Brighton Speed Trials

The Brighton Speed Trails were as good as ever this year, I don't understand why it doesn't get more interest from the British motoring public. The combination of a wide variety of cars and bikes racing along the sea front of this great City always produces one of the more enjoyable events of the summer.
This year was the Centenary and as usual there were numerous interesting historic vehicles present.


Tom Delaney competing in his Lea Francis


Bentley 8 litre Coupe and a Bugatti type 35B


Cooper T45 in front of Bentley


Cooper T4 500 with David Venables behind in Fiat Ballila


Cooper Bristol


Lotus IX


ex Ken Rudd Ac Ace Ruddspeed


Allard and BMC van


Jim Tiller and Allard after setting second fastest time of the day


Unipower GT


Fiat x1/9 Dallara Trivellato


fastest time was set by this more than extensively developed Ford Puma

Nice photos John, did that Puma really set FTD?
I saw it the other week at Prescott and it's certainly a potent and well prepared little device.
Are single seaters no longer allowed? I recall after the big fatal accident in the 1990s that over 2 litre's were banned... shame.

Simon Lewis
Transport Books & Motorsport Photos
www.simonlewis.com/oscart/index.php

Originally posted by simonlewisbooks
Nice photos John, did that Puma really set FTD?
I saw it the other week at Prescott and it's certainly a potent and well prepared little device.
Are single seaters no longer allowed? I recall after the big fatal accident in the 1990s that over 2 litre's were banned... shame.

Simon Lewis
Transport Books & Motorsport Photos
www.simonlewis.com/oscart/index.php

Odd really, banning over two litre Single seaters when you can still run an over two litre Sports Libre!

Originally posted by Stephen W


Odd really, banning over two litre Single seaters when you can still run an over two litre Sports Libre!

Agreed. Bit of a PR thing I should imagine.The accident that brought about the shortened course etc.being in a big single steater and so forth.

Ayone who's seen Phile Cooke in that 1400cc car of his get among the unlimited capacity stuff at British Hillclimb Championship rounds knows that engine size is not everything...
And of course Martin Bolsover won the title in a Pilbeam sport-libre car back in the 80's IIRC ?


Simon Lewis
Transport Books
www.simonlewis.com

No one has mentioned the 'bikes as yet. Even the showroom stuff equals the quickest of the cars.

Watching the bikes doing the top 6 run off at Brighton is one of the most buttock-clenching experiences in motorsport (although apparently lost on the commentator this year who talked about the "lovely" chocolate cake that he was eating).

These guys are a breed apart and super brave. The sight of a big bike tank-slapping off the line and then launching itself down the course, weaving over the bumps near the finish line is a heart in the mouth experience.

I'm a 4 wheel man but over the last few years it has been the 2 wheelers that have provided the real entertainment....

Graham Priaulx very quick in a Tiga SC80 in early 80s climbs too, did he win the odd run-off ? Btw there's a great view in that pic of the AC Ace Rudspeed....

I saw Grahame Priaulx compete a handful of times with his Tiga (Swindon-prepped 2.1 BD, iirc) - clearly a Top 10 contender, but I'm not sure he headed any run-offs on the mainland. (His son is, of course, now taking on the world...)

Martin Bolsover - I didn't think he competed much in the Pilbeam sports-racer during the years he actually won his titles (?).
At the time there was some suggestions of taking it Europe where they no longer run the big single-seaters in hillclimbs.

That Puma - I assume that is the Mike Endean (Mr Xtrac) car? For those who've not come across it, there's not a lot of original Puma left in it... I believe it's pretty much a state-of-the-art Gould hillclimber built into a Gartrac Puma-esque shell with Xtrac all-wheel-drive and something over 800 bhp-per-tonne from an RS200-Evolutiom motor by Nicholson McLaren. Very nice!

Yes, the Puma is the Mike Endean Gould car. There was an article on it in Track and Race Cars magazine a few months ago, which unfortunately I don't have with me at the moment. It made fastest time of the day in 9 point something, with Jim Tiller in his Allard also breaking 10 seconds mark, the first time it's been better since 1996.