This might be the craziest car ever to race at Goodwood
No, the bodywork hasn’t been removed for some last-minute mechanical work. This is the Hornet Racing Special in its full glory, laying bare its two V-twin engines which deliver power to the rear wheels by a series of no fewer than eight chains. The fact that it’s utterly bonkers (in the best way possible) comes as no surprise when you learn that it was built by vintage racing legend Duncan Pittaway.
“Duncan built it largely in the front room of his Bristol house in the early 1990s, with the express intention of driving up Prescott hillclimb as quickly and dangerously as possible,” says Tim Harrison, who currently races the car. “Duncan very kindly lent me the car for as long as I'd like to use it back in May 2016, and it has required a lot of ‘development’ and fettling since then to get it as usable and reliable as possible. There’s still a lot more to do.”
The chassis was found in a French hedge and is believed to be from an early 1920s Citroën. It has been shortened, narrowed and inverted, effectively making it underslung at the back. JAP engines might have been the natural choice for a special like this, but cost considerations mean that it actually has mid-1920s Harley-Davidson V-twins. They have a combined displacement of 2.5 litres and run on methanol delivered by a single Amal GP carburettor. Together, they produce 50 to 60bhp, while torque is “off the scale”. All those chains provided four different gear ratios, and the rear axle is a solid (no differential) GN item. The brakes are a mix of vintage Morris and Amilcar and, says Tim, “aren’t particularly confidence inspiring.”
The Bolster Cup race at Members’ Meeting would be the first time the Special had been subjected to such high-speed lapping. “This is such a huge demand on it and completely unprecedented so we really don’t know how it’ll handle it,” says Tim. “Obviously we've done everything we possibly can to make it as reliable as possible so with any luck we should be able to complete the race.
One job we've done is to alter the gearing to better suit the famously fast Goodwood circuit. However, finding somewhere large enough to test it has proved difficult, so we’re not sure how well it’ll drive now. It should be fine but we’ll see. If I’ve done my maths correctly, we should have a top speed of around 90mph, at which point the engines should be spinning at a little over 3000rpm. At that speed I don’t know how competitive we’ll be compared to the bigger-engined cars that are expected to be reaching well over 120mph, but hopefully I’ll have a good dice with someone.”
When the car was first built, Duncan had done several seasons of VSCC hillclimbs and sprints, where it acquitted itself well. “There’s a picture of him somewhere with all four wheels off the ground at the top of the Brooklands test hill,” says Tim. “So far I’ve done Prescott short and long courses twice each, Curborough sprint, Loton Park hillclimb and one race at Silverstone. That was the first and until Goodwood, the only time it has ever raced, so it’s likely that that was the fastest it had ever gone – 78mph – until now.
“A common misconception about Vintage cars is that they’re slow, but I hope this race goes to show people just how fast some of these home-built cars are. I’ve been a keen spectator at Goodwood for many years and have always loved its special atmosphere, as well as the terrific racing one sees. The only racing I’ve seen to rival Goodwood’s races for outright excitement is at VSCC meetings where seeing a tiny Morgan three-wheeler battling with vast aero-engined specials is nothing out of the ordinary.”
Photography by James Lynch