Loton Park Hillclimb

June 24^th and 25^th 2006

Text and photos by John Sutton

The Vintage Sports Car Club has made this Hill Climb a regular two day event.  It is one of the more interesting and challenging hills and yet they always struggle to get a full entry which is a shame.  Consequent upon this we were able to get a late entry with the Maclachlan Special.  The photo shows your intrepid reporter attacking one of the more difficult corners and is courtesy of Adrian Ward. 

Above: The Maclachlan Special

These club meetings no longer attract the more exotic machinery but are quite competitive and a good social event.  There is an excellent “Hog Roast” on the Saturday evening.  This year the weather was fine for practice on Saturday, but rain started just after the first few competitive runs on Sunday morning which if had not cleared up by the afternoon would have given the early birds a serious competitive advantage.    As we are sure our readers will understand it is impossible to compete and cover all the meeting at the same time so some classes have little or no coverage.

 

As we are sure our readers will understand it is impossible to compete and cover all the meeting at the same time so some classes have little or no coverage.

Above: Austin 7 line-up

 The first class was for Standard and Modified Sports cars up to 750 cc un-supercharged.  Somewhat inevitably it was an entirely Austin Seven event.  The photo shows the pre-start line-up with Chris Smith leading in his Gordon England Replica followed by Gregory Harrison in a similar, but somewhat less original replica.  There follows William Way and Graham Beckett the current class record holder all in Austin Ulsters. Class 2 for cars up to 1100 cc and 750 supercharged was contested by Riley, Morgan, Austin and the Baughan cycle car featured in our Marques Section.  The Riley Imp of the Lamb’s is such a pretty car.  The next capacity class up to 1500 cc or 1100 cc supercharged was mostly Frazer Nash and Class 4 was mostly Lea Francis.  

Above: Delage D6	Above: Lancia Lambda

Class 5 for cars up to 3000 cc saw the beautiful Delage D6/Course of John Warden which most admirers agreed was a superb road car in addition to being the fastest car in the class.  Also on the hill was Alan Clarke’s very restored Lancia Lambda (which series?). 

 

Above: Alfa 8C	Above: Lagonda M45

The over 3 litre cars of Class 6 included the lovely 2.6 litre supercharged Alfa Romeo 8c of Michael Johnson the Lagonda M45 of Nigel Walder.   Two less well known cars on the hill were Tony Baller’s 3.5 litre Hotckiss AM80 2 seater sports and the Ballamy-Ford (LMB) V8 Special of Mark Brett.

Above: Hotchkiss AM80	Above: LMB V8 Special

 

Class 7 and Class 12 followed with Edwardian Automobile-Engined and Aero-Engined cars respectively.  The star attraction of the former was McNair’s 14¼ litre Darracq Grand Prix car from 1906.  McNair had flown this magnificent car from New Zealand for a season of events in Europe.  It was driven by Ms. Anne Thomson.  McNair is one of the most respected automobile restorers and the attention to detail in his work is exceptional.  The feature which we found most amazing was the radiator header tank which is a circular drum which forms the base of the driver’s seat!!  Great in cold weather but not too sure about the effect on a hot race day.  Here is a photo of the engine which is quite advanced for 1906 with overhead valves.    

Above: Darracq GP	Above: Darracq engine

The aero engined cars are growing in number as redundant Edwardian chassis are being mated with surviving First Word War aero engines.  The Way’s Austin with the 10 litre Hall-Scott engine is an impressive looking beast and great care has been taken to make it look antique.  This trend towards building cars and then distressing them to give a well used patina is the exact opposite of the over-restored cars seen in the USA.   (photo : Austin Hall-Scott) Classes 8 and 9 was dominated by Riley specials of which there were 26 entered. There were 6 ladies competing and our photo shows the Riley falcon of Leonard Lord with Ms. Barbara Claxton.  They describe the coach work as “English Perpendicular”. 

Above: Riley, Barbara Claxton

The larger engined Special Sports-Cars were Classes 10 and 11, up to 3 litres and over 3 litres respectively.  The 30-98 Vauxhall Quartermaine Special was driven by both Jamie and Nicola Quartermaine who have been regular competitors since their father Mike Quartermaine died a few years ago.  They also entered Mike’s Vauxhall 30-98 which started life as the “H” type with the experimental overhead camshaft engine.  Mike never allowed them to drive these cars during his lifetime so it is interesting to see how they have taken to racing wholeheartedly.  Another car which caught our camera lens was the Alvis Firebird of Ray and Guy O’Beirne. 

 

Above: Vauxhall Quartermaine Spl	Above: Alvis Firebird

We were entered in Class 13 for Racing Cars up to 1100 cc.  We were experimenting with a new wheel and tyre set-up of 17 inch diameter and with twin rear wheels on the rear.  The tyres are imported from Taiwan and have been used for touring and more particularly on the International Rally Cars we prepare.  The results were very encouraging and a third place in class was encouraging.  The Way’s very fast un-supercharged Austin Ulster driven by Mark Groves dominated the results followed by the class record holder Michael Fitzmaurice in his supercharged single seat Austin 7.  One of the most interesting cars was the Newton of Geoff Hare.  Three Newtons were made in 1923 by Cierano and this is the only survivor.  They were never successful in their day, but Geoff has spent many years developing his into a very attractive little racer.  Also competing was Clive Temple’s super little Amilcar CGSs supercharged single seater.The timing equipment failed on our run and so we had a re-run which prevented us from reporting on the last two racing car classes. 

Above: Newton

There were several Paddock shots which caught our eye and there is here shown the Singer of Matthew Birkett fitted with a 3.3 litre Ford engine and the famous ex Basil Davenport 2 litre GN Spider II belonging to Martin Spencer. 

Above: Clive Temple's Amilcar	Above: Amilcar CGS Supercharged	Above: Amilcar single seater all-weather

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Above: Singer Ford	Above: Spider II