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!

Playing with carbs

by Alex

After two hillclimb events in the car with the new engine set-up, we have some work to do to fine tune things.

At a very wet Wiscombe at the end of April, the front engine carb jet dropped out after running really well. It happened quite quickly with little or no poor running beforehand, suggesting that the jet had been adjusted out too far when on the rolling road, and that the needle may be too lean thus requiring artificial enrichment by screwing out the jet.

We rebalanced the carbs and lock-wired everything in place as a temporary measure.

The following weekend at a sunny Werrington the car ran reasonably well but without the sizzle it had before. We then experienced misfire at the start line usually coinciding at the first gear change then clearing. The car revs out to 9k and the misfiring only happened on Jenny’s run after mine as the ‘A’ driver. This suggested that the plugs were fouling up with all the tickover waiting time, so perhaps the needle could be too rich low down. The plugs certainly looked fouled up but it was difficult to tell after a run up and then back down the hill. Changing them certainly helped, as did getting Jenny to rev it like a boy-racer before the start! On further inspection of the old set some of the porcelain had broken down.

Our conclusions are that the needles are too lean at the top and too rich at the bottom, as the plugs seem to be getting too hot and fouling up at the same time. Also, starting requires the choke but the engine will not run at all with it left on and a very light foot is required on the throttle.

We also wondered about dirty fuel, the facet silvertop pump has a poor filter which is easily blocked.

We are using SU needles in Strombergs, so using www.mintylamb.co.uk found a couple of alternatives using their comparison graph. BG which is much leaner low down and richer top looked perfect, but the curve proved too steep at the crucial 3 to 5k rev range, so we have tried CS2 which has the same curve as the CS1’s previously fitted, but richer at the top with a smoother curve.

After road testing and installing a glass filter before the fuel pump we await Wiscombe on the 17th/18th May with baited breath!

The Howells Championship 2014

Our first event this year was on March 30th at Clay Pigeon Kart track for a sprint, our first one. The track is very twisty as would be expected, and we are still not sure whether or not we like it!  Still it was good weather and a warm up for us and the new engine/gearbox and we had some fun sliding round the corners.. it would be interesting in the wet!

April 26/27 saw a very wet weekend at Wiscombe Park hill climb and the first proper test of the engine. All was going really well and the track wasn't too bad, Alex got very close to last year's personal best on Saturday afternoon.  On his last run the jet fell out of one of the Stromberg carbs, luckily falling on to the custom belly pan and not onto the track until he got to the top finish paddock.  Having found the jet he refitted it and Jenny got her final run.

Having made steps to prevent it coming out again, we started on Sunday but soon realised that the carbs were out of balance and we couldn't better 63 seconds.    The final run was cancelled because of the muddy/slippery state of the paddock, it was only a matter of time before a car slid into another, or worse into a pedestrian. Getting out and loaded up and away from the site was organised in batches so we were pretty much first away being in the first batch.  The quickest we've ever loaded the Imp on to the trailer and packed away the stuff in the van!

The carbs are being checked out, and hopefully the car will be running better for Werrington hill climb this weekend.

You can find a couple of videos from Wiscombe on YouTube:
Jenny final run Sunday:  http://youtu.be/GomQBB05lxc
Alex fastest run Saturday: http://youtu.be/B1dNTTFTHTM

The score in the Howells Championship to date is Alex 2 - Jenny 1.

If you haven't already found it, we now have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/imphillclimb - come and find us!

Last hill climbs and Goodwood Revival

I wanted to write a lovely illustrated blog post but I am using Alex's computer, so will have to add some photos later!

September was a mad round of hillclimbs, 3 weekends in a row which was pretty tiring!  Two at Wiscombe which were both wet, and one at Charmouth which was dank in the mornings, but dry for the afternoons. We like the final Charmouth hill climb as it is run by our Club, Woolbridge MC, and is a friendly event with the advantage of the camping being right next to the paddock which is a definite bonus with the dog!

After all the wet events we've had this year, our confidence in the car and how it handles has improved massively, and both Alex and I managed to post good new personal bests at each event.

Having competed in the MG Car Club hill climb on 14th September, we headed off the next day at 6am to the Goodwood Revival, in the Imp of course.  We had a cracking drive over through the Meon Valley with the sun burning off the early morning fog, and the Imp flying along enjoying the run.   The show was as good as ever, and although it started raining we had another good drive home without the Imp missing a beat.

Now we have finished the season and are looking forward to 2014, not only with the Imp's new 998cc engine and closer ratio gearbox, but we're also thinking of fitting some units into the Transporter since we will be spending every other weekend, for 6 months of the year, camping!

Wet stuff at Wiscombe!

The 5 Clubs (well 4 now) ran another great hill climb at Wiscombe Park at the weekend, and what an intense weekend it was!  The forecast was sunny mornings and showers in the afternoon, and that's pretty much what it did, with the addition of rain on Friday night to start off with a nice greasy track.

This event is very popular and was over-subscribed, we were fore-warned to enter early. One of my fellow lady drivers managed to get an entry for Saturday but not Sunday - the moral being "Get your entry in as soon as they open!".  Most of the friends we have made at various venues over this season were there which made it very sociable; and we made a few new friends as well.

So, Saturday morning dawned to the afore-mentioned greasy track and everyone took it fairly easy. By the second practice run it was stickier and most of us put up a good time, while casting suspicious looks at the black clouds looming from the south west.  It took its chance over the lunch break and started bucketing down; we ate our lunch in the Imp which has to be a first!  All we needed was a newspaper and we'd have made a good impression of tourists at a beauty spot viewpoint.

The afternoon runs were done in alternate heavy downpours and sunny spells, which arguably were worse as the track was half-dry half-wet. Alex managed some decent times but I lost interest and had two shocking timed runs so was in my usual spot at the bottom of the fleet. Never mind, tomorrow is another day and driving in so many different conditions is very good experience and does wonders for confidence.

On Sunday morning, having had a night in the tent listening to more downpours, I was thinking "urgh, do I really want to do this?".  Of course I did, and also couldn't possibly let down all the marshals who were doing a sterling job standing around getting soaked on our behalf.  Once I was up and ready I was feeling much more positive and practices went fine, with pretty much a carbon copy of weather and conditions from the day before. A first practice of 63.07 and second at 62.42 meant I was heading in the right direction to break my previous personal best of 61.25 (also achieved in damp conditions). Alex had a slowish first practice but did 60.95 in the second one, so I was chasing him.

We managed to get the tent down reasonably dry at lunchtime, the breeze having got up and the sun out during our second practices. By the time we'd walked back down to the paddock the queues for the food were too long so my customary Sunday sausage and chips was put off until after the first timed runs.


Yet again during lunchtime the heavens opened right on schedule, to many sighs of frustration from those with more powerful cars.  We weren't too worried in the Imp and our first timed runs were pretty good: 60.57 for Alex and 61.30 for me (0.06 off a new PB!).  That definitely got my competitive spirit flowing, and the secret weapon of sausage and chips completed it: I was determined to really go for it in the last run of the weekend.

Alex, to my surprise, came in a bit slower at 61.02 in his second timed run because he left a gear change too late in the Esses.  It was all to play for!  On the way down to my start I could feel the adrenalin building up, this was my last chance.  Alex and I had been talking about the "brake LATE and HARD" advice we'd had; and that when you want to brake you should say "A thousand" and then brake.  Clearly even experienced drivers suffer from the automatic caution that our brains use to protect us! I'd been getting braver with late braking into the Gate and two hairpins, and on this run I totally forgot about any dodgy track conditions and went for it; the whole run felt fast, but that can be deceiving.  When I got to the top my heart was going hammer and tongs, and I was desperate for the loo!  Once I got to look at the time I was amazed to see 60.37 and had to check it several times before I believed I'd knocked almost a second off my PB, and beaten Alex... I had the biggest grin on my face then for the rest of the day, and all the way home in fact!

A couple of events and plans for 2014

Since I last wrote, we have taken the Imp to Wiscombe Park again, and to Manor Farm at Charmouth which some people consider a 'mickey mouse' course but we quite like.  It is very different to Wiscombe, being open apart from going through a bridge under the A35, which provides the threat of concrete contact!   This year it was a damp weekend so we spent it experimenting with how the car behaved in the wet, while still keeping it on the black stuff. At least spinning off at Charmouth you're not likely to hit anything too hard.

The car is going well with the 930cc engine in, but we have our sights set on going faster and have just ordered a 998cc engine to be built for us, by the chap who built the 930cc and is ex-Hartwell.  It's a bit of an investment but once we have that we won't need to tinker with engines any more, at least that is the idea!    There are loads of ways we could make the car lighter to be more competitive, but firstly we want to stay in the production road car class, and more importantly we like the car as it is.   We don't want to strip out stuff to the limit of the class because we get a kick out of competing in a car in genuine road-going standard condition; and we think other people appreciate that too.

Photo www.simonrawling.com

We are making more and more friends as we go along on the hill climb circuit, whether it be ladies who have been competing for 26 years, or other newcomers to the sport, and everyone in between.  I was discussing the welcoming spirit of hill climbing with the aforementioned lady and we were comparing it with other sports and hobbies that we had done, most of which seem to have a hierarchy, snobbery and bitchiness which hill climbing just doesn't have.  We could chat away to a chap by the burger wagon and find out that he had won fastest time of the day, while we were slowest, and it doesn't matter! It's really good to feel part of it, I can't imagine anyone feeling like an outsider in this sport.

 

Photo www.simonrawling.com

Our next event will be at Wiscombe on 27/28 July, a National A Championship event as well as National B, so all the fast boys will be there (and girls, but usually there are only 2 or 3 of us at events).   The week after that we are venturing down to Cornwall to a circuit we haven't been to before, at Castle Hill which is near Lostwithiel.  We then have the rest of August off before a full programme in September, and that is the end of the season!  

The 998cc will go in for 2014, we'll run the rest of this year with the 930cc, firstly for consistency and secondly to save stress mid-season trying to get a new engine set up and running properly.

Wiscombe Park 27/28 April 2013

After all the stresses of the previous blog post, we were glad to be on the road to Wiscombe Park, with the Imp ensconced in a rather posh trailer borrowed from Alex's work.  The trip is a couple of hours and we arrived early, only to almost get the van stuck in the camping field, with the trailer on the back.   Luckily we managed to recruit some help from a fellow hillclimber and were soon parked in a better place and pointing downhill (always good). 

After walking the hill, we settled down for the night and woke bright and early the next day to find that the car wouldn't start.  Oh brilliant. A slight panic set in as we jump started it from the van - we thought we'd solved this non-starting problem? it had been fine for the previous 4 days.  Thankfully it was fine for the rest of the day but we made sure that we kept her pointing downhill!

 

This was Alex's very first hillclimb, and he was the first of the day to run. With double driving, the 'A' driver goes up in the first batch and then there is a quick changeover for the second driver who goes in the next batch.  Unsurprisingly, Alex loved it and got a time already down near 60 seconds for the run, something I had distantly dreamed of when I ran the car with the 875cc engine last September.  His best time of the weekend was 59.4 which he was very pleased with.

 

I was loads faster than last year and managed 64.5 secs on the Saturday, improving it to 61.64 on Sunday. There weren't many classic cars at the event, which made the paddock a bit less interesting to look around, although there was a Gilbern Invader which was interesting as we have a Gilbern GT which is next on the list for restoration (and hillclimbing!).

 

The weekend stayed dry, and as at the two events last year we got chatting to lots of new people, and some we had met at previous events.  Hillclimbing is such a friendly sport, everyone has time for a chat. The Imp got loads of attention and we discovered that lots of people started out their hilllclimb careers in them, so it sounds as though we are starting in the right place! 

  

We came home on a high, although exhausted! We're looking forward to Werrington in Devon, which is our next event, although we are going to have to drive the car down there, 3.5 hours, as we don't have a trailer available.  We think the engine will like it though, it could do with a decent run.

 

We are both definitely hooked!

 

 

Countdown to Wiscombe

Well, our little Imp has had a transplant and is now a 930cc.  Isn't it funny how your brain can so easily switch from thinking a 1 litre engine is small, to thinking 'wow! 930cc, feisty!' - it's all relative.

Having started the winter engine change project back in October, our collection of engines has grown from one (the original) to four.  We bought a second hand 875cc Sport engine + spare, but couldn't get it running very well, and spent some time choking on exhaust fumes even with all the garage doors open.   

We then bought a 930cc engine which was supposedly built for hill climbing and had only been bench run.  "Perfect," we thought, "it's tricked up and can go straight in."    We toyed with the idea of trying to get the Sport engine going properly before changing them over, but then decided to just put the 930 in so we had more time to drive it around before our first event at the end of April.

Well... it turned out to not be quite so ready as we thought.  We knew it needed an alternator, since we'd be using for every day driving and not just competition, so we got a second hand one sold as 'working ok'.  The plug leads looked a bit iffy and didn't fit very well, and we discovered that the distributor cap had a massive crack in it so had to be replaced. 

Having got the engine fitted we spectacularly failed to get it started, and with about 5 weeks to go until Wiscombe Hill Climb we decided to give it to our local mechanic to have a look at, as we were running out of time.  Just to frustrate this plan, having put on a new brake master cylinder we then had trouble with the brake bleeding, and it took us at least 2 evenings of pedal pumping to get the brakes in a fit state to be able to tow the car down to his workshops.

The alternator turned out not to work ok so we got a new one, along with new plug leads.  Our mechanic managed to get the engine started but it was running extremely rich, so the next thing was to get the correct jets etc. for the carbs.  Our bank balance was rapidly shrinking and our stress levels rising, but the good news was that it passed the MOT! 

The car now ran and had been fiddled with, and after two and a half weeks without it we went and picked the car up. We then discovered that both carbs were leaking fuel when the engine wasn't running.  Adjustment of the fuel pressure seemed to fix that (fingers crossed), but the car was a complete b*** to start, although once it did start, it ran like a dream!

Head-scratching ensued. Plugs were cleaned, and a new battery has just arrived that should cope better with the higher compression. The next job is to adjust the timing to stop it pinking. Oh and the head gasket is weeping a bit of oil so we've ordered a gasket set.  What did I say about the bank balance?  It's currently on the downhill stretch of the roller coaster.

So, it's now two and a half weeks until Wiscombe and every day involves either working on the Imp or spending money on it, or both.

It's worth it for the huge grin on our faces when we drive it!

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!