My father Ray and I had been looking for a classic car race that was for historic cars only, was not too hard on the vehicle and run on great driving roads. From our research we soon decided that the Classic Adelaide fitted the bill perfectly. As a bonus you stay each night in the same hotel so you don't need a support crew and don't have to go through the hassles of packing and unpacking each day. We commenced our preparation in March and because the Arnolt Bristol had always used large quantities of oil we decided to rebuild the engine.

When we removed the head we found we had a number of broken rings and other major problems in the engine. Luckily I had had the engine of my Bristol 401 rebuilt last year at a mechanics' next door to my work here in Lithgow NSW by George Redding. He and his dad run a workshop that is spotlessly clean and very professionally run. What they don't know about engines hasn't yet been discovered. I entrusted the rebuild to George and he did a wonderful job. We used Cosworth pistons for their strength, compression and lightness and our compression ratio is now about 10.5:1. The camshaft was rebuilt to original specifications and we put in new bearings, oil pump, cam followers and clutch. All parts were then sent off for balancing before everything was very carefully reassembled with particular care in sealing all potential oil leak points.

The engine is now unbelievable with an amazing amount of power but also very strong torque. Because it is so well balanced it spins very easily and there is no harshness as the revs build. Even more incredibly the engine leaks no oil at all, the first Bristol engine I have seen like this. There is negligible oil consumption and the oil pressure is a rock steady 60lb at 70c at 3000rpm just like it should be. One point I would like to make is the wonderful help I received from many club members in rebuilding the engine. It is only through the knowledge and willingness to supply parts from people like Geoff Dowdle, Colin Young and Ian Ross that we are able to keep these wonderful cars on the road. With the engine running like a Swiss watch my father Ray and I were ready to go racing.
We put the Arnolt in a covered car trailer behind my Landcruiser for the 1400 km journey to Adelaide. The price of petrol across the Hay Plain was terrifying so in the end I just didn't look at the price each time we stopped to fill the Landcruiser's 145 liter tanks. We arrived with no dramas and unloaded the car at a warehouse complex in the Adelaide suburbs on Tuesday afternoon. We were instructed to "just put it in the shed over there with the overseas cars" so we wandered over to have a look what was inside. In the shed was nearly $5 million worth of cars including a Ferrari Californian valued at $3.5 million, two Aston Martins, a Ferrari 275, a 1930s supercharged Alfa Romeo and others. We reckoned the Arnolt would be quite safe in this company and left it there for the night.

Dad and I have now done quite a bit of historic racing and I must say you are always a bit on edge when it comes time to put your car under the microscope of the scruitineers. Some over zealous types make it there mission in life to go over your car again and again until they finally prove their worth by finding some obscure detail that doesn't comply.

Not at the Classic Adelaide. They are as tough as any scruitineers we've been through, including putting it up on a hoist, but their attitude is that if something's not quite right they will do whatever it takes to help you make the necessary changes so you comply. I discovered that I needed two fire extinguishers not one as in other events we've been in. They had fire extinguishers for sale and asked me to back up into a bay while the lecturers and apprentices from the Adelaide TAFE would kindly fit it for me. Their attitude was so friendly and helpful that Dad and I were amazed.

After a competitors meeting the night before we were all set to start racing Thursday morning. The first stage was at the Adelaide International Raceway and you could tell there was lots of adrenaline and even more testosterone pumping by the time the first cars were on the circuit. The Datsun 240Z before us had a spectacular spin so we were pleased to complete the standing lap with no dramas and a respectable time.

The cars then headed up through the beautiful Adelaide hills to a stage at Upper Hermitage and then to "Chain of Ponds" ,one of my favourite stages. This stage was about 12km of fantastic sweeping bends, that rose up and down as you made your way around a series of small lakes. The Arnolt was perfectly geared for this and had ample power to be able drift the car out of the corners as we swept through the nicely cambered bends, I can honestly say that this stage was one of the best "drives" I've ever had. We were having a ball.

For those who aren't familiar with historic road racing I'll spend a minute to explain the fundamentals. Historic closed road racing is for pre 1970 cars and is conducted on public roads that are closed to the public for stages of up to about thirty km at a time. Each car starts one minute apart and is timed through the stage to one hundredth of a second. The cars are divided into classes dependent on their age, engine size and modifications. Our car was standard with no modifications apart from an oil cooler but many were modified up to the limits allowed in the regulations with changes to engine, induction, gearbox, tyres, diff, suspension etc.

Full safety gear is required with helmets, fire proof suits etc. and the cars nearly all have a computerized trip meter come stopwatch device for the navigator to use called a Terratrip. My Dad as navigator spends a lot of his time looking at the Terratrip and his maps (which is probably best as that way he can't see what I'm doing). His job is to accurately track our progress through each stage and call to me through our intercom all of the marked corners, blind crests, bridges and any other danger points. It requires complete trust to the point where I as the driver cannot even hesitate on a left/right call from the navigator and Dad cannot afford to make one mistake or there could be disastrous consequences. It has taken us a bit of time working things out but I feel that we are now an excellent team that works very well together.

We had morning tea at the Birdswood Museum and then continued on some fabulous roads with stages through the hills before getting to a stage with a great reputation called "The Gorge Road". This is one of those amazing roads that attracts all of those guys on fast motorbikes for a fang each weekend. It runs down a series of completely unpredictable corners, through what is more like a chasm than a gorge for nearly 15km. It is incredibly hard work on the car, driver and navigator with constant braking, accelerating and very tight direction changes, never knowing what is around the next corner. The sound of the Arnolt's exhaust bellowing off the walls of the gorge was wonderful. By the bottom the Arnolt was almost out of brakes before we turned hard left and drove literally up the side of the gorge through a series of very tight hairpins called "The Corkscrew". The Arnolt's power really came into its own as we accelerated out of the hairpins with both back wheels spinning under power. It was so much fun we couldn't believe it was legal! We then headed back to Adelaide for a well earned shower and a whisky or two with day one safely behind us.

Day two we headed south and unfortunately we experienced some heavy rain which is never pleasant in a car with no roof and even less fun when you're trying to race as well. We had some great stages at Whickham and Willunga Hill which was a twisty section up a steep hill over very rough patched tar. The Arnolt's compliant suspension and large diameter wheels were excellent giving us a bit of an edge over some of the cars with harder suspensions.

Lunch was at picturesque Victor Harbor where we then raced around the streets between the houses before coming over a crest and down a steep straight that was the biggest "big dipper" I've ever been on. That night we parked the cars in the center of Adelaide for the locals to enjoy and with the streets closed off there was a great street party atmosphere. We stayed talking to fellow enthusiasts until late before having a delicious meal from one of the excellent nearby restaurants.

Each morning we carefully checked over the car and during the four days and 1100 miles of competition and transport stages we used no water, about one liter of oil and didn't even need to put air in the tyres. We were very relieved that we had no problems particularly when we saw other competitors with their cars pulled apart carrying out major repairs on a regular basis. Of the 96 starters in the competitive section only 55 finished with cars falling victim to both mechanical failure and accident damage.

Day three started with a very tight section called the Hilton Bridges through the back streets of the city of Adelaide. It was very twisty with high concrete gutters on either side and lots of concrete pylons from the bridges as we weaved in and out. The Arnolt is an ideal motorkahna car due to its agility and high first gear so we did quite well here. From there we headed through some other stages before arriving at the Eagle On the Hill named after a famous pub on top of a hill outside Adelaide. This section of road used to be the main highway out of Adelaide before they built a new freeway and is four lanes wide (two each way but we got to use it all) perfectly smooth and climbs steeply up the hill through a series of nicely cambered, tight, sweeping bends. There were spectators all the way up cheering us on and the atmosphere was fantastic as we gave the Arnolt its head climbing the hill before going all the way back through the gears to first for a very tight chicane and then on to the finish. The only way I can describe how much fun it was is for you to imagine your favourite section of freeway somewhere and then getting the Highway Patrol to close it off so that you can fang up there as fast as you can.

We had nine stages on day three including another run down the Gorge Road before heading back to Adelaide to catch up with Tony and Olive Bishop from the South Australian Bristol Club for dinner. Tony showed us his 401 and 400 which is undercoated and not needing a lot more work before being put back on the road. He has a great collection of spare parts too and Dad and I were giving some of his hard to find parts more than a glance as he showed us through his large workshop. We had a terrific night and Tony was able to give us the spectator's point of view of our run at the Eagle on the Hill that day. Olive's cooking was sumptuous and we were most grateful to them for their kind hospitality.

The last day saw us head back into the hills for some more fantastic driving in the morning before we headed to the famous Paris Creek stage. It is known as being very fast with cars regularly sitting at maximum speed and the Ferraris and Porsches loved it. It is also very dangerous with some very tight bends after fast sections and many large gum trees on the edge of the road. Dad and I carefully read the notes and maps beforehand and made special note of a very tight hairpin halfway through. We started off well and it was great to open up the Arnolt to near top speed a number of times. Dad called all of the corners well and as we came up to the hairpin he counted down the distance to the very tight corner. When we came flying around a sweeper to the hairpin Dad called it again to the left except that for some reason I had it in my mind that it was going to be to the right and hesitated. That was all it took and I had to stand on everything before we came to a dead halt in the middle of the corner with great cheers coming from the spectators. With only our pride hurt we safely continued on back through the final three stages before finishing at the Hilton Hotel in Adelaide for the last time.

That night we had a formal presentation dinner and Dad and I were ecstatic to receive a beautiful silver trophy each for winning the Historic Class 1600-2000cc. our first win ever. It just topped off nicely what had been a perfect event.

On the long drive home Dad and I discussed what it was that had made the Adelaide Classic such a great event to compete in and decided that there were a number of factors.

* The people of Adelaide lined the streets wherever we went and were incredibly enthusiastic about the race. They were so friendly we were made to feel welcome every town we drove through.
* The organizers were real professionals and had every detail covered. They also went out of their way to make sure that every competitor had a great time and received any support needed to keep them going.
* We got to see some incredibly rare and valuable cars being raced as their designers intended and met many fascinating other competitors from all over the world.
* Adelaide has very simply some of the best driving roads anywhere and they are all relatively close to the city.
* You stay in one hotel for the whole event, which means you don't have to pack up each day and can also do the race without a support crew as you return to the same place each night.

To me the real satisfaction and enjoyment in competing in Classic Adelaide 2000 was doing it in the Arnolt Bristol, a car which was a complete wreck only two years ago and also being able to compete together with my dad as navigator in an adventure we'll both never forget. Will we go next year? Just try and stop us! In fact why not go one better and bring your Bristol along and join us.

Steve Hawkins