Chateau Impney Hillclimb Revival #1

I'd been looking forward to this one for a while. The first running of motorsport at this venue since the '60s and the pre-event build up sounded like it was going to be quite special. And it was. A huge line up of racing cars from the Edwardian era up to the '60s. Even having just parked there was some great variety in the neighbouring rows.







I walked in and down towards the paddock, climbing a bridge over the return road from the end of the hill. There was a trade area which I reckon will see greater development in future years.



The monster MGB stopped me in my tracks though.





I had a quick wander through the paddock but could hear action on the tarmac beyond and was still getting my bearings with the layout but had established where the return road spewed the runners back to their alloted spots.





I think it was the second batch of the day that was running up the hill but shortly they were done and the next batch made their way from the out of sight collecting area towards the startline. That was the first time I heard the thunder of the beast as it rolled along, just visible through the trees....

Soon enough cars started racing up the hill in front of me, tackling what was the second corner after a narrow wiggle through some bales and then out of sight across the front of the house chateau. The oldest cars.









Now, you've probably seen the Goodwood promo video or the excellent piece put together by Stefan Marjoram, but nothing can prepare you for the beast. It is just utterly ridiculous. Hardly suited to a narrow twisty course (it was built for the LSR after all) this was the car I had gone to see in action.



Just mind-blowingly brilliant.



And then what follows it? The V8 Darracq of course! Which gives up only about 3 litres of displacement to the FIAT but is immensly fast and always driven by Mark Walker like he stole it.



Seriously, if you have any pre-conceived ideas, that car will totally change your mind of ancient early 20th century vehicles as fuddy duddy, clattering and shuddering London-Brighton style machines. I had a brief conversation with him in the paddock later and he reckons it has about 300hp and around 1000 lbsf torque. It weighs less than a ton.

I realised they'd be coming back to the paddock so quickly walked back there to catch them on the return.





Just awesome. Really really awesome. It wasn't even 10am yet and I'd already reached pure bliss. Grabbed a couple more paddock shots as I went to find a coffee and to come back down a bit but there was just amazing machinery everywhere.















Right, coffee in hand, I put the camera down for a bit and sat in the little grandstand and watched from that same vantage point for a while.





Everyone remember the Napier Bentley from the Prescott RR Gathering?





The air had gone damp and it soon developed into a full blown heavy shower.







In fact at the end of that batch I think everything came to a halt for about 10 minutes. I don't really know as I was sheltering under trees and then in a couple of trade stalls as the rain absolutely hammered it down. To be continued....