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Hill climb?

4K views 19 replies 4 participants last post by  Skidd 
#1 ·
Hey played on a small gravel pit on the weekend and was heaps of fun. Does anyone know of a good place for hill climbing/bashing around melb area?
 
#7 ·
Ahhh.... I found some info on it, amazing what Google can turn up!


After the Second World War, members of the Victorian Sporting Car Club were all revved up with nowhere to go. A dearth of racing circuits and hill climb venues was frustrating those who wanted to fully test their driving skills in the heat of competition.


The Rob Roy hill climb at Christmas Hills, between Yarra Glen and Eltham, had served as a testing ground since 1935, but a greater challenge was needed. A deal was made to build a track on a farm at Templestowe, on the eastern fringe of the city. During competition, cattle would be moved to a nearby paddock along the Yarra River.


The farm at the top of Blackburn Road was home to an implausibly steep rise, effectively an escarpment, on which a section of track was built that was known as The Wall. It stretched for about 100 metres at a gradient, measured in feet, of 1 to 2.5.


Hill climb competitors, who are usually amateurs driving their own cars, race against the clock over a course from A to B. At Templestowe, the track was 969 metres. The rise of The Wall at the halfway mark gave it something special.


The track was unsealed at the first event, held on March 12, 1951. The dust was shocking but the greater problem was the inability of tyres to grip the shifting surface of The Wall. Most cars slid to an ignominious stop in The Hole.


Cec Warren, who died a few years later of a heart attack during a sporting-car competition at Fishermans Bend, won the event with a time of 70.6 seconds in his Ford Speedcar.


By the second Templestowe hill climb, more than a year later, the track was sealed and The Wall was the steepest section of bitumen road in Australia. Any steeper and the tarmac would have slid down the hill before it had set.


Reg Hunt recorded the fastest time - 61.6 seconds, fully nine seconds faster than Warren's time on the dirt track - in his supercharged Hunt-Vincent. Spectators were thrilled by the skill of the drivers on the rises and bends. Within a few years, 20,000 spectators were spread on either side of the track, which was only three metres wide.


Graham Hoinville competed in the first Templestowe hill climb. "Only the cars that had real squirt could get up the hill on momentum," he said.


Hoinville went on to compete at Templestowe for more than three decades, missing only those events that clashed with his rally driving in the 1960s, and won many occasions.


He said the track had 12 critical points where a slip-up would cost dearly.


"It was a great test of the skill of the driver," he said.


The mechanical engineer was still competing at Templestowe when it was announced in 1983 that the land had been sold to developers for a housing estate. He drove in the farewell event, which proved to be a false alarm when the development was postponed.


He also drove in the next farewell event, and the next. Finally, in December 1987, Hoinville competed in the final Templestowe hill climb.


"I was in all four of them," he said.


The Age met Hoinville and fellow hill climb enthusiast David White on the old Templestowe farm, which is now the site of The Domain estate.


Large houses sprawled on large blocks at the back of the track.


It was Hoinville's first time at the track since the final race.


White never drove at Templestowe, but he revealed that he has returned to the old haunt on several occasions to reminisce about watching the cars fly up the hill.


"It's eerie to be here," he said. "I'm quite nostalgic."


We walked the length of the track, beginning by the Mullum Mullum Creek and winding through the Esses, where one driver died in the 1960s.


Banana Straight featured sections of tarmac that were repaired at low cost by members of the Grollo family in the 1950s. Bellbirds called from surrounding eucalypts as we struggled up The Wall, whose gradient is not exaggerated.


Hoinville pointed to trees from which chains were suspended to stop young tearaways hooning around the track when no one was looking.


Now 74, Hoinville remembered his gear changes as he walked towards Barons Corner, a hairpin bend that was named after Ernie "Baron" Seeliger following an inglorious crash.


Seeliger once worked on the cars of Stan Jones, Alan's father.


"He was a good spanner man," Hoinville said.


The final straight was shortened by 50 metres in the last race because timber for housing was stacked on the finishing line.


It was as good a sign as any that the Templestowe hill climb had run its race.


Hoinville, the winner of the Tarrengower hill climb near Maldon last October, and White, a leading official at Rob Roy hill climbs, said Templestowe deserved its place in Australian driving lore. They remembered the great drivers, such as Stan Jones, Bruce Walton and Lex Davison, and lamented the influence of money in motor racing.


"It was a sport," White said. "Today, it's serious business."


When asked their tip for tomorrow's grand prix, both dismissed the question.


"I'm not interested in this modern stuff," said White.


"One of them will win," said Hoinville.



There you go... a history lesson for us all.<BR clear=all>


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#9 ·
Skidd said:
Zoomer... where is Rob Roy? That's not a place I've ever heard of.

Rob Roy is a tiny hilly piece of farmland in the Yarra Valley, just off the Maroondah Hwy. It is a "historical" thing, ppl have been hillclimbing there for 50 yrs.


Like a mini Pikes Peak, if you know what I mean.


The MG Car Club holds the lease over Rob Roy and several times a year they run hillclimbing comps. Very interesting to watch.


The variety of machinery that turns up is always eyeopening. The last time I was there we saw a 1950 4WD racer, some old F1/F2 cars, a few Elfins,an Alpine A110Sand hot Mini Coopers, MGsetc. The last run in June some of the local RC fellas including Jason Bargwanna entered ... one fella took a Smart up the hill & won his class.
 
#10 ·
haha, ya what you said.


Arthurs Seat is another good one, they have to close off the whole hill to traffic though. The last time I went there we took the chairlift up and down whilst watching the cars racing below - great stuff.


These days I'd think twice about using the chairlift.
Hasn't it closed again??





Might be cool doing it in RC, don't you think?



Sorry folks, but Rock Climbing is like Chess to me. I'm sure there's a lot of skill involved, but it doesn't come close to pumping my adrenalin.
 
#11 ·
nono no rock climbing. I mean big big big pile-o-crap and them aim savage at full speed... see how far she gets before tumbling down... then get two or three savages... none of thisrock crawiling stuff. Thats like watching grass grow for me.
 
#12 ·
zoomer said:
haha, ya what you said.


Arthurs Seat is another good one, they have to close off the whole hill to traffic though. The last time I went there we took the chairlift up and down whilst watching the cars racing below - great stuff.


These days I'd think twice about using the chairlift.
Hasn't it closed again??





Might be cool doing it in RC, don't you think?



Sorry folks, but Rock Climbing is like Chess to me. I'm sure there's a lot of skill involved, but it doesn't come close to pumping my adrenalin.

Your right about that mate, while I'm sure there is a lot of technical ability in that crawling stuff, it just seems to lack the 'gusto' that I like. Like trying to compare volleyball to ice hockey, now if we are talking ladies baech volleyball then I could be convinced to watch... hey, whuda thunk we'd get an interest in common with Sir Zoomer? (hill climbing that is!)


Yep I'd like to get a group of us together and give hill climbing a go... maybe my new roll cage will assist in the savvy getting back down to the bottom in one piece.
 
#13 ·
yeah definatly think we will need a rollcage
. There was a place in narre warren that cmefly showed me, it had a huge rutted hill to climb and also heaps of jumps. It was at the back of the industrial estate there was no one around except for the odd 1:14x4 that was bashing around in the dirt
 
#14 ·
Hillclimb is racing only going UPhill, hope you guys realised that.



Then they drive very very slowly back downhill to the pits.






Might be interesting to see RC cars running a timed (say) 100m up a steep dirt track. Must be plenty of them in the Yarra valley, wonder what the rangers would think.


Can't say I've seen Savages racing a marked course either, that would interesting too. Could just find a flat-ish field and mark out a track.
 
#15 ·
husky said:
There was a place in narre warren that cmefly showed me, it had a huge rutted hill to climb and also heaps of jumps.

me aunty used to live in Narre Warren back in the 1980s. Its scary now to see how many houses are up there now... it was empty back before Ash Wednesday.


Some steep hills there but I think Templestowe & Doncaster East has some steeper ones. I once took a loaned Freelander there to test it out its "Hill Descent Control" fancy gizmo... it could barely get up the hill!
 
#16 ·
zoomer said:
Hillclimb is racing only going UPhill, hope you guys realised that.



Then they drive very very slowly back downhill to the pits.






Might be interesting to see RC cars running a timed (say) 100m up a steep dirt track. Must be plenty of them in the Yarra valley, wonder what the rangers would think.


Can't say I've seen Savages racing a marked course either, that would interesting too. Could just find a flat-ish field and mark out a track.

Yeah.. we know it's a one way - uphill race... the roll cage is for when us non-thinking savage drivers hit big rocks or give it too much throttle on the steep sections so that we lift the front wheelsand the savvy comes end over end back down the hill.


You know that is highly likely to happen... so a roll cage my just help protect some of the vitals for this inevitabilty.



Husky, I recall you said that you've been out mansfield way... have you ever looked at the big, steep and relatively smooth hills beside the road at Taggerty? In fact even some of those on the road to Mansfield, just outside Yea... they'd be some good places to give this a crack.
 
#17 ·
Skidd said:
zoomer said:
Husky, I recall you said that you've been out mansfield way... have you ever looked at the big, steep and relatively smooth hills beside the road at Taggerty? In fact even some of those on the road to Mansfield, just outside Yea... they'd be some good places to give this a crack.

yep, the hills in taggerty i think are private property though
. I prolly drive up there at least once a fortnight to go to our block at eildon. There is millions of hills to climb there and also the best BMX track ive everseen, but its a one hour twenty drive away. Could be worth a shot though
 
#18 ·
husky said:
yep, the hills in taggerty i think are private property though
. I prolly drive up there at least once a fortnight to go to our block at eildon. There is millions of hills to climb there and also the best BMX track ive everseen, but its a one hour twenty drive away. Could be worth a shot though

I know the ones I'm thinking of are just on the left as you go out of Taggerty, bloody huge, smooth with just a grass covering. It would be fun to give them a go. I recall trying to walk them once and it's hand over hand stuff in some points.


Next time you go down that way have a look with the hill climbing in mind.
 
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