6 replies to this topic

[bill moffat]

During my formative years in Cardiff many an evening/weekend was spent "borrowing" my mother's Hillman Imp, picking up my mates and exploring the Welsh mountain lanes at ridiculous speeds. As time went on the "pimp" lost its bumpers, gained dents, a brace of Cibie Oscars, alloys and a serious appetite for head gaskets.

At or about the time that it inherited a 998 engine and a front rad conversion my dear mum seemed to lose interest . Tired of squeezing into the full-harnessed Corbeau seat (whilst banging her head on the roll bar) she bought a Renault 12TS and the Imp was donated to me.

One of the highlights of our teenage adventures was the blast up (or down) Caerphilly mountain, just North of Cardiff. It was years later that I was to learn that the Caerphilly Hill Climb had been an important motor sport fixture prior to WWI.

I've found v. little in the way of literature regarding this venue. Racing started in ?1910 and presumably was abandoned with the onset of hostilities. W.O.Bentley was a class winner there in 1914 in a DFP...and that's about it.

Does anybody have a map of the course (or other details)..maybe the Imp and I have unwittingly broken the class record..

[Hans Etzrodt]

The Caerphilly Hill Climb course was 1,194 yards long with an average of 1-in-8.6 and rose to 1-in-6.2, when the first open event was staged on September 11, 1907 and was won by Sidney Smith (60 hp Napier). I would like to see a map also.

[Pete Stowe]

I don’t know about pre-1920, but from 1922 to 1924 the South Wales AC ran a 1,194 yard hillclimb at Caerphilly

28 June 1922 ftd HK Moir (Straker Squire), ftd upto 1500cc R Mays (Bugatti)
29 June 1923 ftd K Moir (Bentley) 61.4 sec, ftd upto 1500cc R Mays (Bugatti) 63.0 sec
19 July 1924 ftd HK Moir Bentley) 61.4 sec, ftd upto 1500cc R Mays (Bugatti) 63.2 sec

There would have been no more events there after 1924, as speed events on public roads were banned after an accident at Kop hillclimb in Essex in March 1925, when a spectator was run over and had a leg broken. Not that such events, over unclosed roads, were ever actually legal. Bill Boddy explained this in Motor Sport way back "a ‘police permit’ had to be obtained by the organising club, but this usually took the form of verbal intimation that the Chief Constable of the area did not propose to interfere with the event so long as no undue inconvenience was caused to the public. In most cases policemen attended to allow non-competing cars to ascend and descend and to keep the course clear; as a general speed limit of 20 mph was in force until 1926 these constables had to leave their stopwatches behind so that, not being officially able to check the speed of the cars, they could not be aware, officially, that this speed was being exceeded. In those carefree times the law had not made mudguards compulsory, so that the running of stripped racing cars went unnoticed, except for the noise of their exhausts, and that was overlooked in the remote country in which these speed trials and hillclimbs were held."

[Marcor]

There's an article about the Caerphilly hillclimb in The Automobile (December 1990).
See the link to the backcatalogue. http://www.theautomo...azine_12_90.htm

The 1924 date and winner Raymond Mays is also in my Hillclimb data.

[Graham Clayton]

Here is some more information.

A motorcycle at the start in 1914:

http://www.vintagebi...ill-climb-1914/

HG Day's Talbot in 1913:

http://freedownloada...h-g-day-talbot/

[Jagjon]

I think the start was above the top of the high street maybe a couple of hundred metres towards the hill, it finished up above the last left hand bend going up near where there is or was a temperary cafe ie the top, before you drop down towards Cardiff or can turn right towards Taff's Well/Castle Coch direction.
Part way up is now a layby which must have been the old road once upon a time.
The photo of the Talbot is approx this spot.
Not a hillclimb but the beach at Porthcawl was also used around these early days of motor sport.
It is difficult to find photos & info of any of these Welsh events or even the post war hillclimbs & sprints, those in North Wales being even more difficult.








During my formative years in Cardiff many an evening/weekend was spent "borrowing" my mother's Hillman Imp, picking up my mates and exploring the Welsh mountain lanes at ridiculous speeds. As time went on the "pimp" lost its bumpers, gained dents, a brace of Cibie Oscars, alloys and a serious appetite for head gaskets.

At or about the time that it inherited a 998 engine and a front rad conversion my dear mum seemed to lose interest . Tired of squeezing into the full-harnessed Corbeau seat (whilst banging her head on the roll bar) she bought a Renault 12TS and the Imp was donated to me.

One of the highlights of our teenage adventures was the blast up (or down) Caerphilly mountain, just North of Cardiff. It was years later that I was to learn that the Caerphilly Hill Climb had been an important motor sport fixture prior to WWI.

I've found v. little in the way of literature regarding this venue. Racing started in ?1910 and presumably was abandoned with the onset of hostilities. W.O.Bentley was a class winner there in 1914 in a DFP...and that's about it.

Does anybody have a map of the course (or other details)..maybe the Imp and I have unwittingly broken the class record..

[Jagjon]

I think the start was above the top of the high street maybe a couple of hundred metres towards the hill, it finished up above the last left hand bend going up near where there is or was a temperary cafe ie the top, before you drop down towards Cardiff or can turn right towards Taff's Well/Castle Coch direction.
Part way up is now a layby which must have been the old road once upon a time.
The photo of the Talbot is approx this spot.
Not a hillclimb but the beach at Porthcawl was also used around these early days of motor sport.
It is difficult to find photos & info of any of these Welsh events or even the post war hillclimbs & sprints, those in North Wales being even more difficult.








During my formative years in Cardiff many an evening/weekend was spent "borrowing" my mother's Hillman Imp, picking up my mates and exploring the Welsh mountain lanes at ridiculous speeds. As time went on the "pimp" lost its bumpers, gained dents, a brace of Cibie Oscars, alloys and a serious appetite for head gaskets.

At or about the time that it inherited a 998 engine and a front rad conversion my dear mum seemed to lose interest . Tired of squeezing into the full-harnessed Corbeau seat (whilst banging her head on the roll bar) she bought a Renault 12TS and the Imp was donated to me.

One of the highlights of our teenage adventures was the blast up (or down) Caerphilly mountain, just North of Cardiff. It was years later that I was to learn that the Caerphilly Hill Climb had been an important motor sport fixture prior to WWI.

I've found v. little in the way of literature regarding this venue. Racing started in ?1910 and presumably was abandoned with the onset of hostilities. W.O.Bentley was a class winner there in 1914 in a DFP...and that's about it.

Does anybody have a map of the course (or other details)..maybe the Imp and I have unwittingly broken the class record..