AUGUST 28TH, 1933: The Ulster Automobile Club's annual hill climb competition at Craigantlet, outside Belfast, now has a record of just under 40 seconds for the steep, 1,460-yard, ascent. The speeds these days are more than twice what they were in 1933 when the activities of some of the competitors would probably get them banned today.
AT THE annual hill climb of the Ulster Automobile Club, held on Saturday at Craigantlet, Mr E D Hall, in an MG Magnette, smashed the “record” for the hill. The best previous figures were those of Mr R G Nash, who, in his famous Terror, recorded 43.19 miles per hour (1 minute 29.2 seconds) in 1931. On Saturday, Mr Hall, in the class for racing and supercharged cars up to 1,100cc, reached a speed of 43.98 miles per hour (1 minute 27.6 seconds). In the next event, the class for all cars, Mr Hall was even faster, his speed being 44.48 miles per hour (1 minute 26.6 seconds).
These do not seem impressive speeds. When road races are won at over 85 miles per hour, track events at over 120 miles per hour, and short “records” have been established at over 200 miles per hour, 44 miles per hour looks like a speed unworthy of notice. The Craigantlet hill climb, however, is not a race over a flat road. Craigantlet is one of the steepest and most tortuous hills upon which it would be possible to hold such a competition. The average motorist in an average type of car would not ascend Craigantlet in much less than five minutes, though the hill is little more than a mile from bottom to top.
To average over 44 miles per hour on Saturday Mr Hall had to get the maximum of acceleration from his car at the start; his gearing had to be so delicately adjusted that he obtained the greatest possible speeds on the lower ratios when his car was being projected up the steepest gradients, and his driving had to be irreproachable, as he clipped the grass on the corners and controlled his skids so cleverly that they saved fractions of seconds . . .
Hill climbing is not a spectacular sport, except for those who are lucky enough to obtain positions on the bends. Mechanical sport, however, has such an attraction for the people of the North that thousands watched Saturday’s meeting. Every road in the vicinity of Craigantlet, which is but a few hundred yards from a Belfast tramway terminus, was black with parked motor cars. Mr Hall’s climbs provided little excitement, though the speed at which he took the bends was so much higher than that of other competitors that it aroused cheers. Mr Hall, however, had a thrill all to himself when, at a bend after the finishing line, he travelled so fast that his car skidded broadside across the road, all four wheels for a second being off the ground . . .
The most exciting incident of the meeting was provided by a student in the engineering school at Dublin University, Mr GDP Collopy, who, in turn with Mr DP Harris, drove a weird vehicle named Horror III. This car was originally a GN, but unorthodox alterations have rather changed its appearance.
In the class for all cars, a wheel came off the Horror at one of the worst bends. While the wheel bounded over a hedge Mr Collopy prevented the car turning over. The wheel was retrieved, refitted, and Mr Collopy proceeded, recording the longest time of the day – six minutes. Mr JW Patterson, in a Bugatti, got a fright when he came around the bend and found the Horror in his path, but he avoided it without loss of speed. Mr Collopy in continuing his climb when the wheel was refitted showed common sense. Another driver skidded completely round on a bend and calmly drove down the hill, to the great alarm of a following competitor, who nearly went over a hedge when he found himself confronted with a vehicle proceeding in the wrong direction.
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