How XLB got into hill climbing

by Jenny

Until a few months ago, ‘hill climbing’ to me had meant donning walking boots and setting off with the dog up a Scottish mountain. Now it has taken on a whole new meaning of donning a race suit and helmet and setting off in my Hillman Imp up a kilometre or so of tarmac.

My experience of competitive sports to date has been limited to yacht and dinghy racing, mainly because of my technical job in yacht handicapping. However, I have always enjoyed driving, and over the years both I and my husband Alex have hankered after taking part in historic rallying but were put off by the potential cost.  We then heard about speed hill climbing and realised that it was a great way to compete in motorsport on a limited budget.  A change in personal priorities a couple of years ago was the incentive to stop procrastinating, and so it was that at the age of 46 I became a speed hill climber.

Alex & I have had various classic cars over the years, including a Jaguar Mk2, Austin A35, Triumph Vitesse 6 and a Gilbern GT1800 which we still own.   We decided that our perfect car for hill climbing would be a Hillman Imp, so started looking in Sept 2011 and very soon found XLB 889G in Cornwall, a very original Imp Super with 32K on the clock for £1500.  At this point we discovered that low mileage doesn’t always equal less work, as after passing the MOT the car started rebelling once we were using it regularly!  Alex rebuilt the suspension and we got a new head gasket fitted as a precautionary measure; since then many hours have been spent fiddling with various settings and replacing ancilliaries in an effort to get the engine running reliably well.

In summer 2012 we spectated at two local hill climbs and in July it was time to enter my first event, the MG Car Club event at Wiscombe Park in September; followed 2 weeks later by the Woolbridge Motor Club event at Manor Farm, Charmouth.  At this stage we could only afford one set of gear and entries, so it was up to me to see what the Imp could do, while Alex was mechanic.

The month before the first event was spent getting and fitting new seats with headrests, and more tweaking of the engine as it still has a few running issues we couldn’t pin down.  I already knew that I wouldn’t be competitive in the A1 class (standard production ar up to 1400cc) but it didn’t matter – my aim was to enjoy myself, improve my personal best times, and not bend the car!

Camping at Wiscombe

After a 2.5 hour drive in the Imp down to Wiscombe on the Friday night, 8^th Sept dawned foggy but with the promise of sunshine.  I was pleased to ‘buddy up’ with the driver of the car in front of me, and we walked the hill together which was helpful.  Being in a paddock full of gorgeous MGs and derivatives, racing cars and obviously very experienced hill climbers could have been intimidating, but we have found without exception that hill climb people are some of the friendliest we have met.

My first practice run was slow! Over 80 seconds (the Minis do around 50-55); despite having walked the hill it looks very different from a driving seat, and I was finding my way. But when I got to the top I felt quite emotional that after all the anticipation of the last few months, I had actually DONE IT!!  After that I had a target to beat and was already planning where I could save time, and the sun had come out. By the 4^th run I’d got my time down to 70.8 and knew where I could save more next time. Not too bad for a first timer with an ancient, standard 875cc engine!

Some of our neighbours in the paddock at Wiscombe

Manor Farm is a totally different and much shorter course, and again we had a dry day. Unfortunately the car was running on kangaroo fuel, coughing and hesitating at inopportune moments, but it was an intermittent problem and we didn’t want to change things and risk making it worse!  This time I tried a different tactic for each run especially on gear changes, and ended up with a best time of 45.52 seconds.  I had entered the ‘Woolbridge class’ for beginners in a totally standard road car and was the only entrant in that class, so I took home a 1^st place award at the end of the day – a definite incentive for next year.

I’ve had lots of comments about the Imp and people saying how nice and original it looks, and how good it is to see a standard one competing. We do have plans to improve the performance over the winter, while staying in class A1 and keeping the car looking as standard as possible, which is important to us; it also has to also perform well as an everyday car.  

Alex will also be driving next year, we will be sharing the Imp; I’m really looking forward to the new season, and it will be a great incentive for me to get my times fast against his!