Like so much motorsport, speed hillclimbing originated in France. The first event was held at Chanteloup in November 1898, the following year saw the first ever British hillclimb with forty competitors climbed the 325 yard long Petersham Hill in Richmond-on-Thames.
The event was organised by the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, With a 12mph speed limit in force at the time across the land the winner, with a top speed of 14mph and riding a Barriere Tricycle infringed the law of the land and almost got himself arrested.
There was even a debut of an electric powered Dog Cart, which toped a magnificent speed of 11mph! Whilst, the fastest petrol car was the 6hp Paris-Marseillies Panhard-Levassor managed almost 9mph. owever the decent was certainly quicker and more than a little exciting as the speeds that these early vechicles reached exceeded their breaking capabilities!
By 1911, the number of hillclimbs around the country began to dwindle as did the spectators who began to favour motor racing at Brooklands, which had become the centre for motor sport in the UK.
After the WWI, hillclimbing once again become a popular spectator sport as vrrtually all the cars were British, (enemy cars were excluded) as a patriotic feeling overlapped from the Great War into all walks of life so it was with motorsports of which hillclimbing was the more accessible to the ordinary man
And this accessibility continues today as I found out over a couple of seasons of Hillclimbing in the Twentith and Twentyfirst Centuries. Going to some of the hillclimb coursed you see a mixed bag of people and motor vehicles from an 89 year old man who still drives his 1930's Cadilac Sports Coup at breakneck speeds around the various courses around the Uk to early, very early Austin 7's to a brace of hugely powerful Bentleys and 1970's American Muscle cars such as, a Boss Mustang and everything in between!
During the time I spent with these eole and their racing machines I realsied that they truly loved their cars and this sport where a gentlemanly attitude still prevails for the moment. And yes they all want to win but they want to better their last time they maid on that particular course they are on, that's what they mean by winning.
Unfortunately, that spirit o a Gentlemanly Code' is in danger of being erroded as the 'teams' enter into the sport and money takes over from enthousiasm. But until then go along to an Hillclimb and enjoy seeing the cars and their drivers try and beat the clock and themselves,
