is just stupid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODiLXs8O1GE

That thing just sounds angry...

I see a lot of people on UK and Australia sites with street-car hill climb builds for events that are grassroots like autocross is in the US. How come you don't see this kind of thing in the US?

Insurance and lawyers

Ho-lee berk!

In reply to kanaric: We do have hill climb events in the US, they just seem even more of an underground racing event than autocrossing is. The location also needs to be ideal because organizations need a hilly or mountainous curvy road that can be blocked off to race on, yet close enough to a moderate population for good attendance.

Zero to ludicrous speed in 1 second!

kanaric wrote: I see a lot of people on UK and Australia sites with street-car hill climb builds for events that are grassroots like autocross is in the US. How come you don't see this kind of thing in the US?

http://hillclimb.org/

We have a ball.

My street car hillclimber build thread: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-threads-and-project-cars/rx7-hillclimber-build-thread/52684/page1/

DaveEstey wrote:

kanaric wrote: I see a lot of people on UK and Australia sites with street-car hill climb builds for events that are grassroots like autocross is in the US. How come you don't see this kind of thing in the US?

http://hillclimb.org/ We have a ball. My street car hillclimber build thread: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-threads-and-project-cars/rx7-hillclimber-build-thread/52684/page1/

I started my motorsport 'career' doing sprints and hillclimbs in the UK in my DD Opel Manta GTE (I'll scan a pic tonight) You have to understand that hillclimbs especially have been a part of the British Motorsport scene for over 100 years and really are very popular Popularity breeds venues. I'll bet there are 40-50 sprint / Hillclimb venues in main land Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) not including Northern Ireland, the Isle of Mann or the channel islands etc. Actually more if you include the race circuits and airfields that are used for sprints too. That's 40+ in a land area SMALLER THAN the size of Michigan but with a population of pushing 70 million Vs Michigan’s 10 million. So the want, need and infrastructure are far better there. Also unlike America where I believe (please correct me) all Hillclimbs are run on closed public roads, just about all events are on private property and venues. This goes back to an old British law prohibiting speed events on public roads. Most rallies are run on forestry commission roads etc. not public roads.

The other thing is that until recently there wasn’t a British equivalent to autocross. There were autotests but they were those super super tight tests where you go forwards and backwards through obstacles with it being way more about precision than speed (yes yes autocross is all about precision as well, but you know what I mean) You never got out of 1st gear or reverse and there was no real speed involved, not even a helmet needed. I think since I left 20 years ago (This week!!) they’ve started to pop up, but for the last 100 years the most accessible rung of the motorsport ladder has been sprints and hillclimbs.

The down side is most British events are 1/2 to 1 1/2 miles with nothing like Pikes Peak or Mt. Washington. But, they are cheap and fun.

One day I'll get to do an event over here, but in the meantime Hillclimbs are my favorite form of competition.

Our hills are a mix of state and private property. Most are shorter than 3 miles - some substantially so.

It definitely doesn't have the pull that it does in Europe though. Which is too bad. Pike's Peak and Mt. Washington are the real crowd generators.

icaneat50eggs wrote: Insurance and lawyers

Some of this, although that is a problem in the UK as well.

Mind you, insurance issues cancelled this year's 341 challenge because apparently the insurance cost had doubled from the last event.