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Hillclimbs and sprints
Lightning - 3/9/07 at 08:00 PM

my first sprint at the weekend in the mini. All went well till I sheared a driveshaft...bugger.But the reason for this post is I so wish I had tried this with the Tiger. There were lots of Westys there. I would strongly recommend others to join local motor clubs and complete. You only need a class B MSA licence. You just send away for it. Very minor mods to the car and you're away.
I nicer bunch of lads you'll never meet.

zxrlocost - 3/9/07 at 08:07 PM

Im in the shenstone and district car club.

real great bunch of people

some cars youd never dream of taking on a race track

one local old guy is a multi millionaire hes so sound and his wife sits in the passenger seat when they go round, he got beat by some racing car so went and bought a better Aston Martin than the one he already has haha!!!


it scares me some of the money they spend on there cars and they think its the norm well it is to them

Dangle_kt - 3/9/07 at 08:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Lightning
my first sprint at the weekend in the mini. All went well till I sheared a driveshaft...bugger.But the reason for this post is I so wish I had tried this with the Tiger. There were lots of Westys there. I would strongly recommend others to join local motor clubs and complete. You only need a class B MSA licence. You just send away for it. Very minor mods to the car and you're away.
I nicer bunch of lads you'll never meet.


What sort of mods are required?
What costs per event are we talking?
How much time does an event take? e.g. would it be a whole weekend thing, or is it a saturday, or do you have to go on the friday? - just trying to get a feel for the time commitment?

TimC - 3/9/07 at 08:20 PM

Out of interest what racewear have you bought?

StevieB - 3/9/07 at 08:22 PM

Not sure about the mods - but it'll probably be basic saftey stuff (cut out switch, roll bar, maybe an extinguisher etc.).

Costs usually about the £100ish mark

Events usually go on for a day - some go on for weekends. You could arrive early in the morning and set yourself up (cheap gazebo etc. makes life comfy), but you an often arrive the night before and pitch a tent up and get a BBQ on - generally a very social event.

I'll be joining the Auto 66 club and doing some sprints and hillclimbs when I've finished the Indy and done a few trackdays/setting up.

Lightning - 3/9/07 at 08:26 PM

My meet was £58 for the sunday.

Mods include if I remember correcty . Roll bar in CDS tubing and above your head for obvious reasons. However most of the westys bars were not that high. The engine bay has to be sealed from the driver. Our scrutineer allowed duct tape to cover small holes. Also electic kill switch has to be fitted. A local scrutineer visits the car at your house and issues a log book. All very easy.

The sprint was practice in the morning with two timed runs in the afternoon. Each being 3 laps of an airfield track.. Hill climbs are the same except driving up a hill (obviously)

Lightning - 3/9/07 at 08:30 PM

Clothing... You need overalls to NORME 1986 standard. Nomex fire retardant. Got mine second hand on fleabay for £66.

Your helmet has to be to the standards in the MSA Blue book. My motorcycle helmet was not allowed. however my other AGV bike helmet was to the correct BS number.

scoop - 3/9/07 at 08:31 PM

Have a look at www.top12runoff.co.uk
there's loads on there. Have a look at the link to the Force cars. Im nursing a semi just thinking of one

Lightning - 3/9/07 at 08:33 PM

However, I did sit at the start think "What the hell have I let myself in for". But that soon went. Everyone there said dont worry just enjoy it. and that I did till the bugger broke.

zilspeed - 3/9/07 at 08:39 PM

He's right you know.

Lots of people imagine that the time between runs will be waste, but it absolutely isn't and the day flies in.

lsdweb - 3/9/07 at 08:45 PM

Guys

A great sport - get out there and have a go! Very re;axed and your closest competitor will usually be the first person to come and help you when you have a problem.

Tim - are we going to see you in the Welsh Championship?

Wyn

caber - 3/9/07 at 08:56 PM

bit of an echo from Torquay

caber

TimC - 3/9/07 at 09:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by lsdweb
Guys

A great sport - get out there and have a go! Very re;axed and your closest competitor will usually be the first person to come and help you when you have a problem.

Tim - are we going to see you in the Welsh Championship?

Wyn


Hopefully - and here's the hillarious (pardon the pun) bit - I think it's only eligible for Libre in it's spec as designed.

Should be competitive then... NOT!

zilspeed - 3/9/07 at 09:36 PM

Libre is often populated by the wrong stuff though, so you might not be that disadvantaged.

JimSpencer - 4/9/07 at 08:20 AM

quote:
Originally posted by zilspeed
Libre is often populated by the wrong stuff though, so you might not be that disadvantaged.


And it doesn't matter anyway, as you're competing against the clock - especially for the first year or so

All clubs will find a class that you can run in, basically if its road legal you'll get to run in one class or another - out and out racing cars arn't much more complicated either.

As per most of the posts above, if you're thinking about it just give it a bash, and if you're not thinking about it - and you're on this site - then you should be..

My brother and I built a roadgoing Sylva Striker and after spending a few £k's for a season of model car racing decided to go and play at the hills and sprints as it would be cheaper..

It is too .. honestly

But its great fun too and so easy to do, once you've figured out where to go etc,.

If anybody want's walking through the getting started process I'm sure there are enough folk on here to help.

Coose - 4/9/07 at 09:14 AM

I've been hillclimbing bikes for the last 14 years and I can echo what has been said above! You meet some top people (who a lot of them are now good mates), but there is still a competitive spirit!

Volvorsport - 4/9/07 at 09:52 AM

its a must that you have a CDS roll cage/hoop .

its the one thing preventing me from competing at some events in mine .

TimC - 4/9/07 at 10:57 AM

'dim problem' for me as they say at the Trident Welsh Championship.

tcr - 4/9/07 at 06:49 PM

we race with notts sports car club in road going class, next event is at thorsby park near mansfield notts sat sept 15th free to watch and you can walk around the pits
http://gosprinting.co.uk/

[Edited on 4/9/07 by tcr]

lsdweb - 4/9/07 at 07:29 PM

Tim

I wouldn't worry too much about Libre. It's not well populated in the Welsh. You may see an immaculate Imp BEC (something Cole) and Martin Whiteland in his BEC Darrian (soon to be Ducati V twin possibly!)

Wyn