Update on 2014 adventures!

It's been too long since I have written an updated blog.   We mostly post on Facebook during the season and I'm pretty sure there are more viewers over there than this blog.... BUT I have just been reminded that not everyone has access to facebook, or wants to!

Our Impish Adventures in 2014 took us further afield from our usual South West hill climbs, as having more horsepower with a 998cc engine and 'fast road' set up and gaining our National A licences, we decided to try some different venues.  At the beginning of the year our provisional calendar was rather over-optimistic with Curborough, Doune, Shelsley Walsh and Prescott all potentially included.  Some venues fell by the wayside because of the cost of doing the event with extra membership fees we'd have to pay and other considerations, however two we did manage to include were Doune in Scotland, and Shelshley Walsh in Worcestershire, both of which we loved and are planning to return to in 2015, especially as we consider them unfinished business…  2014 also included the most breakages we have had so far, a sign that we are pushing the car harder and finding the weak points!  

Jenny on the startline at Shelsley Walsh

We put in an entry for a May event at Shelsley Walsh and crossed our fingers that our little car would be considered interesting enough to be accepted…  It was, and we even got a mention in the programme!  We were competing against Lotuses and the like in the National A class, but we weren't there to win anything - we had entered to experience the historic atmosphere and drive the hill, and I had chosen an event over my birthday weekend to make it even more memorable.  On arrival in the camping field we felt rather like the poor relations in our normal van and tent amongst all the massive motorhomes and covered trailers, and I wondered how our little car would be viewed particularly as it was a British Hillclimb Championship weekend. However we needn't have worried, once in the paddock and having worked out the system of booking the practice runs we enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere, and our paddock neighbours were friendly.  We had been warned that Shelsley is a power hill and probably not that suitable for the Imp, but it is far more than that and we loved it.  There are plenty of decisions to be made on gear changes and lines, and the challenge of the esses near the top.  While the fast boys and girls were doing eye-watering speeds up the hill, down at the slow end of the competition I started having some problems with the car not being in gear properly, particularly on the startline - needless to say this lost me a lot of time which is very frustrating when double driving!  Since Alex didn't have the same issue there was some discussion as to whether it was me or the car…  However, at the next event two weeks later we both experienced it and came to the conclusion that the flexible gear linkage was getting worn and flexing too much. The application of a cut-up beer can and some jubilee clips seemed to help, but with just a week before Doune hillclimb Alex spent a few late nights sorting out a new clutch and a rigid linkage.

The 470 mile trip up to Doune, north of Stirling, was nostalgic because Alex lived up there for a year, although we didn't know about the hill climb then.   We walked the hill on the Friday when we arrived, and it was just as people said – long and challenging!  Our weekend's competing was sadly cut short when Alex's 3^rd practice run ended with a very worrying noise which sounded as though it came from the bottom end of the engine.  Not being in a position or inclined to do emergency fixes we called it a day, but stayed to watch the rest of the two day event including the exciting British Hillclimb Championship runoffs.  Having travelled so far and Scotland feeling like a second home, we then went off for a week's camping holiday in the Highlands and forgot about nasty engine noises.  When we got home we discovered it was a bolt on the gearbox mounting that had worked loose, after the rush getting it all back together before we'd left for Scotland. It was a great relief that it wasn't serious, and it meant that Doune had to be on the 2015 calendar to complete unfinished business!  It is well worth the trip as it is a superb hill – long, twisty, narrow, blind-brow corners, and a fantastic view from the top holding paddock. Not to mention the great company: the committee and competitors are supremely welcoming and friendly, and a week's safe accommodation for our Imp while we went off camping was offered without hesitation.

Imps at Doune Hill Climb

 

The gear linkage problem reared its head again on my final run at Wiscombe Park in July, when something went bang as I was changing down to 2^nd for the final hairpin and I lost all gears.  It was clear that the linkage had broken and I had to be towed off, much to the annoyance of a friend who was behind me and having a particularly good run before he got red flagged!   It turned out that the link hadn't so much broken as become detached at one end, and this resulted in more discussions about whether it was now too rigid, it was a duff linkage, or what the problem/solution is.  Because so many people have previously competed in Hillman Imps, we invariably receive a lot of advice and ideas, all of which is listened to and then either followed, adapted or eventually discarded!

During the August break we replaced the twin Stromberg carbs with twin 40 Webers. Our interesting year had started with the needle falling out of one of the Stromberg jets over the finish line at Wiscombe Park, as luck would have it, the needle fell onto the belly pan and stayed there!  That led to an evening under an umbrella in pouring rain, fixing it and wiring it up so it couldn’t happen again, but made us rather wary of the Strombergs.

We managed a couple of uneventful weekends at Wiscombe in September, apart from losing the dust cap off one of the Webers and being lent one by a kindly marshal, who was repaid with a couple of pots of honey from our bees!   The final incident came at our local and final event of the year at Manor Farm, Charmouth which is a nice friendly finale to the season with a shortish hill through a campsite (sadly without caravans present which would make it an extra challenge!).   I drew the short straw again as on my final run of the weekend I dropped the clutch on the startline and something went 'bang' and proceeded to clonk-clonk around the first corner.. quickly realising that I'd been a little over-enthusiastic and broken something, I gingerly drove up the hill at a leisurely pace, disappointing those who expected the little Imp to come flying through the bridge 'a bit faster than that'!  It transpires that some teeth had broken in the diff, but thankfully my cautious response to the noises prevented further damage. Stronger diff sorted for 2015! And the gearbox is also being generally strengthened

So, 2014 was a year of pushing the car hard and again getting achingly close times between myself and Alex (double driving) with us alternately finishing victorious.  At Werrington I was overjoyed to win 'Best Lady' on both days, as they calculate it compared with best time in the class rather than just the fastest time.  For 2015 our calendar will be Wiscombe Park, Werrington and Charmouth in the South West, but we also plan to return to Doune and Shelsley.   We now also have a young Pointer dog that we will be showing, so that will make life varied. He's not just pretty face though, Lazlo is also a motorsport-loving dog having experienced his first hill climb at Wiscombe aged 11 weeks!

Playing with carbs

by Alex

After two hillclimb events in the car with the new engine set-up, we have some work to do to fine tune things.

At a very wet Wiscombe at the end of April, the front engine carb jet dropped out after running really well. It happened quite quickly with little or no poor running beforehand, suggesting that the jet had been adjusted out too far when on the rolling road, and that the needle may be too lean thus requiring artificial enrichment by screwing out the jet.

We rebalanced the carbs and lock-wired everything in place as a temporary measure.

The following weekend at a sunny Werrington the car ran reasonably well but without the sizzle it had before. We then experienced misfire at the start line usually coinciding at the first gear change then clearing. The car revs out to 9k and the misfiring only happened on Jenny’s run after mine as the ‘A’ driver. This suggested that the plugs were fouling up with all the tickover waiting time, so perhaps the needle could be too rich low down. The plugs certainly looked fouled up but it was difficult to tell after a run up and then back down the hill. Changing them certainly helped, as did getting Jenny to rev it like a boy-racer before the start! On further inspection of the old set some of the porcelain had broken down.

Our conclusions are that the needles are too lean at the top and too rich at the bottom, as the plugs seem to be getting too hot and fouling up at the same time. Also, starting requires the choke but the engine will not run at all with it left on and a very light foot is required on the throttle.

We also wondered about dirty fuel, the facet silvertop pump has a poor filter which is easily blocked.

We are using SU needles in Strombergs, so using www.mintylamb.co.uk found a couple of alternatives using their comparison graph. BG which is much leaner low down and richer top looked perfect, but the curve proved too steep at the crucial 3 to 5k rev range, so we have tried CS2 which has the same curve as the CS1’s previously fitted, but richer at the top with a smoother curve.

After road testing and installing a glass filter before the fuel pump we await Wiscombe on the 17th/18th May with baited breath!

The Howells Championship 2014

Our first event this year was on March 30th at Clay Pigeon Kart track for a sprint, our first one. The track is very twisty as would be expected, and we are still not sure whether or not we like it!  Still it was good weather and a warm up for us and the new engine/gearbox and we had some fun sliding round the corners.. it would be interesting in the wet!

April 26/27 saw a very wet weekend at Wiscombe Park hill climb and the first proper test of the engine. All was going really well and the track wasn't too bad, Alex got very close to last year's personal best on Saturday afternoon.  On his last run the jet fell out of one of the Stromberg carbs, luckily falling on to the custom belly pan and not onto the track until he got to the top finish paddock.  Having found the jet he refitted it and Jenny got her final run.

Having made steps to prevent it coming out again, we started on Sunday but soon realised that the carbs were out of balance and we couldn't better 63 seconds.    The final run was cancelled because of the muddy/slippery state of the paddock, it was only a matter of time before a car slid into another, or worse into a pedestrian. Getting out and loaded up and away from the site was organised in batches so we were pretty much first away being in the first batch.  The quickest we've ever loaded the Imp on to the trailer and packed away the stuff in the van!

The carbs are being checked out, and hopefully the car will be running better for Werrington hill climb this weekend.

You can find a couple of videos from Wiscombe on YouTube:
Jenny final run Sunday:  http://youtu.be/GomQBB05lxc
Alex fastest run Saturday: http://youtu.be/B1dNTTFTHTM

The score in the Howells Championship to date is Alex 2 - Jenny 1.

If you haven't already found it, we now have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/imphillclimb - come and find us!

Upgrades all round

Crikey, I didn't realise it was October when I last wrote on here, a lot has happened since then!

We now have the 998cc engine fitted in the Imp, with twin Strombergs, an R17 cam, Maniflow exhaust and a closer ratio box. These changes necessitated an upgrade to more hefty half shafts as well! We have taken it on a few test runs and are sorting out the inevitable tweaks needed to the mixture and a mystery minor oil leak, other than that it goes like a dream. We are going to check the decibel level though, as it seems quite loud....
 

Alex enjoying a wet Wiscombe. Photo by www.teltphotography.com

 

Our first planned event is the sprint at Clay Pigeon in Dorset on 30th March, and then a gap until the first Wiscombe hill climb at the end of April which marks the start of the season proper.

Both Alex and I have upgraded to Nat A licences this year, partly because we took all the trouble to get the upgrade card signed! Partly because it makes us feel as though we've arrived, and partly because it gives us more choice of which events to do. Often when an event has both A and B events on, the Nat B classes are very generalised into eg. all road going cars, so we'd be better off in the Nat A classes. We'll see how it goes this year.

Last year people who saw us may remember we usually had our elderly Pointer dog with us, who was happy to sleep in the back of the van, but sometimes came out for social visits around the paddock where allowed! Sadly we lost him in mid-December so will not have his company this year, it won't be the same...  We have decided not to get a new puppy until the end of this season; it had been a concern of mine that we are planning to do some further afield events this year and some sprints, and I'm sure it would have been an issue at some stage, and definitely would be with a pup!

Last hill climbs and Goodwood Revival

I wanted to write a lovely illustrated blog post but I am using Alex's computer, so will have to add some photos later!

September was a mad round of hillclimbs, 3 weekends in a row which was pretty tiring!  Two at Wiscombe which were both wet, and one at Charmouth which was dank in the mornings, but dry for the afternoons. We like the final Charmouth hill climb as it is run by our Club, Woolbridge MC, and is a friendly event with the advantage of the camping being right next to the paddock which is a definite bonus with the dog!

After all the wet events we've had this year, our confidence in the car and how it handles has improved massively, and both Alex and I managed to post good new personal bests at each event.

Having competed in the MG Car Club hill climb on 14th September, we headed off the next day at 6am to the Goodwood Revival, in the Imp of course.  We had a cracking drive over through the Meon Valley with the sun burning off the early morning fog, and the Imp flying along enjoying the run.   The show was as good as ever, and although it started raining we had another good drive home without the Imp missing a beat.

Now we have finished the season and are looking forward to 2014, not only with the Imp's new 998cc engine and closer ratio gearbox, but we're also thinking of fitting some units into the Transporter since we will be spending every other weekend, for 6 months of the year, camping!

Wet stuff at Wiscombe!

The 5 Clubs (well 4 now) ran another great hill climb at Wiscombe Park at the weekend, and what an intense weekend it was!  The forecast was sunny mornings and showers in the afternoon, and that's pretty much what it did, with the addition of rain on Friday night to start off with a nice greasy track.

This event is very popular and was over-subscribed, we were fore-warned to enter early. One of my fellow lady drivers managed to get an entry for Saturday but not Sunday - the moral being "Get your entry in as soon as they open!".  Most of the friends we have made at various venues over this season were there which made it very sociable; and we made a few new friends as well.

So, Saturday morning dawned to the afore-mentioned greasy track and everyone took it fairly easy. By the second practice run it was stickier and most of us put up a good time, while casting suspicious looks at the black clouds looming from the south west.  It took its chance over the lunch break and started bucketing down; we ate our lunch in the Imp which has to be a first!  All we needed was a newspaper and we'd have made a good impression of tourists at a beauty spot viewpoint.

The afternoon runs were done in alternate heavy downpours and sunny spells, which arguably were worse as the track was half-dry half-wet. Alex managed some decent times but I lost interest and had two shocking timed runs so was in my usual spot at the bottom of the fleet. Never mind, tomorrow is another day and driving in so many different conditions is very good experience and does wonders for confidence.

On Sunday morning, having had a night in the tent listening to more downpours, I was thinking "urgh, do I really want to do this?".  Of course I did, and also couldn't possibly let down all the marshals who were doing a sterling job standing around getting soaked on our behalf.  Once I was up and ready I was feeling much more positive and practices went fine, with pretty much a carbon copy of weather and conditions from the day before. A first practice of 63.07 and second at 62.42 meant I was heading in the right direction to break my previous personal best of 61.25 (also achieved in damp conditions). Alex had a slowish first practice but did 60.95 in the second one, so I was chasing him.

We managed to get the tent down reasonably dry at lunchtime, the breeze having got up and the sun out during our second practices. By the time we'd walked back down to the paddock the queues for the food were too long so my customary Sunday sausage and chips was put off until after the first timed runs.


Yet again during lunchtime the heavens opened right on schedule, to many sighs of frustration from those with more powerful cars.  We weren't too worried in the Imp and our first timed runs were pretty good: 60.57 for Alex and 61.30 for me (0.06 off a new PB!).  That definitely got my competitive spirit flowing, and the secret weapon of sausage and chips completed it: I was determined to really go for it in the last run of the weekend.

Alex, to my surprise, came in a bit slower at 61.02 in his second timed run because he left a gear change too late in the Esses.  It was all to play for!  On the way down to my start I could feel the adrenalin building up, this was my last chance.  Alex and I had been talking about the "brake LATE and HARD" advice we'd had; and that when you want to brake you should say "A thousand" and then brake.  Clearly even experienced drivers suffer from the automatic caution that our brains use to protect us! I'd been getting braver with late braking into the Gate and two hairpins, and on this run I totally forgot about any dodgy track conditions and went for it; the whole run felt fast, but that can be deceiving.  When I got to the top my heart was going hammer and tongs, and I was desperate for the loo!  Once I got to look at the time I was amazed to see 60.37 and had to check it several times before I believed I'd knocked almost a second off my PB, and beaten Alex... I had the biggest grin on my face then for the rest of the day, and all the way home in fact!

The Only Imp in the Village

Alex got the interior back in the Imp, and the newly cleaned/treated fuel tank back in yesterday.

We wanted to take it for a quick run so headed over to Beaulieu Motor Museum to their Simply Classics day. If you turn up in a classic car you pay the usual entry fee but park within the museum grounds for visitors to see, like an unofficial show. Being Life Members we got in free, even better!

We got there about 2.15 just in time for a look round the cars before they started leaving; everything from a GT40 replica to numerous MGs, Triumphs and Healeys. There were some interesting cars there including Lotuses, Skodas and a hillclimbing Volvo Amazon. Not a single other Imp or derivative though!

We were just there for an hour and a half, and Alex had a long discussion with a family of Imp owners from Somerset who were visiting for the day.

It was so good to get the car back out on the road after a fortnight, we've missed it!