I'm on the road today headed toward Salina, so this is gonna be a quick post... My buddy Clive over at Stromberg sent the video below. It was taken at a Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb in England and f... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
104 years of History ! http://www.shelsley-walsh.co.uk/ Im guessing this is the car in the video Could do with a bit of work on that chassis .....
Awesome -- now I need to run home and listen to it on good speakers! 6 grand out of a flathead?? Impressive! Malcolm
I also watched the video on their website, WOW. A 12 foot wide road average speeds of 90 mph, pretty damn cool!
Well - here was his introduction a while ago, name of Biggles... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=164333
the course record is sunat like 26 or 27 seconds with the car hitting 150mph at some points....the last time I was there I was talking to an old boy with a single seater, Vtwin Jap engined morgan from the early 20's, no shox, no front brakes, chain drive...and it sounded like thunder, he ran sub 40 seconds up the hill most of the way on opposite lock. If you come to the UK try to tie it in with a meet at Shelsey Walsh, the level of machinery you will see is diverse to say the least...at the meeting I was at it went from an F1 car from the previous seasons Formular 1 to a 1913 single seater racer with a home made 4 litre Vtwin with chain drive..and that was driven to the meeting!
you guys should get ahold of nonitrohammond on here he has a hill climer on the wall of his office that he built years ago
I love Hill climb, a very gentlemanly sport if you ask me!Been to Loton park a few times as its' my local hill, but need to get to see some more hills! Nick.
Ryan: You need to start a traditional sports car journal. I would be all over it like white on a N.A.R.T. Ferrari. GaryC.
any one done the Newport hill climb in Indiana in the fall??? Just a straight climb but it attracts some interesting iron.
Wow, scared me on that wet track just watching it.......the I saw the chassis!! Balls to the wall, I love it. If it don't scare you, you ain't going fast enough! Doc.
Yes, that's the car - at Prescott hillclimb in 2007 when second gear disintegrated for the third time in my 30 years ownership of the Batten Special. You'ld think old Henry would've made them stronger!! (joke). Now, it has a Cad LaSalle gearbox and a rebuilt 59A. I'll post details later if anyone's interested? Onwards and upwards, Neil.
Hello, chaps, Some folks are interested in the motive power in the racing Batten Special which was built in 1935, so here goes: The basic engine was prepared for me by Mike Herman of H&H Flatheads in La Crescenta, Ca. It's a 59A block bored to 3.5/16ths, ported, but not relieved to keep the compression up at 9:1, with a SCAT crank, H-beam rods, Ross hi-dome pistons with moly rings, 1.5" exhaust valves, 1.75" inlets, and a long duration high lift camshaft. Navarro hi-dome heads were re-worked to suit the large high lift valves and the whole rotating assembly was finely balanced to 0.5 gram-inch. Offy double valve springs allow it to rev to 6, and a Harman & Collins dual coil distributor copes with the sparks at those revs. Two Stromberg 48s on a Hexagon Tools manifold weren't breathing sufficiently, so we went with three 48s on an Offy manifold, re-worked to match the large inlet ports. The next stage in the development of this historic car is to fit eight Amal carbs as Jim Batten did in 1938. Then a blower appeals! (Hello, Joe Abbin.) This historic car, in its standard form, is accepted by the Vintage SportsCar Club and competes regularly in their hillclimb events. Circuit racing is on the calendar for 2010. I've been working on this machine for 35 years - part of my life, and I love it. Onwards and upwards, Neil.
I'll add this to the sounds thread I started. Love the sound of that! edit: Holy crap! I just watched that again in full screen mode on my 24" Imac and damn near felt like I was riding along with him. Awesome!