The Ups and Downs of Hill Rallying

I first came across this sport in October when the chairman of my Photography Club asked if anyone wanted to meet up for a photo opportunity. After trekking a short distance through the woods we arrived at the Trials arena where about 50 vehicles were gathering for the event.

I'm not sure that the competitors of this sport call it Hill Rallying - its known locally as the Kyrle Classic Trials - but for ease of understanding I'll refer to it as such.

Whats It All About?

Unlike normal car rallying, where the quickest time around a course wins the race, Hill Rallying is won by the team (car,/driver/co-driver) accumulating the least amount of points. Entrants take it in turns to scale a series of hills with the goal of getting their Classic or Kit car the furthest up each one. The higher they get the less points they acquire, so making it to the top of the hill gets the team zero points. Although this develops a kind of league table it 's more of a test of each teams individual endurance and skill.

The hills get progressively more difficult and its not uncommon for a number of cars failing to even get to the 10 point starting block of the first hill. In fact the number of cars getting to the apex is a small fraction of those that pluckily reach a point marker.

The hills in question are basically mud tracks with the occassional underlying rock formation thrown in.
This event used to take place during the spring but an inconsiderate pair of nesting Kestrels forced the organisers to alter the date to autumn which, of course, now adds a decent layer of wet dead leaves into the hill climbing equation.

They get one attempt at each hill and each effort is concluded with either a victorious achievement or an invigorating stall as the car and occupants reach the pinnacle of their abilities.

Tricks Of The Trade

Friction is the teams best friend. It is arguable (and I'm sure they did) that those cars starting the competition have the advantage of better grip than those further back down the queue. I stand neutral on this as I haven't a clue but the theory of diminshing returns probably holds sway.

Another question I forgot to ask was if front or back wheel drive is better (four wheeled drive vehicles are banned from taking part) but I noticed that many of the vehicles had very low tyre pressure and almost no tread in their rear ones so I'm guessing that rear wheel drive is preferred.

For interested future participants a neat trick I can pass on is this:
If you have young family members that you feel have had little practical use during their short lives - you stick them in the back seats of the car as ballast to forcing the rear wheels more into the ground and thus improving traction.
At the end of the rally (assuming they all survive) you can now look on them in a different light.
Failing that just stick some extra wheels on the back.

Other ways of encouraging your metal steed to rise to the occassion are jumping up and down as you negotiate each slippery junction and/or swaying side to side in the (often) forlorn hope of adding a few inches to your ascent and with it the possibility of losing a point as you make it to the next height marker.

No Smoke Without Tyre

The upshot of all this activity is burning rubber. Not environmentally friendly I admit but it makes great pictures, so apologies to polar bears everywhere.