Speed hill climbing is a tremendously spectacular sport. Formula One technology has always cascaded down into the hands of drivers and constructors alike making strides in reducing their times and records up the hills in the championship.

Gould have won the title since 1998, their light and nimble specially made chassis weighing in at under 500kgs, but with 680bhp on tap from a V8 3.5 litre engine that was a 2.65 litre turbo IndyCar engine before it was bored out.

Acceleration and grip is paramount on the hills; there is no Mulsanne Straight so getting to speed quickly is the key, carrying it and handling the car under braking before the next blast.

What excites car manufacturers is the freedom in the rules in that there is no weight limit at all. The class structure for the single seaters is 600cc, 1.1, 1.6, 2.0 and over 2 litre and it is these cars that regularly are the fastest 12 cars that qualify for the ‘Top 12 Run Off’, a shoot out in which 12 cars go for 10 sets of points after each of the two class runs during race day; 10 for the winner, 1 for 10th and two people as runners up. There is a bonus point available for anyone in this Run Off who breaks the outright hill record that stood at the start of the meeting.

At the end of the year after 34 rounds (17 weekends) the best 28 scores of each driver are taken forward for their deciding score.

The Goulds are dominant just as Pilbeam were in the late 70s and 80s, but the proliferation of motorcycle engined cars is nipping at the heels of the big cars with their speed and agility. The carbon fibre chassis Force or OMS 1600cc cars can qualify and give the big cars a run for their money, especially as they are approximately 320kgs!

4WD has won the championship in the late 60s but tyre technology made strides to outweigh the weight disadvantage, a fact that continues to this day.

The stunning part of hill climbing is seeing a standing start of a championship car - it will do 0-60mph in under two seconds.