Prescott, October 2011

Kevin Bryant

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Some weekends are good; some are very good, and some not so good. Our long awaited weekend at Prescott Hillclimb fell into the “not so good” category.

It started well enough as I took a friend out for a drive in the TR3. It was a lovely Saturday afternoon and I sat in the passenger seat whilst he took the wheel and had his first drive in a Triumph TR3A. He just loved it. Loved the steering; loved the handling; loved the feeling of speed. We had a beer and natter in a quite local county pub and made our way back through the country lanes. Perfect.

Not so perfect was the Sunday. I meet Ian at 6.30am by junction 27 of the M1 and we headed off to Gloucestershire with our jointly owned red TR6 on the trailer. We had taken the “six” to Cadwell Park Race circuit in Lincolnshire on the Tuesday for a track day and had a wonderful time. The car had ran faultlessly so despite the hour, we were both in good spirits looking forward to another exciting day of motorsports.

If you have never been to Prescott Hillclimb, then sadly you have not lived your life to the full. The good news is that when you do you will be thrilled. Not only is it a visual delight, but it is also the home of the Bugatti museum. If you have never been to Prescott Hillclimb on the weekend they hold their Autumn Classic All American Weekend, then sadly you have not lived your life to the full. You see it is not just about the cars. It is the atmosphere. There are the traders stalls, the wall of death, the rock and roll singers, the dancers and people out to have a good time and enjoy themselves.

Prescott Speed Hill Climb Autumn Classic October 2011 Viewpoint 2 – by Colin Mitchell

With a fantastic Indian summer forecast for the rest of the week and into the weekend, with the best days on the Saturday and Sunday, I had to look at the calendar again to remind myself this was indeed early October. I thought I had already put the TR5 away for the winter since the rain had started and the evenings were now getting dark and chilly however, with such a great weekend ahead, my partner Tina Googled for something to do that might involve our favourite part of the country, the Cotswolds and anything to do with cars.

Prescott came up in our search and although we had never been before and the event was billed as an American themed Autumn Classic, the line up looked great, particularly on the Sunday with Aston, Austin Healey & TR featuring.

A last minute hotel booking did not disappoint either so on Saturday morning we set off for the 100+ mile drive from Surrey to Worcestershire by way of long forgotten A & B roads and a delightful Gloucestershire village pub. We spent the night in a very reasonably priced country house hotel where the TR shared the car park with a beautifully restored E Type, and after breakfast set off for Prescott.

After years of Goodwood experience, on every bend we took we expected to join the back end of a long queue for the event. But there was none of that. Just a fifteen minute run from the hotel and we were pulling into the entrance at Prescott. As we parked, the owner of the 911 that pulled up next to us commented on our TR and was more than helpful when we told him it was our first visit. A friendly welcome from the marshals made a complete contrast of how we are usually treated “darn sarf”. A couple of tips received for vantage points and we started to wander round the paddock and start line.

It was just after 11am and the day was warming up nicely, as were the cars. No fenced off areas, just free roaming round the paddocks whilst throttle linkages were checked and drivers discussed techniques for the hill. We walked the whole distance of the hill with no obstructions to our views and none of the elbowing that goes on at other events. We were really beginning to enjoy our day.

Considering this was an American themed event, the British marques were very well represented. As each of the twelve classes ran their practice runs, the variety of sight and sound was of particular note. Talking of note, the sound of those Imps and Minis really impressed and the sweet whiff of Castrol R40 permeated the day.

Having owned Fords for most of my formative years, the Mark Two Lotus looked great, both on the track and close up in the paddock. The car park too was peppered with nostalgia although it would have been nice to have a separate historical vehicle car park to see them all in one place rather than having to seek them out behind the ugly bulk of 2011 Euro 4x4s.

I was going to write about the technicalities of each car, its driver and his placing but there are others much cleverer than me at these things and this was our first time at Prescott so we spent most of the day absorbing the “big picture”.

A clear century of motoring history ran the hill at Prescott on that beautiful sunny Sunday in October. The friendly atmosphere, the lack of crowds and the beautiful backdrop of the Cotswolds…; we are going back for more next year and the Standard Triumph Marque day on 20th May 2012 is already in our diary.

Back to Kev Bryant:

Ian was first out and the clutch appeared to be playing up. Despite this minor problem he shot off like a rocket and amid much squealing of tyres, lost the back end on the final bend and visited the scenery, backwards. Red flags out whilst they recovered the car from the steep bank he had slid down.

Once back in the paddock the clutch was now virtually non-operational. The TR3 has two adjustment points, the TR6 none – that’s progress for you. So instead, we bled the clutch through a couple of times, and bingo, just enough to get us going again.

My turn to play. The TR6 pulled well enough to about 4,500 rpm and then stuttered. Was it my driving, not used to triple Webbers pulling too much fuel through or a fuel problem because of the heat? No time to find out as Ian was due out again. Oh dear. She popped and banged all the way up the hill. Not good. Back in the paddock we pulled out the spark plugs and sure enough they were very sooty. After a quick clean, it was my turn again. Better; but still a degree of hesitancy. This was getting frustrating.

A quick chat with the other TR6 owners and we were thinking fuel cavitation, fuel evaporation due to heat from the engine. So we decided for the first timed runs we would run with the bonnet open. Ian put in a decent time with no hesitancy from the engine. So the good news is we now know that for sprinting we will have to wrap the exhaust in insulation material to prevent the heat being transferred to the fuel lines.

My turn. A good start and whilst I was not as fast through the first two speed traps as Ian (30mph and 53mph vs 28mph and 48mph), I dropped down into first round Ettories Bend whilst Ian held her in second. That gave me better traction out of Ettories where I was timed at 17.18 seconds whilst Ian was 17.61 seconds. I entered Pardon Hairpin at 53mph and Ian at 49mph. Braking hard and selecting first again through Pardon, I dropped the clutch, floored the accelerator and she went “grunch”. No drive. Horrible noises. Switch the engine off.

Back in the paddock, the boys listened to what happened and concluded it was most probably the fly wheel bolts that had worked their way loose then sheared. So that was the end of our day. Well not quite – we did manage to enjoy a beer watching the rest of the cars.

Car	1st Run	2nd Run	Champ. Points
John Weedon TR5	51.11	51.20	9.28
Jonathon Weedon TR5	51.27	51.39	10.00
Roderick Warner TR7 V8	54.72	54.51	9.26
Roger McEwen TR6	57.60	58.09	9.219
Nick Smith TR6	59.70	58.35	9.28
Ian Prout TR6	59.25		8.94
Graham Ramsey TR7	62.49	63.49	9.58
Kevin Bryant TR6	Fail		0

If you would like to get some idea of what it is like to do a sprint or hill climb, go to youtube.com and search for the NickTR6. Here you will be able to join Nick in his TR6 at seven different venues, all in glorious HD.

And finally, another viewpoint on the weekend from Peter Dykins:

The weather forecast for the weekend of 1/2 October looked like being record breaking sunshine and there were two great events from which to choose. Which should it be - Duxford for the Triumph gathering, or two days of classic racing and Americana at Prescott which also included a round of the Revington TR / TR Register Sprint and Hill Climb Championship?

I decided upon Prescott. Driving from south Cheshire necessitated an early start and after breaking my journey part way, I was astonished to return to my TR4 to see a lovely 1950s Riley parked next to it. It could have been a village scene from fifty years ago. I took this to be a good omen – this was going to be a great day!

The Prescott weekend was a celebration of American automobiles at their best – including vintage hot rods, flatheads and muscle cars, alongside some iconic motorcycles such as Harleys and Indians. The star of the American cars must have been a rather special highly modified 1934 Ford Coupe. This monster was powered by an all-aluminium, 1,000bhp Ford V8 and supplemented by a nitrous system adding a further 500bhp; it's a fully road-legal car that can run a quarter mile in just 7.8 seconds! In addition to the American cars, there appeared to be virtually every make of classic and vintage car including some amazing steam powered ones. I would have been happy just walking around the car parks such was the variety of interesting vehicles.

But there was more to the weekend than just the hill climb. Off track entertainment was provided by the Wall of Death ridden on 1920s Indian motorcycles performing some gravity defying stunts. There were live rock n’ roll bands, cheerleaders, Elvis and his Las Vegas showgirls, Daleks, jive dancing, and the original exploding Model T Ford used by Laurel & Hardy and the Keystone Kops!

Prescott has to be one of the most picturesque hillclimb courses in the country with spectacular viewing positions along the entire length of the 1,127 yard course. During the lunchtime, I wandered around the Bugatti Trust building in which photographs, models, drawings and many examples of Bugatti’s superb engineering, including complete cars, were on display. Whilst it was a busy weekend there were no queues or congestion anywhere – so different from the Goodwood Revival a fortnight earlier.

If you did not come along this year, make sure that it is in your diary for 2012 – you will not be disappointed!

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