Update on 2014 adventures!

It's been too long since I have written an updated blog.   We mostly post on Facebook during the season and I'm pretty sure there are more viewers over there than this blog.... BUT I have just been reminded that not everyone has access to facebook, or wants to!

Our Impish Adventures in 2014 took us further afield from our usual South West hill climbs, as having more horsepower with a 998cc engine and 'fast road' set up and gaining our National A licences, we decided to try some different venues.  At the beginning of the year our provisional calendar was rather over-optimistic with Curborough, Doune, Shelsley Walsh and Prescott all potentially included.  Some venues fell by the wayside because of the cost of doing the event with extra membership fees we'd have to pay and other considerations, however two we did manage to include were Doune in Scotland, and Shelshley Walsh in Worcestershire, both of which we loved and are planning to return to in 2015, especially as we consider them unfinished business…  2014 also included the most breakages we have had so far, a sign that we are pushing the car harder and finding the weak points!  

Jenny on the startline at Shelsley Walsh

We put in an entry for a May event at Shelsley Walsh and crossed our fingers that our little car would be considered interesting enough to be accepted…  It was, and we even got a mention in the programme!  We were competing against Lotuses and the like in the National A class, but we weren't there to win anything - we had entered to experience the historic atmosphere and drive the hill, and I had chosen an event over my birthday weekend to make it even more memorable.  On arrival in the camping field we felt rather like the poor relations in our normal van and tent amongst all the massive motorhomes and covered trailers, and I wondered how our little car would be viewed particularly as it was a British Hillclimb Championship weekend. However we needn't have worried, once in the paddock and having worked out the system of booking the practice runs we enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere, and our paddock neighbours were friendly.  We had been warned that Shelsley is a power hill and probably not that suitable for the Imp, but it is far more than that and we loved it.  There are plenty of decisions to be made on gear changes and lines, and the challenge of the esses near the top.  While the fast boys and girls were doing eye-watering speeds up the hill, down at the slow end of the competition I started having some problems with the car not being in gear properly, particularly on the startline - needless to say this lost me a lot of time which is very frustrating when double driving!  Since Alex didn't have the same issue there was some discussion as to whether it was me or the car…  However, at the next event two weeks later we both experienced it and came to the conclusion that the flexible gear linkage was getting worn and flexing too much. The application of a cut-up beer can and some jubilee clips seemed to help, but with just a week before Doune hillclimb Alex spent a few late nights sorting out a new clutch and a rigid linkage.

The 470 mile trip up to Doune, north of Stirling, was nostalgic because Alex lived up there for a year, although we didn't know about the hill climb then.   We walked the hill on the Friday when we arrived, and it was just as people said – long and challenging!  Our weekend's competing was sadly cut short when Alex's 3^rd practice run ended with a very worrying noise which sounded as though it came from the bottom end of the engine.  Not being in a position or inclined to do emergency fixes we called it a day, but stayed to watch the rest of the two day event including the exciting British Hillclimb Championship runoffs.  Having travelled so far and Scotland feeling like a second home, we then went off for a week's camping holiday in the Highlands and forgot about nasty engine noises.  When we got home we discovered it was a bolt on the gearbox mounting that had worked loose, after the rush getting it all back together before we'd left for Scotland. It was a great relief that it wasn't serious, and it meant that Doune had to be on the 2015 calendar to complete unfinished business!  It is well worth the trip as it is a superb hill – long, twisty, narrow, blind-brow corners, and a fantastic view from the top holding paddock. Not to mention the great company: the committee and competitors are supremely welcoming and friendly, and a week's safe accommodation for our Imp while we went off camping was offered without hesitation.

Imps at Doune Hill Climb

 

The gear linkage problem reared its head again on my final run at Wiscombe Park in July, when something went bang as I was changing down to 2^nd for the final hairpin and I lost all gears.  It was clear that the linkage had broken and I had to be towed off, much to the annoyance of a friend who was behind me and having a particularly good run before he got red flagged!   It turned out that the link hadn't so much broken as become detached at one end, and this resulted in more discussions about whether it was now too rigid, it was a duff linkage, or what the problem/solution is.  Because so many people have previously competed in Hillman Imps, we invariably receive a lot of advice and ideas, all of which is listened to and then either followed, adapted or eventually discarded!

During the August break we replaced the twin Stromberg carbs with twin 40 Webers. Our interesting year had started with the needle falling out of one of the Stromberg jets over the finish line at Wiscombe Park, as luck would have it, the needle fell onto the belly pan and stayed there!  That led to an evening under an umbrella in pouring rain, fixing it and wiring it up so it couldn’t happen again, but made us rather wary of the Strombergs.

We managed a couple of uneventful weekends at Wiscombe in September, apart from losing the dust cap off one of the Webers and being lent one by a kindly marshal, who was repaid with a couple of pots of honey from our bees!   The final incident came at our local and final event of the year at Manor Farm, Charmouth which is a nice friendly finale to the season with a shortish hill through a campsite (sadly without caravans present which would make it an extra challenge!).   I drew the short straw again as on my final run of the weekend I dropped the clutch on the startline and something went 'bang' and proceeded to clonk-clonk around the first corner.. quickly realising that I'd been a little over-enthusiastic and broken something, I gingerly drove up the hill at a leisurely pace, disappointing those who expected the little Imp to come flying through the bridge 'a bit faster than that'!  It transpires that some teeth had broken in the diff, but thankfully my cautious response to the noises prevented further damage. Stronger diff sorted for 2015! And the gearbox is also being generally strengthened

So, 2014 was a year of pushing the car hard and again getting achingly close times between myself and Alex (double driving) with us alternately finishing victorious.  At Werrington I was overjoyed to win 'Best Lady' on both days, as they calculate it compared with best time in the class rather than just the fastest time.  For 2015 our calendar will be Wiscombe Park, Werrington and Charmouth in the South West, but we also plan to return to Doune and Shelsley.   We now also have a young Pointer dog that we will be showing, so that will make life varied. He's not just pretty face though, Lazlo is also a motorsport-loving dog having experienced his first hill climb at Wiscombe aged 11 weeks!