Steve Cropley: Calling all budding hillclimb drivers

Edwards, first to join our new sprint series for drivers aged 17-21

If you're between 17 and 21 and know how to pilot a cheap Vauxhall Corsa, our new Autocar-Shelsley hillclimb competition wants you

This week, Steve issues a call for more entrants to join Autocar's new hill climb competition - more details here - wafts around Goodwood in his last ever foray in his Bentley Bentayga long-termer and more.

*Monday*

Delighted with the response to our recently announced Autocar-Shelsley Walsh Young Drivers’ Championship as we prepare for the first practice day – under full instruction – at the Curborough sprint track on 11 July. The five-round competition is for 17- to 21-year-olds with road licences, driving roadworthy 1.2-litre Vauxhall Corsas they bought for £2500 or so. A big advantage, we think, is that young drivers can compete in a car they also drive to work.

*Click here to buy your next used Corsa from Autocar*

A recent launch at the famous Worcestershire track starred the competition’s first entrant, 21-year-old Ben Edwards, who has since been joined by a coterie of others. But we need even more budding hillclimb drivers, especially females, to really make the thing fly. If you fancy it, or know someone who does, please find details and entry forms on the Midland Automobile Club’s website (midlandautomobileclub.co.uk) together with lots about licensing, entry fees, car prep, and buying (specially discounted) helmets, overalls and gloves. We’re impatient to meet the stars of tomorrow!

*Tuesday AM*

To Goodwood for my last-ever foray in the Autocar Bentley Bentayga, which will now waft its way back to Crewe because they’ve got a buyer who can’t wait. This is the second time I’ve had a car bought from under me. The first was a blue Aston Martin Vantage V8 drophead, years ago, and I had the same mixed feelings then as I do now. I’m naturally sorry to see the car go, but I can also identify with the new owner’s keenness to get behind the wheel of a dream car.

I arrived too early at Goodwood so parked in a corner of the paddock and waited for the Driving Day event to get going, with only Mike Hawthorn and Lofty England (the life-sized statues in the background) for company.

*Tuesday PM*

Wonderful sunny day with the greenery just starting to show across the Goodwood estate so I concentrated on driving potent electric cars – Ford Mustang Mach-E, Porsche Taycan Turbo and Polestar 2 Performance – on a road route they’d laid out, combining dual carriageways where you could sprint a little bit with some narrower roads with some pretty testing bumps. The major challenge in the woods was avoiding suicidal pheasants hell-bent on head-butting the grilles of passing cars.

*Click here to buy your next used Corsa from Autocar*

The Ford was fascinating: good looking, spacious and simple to drive but a little disappointing in the ride department. You could feel how strong, even aggressive, the damping needed to be to cope with the car’s 2.5 tonnes. The Taycan was wonderful – I really think this may be the world’s finest saloon car – complete with air suspension to cope with the same issues that are much more visible in the Ford. The Polestar was an interesting mix of the two, comfortable and refreshingly different in interior design.

*Wednesday*

A new survey from our colleagues at What Car? aligns exactly with my own intentions: apparently, 46% of 3000 in-market readers they recently polled are planning to visit a car showroom within the next two weeks. Same goes for me and the Steering Committee. We’re having trouble looking beyond the latest Fiat 500 to replace our 88,000-mile 15-plate Twinair version. The choice is narrowing down to hybrid or electric, and there are two dealers within reach. Personally, I think the battery version would be a great choice, although it’s expensive, not quite here yet and it’s not me who’d mainly need to search for charging stations.

*Friday*

Remember my recent bit of nonsense about regretting my friend John Simister’s decision to sell his lovely little two-stroke Saab 96? Well, a wonderful thing has happened: he’s keeping it. While running through the paperwork, he recalled all the great times they’d had together and realised they couldn’t be parted.

*And another thing...*

This touching reminder of the remarkable life and contribution of former Ford chief engineer Richard Parry-Jones, who died recently, was carried on Ford’s test cars at last week’s Goodwood Driving Day. Gratifyingly, all were driven RPJ-style, which is to say enthusiastically.

*READ MORE*

*Autocar helps launch Vauxhall Corsa-based hillclimb series *

*Why hillclimbing is the underrated hero of motorsport*

*Opinion: Why I love hillclimbs*