Back in 1983 I was at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Annual General Meeting when it was announced that a team of Australians were coming to England with their special supercharged racers and would be competing for a "pot" to be presented to the fastest Austin 7 up Prescott.

Being the owner of the Maclachlan Special it was inevitable that I would be delegated to head up a team of Brits to defend our honour. As the car had not been used for several years there was quite a lot of work to be done to make it raceworthy and check everything over. The engine was overhauled by Alan Wragg who had made a reputation building a series of rather attractive single seat Austin racers.

The Australian team were based with my old friend Colvin Gunn and I knew we had serious opposition as their cars were very quick in circuit racing and they were well developed before they arrived. My "old nail" dates back to 1925 when it was a Gordon England Brooklands Model that was exported to America where it won a number of races before being bought by Maclachlan when he was a student at Cambridge in 1926. It had been developed over the years into it's present form by 1936. I knew it was quick, but just how it would fare against such serious opposition was a question that would only be answered on the day.

That day, or week-end anyway, duly arrived and I took John Morgan, a very good friend, to help with physical and moral support. Practice was on Saturday with the competitive runs on Sunday.

The car fired up and ran very sweetly and our spirits were raised at the prospect of some good times, particularly as the weather was good. Imagine our dismay when halfway up the hill the car went completely off song and could make it's way to the top of the hill. Returning to the paddock it was clear that the ignition timing had slipped and so it was re-timed assuming that the Simms vernier coupling which is threaded onto the back of the water pump shaft had not been done up tight.

Away it went on the second practice run and was really setting the pace when disaster struck again. The timing had slipped again and we could not decide whether we had failed to tighten the coupling enough or whether something else was wrong. It is difficult for the timing to slip on an Austin 7 because all the gears which drive the camshaft and magneto are keyed onto their respective shafts. Anyway we re-set the timing again, ran the engine up and all seemed to be well for the next morning's competitive runs.

The racers are allowed to line up on their own in the paddock so that they can be push started downhill. I always wait until the last possible moment to fire up so that the engine does not overheat if I am kept waiting on the line by a car failing on the hill ahead of me. It sends the marshals mad but I can not afford to have the coolant boil. On this occasion all went according to plan and the car sounded really good. I had remembered to pump up the pressurised fuel tank and advance the had operated ignition lever. On the line you start in your own time once the green light comes on so the engine is revved up and at precisely 4,000rpm on the way up the clutch is dropped and the right foot goes down. Down just enough to keep the wheels spinning, but not enough to let the revs build up. It is important to keep this balance until one is sure that wheelspin has ceased otherwise the revs will immediately drop at the first gear change and all momentum will be lost.

Perfect start, "this will give the OZ brigade something to think about". Under the bridge change up to second gear -- brake hard then into 90 degree "orchard" bend -- full throttle up the short but steep straight to 270 degree "pardon" bend, which must be taken wide as it is so steep on the inside that all traction can be lost. Full throttle towards the "esses" when pop-pop-pop and the same trouble again.

Back in the paddock despair. What can it be that is causing the ignition to keep slipping? Also the racing cars run last in the morning and first in the afternoon so there is only the lunch break in which anything can be done to the car. So off with the body side panels again to reveal the magneto drive. By this time I was running out of ideas as to what could possibly be wrong. After some thought I decided that the only solution was to apply a drift to the magneto coupling and tap it with a hammer whilst my "mechanic" viewed the coupling from the business end to see what happened.
"Wow -- You'll never believe this". Well that wasn't exactly what he said, but this is a respectable webzine! The coupling has been made by shrinking the outer part onto the threaded centre and then machined flush so that the join is invisible, but when the outer is tapped by the hammer and drift it turns! It must start turning when the engine gets hot!
So how do you repair and resolve this problem in the paddock with about 10 minutes until the next competitive run? You borrow a cordless drill from one of the unsuspecting Ozzies and drill a hole between the two offending parts and poke in a short length of welding rod. Put the whole thing back together again and arrive not a little stressed at the line up with minus ten seconds to spare. But the marshals think I am just playing my usual game of brinkmanship with them (if only they knew they knew the truth).

Now the key to a good run at any hillclimb is to be as relaxed as possible from the start and I was anything but relaxed by then. I was sure that we had solved the problem and was able to gain my composure very quickly. The car sounded superb and I immediately felt confident again. I had only this one run left, but also I had everything to gain, so concentration was vital.

Having reached The "esses" without any recurrence of the previous problems I settled into making one of those climbs which seem slow because it is so smooth, but I knew it was good.
At the finish line you could collect a slip of paper on which the time was written by the marshal and I slowed to take this and immediately knew that I had broken the class record. I went straight back to my slot in the paddock, cut the engine, got out and sat on the grass. I did not even go to look at the times being posted on the paddock office.

As I sat there, on the grass, the Oz were going back and forth comparing their times to see which of them would take the "pot" home. John Ould, Jim Wilde, Bob Duguid, Bob Booth, John Whitehouse, Tony Johns and Graeme Steinfort, they were all there. Then, "Christ -- Sutton's broken the record", someone had thought to look at the other times. That was a memorable moment.

It cost me about 25 pints of lager in the bar, but it was worth it!