NEW V8 ON TEST BENCH
The new 4.4 litre V8 that will power the Fleetwoods GR55 Gould is on the test bench at Nicholson McLaren. It reported has 550bhp and sounds the business so cant wait to hear it howl up the finishing straight at Shelsley and Gurston. The tub is being painted as of late January and so the car is now under construction.
21 January 2003
V6s EVERYWHERE!
With the Fleetwoods having a Gould GR51 chassis next year along with Rob Turnbull and Tony Marsh, Allan Warburton and Paul Haimes are to be in V6 but of their own engineering. A 1999 Dallara chassis (F399) will be tied up with a Opel/Cosworth KF 2.5 litre V6 and a Hewland FTR gearbox. The engine is stripped down already for any replacement parts that will be needed. Needless to say, it will run on the world famous DTA engine management system! (9th October 2002).
October 21 2002
JUNIOR EVEN FASTER AT SHELSLEY
After having gone away from Shelsley and analyses his data, Graemem Wight jnr went even faster on the S Approach at Shelsley in August than the indicated 128/129mph. He actually went faster beyond the trap on his data, hitting 134mph before getting onto the brakes... Breathtaking!
FAST 2 LITRE CAR FOR SALE
Arguably the best 2 litre Hill Climb car running today. Y-Gelli championship car 2 years from the last 3. Consistent top 12 qualifier (including a 6th at Shelsley and a 4th at September Prescott), currently 11th in the British Championship. Multiple record holder. 300+bhp Vauxhall engine on Methanol with fresh rebuild for the current year. Much admired, fresh paint job. No expense has been spared on this machine.
Buy a winner, £ 35,000 Spares package available.
Allan Warburton
01274 667960 (w) 0161 278 5959 (w) 0797 086 0175 (m) [email protected]
GOULD FLEETWOOD V6 FOR 2003
Father and son team Roger and Adam Fleetwood will move from their 100cc OMS to a new Gould GR51 chassis next year with a bored out 2.65 litre Indy Car Ford XB V8 engine in the back of it. Normally aspirated it will be of 3.3 litres in capacity after being seen to by Nicholson McLaren Engineering (NME) linked to a sequential box with the option in the long run of flipper paddle gear change. Fleetwood has taken the scene by storm in recent years with his committed driving and giant killing acts in the little engined car and he is certainly a driver to be looked on for outright wins and Championship glory in years to come. It will be good for the championship to see Adam in the car as many have said Graeme Jnr has had it his own way recently, which is not necessarily true with Masons good run this summer, but he is quick and we look forward to seeing how he gets on. said David Gould.
TURNBULL AND MARSH FOR GOULD V6?
Will Rob Turnbull and Tony Marsh opt for a Gould V6 for 2003? With the pair of them selling their V8s as the 2002 season comes into the autumn, what may they drive next year?
0-100mph-0
Autocar ran a test day at Bruntingthorpe last Friday with the fastest production cars doing 0-100mph and back to 0 again with the Gould V6 there as an example of British Speed Hill Climb Cars. The Caterham Superlight beat the McLaren F1 road car time with something around the 10 second mark whilst Graeme Junior did it in 6.5 seconds...
September 2 2002
Giles Greenfield has the pleasure of owning the 1969 McLaren M10A/B Formula 5000 car that the late 'Nick' Williamson drove to the Shell/R.A.C. National Hillclimb Championship in 1970. He has just completed a sympathetic rebuild of the car in preparation for vintage track events, in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere on the West Coast.
He hopes to bring the car to the U.K. sometime next year, perhaps on the way back from the February Southern Festival of Speed in New Zealand. Hes searching for period information and photographs of the car in action during 1969/1970 so maybe someone can point him in the right direction.
Giles Greenfield, 3203 N. 27th. St., Tacoma, Wa. 98407, U.S.A. is his address.
Email
August 22 2002
TEAM TIM GOULD FOR SALE
The Gould of Tim Coventry and Tim Mason is for sale. Coventry returned to the British scene for Wiscombe and said as such. I have really rediscovered sailing and think I will take a break from motorsport for the time being.
July 29 2002
TWIN ENGINED FORCE APPEARS
Phil Davie appeared with the latest Bill Chaplin engineered Force single seater at the weekend. Two 1000cc engines line across the frame with the throttle bodies opening at exactly the same time. The two output drives drive a shaft that then drives the final drive. Bill Chaplin now has to concentrate on his other project reclaiming his recently lost 3 wheeler record at Shelsley!
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July 29 2002
BOLSOVER APPEARS
Three time British Hill Climb Champion Martin Bolsover appeared at Wiscombe for the first time in many a year to have a look around. If it wasnt for the RAC signs I wouldnt have found my way here!
July 29 2002
GERMAN BMW JUDD V8!
We have just been sent this picture of Georg Plasa´s BMW 320 Chassis with a 3.4 Judd V8 Engine from Tomas Bubel who runs a great deal of hill climbing information sites in Germany... Get a load of that!
8 July 2002
HILL CLIMBING IN EUROPE
Here are the latest photos from the recent Wolsfeld Hill Climb in Germany from my German Opposite number Thomas Bubel. He runs top12runoff in the German version! see below for Thomas' sites....
On the start line ready for the off is the Osella PA 20 BMW 3.0 Group CN Car, with Uwe Lang.
The Mercedes is a 190 E Evo II in Class 1 Driver is Norbert Brenner (4 times German Hillclimb Champion). He started in the championship and in the "KW Berg-Cup" for Group H Cars.
Then we have Ralf Kroll in the blue VW Golf 16V 1600 cc, Christian Reuter in the lovely BMW M3 E30 Evo Sport 2.5 - the last of the M3s built for the DTM. The works cars had 380 bhp at the height of their lives!
Bruno Ianniello, Lancia Delta S4. Frank Genbrock , Opel Kadett C 16V 2 litre, Herbert Stolz, Porsche 935 II and Georg Olbrich in the yellow Osella PA9 BMW 2.5 C3.
He is very keen for some of us to go over there and have a go at these hills... Get in touch with him if you are interested.
http://www.berg-cup.de
http://www.homburger-bergrennen.de
http://www.berg-meisterschaft.de
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27 May 2002
NEW PILBEAM MP88 IS OUT!
The brand new Pilbeam MP88 came out in public for the first time at the opening round of the 2002 Tran-X British Hill Climb Championship with Mike Pilbeam and Roger Moran keen to get the car running as quickly as possible.
With Pilbeams winning nearly twenty speed Hill Climb titles in the past, many were waiting for the answer to the dominant force of Gould Engineering from the Bourne workshops which last won the championship in 1997 with, ironically, Roger Moran. An altogether smaller car than a 'big' V8, the car has gone for the 2.5 V6 litre engine originally built by Cosworth for the DTM in 1996 when Keke Rosberg ran the Opel Calibras. In those days the engine was on air valves and revving to 14,000 with all of the power up top, but now built by Swindon and returning to springs, the power band is somewhat lower.
Pilbeam."We started in about December although we'd been looking at it for a while, but once we'd decided to go with that gearbox it all happened."
"We've made the car light on the principle that if it is as such then the loads on everything are lower and this car is about 100kgs lighter than the MP72 for example. The tub is similar to an MP87 (Goodyear car) but it has a few changes to the front shape aerodynamically, but it is basically the same even with a few mods. The shape difference is underneath around the area of the front wishbone to get a cleaner airflow through and underneath the sidepods. The venturis have had a lot of work and they go ever so nicely from the front all the way to the back.
The gearbox is a current spec Hewland 'box for the 2002 Dallara F3 cars. "It is a very light 6 speed 'box but we've had to pretty well re-design it inside with a bigger crown wheel, bigger diff, bigger side plates and gears. The casting is the same, but there are still a few things still to do, but it makes a nice package as long as it is strong enough."
Pilbeam, "The rear suspension is totally different as the one complaint from me with regards to the MP72 was the rockers were behind the axle and we could never make the points stiff enough as they were 'too far away' without going really heavy, so this is much better."
It is interesting to see that the exhausts emanate way back towards the engine with the hot air being directed up towards the underside of the rear wing through the rear suspension... Almost a little F1.
So where has Pilbeam been over the past couple of seasons whilst the Goulds dominate?
"We have never lost enthusiasm for the hills, but we have got so involved in the sportscar scene we just ran out of time. We did a lot of work with Barry last year with that turbo, but we're still doing some sportscars and also doing a new European Touring car for Nissan which is really for next year."
Pilbeams are already building another MP88 for John Leinster over in Ireland who has an MP82 at the moment.
The aerodynamics look very different on the outside to any other Top 12 car as the rear wing is relatively small in comparison to the big multi plane barn doors that regularly hang out of the back, but there has been much taken from the knowledge of the Goodyear - Toet package that had a lot of input from Willem Toet. The floor is particularly neatly designed with nothing attached to it to aid removal and produces a great deal of downforce so necessitating a smaller rear wing to reduce the drag. "We found there would be too much and that would in turn push the front."
Looking at the back of the car, the venturi is not equal in size left to right either side of the gearbox. Why? "We left it so you can use an FTC gearbox which has a lump on one side so we may redesign the undertray to fit this one later."
Roger Moran has been over to Pilbeams in Lincolnshire for the last two weekends to get accustomed to the package but there have been some problems with the read out of the water temperature reading 85 degrees even when the car is stone cold. These problems continued to bug the car over the weekend with the engine misfiring now and again which was a shame as at Curborough late on Friday night Roger said that it ran relatively well. A practice run on Saturday was OK, but then a wheel bearing problem forced a retreat to Moran's workshop for repairs but these are all part of the process.
Points in the opening round of the championship at Loton Park have seen an early result for the car which will improve hand over fist over the 2002 season.
Keep in touch through top12runoff.co.uk and follow the car's progress and keep in touch through the Pilbeam website at pilbeamracing.co.uk
30 April 2002