During the 1960s and 1970s, away from the motor racing circuits and much-vaunted world championships, grass-root motoring competitions attracted huge entries from members of small car clubs run by and for fellow enthusiasts. Hillclimbs, sprints and autotests catered for the competitive urges for those whose budget did not allow ownership of an expensive race car. One such category was the Production Car Trial.
All that was required was a steep (and preferably muddy) hillside, permission from a sympathetic farmer or land-owner and access to car of any type. A line of marker posts were placed up a hill and the intention was to attempt to drive to the top and past the final post, with points deducted for stopping en route. A simple concept in theory but not so easy when it came to driving up a steep slippery slope on a cold winters day. Needless to say, many competitors resorted to building a simple, basic car designed purely to operate in muddy conditions, making use of thin tyres with very low pressures and a ‘fiddle brake’ that the driver could pull on and release immediately as he searched for grip. He was usually joined by a brave passenger whose job it was to bounce up and down when required, a process that helped the tyres grip when all seemed lost. However, the entry was open to any type of car and it was a sport where the smallest, slowest car could win outright. It was generally accepted that the type of cars least suited to this form of motorsport were powerful sportscars that had a surfeit of horsepower and very little in the way of ground clearance.
The photographs reproduced here prove the exception to the Production Car Trial rule; a 1964 AC Cobra was arguably the least suitable ‘Trials Car’ imaginable but in March 1971, Martin Hilton decided to ignore convention and, just for the fun of it, entered his Cobra (chassis COB 6025) in a Production Car Trial held in a valley close to the village of Balcombe in Sussex, organised by a local car club. It was probably the first and last time an AC Cobra took part in such a Trial. He drove it to the venue, completed the course and drove home, still with the exhaust pipes in place and a very muddy white Cobra in need of a thorough cleaning. Car and driver failed to achieve victory but that was never the point.
From ‘Moments in Motorsport’ by Trevor Legate.
