Val de Terres, hillclimb 1993
A fantastic hill which features on the National Hillclimb Championship. The fastest Karts and supermotos can break 30 seconds. It is fairly steep with a series of S bends and a long straight with a chicane at the top. Plenty of walls and granite to avoid though.

In 1992 I managed to get to 46 seconds on my first attempt. I realised that a high revving TS motor was not the approach, and good exhaust clearance essential.

1993 and I managed to get into 44 seconds. I only crashed once that year at the top of the straight having missed my approach. Ouch.

1996 and I had to find a spare motor at the last minute (having blown my TS). I used a cast iron Yam 225 which was all midrange with a very wide powerband. It had an AF ignition and early Taffspeed pipe. Having forgotten about the extra flywheel weight I almost flipped it off the line and very nearly crashed on the first right hander when I ran out of ground clearance far too soon. I still managed a mid 43 second run and learned a few lessons.

New motor:Under development The next motor is based around a TS. The stroke is 64mm with a 120mm Rotax rod. To achieve this the cases needed a considerable amount of welding and machining to ensure that the crank fitted but also retained stength as a very deep channel is needed in the cases for the conrod to have clearance. Additionally the cylinder needs to be 11mm longer than standard, using a Wiseco Suzuki TS250 piston. Read more here...