'87 Sports Libre BMW 2cv & 94 MX5 Hillclimbers - MEGA UPDATE

And this leads me to the final event of my season, the inaugural Watergate Bay Speed Hillclimb, the first closed road hillclimb in a generation and hopefully the start of something amazing for UK motorsport.

Watergate was bitter sweet to be back at, I essentially broke my back here racing my old powerboat in 2008 and haven't been back since, although I am pretty well fixed now and indeed have a new boat that I am raced Internationally again in 2014, and on and off since, it was slightly emotional being back.

Here is Watergate:

IMG_3284 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

And here are some of the new boat to give you an idea how you could get such an injury.

10671288_10203560070656786_6589655291155981773_n by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

10635763_10203560002095072_1213418805189462372_n by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

10665843_10203560000255026_2806606674845716942_n by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

10696291_10203560022095572_5689487180839795315_n by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Getting Scrutineered in the Bottom Paddock, the same place we used to get scrutineered for the Zapcat/Thundercat boat racing and incidentally the same place that Green Car got that dent in his rear passenger door from an errant boat trailer hitch!

IMG_3286 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Up in the Top Paddock.

IMG_3287 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

41955037_2019180994811913_6289326950351634432_n by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

IMG_3333 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Waiting at the Top Paddock gate for the batch of cars before us to finish their runs.  The methanol fuelled bike supercharged bike engined space framed Imp was in my class as was Stuarts Radical as usual.

ZL4A6140 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

ZL4A6141 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

ZL4A6135 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

ZL4A6148 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

ZL4A6129 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Rolling down the hill to the start line/bottom paddock.  We were always start of the batch as the radical needs a large turning space in the bottom paddock.

41948654_10155929098638435_1203278497208860672_n by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Starting off from the road junction just outside the Watergate Bay hotel you zoom in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and then drop it back to 2nd for the hairpin

42114300_10155929066543435_8028698751436587008_n by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Then I buried it, foot to the floor for the whole rest of the hill.

41957138_10155929066688435_6867183025860378624_n by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Around the clifftop corner where there were cones setup to narrow you into the left hand lane before the chicane.

IMG_3340 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Throwing it into the chicane flat out.

ZL4A6006 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Yes that's sliding on R888R's.

41990954_10155929097388435_2749385802290036736_n by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

IMG_3293 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

IMG_3294 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

Yes my eyes are closed in one of those pictures above.

ZL4A6172 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

IMG_3332 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr

I suppose the correct thing to do here is show you some video.. but I haven't yet uploaded that to youtube.. I'll get back to you - it's well worth a watch for how big the slide at the chicane is and how close we get to the bales!

FYI 

We monstered a few things but those that I was most impressed with were:

1. Supercharged Huyabusa Caterham
2. Ariel Atom 4 - the factory had sent its brand new V4 factory demonstrator to show the world.  BEAT IT BY A CLEAN SECOND.

Standby for the VIDEO!

300% stiffer, I'm going to go to 450% this winter I think... the back will be fine...?

I guess you've probably been called an adrenaline junky before.......

Damn, that bale nearly jumped far enough to get you.... big one too - well dodged!

Green Car certainly goes well now, love the way it still sounds like a 2CV from the inside.

Your earlier Tregrayne video brought back memories. I marshalled there in the late 80s have gone down there with friends who were racing. I hadn't expected to be marshalling but they didn't have enough to run the event without a bit of press-gang activity. Was a busy day too - people kept crashing off into the bushes....

Nick

I just love this little car!

I'm no expert on suspension but do the front wheels look like they need a bit more negative camber?

But it's scary with my eyes open.

Yep.  That day at Gurston was not ideal, a genuinely awful ride back on the recovery truck working out what to do with life.  Park it or grease monkey like crazy.

Also... I still don't see how you have time for the forum with so many awesome projects on the go!

This is so fantastic!

Curious that you run on R888 tyres.

I found these tyres completely useless for sprints/hillclimbs as you don't get any heat in them.
They are a trackday tyre, which they excell at, so really need heat the more the better. I found them awfull when cold.

I ran them many years ago on a series 2 106 rallye, in someways a similar car being fwd and lightweight.

I drove it daily and also used it for sprints and track days, all on R888 tyres.

I got on alright with them on the road but was told many times that they weren't great in the wet. I didn't encounter anything untoward in the wet but properly subconsciously backed off as well!

When sprinting it would be 50/50 wether it was a clean run or not, driver skill not included! The biggest indication of tyre heat differences was competing at Lydden Hill. The sprint finished early and the organisers allowed people to hot lap, untimed, if you wished. Doing this allowed me to get and keep heat in the tyres. The car was like night and day difference compared to the earlier timed runs on cold tyres.

Same with trackdays. First 2-3 laps out on cold tyres would be a case of tip toeing round, but once the heat was there, nothing would unstick that car.

Sorry, can't help with pressures mainly because I don't remember!

Any recommendations for self warming tyres? 😛