Well done Peter, Tarka lived up to the name by the sound of it, fish tailing.

For those thinking of hill climbing especially anyone who has not driven in anger before I would offer the following advice. Hill climb tracks can be rathyer unforgiving, narrow, little if any run off, and hard objects passed at speed. Often they are deceptive, Shelsley is a good example, easy to get to reasonably high speeds and suddenly enter a bend too fast that has negative camber and a big bank to ram. I did several sprint days previuosly on open airfield tracks with cones marking the course, here you can experiment with the limits of the car, braking and cornering and get to know how it reacts when you exceed its limitations. I also did quite a few track days over the years on different circuits, this IMO enables you to repeatively gain the feel of a car at high speed and learn its capibilities, once again open circuits with nice run off are best.

After 2 years going up Wiscombe I managed to take about 7 seconds off my time up that hill, but still felt I had more to learn get any quicker. Two key things I did notice between the slower and faster people were this, ignoring the differences in cars. Younger people were faster, probably due to less inhibitions and quicker reactions. The older chaps that were quick had years of experience and a great feel for what their car was capable of. I had a long discussion at one event with a chap who had hill climbed for over 35 years and he said he was slower now than when he started in the same car, even though the car was now faster. He said that he had resigned himself to the fact that he was unlikely to win any cups again, and his competition was now with himself and his fastest times on each hill.

Hill climbing is great fun but don't underestimate how hard it is. Pushing s car and yourself to the limits for 40-60 seconds can be very challenging.

Adrian

Buggered Off, to a modern none leaky car, heart's still ticking