Wiscombe Hill Climb 12th - 13th May 2012 (500 Owners Club & VSCC)

The sun blessed Wiscombe Park over the weekend and so I was able to get plenty of sketching done. The Saturday saw the 500 owners Association hosting the event with a mixture of bikes and Cooper racing cars alongside the odd three wheeler. Sunday was hosted by the VSCC (Vintage Sports Car Club) which meant more exotic cars and specials trying to beat their own times up the hill. Wiscombe is a fantastic venue and a very steep and hard hill climb, to find out more about Wiscombe Park please visit their website:

www.wiscombepark.co.uk

For more information on the host clubs of the events over the weekend please visit the following websites:

www.vscc.co.uk

www.500race.org

Here is a selection of my scribblings from the weekend.

1917 Hudson Super Six Racer

 

(digitally painted ink sketch)

Debuting on May 10th 1917 at the Uniontown, Pennsylvania speedway the Hudson Super Six Racer went on to hold many records including Pikes Peak. It's amazing to think that these machines were breaking 100mph in the early 1900's. 

Bought in the states in the 80s this Hudson super 6 has been a real labour of love for Mike Collins as it took him over 20 years to build this wonderful machine. Mike said that normally they normally drive the Super Six to hill climbs, which shows how good this build must be.

Big congratulations to Mike and James Collins, as this Edwardian racer broke the Edwardian record for Wiscombe by over 2 seconds.

BSA 31 with 500 head

(ink sketch)

Modified to a 500 head this bike was giving it's owner a lot of fun on the day.

 

1938 Adro Special

(digitally painted ink sketch)

This is a fantastic special powered by a JAP V Twin with a twist:

A lovely Over head, inlet over exhaust conversion on the 1927 Jap Twin.

Rodger was seen like this for a while as he fixed a pesky bolt that had blown out of the front cylinder head. He got it sorted in the end and ran pretty well in his main runs.

Carden

(digitally painted ink sketch)

One of only four known and the only one running. The engine is a specially built Horizontal twin unit, which directly drives the rear axel.

Austin 7

(digitally painted ink sketch)

Supercharged Austin 7 Special

(digitally painted ink sketch)

 Austin 7 special with streamlined bodywork

(ink sketch)

Triton Outfit

(ink sketch)

I featured a shot of this Triton Outfit in the Prescott Bike Festival Report. I was glad the weather was better on this occasion as it meant I had plenty of time to get a sketch of great looking machine. 

Motorcycles

Many more bikes and 500cc cars were there on the Saturday for the 500 owners club event.

 TriBSA

 30's Norton

 Montesa

 Race Cars

Cooper JAP

Cooper with Broken Wheel (ink sketch)

1949 Cooper JAP

Campained by Peter Collins in 1950 - 51using various JAP and Norton Engines.

Cooper Jap Twin

VSCC Cars

 Lea Francis Hyper S

Austin 7 "The Toy" 

Mrs Jo Jo

A genuine Brooklands car with a 4 cylinder supercharger engine. 

Morgan Special 4 Wheel Conversion

 GN Special "The Gnat"

Edwardian Racer

Early Peugeot Racer

BMC

 

BMC Carburettor close up

Cooper Formula Junior

Lagonda

Bentley

Abby Hill Steam Rally 2012 Report

Abby hill is one of the first steam rally's of the year and it certainly has shown promise of the year to come. With good turn outs for the various sections, steam engines, commercials, military, motorcycles and tractors. 

 1922 Wolf 3 1/2hp (digitally painted ink sketch) 

First up I decided to start with the motorcycles as I had been sketching bike all last weekend I thought I might as well go with something familiar to warm up.

1914 AC6 Traction Engine (digitally painted ink sketch) 

I couldn't visit a steam rally and not sketch a steam engine. Here is an Averling and Porter General purpose engine. I must say it was great to sketch around machines of this caliber. The smell of burning coal and the sounds of the engines steaming up was a fantastic atmosphere to sketch in the engine itself added to the sketch by spitting some oil on the paper. The current owner of this general engine is the second owner of the engine since new and has lovingly restored this engine after it was decommissioned in the 70s. 

1919 GMC water bowser (digitally painted ink sketch) 

As I was sketching the steam engine this incredible machine pulled up. This was imported from California and was then put into running order and nothing else. It certainly was drawing a lot of attention as I was sketching it. I think this was mainly down to the fact that it as a lot of character, and this has not being removed by a full restoration. 

 4 Cylinders and a magneto what more do you need?

A separate pump for the water tank mounted directly behind the seat.

There certainly was a lot to see at Abbey Hill. Here is a selection of my favourites from my visit on Sunday.

Steam

Commercials

Motorbikes

 

Tractors

For more information on the Abbey Hill Steam Rally please visit their website: 

Www.abbeyhillrally.co.uk