Hi guys, Well, it=E2=80=99s been several weeks since my last road trip report, so I f= igure=20 I=E2=80=99m a bit overdue. In fact, I got home a few days ago from attendin= g an event=20 in England that is completely unique in my experience--the Vintage Sports Ca= r=20 Club=E2=80=99s annual Prescott hillclimb. The VSCC was formed in 1935 (!) to preserve and maintain the heritage of old= =20 automobiles--and we=E2=80=99re talking about automobiles that were old in 19= 35! The=20 club=E2=80=99s founders set a more-or-less arbitrary cutoff date of 1931, as= after that=20 year most automobiles were mass-produced. The club=E2=80=99s aim is to pres= erve the=20 proper vintage automobiles which were painstakingly hand-built; to that end=20 they relaxed their entry criteria and now also allow non-mass-produced cars=20= up=20 to 1941. The club is incredibly large and successful, boasting some 7,000 active=20 members! They hold a variety of events throughout the year, and they are an= =20 unusually inclusive club, especially towards the younger generations. In fa= ct, the=20 cars which are in the club now are, in the main, exactly the same cars that=20 were in the club when it was founded--they have simply been handed down or s= old=20 off from one generation to the next. Among their events (all of which are bargain-basement priced), their premier= =20 event is the Prescott hillclimb. In 1937, the VSCC learned of a house and=20 grounds that were coming up for sale in the western part of England; it boas= ted a=20 unique driveway that would be perfect for hillclimbing competition. Lacking= =20 the necessary resources to buy it themselves, instead the VSCC leadership=20 turned the Bugatti club on to it, and the Bugatti club bought it, with the p= roviso=20 that the VSCC would be allowed to hold one event a year there, free of=20 charge. And so it has continued to this day. Besides the small Bugatti museum and large manor home at the top of the hill= ,=20 the grounds have several smaller homes on them, and a fantastic driveway=20 which snakes up a steep hill through rows of trees and open fields of grass.= It=E2=80=99s=20 simple and green and absolutely lovely. I don=E2=80=99t normally have much interest in pre-war racing cars, but some= how I=20 knew that this event would be special, and the weather was forecast to be=20 positively glorious for the entire week, so I merrily skipped down to the ai= rport and=20 flew over to London, where my perpetual host Geoff Peters kindly picked me u= p=20 and brought me back to his house. Johnny Woods, the fellow I went to Le Man= s=20 with, had already been there for two days working on Geoff=E2=80=99s Pantera= , so I=20 joined him and spent the rest of the day, and all of the following day helpi= ng=20 to screw the car together. Around 6:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, I hopped into my GT-350 clone, which=20 started right on the button as it always does, regardless of how long it=E2= =80=99s been=20 sitting, and set off to drive towards Wales. About three and a half hours=20 later I pulled up to the home of George Gordon-Smith, the fellow who shared=20= the=20 car with me on the Euroclassic earlier this year. George lives in a delightful home whose roots date back to a small pub from=20 the 1600s; in the 1700s the building was expanded greatly and turned into a=20 fairly large home. It has seen better days, but George and his wife Sue bou= ght=20 it as a ramshackle mess and over the past 15 years have slowly, room-by-room= ,=20 been restoring it to its former glory. George has been attending the VSCC Prescott hillclimb for over 40 years, and= =20 he reported to me that it is the only event he=E2=80=99s ever seen that=E2= =80=99s managed to=20 remain completely, 100% unchanged in that time. It truly is like going back= =20 in time. The next morning, we set off early, and as George is utterly besotted with m= y=20 car (and in fact has sold his Mangusta with the idea of purchasing a GT-350=20 clone also), I let him do all the driving. He happily booted it along the=20 A-roads and B-roads, showing his taillights to any number of ordinary cars,=20= and=20 about 40 minutes later we pulled up to the little village of Prescott, outsi= de=20 of which the course lay. We were early, and as George is a VSCC member, we were ushered to the=20 members-only car park, which was further divided into =E2=80=98eligible=E2= =80=99 and =E2=80=98non-eligible=E2=80=99=20 areas. As our car was built about 30 years to late to attain first-rank=20 status within the VSCC, we had to be content to park by ourselves on a grass= y=20 hillside. Already there was much activity in the paddock. Unlike any other race=20 paddock I=E2=80=99ve ever seen, this one was particularly charming, with eac= h competitor=E2=80=99s=20 parking spot marked out in the grass under shade trees. And to my surprise,= =20 there were probably 200 cars competing in the event! Saturday was an open practice day, so one by one each driver took his turn u= p=20 the course. Unlike hillclimbs in the USA, this course is particularly short= =20 at only 880 yards, so drivers barely get the chance to get the tires heated=20= up=20 before it=E2=80=99s over. =20 I had presumed that the entrants would be driving their cars more as an=20 exhibition than anything else. I couldn=E2=80=99t have been more wrong. De= spite the age=20 and presumed fragility of these cars, the drivers would gun them off the lin= e,=20 wheels spinning and tires smoking, and then proceed to absolutely flog the=20 hell out of their mounts until they achieved the summit. Wandering among the cars, I was struck by the fact that so many of the=20 drivers were young. While in the USA most owners/competitors of 80-year-old= -cars=20 are themselves 80 years old, in the UK it seems to be a cross-generational s= ort=20 of sport, with the youngest drivers literally being in their teens! And=20 interestingly, there was an unusually high percentage of female entrants=E2= =80=94the VSCC=20 demographic is indeed broad and inclusive. I was also struck by how ratty and tatty the cars looked. In the USA, owner= s=20 of such cars go to great lengths to primp and polish and preen, while in the= =20 UK, =E2=80=98patina=E2=80=99 is revered above all. In this case, =E2=80=98p= atina=E2=80=99 is synomous with=20 =E2=80=98filth=E2=80=99, and thus almost all the cars were covered in layer=20= upon layer of=20 dirt, oil and grime stretching back some 80 years in some cases. Somehow, i= t make=20 the cars look more =E2=80=98real=E2=80=99, and clearly this is a look that i= s favored among=20 the cognoscenti within the VSCC. One look at my cars reveals that I=E2=80=99m right at home in this crowd, as= I have=20 been known to go years without washing them!!!=20 George and I wandered among the cars, taking in the sights and the smells of= =20 Castrol R mixed with tire smoke, and listening to the clattering of valves a= nd=20 the chugging of pistons and the chattering of chains as these amazing old=20 cars would lurch from rest and amble towards the start line, and then charge= up=20 the hill. At lunch time, we returned to the GT-350, and from a distance I noticed what= =20 I presumed to be a Jaguar C-type replica parked alongside of my car. I=20 presumed this because, very much like Cobras in the USA, C-type replicas out= number=20 the originals by a hundred to one, so the statistical likelihood of a given=20= car=20 being genuine is very small indeed. But as I approached, I was struck not only with the gentle patina of the car= ,=20 but also by the owner, who was sitting alongside of it on a small folding=20 stool, quietly reading his newspaper. We got to talking, and learned that y= es,=20 in fact, his was an original Jaguar C-type, XKC015, the 15th car made. It w= as=20 one of 20 C-types sold in the USA, and was raced by Maston Gregory who used=20= it=20 to win at the open road race in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It later= =20 burned out in practice at the Floyd Bennett races. It was rebuilt using par= ts=20 from XKC034, and several owners later was brought back to UK in the 1970s by= =20 the current owner, Campbell McLaren, who now takes his million-dollar car on= =20 road trips and vacations and whatnot. In fact I had seen it at Le Mans earl= ier=20 this year, and in years previous as well. It was fascinating eyeballing the car and learning its history, but out of=20 the corner of my eye I spotted two people carefully looking over my GT-350=20 clone, both speaking with a fair degree of knowledge. They didn=E2=80=99t r= ealize the car=20 was mine, but once they did, we launched into a great discussion as they wer= e=20 both great fans of the cars, and in fact had owned two different Mustangs=20 themselves, and had recently driven a GT-350 clone all around Spain before s= elling=20 it there. They went on and on about how wonderful and underrated the cars=20 are in Europe, which pleased George no end, and the three of them had a grea= t=20 discussion about the manifest joys of GT-350 ownership in Britain. After lunch, George and I wandered over to the other member=E2=80=99s car pa= rk, which=20 was filled with several hundred pre-war cars. While in the USA the owners o= f=20 such cars would most likely only use them for little jaunts near home, or=20 would trailer them here and there, in the UK cars are meant to be used, and=20= every=20 one of them had been driven on the road to the event. In fact, the same hel= d=20 true of the competitors! Although there might have been 200 cars competing=20 in the event, there were only a handful of trailers; the overwhelming majori= ty=20 of the cars had been driven, in some cases for many hours, over public roads= =20 in order to compete, and the drivers were dependent upon them staying togeth= er=20 long enough to get them home. Such is the British motoring spirit, one which is almost unknown in the USA,= =20 and one which I admire greatly. Adjacent to the car park was a small but thriving trade center, featuring=20 vendors selling automotive books, photos etc. Amazingly, I found a long=20 out-of-print Brooklands book on my beloved 1974-81 VW Scirocco, and bought i= t=20 instantly! Quite chuffed! As the day ended, George and I set off for his home, and he chose to avoid=20 the motorways and take the back roads, so we got to enjoy an hour or so of b= ack=20 lanes thrashing before pulling into his drive, where Sue greeted us with a=20 wonderful dinner. The next morning, after once again filling the tank (at about $6 a gallon!),= =20 we again set off for Prescott, for this day would be the actual competition. Among the cars running up the hill, the ones that appealed to me most were=20 the aero-engined cars. During the immediate pre- and post-war era (WW I, mi= nd=20 you), motorsports enthusiasts looked to the aviation community to provide th= e=20 motive power for some truly insane home-built specials. Ordinary chassis we= re=20 fitted with aero engines of enormous displacement, resulting in a very wild=20 ride indeed. =20 Among these cars was a 1907 Metallurgique, a very stately-looking car powere= d=20 by a 21-liter Maybach Zeppelin engine! Other favorites of mine were a 1911=20 Austin powered by a 1918 Hall-Scott V-8 bomber engine, and a 1921 GN Vitesse= =20 with an 8.2 liter V-8 from a Curtiss Jenny. But the absolute ultimate was t= he=20 Napier Bentley, a 1929 Bentley chassis with special bodywork, into which a=20 24-liter Napier W-12 engine had been shoehorned! I had seen this car run at the Goodwood Revival, and it is truly a sight to=20 behold. The engine has three banks of four cylinders arranged in a W=20 configuration, and its 24 liters crank out a full 1200 ft/lbs of torque. Re= dline is=20 only about 3000 rpm, but get this--it makes 240 hp at 2500 rpm, and 420 hp a= t=20 2700 rpm!!! So the power comes on like a light switch, making for a very wi= ld=20 ride indeed. No clutch made can withstand that kind of torque for long, so his launch=20 technique is to simply rev it to the moon, then sidestep off the clutch so i= t=20 hooks up right away, and let wheelspin take care of the rest. Thus his depa= rtures=20 were always popular, as he would smoke the tires for 100-150 feet, sawing at= =20 the steering wheel as the car would slew sideways! It was absolutely=20 hilarious! The members car park was as fascinating as the paddock, for there were even=20 more people and cars present. It is truly astounding the cars that British=20 drivers can and do drive on the open roads. Among the hundreds of pre-1931=20= cars=20 in the parking lot were one dating from 1904, and even a full-on, 1909-or-so= =20 Mercedes Grand Prix car! Imagine--taking a full-on F-1 car that is close to= =20 100 years old, with no lights, no brake lights, no nothing except a tiny num= ber=20 plate, and driving on the road for hundreds of miles just to attend an event= =20 as a spectator. Amazing.... At lunchtime, I noticed a nice-looking little red car parked two cars down=20 from mine, and wandered over to discover a nice couple having a picnic behin= d=20 their 1949 Ferrari 166 Mille Miglia. This little number is probably worth=20 somewhere between two and four million dollars, and here again was this owne= r who=20 instead of pushing it into and out of a trailer, was driving the car on publ= ic=20 roads and just leaving it in the car park as he went to watch the races. Bra= vo! The competition was fast and furious, and most cars made it up the hill=20 without incident. It generally took just under a minute to reach the top, s= o cars=20 were started every 30 seconds or so. Occasionally a car would have some sor= t=20 of issue, in which case the following cars would be stopped. Interestingly,= =20 the corner workers had no radio system, and in fact no flags except for a re= d=20 flag. When a car broke or something happened, the nearest corner worker wou= ld=20 sound a whistle and issue the red flag. The next worker down the line would= =20 repeat this, and the message would work its way all the way back to the=20 starting line. Then when the track was cleared, the top worker would sound=20= his=20 whistle and withdraw his flag, and so on. Exactly as they have been doing it since 1937.... Near the end of the day, one driver got a bit carried away and sort of=20 launched himself off the side of a very steep, grassy hill on the outside of= the=20 final corner of the course. From my vantage point I couldn=E2=80=99t see if= the car=20 rolled or was otherwise damaged, but the word came back that the driver was=20= unhurt=20 (or at least, not hurt too badly). Because of the high number of participants, each driver only got two chances= =20 to set a time, once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. So when you=20 think about it, these people travelled a great distance and made great effor= ts=20 to compete for a grand total of less than two minutes! The fastest time of the day was sent by one of the last cars to climb the=20 hill. In fact it was a very undramatic-looking run and I never would have=20 guessed that he was as fast as he was, because he didn=E2=80=99t LOOK fast,=20= but James Baxter=20 took his 1934 Frazer Nash single-seater up the hill in something around 43=20 seconds, which is very quick indeed. At the end of the day, the competitors began packing up. I spoke at length=20 with Duncan Pittaway, the driver of the GN Vitesse (with the Curtis Jenny=20 engine). He said that he had about a two-hour drive ahead of him and he wou= ld be=20 travelling in concert with a friend in his 1923 Bugatti Type 13 Brescia who=20 lived nearby. They had to push-start the GN, as there is something wrong wi= th=20 the electric starter, and when they engage it, the entire car becomes =E2= =80=98hot=E2=80=99 and=20 whoever touches it is electrocuted. :>) He told an interesting story--he was pulled over by the cops on the motorway= =20 the previous year, and they insisted that he shut the car off. He told them= =20 that if he did so, they would have to push-start him. He then asked why he=20= had=20 been pulled over, and they politely informed him that he had been gently=20 cruising down the freeway at 96 mph!!! He has no speedometer, of course. A= fter=20 accepting his ticket, he then insisted that the cops push-start him, and he=20 made a point of delaying turning the ignition on so that they got to push hi= m a=20 good long time! As the entrants moved off and the spectators made for the exit (there were=20 only a few thousand people, making it a very nice, intimate affair), George=20= and=20 I wandered through the car park and were again knocked out by some of the=20 amazing cars that people had driven to the event, including a Zagato-bodied=20= Siata=20 8V, and a delightfully tiny little Maserati barchetta of some sort. Thoroughly satisfied, George and I again made our way home via the back=20 roads, where we then went out to a nice little country pub with some of his=20= friends=20 and his daughter for dinner. This pub holds a trivia quiz each Sunday=20 evening, with teams formed by each table of diners. With our wide-spread=20 demographic (accurately described as two teenagers, three British adults, on= e Old Fart=20 and an American Goofball), we had the topics completely covered, and easily=20 beat everyone else out and won a nice bottle of wine for our efforts. On Monday morning, after saying my goodbyes, I rolled down the Wye valley=20 towards the little village of Brockweir, where one of George=E2=80=99s best=20= friends, and=20 a fellow I have known for ten years, has his home and office. He runs one o= f=20 the largest companies in the world specializing in London double-decker buse= s=20 (www.london-bus.co.uk), and as the weather was delightful, we sat in his=20 garden for a bit of morning tea and cake and caught up on old times. =20 We then retired to his garage where we examined his Jaguar XK-120-based=20 vintage race special, which had recently been badly damaged in an accident.=20= While=20 driving down the road (yes of course he drives his race car on the=20 road--doesn=E2=80=99t everybody?), the radiator cap popped off and the hot a= ntifreeze sprayed=20 onto his face, burning and blinding him. He lost control, hit an embankment= and=20 spun out, thankfully not injuring anybody else or flipping the car. But he= =E2=80=99s=20 been spending the past year repairing the damage. (For some strange reason=20= I=20 forgot to bring my camera to document this part of the trip, how odd?) Although he was too busy to accompany me, he gave me directions to the yard=20 where he keeps his buses, about seven miles away. To get there, I had to cl= imb=20 the far side of the Wye valley and then drop down into the Severn valley,=20 alongside the river Severn. The road was a tiny one-lane affair, so the=20 seven-mile drive took more than a half-hour, but it was quite pleasant indee= d. I got to the yard just at lunchtime, and joined the workers there for lunch,= =20 which was held in their break room, naturally enough located on the second=20 level of a double-decker bus that had been converted into a motor home. There were about 80 buses of all vintages in the yard; some were clearly=20 junkyard donor buses, while others were still in regular use, hired out for=20 promotional work etc. The business also refits and customizes buses, as the= y make=20 fantastic motor homes and race car haulers, as well as catering trucks with=20 dining facilities on the second floor. The yard foreman fired up a 1962 Bristol open-topped double-decker bus and=20 took me for a ride, explaining the subtle intricacies and nuances of driving= it.=20 The four-speed gearbox has no synchros and thus demands a perfect touch to=20 avoid grinding gears. Although I wasn=E2=80=99t about to take it on right t= hen, I=20 suspect that I may have a go and learn to drive it next time I=E2=80=99m ove= r in England. Late that afternoon I returned to Geoff=E2=80=99s house, initially with the=20= thought=20 of leaving the next morning. But my GT-350 was long overdue for an oil and=20 filter change, and Geoff=E2=80=99s Pantera still needed a lot of work, so I=20= stayed over=20 an extra day and spent the whole day spinning wrenches, mostly by myself but= =20 later with Geoff=E2=80=99s help, and the Pantera was almost ready to hit the= road when=20 we were done. Here are some of my happy snaps from the trip: http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/prescotthillclimb.jpg Now I=E2=80=99m home, the laundry is done, and already the bags are packed a= gain. =20 For this coming weekend is the huge love-in at Monterey, in the form of the=20 Concorso Italiano, Monterey Historic Races, Pebble Beach Concours and of cou= rse=20 all the auction action. No way I would ever miss any of that! The 427 Cobr= a=20 has a nice fresh coat of wax and a full tank of gas. Do you know the way to Monterey? If so, I=E2=80=99ll see you there! Mike
