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HRDC Donington saw heavy rain for the Cheetah

Storm Callum arrived at Donington this Sunday and wreaked havoc on the grids. A major accident in the MX5 race postponed activities until they could get the ambulances back. Burford did his best with a clean qualifying, in the torquey Cheetah, in the most unsuitable conditions for the car. Due to the extreme weather the race was delayed and with the forecast for rain to continue, we called it a day. Thank you to the HRDC and all of the organisers and marshals for doing their best in the terrible weather. Fingers crossed for a dry day next time

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Firle Hill Climb Revival with James Rainford’s Lenham and Rhodes Mini Cooper S

We attended the 5th running of the Firle Hill Climb Revival and once again the event was well run and excellent fun. This year we brought with us the John Rhodes Mini Cooper S, fresh from Goodwood Festival of Speed, and the freshly built Lenham Le Mans Midget of James Rainford. James’ Lenham has been under construction for a while now so we set the Firle Hill Climb as a target for completion. The car arrived looking great and hit the hill with James behind the wheel. Everyone had a go in the Rhodes Mini and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

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TVR Grantura II back in action

For the past year or so we’ve been recommissioning an old TVR Grantura race car. The car has previously competed in the UK at Goodwood Revival but was in need of some serious TLC and fresh race preparation. We had to remake part of the rear chassis as well as re-wiring, fitting a new bespoke fuel tank, fitting door and harness bars to the roll cage, properly fitting a pair of Tillett race seats, replacing brake line, gauges, fuel and ignition systems, extinguisher system and more. The prep is now complete and we’ve had the car out at Brands Hatch for testing and it’s been to France for a hill climb. There are plans to bring the engine up to spec over the winter before the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique in 2019.

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Crossle Formula Ford rolling road tune

We had a nicely prepared Crossle historic Formula Ford in for a tune this week. Richard Yeoman and his Daughter have been hitting the UK Hill Climb’s with it and are now trying their hand at circuit racing. Formula Ford is very restrictive so every little counts. There are no huge power increases to be found but a little fine tuning can find an extra 4 or 5bhp.

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Charles Rainford wins at Snetterton

Charles Rainford scored his first overall win last weekend at Snetterton. He secured pole position and the win driving our Marcos 1800GT in the HRDC All stars race. Following some recent mechanical failures the repaired Marcos was on top form despite the heat wave. We also ran Ian Burford in the Bill Thomas Cheetah but struggled to keep the car cool in the record high summer temperatures. The experience will go into the development of this unique racer.