Hill Climbing in a TC

Keith Beningfield has offered to write some articles on his participation in hill climbing event in 2019, so here is his introduction

Hill Climbing a TC in 2019

With these articles I hope to give people a flavour of the sport of hill climbing hopefully trying to entice a few more cars out to keep me company!
I started racing and hill climbing a TC in the early 1970’s when I was 22, finally selling the car in 1975. After 28 years lapse with a dalliance sprinting and hill climbing a kit car in the 1990’s I purchased the ex Will Cory racing TC in 2001. After an 18 month rebuild the car was ready for a new career on the hills.
From 2003 to 2018 the TC was regularly used for hill climbing and MGCC social events, and by the end of 2018 I had competed in some 80 speed events and covered some 15,000 road miles. The story of how I got there has been covered in a previous article in TTT2.
During the past 15 years the car has been progressively modified, the basic chassis and body have remained as built from a road car by Brown and Gammons in 1979 but the engine has been developed from a 1250cc stage 2 specification to a power unit which reliably delivers 120bhp by way of a Marshall J100 Supercharger, Laystall Cylinder Head, Newman 294 degree camshaft and a plus .140” overbore (1390cc).
Prior to the start of the 2019 season I have had to replace the camshaft and followers, some unexplained wear on the lobes, fitted a lip seal to the rear crank flange – to stop the usual leak – replace the bottom of the petrol tank to stop the leak over the mounting brackets, and had the carburettor flowed à la David Vizard.
After the engine was re-assembled and test run, I booked a session on the local rolling road – an altogether unnerving experience, especially when you’re in the driving seat. After nearly an hour of gently filing the carburettor needle coupled with power runs to achieve the correct mixture and fine tuning the ignition timing, we get a reliable 120bhp at the flywheel.
I normally try to do 7 or 8 meetings a year; for 2019 the plan is as follows
1) The Manx Classic 3 hills in three days 25-27th April
2) Prescott 25th May
3) Harewood 1st June
4) Barbon Manor 6th July
5) Shelsley Walsh 22nd July
6) Loton Park 25 August
7) Bo’ness Revival 2 days 1-2nd September

You can click each event to read Keith’s articles.