This will be the first time most of you will have heard from me, also due to the fact that I live half way up Ninety Mile Beach, you probably won't see much of me or my OL RX2 either. Some of you may remember my OL RX2 from Taupo 2002 , well since then the car had been sitting in an exhaust shop up until about December 2002. But it was time to get OL2 back on the road as I had a Hill climb that I was going to compete in in February.

So first thing was to get a warrant, this was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be, only thing it didn't pass on was the hand brake not working properly. I found it was a seized brake cable on the left side, guess that's what happens when you don't use the car often enough. Anyway now OL2 had a warrant and Rego, so it was time to get the car out of Auckland and back up home, as I had plenty of work to do on it to get it ready for the Hill climb which was coming up in about a month.

Over the past year I had bought a few things I wanted to fit to OL2 before competing in the Hill climb, so it was time to fit these bits and pieces on the car and give it a good tune up, as OL2 had been running a bit rich on the front Rotor. First thing was to fit a new ignition system, this time I'm running a CDI unit on the Leading plugs via a Series 4 Leading coil (Leading plugs direct firing all the time ) and one Series 4 trailing coil via the distributor for the Trailing plugs. This gives me plenty of spark, so no worries about firing the fuel when giving the car plenty of revs.

Second thing was to fit a Rev Limiter which I must admit I still have to set up properly yet, didn't seem to work as it was suppose to work. Next was a couple of Oxygen sensors, one in each pipe, so I can accurately tell the difference between the front and rear Rotors and to make tuning the carb a lot easier. Also to help in this was another Fuel mixture Display, which I must admit was a better one to read then the first one I had.

Well all this took a couple of weeks to put together and it was now time to give the OL2 a run and see if it ran any better, Took it for a run up the road, but it was still running a bit rough, so back home and pulled the carb to bits again, a bit more adjusting of float levels, and time for another run, better this time. The Hill Climb was getting close now only about a week away, so it was time for Isa ( my 4 year old daughter ) and I to pack up the OL2 and start heading south to Taranaki. Only one more thing to do to OL2 on the way down and that was a wheel alignment in Auckland, stay the night in Auckland at my wife's parents and drive the rest of the way down to Taranaki the next day.

First stop in Taranaki was a fuel stop in New Plymouth and a couple of young guys in the next car came over and asked if my car was for sale, I said no, I should have said how much will you offer me for it, I had told them that I had owned the car for over 20 years, never mind next time maybe. My parents live about five minutes away from where the Hill Climb is held, so this made for some very cheap accommodation, and they were certainly looking forward to seeing my daughter that they hadn't seen for about a year or more.

The Day of the Ngawhini Classic Car Hill Climb had finally arrived, Sunday 9th Feb it was and the weather was fine. Great I thought, as I did the same event two years prior and the weather was wet. Off to the Hill Climb I went, first up was scrutineering, now the event is run under MANZ rules, so the first problem was my Helmet, it was 20 years out of date, so I had to borrow one for the day, the scrutineers then checked over the car, first was a warning that my fire extin-guisher should be mounted with a steel mounting bracket, not the plastic one that it came with, still they let me go with it for the day, then a few of the people looking in the engine bay wondered why I only had half the ignition leads hooked up to the distributor, I laughed and said who needs those extra leads anyway.

Passed Scrutineering otherwise, so now it was off to park in the paddock and check out the competition, and some competition there was, I was the only Rotary competing, ( surprise ) seems to be the way with Classic events. So some of the cars competing in my class were - a Formula Ford single seater, a SL V8 Cobra driven by the guy that won the event 2 years prior, a couple of Triumph TR8's, a 3L Datsun 240Z ( a real nice car too ), so you see I had some stiff competition Due to the fact that the event was run under Manz rules this year, meant that because I was running a 13B engine, my car was therefore modified, so had to run with the big boys. I must admit that even though my car runs a 13B13, it is a stock standard engine internally. Anyway no point in complaining, I was there to have a fun day.

Drivers briefing was had and the day was to get underway, first the cars had been divided up into four groups with a range of different classes in each, which was good, as this gave the spectators a fair range of cars to see in each group, not just all fast or slow cars. Well the first thing up was the practice run, I was in Group 3, so this gave me a bit of time to have a look at how some of the other cars would go up the hill.

One of the vehicles I was keen to see how it went up the Hill was a 9L V8 Chev Drag Truck, it certainly made the most noise, but didn't really go that well at all, supposedly it had about 8-900 hp, all I can say was it smelt like a lot of clutch was being burnt away when it did it's first run. It was time for my first practice run, our group lined up, just in front of me was Steve Hildred in his 600hp Holden Monaro, the crowd liked him and his burnouts to warm up his tyres. And off he went only to post the second quickest time of the day, of which I found out later.

Still now it was my turn to show the crowd what a real car should go like, well that's my view anyway. Now I'm on the start line with hands sweating and Heart pounding. Then I'm told you can go anytime, so wind up the window, put it into gear and up go the revs, hold it at about SOOOrpm and out with the clutch, not too much slip, but enough to get it off the line as quick as I can, 8000 rpm comes round pretty quick, so into second and up the Hill we go, 8000 comes around again and into third, first sharp right hander coming up, quick step on the brake, down into second and hard on the accelerator again, up the hill some more and then hard on the brake and into a tight left hander, hard on the rev pedal again and into a long right hander, straighten up, 8000 plus this time, slow a little for a quick left then right, back hard on the rev pedal and on up to the top of the Hill, 8000 plus again then into third all the way now up to the finish line, crossing the finish line at about 130-140 Ks. And it was all over in 53.66 sec, so I found out later. Not bad I thought for the first practice and this time was about 3 seconds faster then my fastest time two years prior. This time was also quicker then the fastest time posted (53.70 sec) by the winning car two years ago. Just tells me that there were a lot more quick cars this year, and the road conditions were a lot better.

So over the day we had three more runs up the hill, and my times got better, the fastest time I did on the day being a 52.61 sec. Pretty good over all, but because I was in a class of very quick cars, I only managed 6th out of 7 in Class D, but overall I did alright being placed 15th out of 47 entries. So I was fairly pleased with the result, and there were plenty of prizes at Prize Giving, so most people got something good.

I think most people had a good day, and there were not too many break downs, from memory only 2 or 3 people had any trouble, one being a VW that broke a drive shaft on the start line, that certainly made a loud bang, you could hear from the pits. The guy in the Big Chev Drag Truck gave up after a couple of runs, as I think he had burnt out most of his clutch.

Well that was about it for my day at the Ngawhini Hill Climb, I can only say it is a great event and well worth the travel to compete. They only run the event every two years, so for anyone interested, it gives you plenty of time to get your car ready. There's usually a write up of this event in NZ Classic Car Mag.

All I need now is a bit more H.P., so hopefully by the time the next event is run in a couple of years, I might have a new engine in with twice the power, I guess we'll see.

Since that event was run in Feb, OL-2 has come back up home to the very Far North and been put back in the Shed. I haven't even given it a clean since the event was run, so the car is looking pretty sad and dirty at the moment. I'll have to give OL-2 a clean soon and then put the cover back over it for the winter. I have enclosed with this article a copy of the official results, a couple of photos and a news-paper article from the local Hawera Star.

Now I'm back home and playing around with my other pet project, the Beach Buggy, just lately I have fitted some new seats and a bit more alloy floor, and a little nudge bar on the front. Oh just in case you wanted to know, it's a Rotary powered Buggy,- but that's another story maybe.