Gurston Down Hill Climb

My first visit to Gurston Down Hillclimb also coincided with it being their first speed event of the new season.

It’s a very pleasant experience when you first walk into the farm yard that doubles up as the paddock for the weekend event.  You really could be in any period.  Look to your left and you see a row of Austin 7 specials, to your right everything from Mallocks, Pilbeams and Goulds. The second paddock’s collection of cars ranged from MX5s, Minis, Ginettas, Caterhams and all manner of interesting Clubmans cars

The Hill itself, all 967 metres of it starts with a downhill plunge (Park straight) where the fastest cars can reach speeds of over 130mph.  It’s then a left hander  (hollow bend) before the cars climb to reach the Karousel ( a great viewing point ) which is a sharp right hand turn leading onto an even sharper and steeper right hand turn taken at approximately 25mph and then onto Deer’s leap.  Here the most powerful cars can get airborne. Then it’s left into Ashes bend where the drivers then accelerate along Burke’s rise to the finish line.  Some cars have been recorded at over 150mph as they cross the line. The outright course record being held at 25.42 seconds in a Gould GR55B.

Cars are grouped in to categories from modified road cars up to full blown single seaters using anything from Indycar to F1 engines, with points awarded for the fastest times set.

Fastest time of the weekend was set by Tony Wiltshire in his 2.5 litre V6 Gould in a very impressive 27.87 seconds.

The next meeting is to be held on the My 26th/27th for full details go to: http://www.gurstondown.org/