Hillclimbing - an uphill struggle

DaveM · 15 Feb 2003, 22:45 (Ref:508029)

Elsewhere on this forum we've recently made mention of Peter Westbury and his Felday sportscar. Way back in 1966 I went to three northern hillclimbs in quick succession, and from chilly Harewood on 26th November here they are.

DaveM · 15 Feb 2003, 22:47 (Ref:508033)

Sorry, posted the wrong one - should have been this one, more colourful.

DaveM · 15 Feb 2003, 22:50 (Ref:508037)

From the same meeting this is Patsy Burt in her McLaren-Oldsmobile. Patsy was a familiar sight at hillclimb meetings during this period. She died a few months ago.

DaveM · 15 Feb 2003, 22:57 (Ref:508047)

There were many wierd and wonderful hillclimbing specials, and four wheel drive was extensively used. Here is Phil Chapman's 4wd Chapman Mercury 4 at Harewood.

DaveM · 15 Feb 2003, 23:25 (Ref:508085)

Here's another fwd special, Tony Griffiths's Ford powered Felday. Looks like it could have been a bit of a handful.

DaveM · 15 Feb 2003, 23:27 (Ref:508091)

Here it is in the paddock.

DaveM · 15 Feb 2003, 23:28 (Ref:508094)

David Harrison's Cooper-Buick.

DaveM · 15 Feb 2003, 23:30 (Ref:508102)

David Hepworth's Brabham-Chevrolet.

ascarracinguk · 15 Feb 2003, 23:37 (Ref:508111)

the faldays nice - i havent seen that one before- what was the engine?

ascarracinguk · 15 Feb 2003, 23:39 (Ref:508118)

oops typo felday

racing fxgt · 16 Feb 2003, 05:26 (Ref:508312)

Found this one of Tony Marsh who was Hillclimb 1955,56,57,and 1965,66.67. No info of the car.

racing fxgt · 16 Feb 2003, 05:29 (Ref:508313)

Missed out he was Hillclimb champ for those years

DaveM · 16 Feb 2003, 19:38 (Ref:508775)

Quote:

Originally posted by ascarracinguk
the feldays nice - i havent seen that one before- what was the engine?

I can't be certain ascar-man, but I believe that it had a BRM engine. Perhaps someone can confirm, and tell us what it was from.

DaveM · 16 Feb 2003, 19:41 (Ref:508779)

btw, I presume you meant the sports Felday at the beginning of the thread, rather than the stubby single seater, which had a 4.7 Ford V8.

mickj · 17 Feb 2003, 03:59 (Ref:509117)

Great pics DaveM.

I read somewhere yrs ago that the Felday sports racer was to be fitted with a 7 Litre Ford motor.

I've just noticed photo caption that says 7 Litre Felday. mm old age again.

gfm · 17 Feb 2003, 09:38 (Ref:509311)

I could well be wrong and probably am, but Originally I thought the Felday had a 2 litre V8 BRM. Then they realised the concept would handle a great deal more power and dropped in something bigger. We need the story, someone please?

Ted Walker · 21 Feb 2003, 08:20 (Ref:513186)

Peter Westbury built a range of Feldays His first one was fitted with a supercharged V8 Daimler,and went through to 4WD Sports racers. TheTony Marsh car shown is Buick powered. The David Hepworth picture is of the Brabham BT3 (the first GP Brabham}also fitted with a buick.

DaveM · 21 Feb 2003, 21:40 (Ref:513687)

If the David Hepworth car has a Buick engine I must have got my caption wrong, or the programme was wrong - but did he have more than one car at the same time? The above pic was taken 26th Nov 66 while this one was taken 2nd Oct 66. It's David Hepworth again, but the car looks different. Again I captioned it as a Brabham-Chevrolet.

The venue is the wickedly narrow and bumpy Olivers Mount at Scarborough.

DaveM · 21 Feb 2003, 21:43 (Ref:513690)

Again at Olivers Mount, this is Phil Chapman again in his home built special.

DaveM · 21 Feb 2003, 21:47 (Ref:513693)

Looking up the hill to see the romantically named Fred Smith in his Brabham BT14. If he had lost control he will have been comforted to see the iron girders of the footbridge there to prevent him going too far up the bank.

Ted Walker · 23 Feb 2003, 08:47 (Ref:514598)

Dave M You are right Hepworth did start off with a chevy in the BT3, When he bought his second Brabham a BT7 ,he changed to a buick. The BT3 is now in Donington.

gfm · 23 Feb 2003, 14:15 (Ref:514784)

I'm sitting looking at a race report from May 69, showing David Hepworth sitting 'on top' of something described as a Hepworth-Oldsmobile, leading Peter Lawsons Chevron B8 and Ben Moore's winning F3 Titan Mk3 at the Croft chicane.
(I'd transfer the image but Ted 'the Ferret' Walker looked aghast at Silverstone yesterday when we spoke about 'copyright infringements'!)

Ted Walker · 23 Feb 2003, 17:09 (Ref:514919)

gfm.I dont think we want to go down that road(or up that hill) on line.It could be David Hepworth in his BT7,11or FWD Hepworth.

DaveM · 24 Feb 2003, 23:32 (Ref:516667)

David Hepworth must have liked plenty horsepower to tap his foot to! Here at Castle Howard is a car which I captioned as the ex-Hepworth Healey-Chevrolet. Haven't a clue who the driver was.

DaveM · 24 Feb 2003, 23:36 (Ref:516673)

Here are two well known up-hillers getting it wrong at Harewood, firstly Peter Boshier-Jones in his Lotus 22...

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Bridgestone's Struggle?	Kirk	Formula One	17	21 May 2005 06:32
Why does the ALMS struggle?	Bentley03	North American Racing	36	27 Feb 2005 08:58
Why did Hodgson struggle in the last half of 2003?	Yoong Montoya	Bike Racing	6	6 Dec 2003 23:26
Jaguar to struggle in 2004	vatuloa	Formula One	22	5 Dec 2003 20:56