European Hillclimb 2013

[Lousada]

I would like to start a thread on a new passion of mine, the Hillclimb sport! I have started this thread in European Rallying, but I suppose it could show up in every forum here. I will start this thread with an introduction to Hillclimb in Europe to begin the conversation. What I like about Hillclimb is the variety of cars, in a single day you see every possible motorsport pass by. Another exciting thing is the speed. Seeing WRC cars on public road is one thing, but seeing single seaters on the limit on public roads... oh my... Third of all the sound! Even those awesome videos can't really capture it.

(Note: it is called European Hillclimb so I don't want to talk about Pikes Peak here.)

Okay, I shall give a short "Hillclimb for Dummies" now.
1. The tracks.
In the European Championship a race track must be minimal 5000m long with 4% elevation. The longest hillclimb race is Trento-Bondone in Italy with 17300 metres. In Italy you will generally find the longest races of Europe. In national championships the minimal distance is often 1500m. Exceptions are the Coupe de France and the Austrian Bergrallye Cup, which a maximum of 2000m. In England it is forbidden to hold motorsport races on public roads, so all hillclimb tracks are on private roads often shorter than 1000m.
As I already mentioned the European Championship demands a road that is minimal 6m wide, or two lanes. Most national championships follow that guideline.

2. The Cars
There are no less than 7 different classes in the European Championship, and there are an endless amount more in every country. And to confuse it more, the same classes have small differences between countries. I shall concentrate on the European Championship. There the seven classes are split into two categories. Category one consists of the following four classes.
First of all there is the Group N. This is the same as in the Rallysport, except homologations are extended with four extra years. R1 cars are also included in the class. Mitsubishi Lancers and Renault Clios are the most common used cars.

Second of all there is the Group A. This is also the same as in the Rallysport, except again homologations are extended with four extra years. Super 1600, WRC, Kit-Car, R2 and R3 are included. Again Mitsubishi Lancers and Renault Clios are the most common used cars. The third class is the S2000. Again, same as with the Rallies, but also those of the circuits are included. R4 and R5 cars are also put in this class. So far I have not spotted a car competing in this class???
The fourth class in Category 1 is the GT. These include GT1, GT3 and RGT cars. You see Porsches, but also the occasional Ferrari, Nissan 350Z or even Mazda MX5.

Category 2 has three classes. First of all you have E2-SS. This is the spot reserved for Single-Seater racecars. You will find a lot of cars similar to those on the racecircuits of Europe. They are mostly Formula 3 and Formula Renault 2000. Also the old Formula 3000 vehicules have a second life on the mountainsides. More modern Formula cars are allowed, but in Hillclimbs the engines are limited to 3000cc. That means World Series by Renault (3500cc) and GP2 cars (4000cc) must be converted first. Old Formula 1 cars are also allowed, but again, you must convert them to Hillclimb regulations first. Something special in Hillclimbing is the "Formula Free" cars build to Article 277 of the sporting regulations. This allows self-build cars not seen anywhere else in Europe. The most popular and by far the best car is the Osella FA30.

The second class of Category 2 is reserved for Two-Seater Racecars also known as Sportscars. It is called E2-SC. These are the cars that you could find in Le Mans. But there is the same problem as in E2-SS, and that is that Le Mans cars must first be converted to the 3000cc engine limit and the specific regulations. Many of the sportscars belong to the CN regulations, which requires an engine that is or was once homologated in Group N. You will see (hear!) a lot of BMW V8 and Mugen V6. In E2-SC there is a lot of competition between French-build Norma racecars and Italian build Osella cars.

The third class is for Silhouette Touring Cars called E2-SH. Nicely confusing to put them with the open race cars, but as you might have spotted already, Category II consists of cars that belong to class E2 which is in Article 277 of the sporting code. In E2-SH basically everything is allowed as long as the car has the original shaped windscreen... No engine limitations as in the other classes. The Austrian BMW you might have spotted on Youtube drives in this class. There are also a couple of DTM cars which belong in here.

Okay, that was the European Championship. Let's confuse some more! Next to the European Championship there is also something called the European Cup. This is only open to cars of E1 and E2-SH. Alongside it is the International Hillclimb Challenge. This is open to the same 7 classes as the European Championship (except E2-SH), but they are differently sorted. Does anybody understand? Doesn't matter. Anyway the E1 class is also a form of Touring Cars, but unlike E2-SH they have to be based on a model that is or was once homologated. It is also based on Art. 277. E1 is considered the Hillclimb class and is perhaps the most commonly used in the whole of Europe. You will see in this class everything you can imagine, from Group B, to beefed up Mitsubishi Lancers, ancient Volkswagens and crazy GT specials.

Some national championships allow cars powered by motorcycle engines with a chainlink transmission. They are most common in Spain. Common examples are the BRC and the Silvercar.

The famous Berg-Cup in Germany is a sort of E1 'light'. There are less modifications allowed and cars must be older than 12 years. Of course the German makes are very popular here.

3. The drivers.
Simone Faggioli from Italy is the undisputed Hillclimb master. He has won the European title the last few years in Category II. He drives with Osella products, lately the FA30. His clostest rivals come from Switzerland, in the form of Marcel Steiner and from 2013 with Joel Volluz and Julien Ducommun. All three are also with Osella FA30. Further FA30's are for Guy Demuth and Tommy Rollinger from Luxembourg and Milos Benes from the Czech Republic, but they do not drive the full championship. Prolific F3000 drivers include Vaclav Janik and Otakar Kramsky from the Czech Republic and Fausto Bormolini from Italy.
In the sportscars Petr Vitek with the Osella PA30 was the higest placed in 2012. But that's not really the whole story as the best Sportscar racers from France and Italy stay in their home country.
In E2-SH Vladimir Vittver from the Czech Republic drove the most races. But the coming year we will hopefully see Reto Meisel from Switzerland in the Mercedes SLK340.
Category I is a bit of a mystery. The current champion Dusan Borkovic from Serbia has switched to the ETCC. The next champion will probably come from Eastern Europe again, as they deliver most drivers in Category I.

4. Points system
Nobody understands this so don't break your head trying to.

5. The calendar (click on the titles to see more information, map and all that)
European Championship
13-14 April St. Jean du Gard (France)
27-28 April Rechbergrennen (Austria)
11-12 May Falperra (Portugal)
18-19 May El Fito (Spain)
01-02 June Ecce Homo (Czech Republic)
15-16 June Ilirska Bistrica (Slovenia)
29-30 June Ascoli Piceno (Italy)
06-07 July Trento-Bondone (Italy)
20-21 July Dobsinsky kopec (Slovakia)
27-28 July Glasbachrennen (Germany)
10-11 August Mont Dore (France)
17-18 August St Ursanne - Les Rangiers (Switzerland)
14-15 September Buzet (Croatia)

Other interesting races
05-06 May European Hill Race (Luxembourg)
25-26 May Verzegnis (Italy)
01-02 June St. Gouëno (France)
30 June Bergrennen Reitnau
03-04 August Osnabrücker Bergrennen (Germany)
05-06 October Bergrennen Mickhausen (Germany)

Go to www.hillclimbportal.com for more information.

[Lousada]

Okay that was a crazy long post. I went passed the 10000 character limit!

For those who do not want to read all that, here is how a day of Hillclimbing looks in pictures:

As a warmup we start with rally cars. Mostly Clios, Peugeots, Lancers and that stuff.


Then we will get a few GT's. It is going a little faster now.


Now the Hillclimb specials come around. Fast, loud and looking insane.


That was the Touring Cars. Now it's going really quick! Two-seat Sportscars are next.


Finishing off with the single seaters. The very fastest of them all. There are tracks were they reach average speeds of over 180 kph.

[Lousada]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJGiB5KWY3M
This is how I like it. Brilliant onboard.

[Lousada]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBLIHAsknRI
This is one of my favourite "fan" videos. Be sure to keep watching until the formula cars arrive.

[Lousada]

This year I will be mostly going to Belgian and German races, but I hope to catch one or two races in France or Switzerland or maybe Italy. If anyone ones to meet up or something? Or am I the only Hillclimb fan here?

[Lousada]

Sorry for spamming my own thread, but I see something that might be confusing and I can't edit anymore.
So www.hillclimbportal.com is my own site, and those mediocre attempts at action photos are also mine. The videos are not. Now it looks I am secretly recommending my own site, but some sentences were cut off because of the postlimit.

In my opinion, yes my site is the best English language site on the web. But then I would say that don't I?? Sorry for the confusion.

[vino_93]

well in France we have good championship, with old F3000, Formula Nippon and even a GP2 Unfortunately Lionel Regal, the master of french hillclimb, is dead in a European champ race some years ago there was great fight btw him and Nicolas Schatz in French Champ at this time. Now Schatz is a bit alone, even if Sébastien Petit is a great contender. New generation of proto is quite good, but F3000 are still faster.

I think it's first time St Jean du Gard is in European championship ?
Unf
ortunately I leave too far from races to see this ... but it would be great !

[urabus-denoS2000]

I also enjoy Hillclimb very much It has great aspects, like a huge variety of very fast and attractive cars. The downsides are far too many confusing classes and majority of gentleman drivers in the fastest machinery. Hillclimb is not a professional sport, everyone there is a more or less advanced amateur driver (exception being Simone Faggioli- he is the works Osella driver and I think you can see by the results how better he and his Osella are then the competition). I would really love to see this form of motorsport turn professional, with works teams and drivers, as it would be the most attractive and craziest form of motorsport, but unfortunately it is impossible to expect this. Hillclimb attracted manufacturers in the pre-WW2 era . Hillclimb races close to me (Rechberg, Ilirska Bistrica and naturally the best one- Buzet ) are all very popular with huge amounts of fans and I always spectate them when possible. I would also like to go to Italian round of the championship. If you plan to go to some of these races, feel free to contact me

[Lousada]

Replies to my thread, yippee

well in France we have good championship, with old F3000, Formula Nippon and even a GP2 Unfortunately Lionel Regal, the master of french hillclimb, is dead in a European champ race some years ago there was great fight btw him and Nicolas Schatz in French Champ at this time. Now Schatz is a bit alone, even if Sébastien Petit is a great contender. New generation of proto is quite good, but F3000 are still faster.

This year there should be three CN+ sportscars for Schatz, Petit and Cyrille Frantz. That should make the championship a bit more exciting. What I find sad about the French is their insistence on their own rulebook. For example they do not allow E1 or Group H or Interswiss. Those are the classes with the most variety of cars. Instead in France you have endless amounts of Group A Renault Clios, Seat Leon Supercopas and old BMW M3's. The roads are beautiful though, hope to visit a race there this year

I think it's first time St Jean du Gard is in European championship ?

St. Jean-du-Gard / Col St. Pierre has been in the European Championship for a few years now. For 2014 countries are only allowed one race, so for either Mont Dore or St. Jean du Gard it will be the last time.

Unfortunately I leave too far from races to see this ... but it would be great !

Let me guess, you live in the northwest of France? Perhaps the Belgian events are closer to you? They are not as professional, but interesting nonetheless I think.

[vino_93]

Replies to my thread, yippee

This year there should be three CN+ sportscars for Schatz, Petit and Cyrille Frantz. That should make the championship a bit more exciting. What I find sad about the French is their insistence on their own rulebook. For example they do not allow E1 or Group H or Interswiss. Those are the classes with the most variety of cars. Instead in France you have endless amounts of Group A Renault Clios, Seat Leon Supercopas and old BMW M3's. The roads are beautiful though, hope to visit a race there this year



St. Jean-du-Gard / Col St. Pierre has been in the European Championship for a few years now. For 2014 countries are only allowed one race, so for either Mont Dore or St. Jean du Gard it will be the last time.

Let me guess, you live in the northwest of France? Perhaps the Belgian events are closer to you? They are not as professional, but interesting nonetheless I think.

Well I don't know a lot about E1 or H group. But some years ago in Rally we had really powerful cars (F18, F19 class) ... and they were banned by french federation. They were find too dangerous (and too fast for manufacturers which saw their Kit Car beaten by F19), so maybe it's why H and E1 group isn't allowed ? It looks very similar to what we had in rallies if it's the group of the Golf in pictures !

For the race, I think Mont Dore will stay in European Champ, even in France it has more popularity than the other.

And yes I leave in North part of France. I don't know a lot about belgium hillclimb ? If it's in East part of Belgium (as I presume) it's a bit too far