THE ANATOMY OF A HILL CLIMB CHAMPION

This car has broken the outright record at no fewer than five British hill climb venues over the last four seasons. We take a closer look at the extraordinary Judd V8-powered Gould GR59 and find out what makes it so staggeringly quick

- by TOBY MOODY

IN A WORLD OF EVER-TIGHTER REGULATION, THE comparative lack of regulations when it comes to bespoke-built hill climb cars is one of the sport's main attractions. That and the utterly staggering speeds of which modern hill climb cars are capable.

David Gould first competed in hill-climbing in the late 1970s in a small single-seater he made at home with brazed tubes and a Mini engine. This was the Terrapin, fun and chuckable, but as with all designer/drivers he wanted more speed, so his next move was straight into the top class of the sport with the Gould 84G, built in 1981. The new machine was born at the height of the titanic battles between the cars with four-cylinder Hart engines, like the 84G, and those with Cosworth DFV V8s. It was a true David (no pun intended) and Goliath contest, but the 84G quickly demonstrated it had the mettle to challenge the then all-conquering Pilbeams.

As is often the case in hill climbing, taking hand-me-downs from F1 generally confers an advantage and, being based not far from Didcot, David was soon doing a deal with Williams' Patrick Head to acquire a 1981 FW07 gearbox, as the 84G's previous Hewland FT200 kept breaking. According to Gould it was a done deal to have a free 'box, but Frank Williams found out, meaning that cash had to change hands. Nevertheless, a friendship was made. The 84G later used a Williams FW08 rear wing that had helped Keke Rosberg to the 1982 F1 title. This was the king of cool stuff, but other drivers also had contacts in the F1 paddock and some were even using Goodyear qualifiers, all being fair in love and speed...