Hillclimb Class Record and Back Breaking Accident

A little story from the past – inspired by a good friend, Mick Howlett, and dedicated to him.

Let’s say I’ve always been an enthusiastic bugger as a driver!??I started in my modifed road car, then a race prepared tin top.?Sue, my good wife, always used to say that I was far too wild and sideways but it all felt fine to me – most of the time, anyway.

1994.?Willem Toet (shared with Richard Marshall) Peugeot – apparently I used to empty the bars with my sideways antics. Ok, OK, perhaps Sue was right - I was a bit extreme!

I fancied, one day, to be able to drive a Formula 1 car so graduated to open wheeled race cars in the late 1990’s.?After a short spell in Ben Boult’s 1600cc car I got a test run in, and then did a deal to drive, the “works” Pilbeam which I shared with former hillclimb champion Alistair Douglas-Osbourne (ADO).?By the way, have never driven a Formula 1 car but I’ve driven a 500kg Pilbeam with about 800 hp – does that count, I wonder?

In the Works Pilbeam in about 1997 – shared with Alistair Douglas-Osbourne (ADO)

Then, my early events in the “works” 2 litre Pilbeam nearly drove Mike Pilbeam around the bend.??I remember one event at Shelsley where I’d damaged the car 3 times in 3 runs and Mike P was ready to kill me, never mind consider letting me drive his pride and joy again.??“Pilbeam Mick” (Howlett) kept Mike busy while ADO?took me for a long walk to keep me away from Mike while Mick tried to calm the poor man down (and repair the car).?Mick is a salt of the earth sort of chap and thank goodness it worked as I got to drive the car again and drove the replacement car which was even better.?

Nobody doubted my speed but I approached the limit with huge steps and inevitably overstepped the mark on a relatively regular basis.

Driving the works’ Pilbeam during the record breaking weekend in 1998.

A year or so later, at Loton Park, one of my favourite hills, I set a new class record.??The quick run qualified me very well for the afternoon “runoff”.??The runoff in the UK is for the fastest 12 qualifiers (from many classes), the 10 fastest of whom then score points in the overall MSA hillclimb championship.?I had so much confidence in the grip the car had that I was fully focused on the rev counter, waiting to change gear at the optimum time while negotiating the famous kink up the straight which was at about 105 mph in the 2 litre car and easy (easy in my mind) flat.??The line I was negotiating using peripheral vision.?The kink is not flat in a big (unlimited engine capacity) car, or in a car with limited grip and the “straight” is actually anything but that.

So having changed into top gear I looked up and had about an eighth of a front wheel on the grass approaching the apex of the the kink – on the outside.?Stayed flat, it will be FINE I thought.??Nope.?Backed off much too late and left the road.??Car flew up for a split second and landed hard on the ground.?Broke (crushed) 3 vertebrae in my lower back right there and left a permanent bum shaped form in the 16 gauge aluminium floor of the car on which I was sitting (keeps the centre of gravity low you know).??I absolutely knew I’d broken the back (sharp stabbing pain) but at the same time knew the spinal column was intact (could wiggle my toes and work the brakes).?That initial crush slowed me to maybe 80 mph.?The car absorbed the rest of the crash energy while I held my torso rock rigid and tried to minimise further car damage (didn’t work).?At the time, I could not believe the car would not turn in with, by then, half the outside tyres on the grass – Pratt!

Took the poor marshals ages to get me out because the car wrapped itself around the big tree that was there at the time and a ruddy great branch was hovering just over my head.?That’s another story though and is down to other friends who knew what to do with the tree to remove the branch safely.?The hillclimbing scene is, mainly, such a friendly, caring family.

Still in the car with back broken while marshalls and friends tried to remove the branch over my head which prevented them from lifting me out of the car vertically.?It took a while which was worrying the hell out of my poor Sue.

Let’s just say that in any normal organisation I’d have been hit like a brick in the hip pocket for such stupidity.?I had no insurance on the car – I just paid all costs as they came up – that was the last time I drove someone else’s car without cover – I thought about what would have happened if I’d been killed – not fair to Mike Pilbeam.?So I fully expected that this was really going to hurt the wallet.??Mike P charged VERY friendly rates for the repair and “Pilbeam Mick” did loads of quiet unlogged overtime on the car to make it affordable.?Like I do now for others, he considered he was being paid a wage and motorsport is long hours so you can do extra when you are able – and in particular when you want to.?Typical Mick – always helping someone else.

The way I drove, especially back then, you needed the car to perform as it should.??Pilbeam Racing and as their chief “bolt” Mick was someone Sue and I trusted absolutely.

I started to drive other Pilbeam cars with bigger engines.??This lead to a first drive of a V8 engined unlimited class car.?What a shock to the senses this experience was!??Peak acceleration was achieved somehere near 100mph when the big wings on the car gave it enough grip for a driver to finally put his foot flat on the floor.??WOW – I thought – I’ve really GOT to have one of THESE!

When I bought the MP88 with the 4 litre (stroked) ex F1 engine, Mick and the guys at Pilbeam again bent over backwards to help wherever they could.??We agreed a good deal that included me providing the nose cone to my own design.??Knowing my tendency to overdrive, I wanted a Formula 1 quality crash / crush structure in front of me – I reasoned that I’d be “testing” it, so used my knowledge and contacts in F1 to help myself and then Pilbeam Racing to a better solution for both accidents and aerodynamics.??So, with help from the Pilbeam team (drawings), I digitised the front of the chassis in CAD, designed a new nose cone and had a pattern made (paid the pattern making team at BAR who did 3rd part work as well as F1 work).??

I’m working with Ferrari GT cars at the moment and the difference in attitude there is stark.??Design related information that would help us do a better job is their top secret intellectual property so you can’t have that.?If Pilbeams had had the same attitude, making a nose for the car as a customer would have been impossible.

Took the 5 axis machined pattern to Pilbeam to check the fit to the chassis which wasn’t good because the chassis pattern had been made by hand from the drawings and I’d made the nose cone from CAD drawings.?With some help from Mick, we cleared some space on the underside of the pattern so it would fit onto the chassis and the mismatch was drawn onto the rear face of the nose. Happily it was a bit big.

Went back to the CAD and designed a new upper surface close to the chassis.??Had that machined and finished off the pattern.?

The finished moulds for the main part of the nose cone.?Made the mould myself by hand, lots of sticky carbon glue on the gloves and the fingers when the fingers of the gloves wore through…..??

Once I’d made a nose and a spare (paid someone else to do that) which I was sure I’d need, I handed the patterns (nose and cap), the moulds, drawings, and the nose layup book (F1 crash test nose spec - to be as safe as possible) to Mike Pilbeam.??That’s what Pilbeam’s hillclimb cars since have used.??Never crashed the nose myself but hit the front wing a few times.??

First nose being fitted to the Pilbeam.??Car on surface table.?The untidy tool boxes on the left are mine.?My top box was put together with Snap-On tools when I started working in the UK in the early ‘80’s.?The little canterlever box was for extras that would not fit in the “top box” of my home stack.

A bit of careful design for the wing hangers meant that I only ever needed to replace those hangers and not the nose.??The non structural cap finished the aerodynamics and look of the completed nose.

Yea, that's me in a typical corner exit slide going beyond the ideal engineering slip angle of the tyres........

I was inspired to write this little post by “Pilbeam” Mick Howlett.?When I wrote it (most of this) he was still fighting to say alive.?He’s now sadly lost his battle with very aggressive bowel cancer – diagnosed about 10 days before writing.

Mick Howlett with my wife, Sue, sitting in the car.??Mick was the epitome of “salt of the earth”

Mick Howlett with his ever present hat has been a near permanent fixture at UK hillclimbs for very close to 40 years.??He’s helped virtually everyone in the paddock.??I’ve lost a good friend recently through an accident and I regret to say that Mick’s time on this world is now also over.??I spoke to him on the phone recently and we managed to pop over from Switzerland to see him yesterday, some hours before he lost his fight.??Cry me a river, another good one is gone.?Mick my friend, you are one of life’s unsung superstars.?The sadness and anger at the unfairness of life I feel now will pass and I’ll remember all you’ve done for me and so many others.

What a crap disease cancer is!??Only seems to attack gentle, loving souls.

Thanks Mick for your loving help on this and other things!?Mick is one of many reasons I try to help others with my time, when I can – he has gifted his time to so many.?

More posts from me here https://www.dhirubhai.net/today/posts/willemtoet1

Short video of a few of my successful “climbs” (i.e. ones where I made it to the top) here

Richard Dunn and Mick Howlett sitting on the wheels of my Pilbeam at Doune Hillclimb – both fairly camera shy, especially Mick.?Richard, unfortunately he also is no longer with us, filmed most of, and compiled, the video.

P.S.??Being emotional, as I am, does mean you feel the emotional pain, but I see that as coming with the positives of feeling also the warmth.?This little snippet I’ve written started as a story I sent to Mick and his Sue when he was still around.?I added the pictures later and changed it to the third person.?I almost had my emotions under control until I read what Mick’s Sue wrote in response to this post.?Of the many other tributes and comments on Facebook, I have picked one other up from some others that sum up my impression of the man.

From Sue, Mick’s wife, “?Willem Toet ?you have no idea how happy I was to see you poking your head round the door yesterday. I had spent the last couple of days asking Mick to hold out until you and Sue had visited. He certainly knew you both were there and reacted to the stories you told and the videos you played. …”

From Sireen B, “… I was blown away by him quoting Shakespeare. A definite case of never judge a book by its cover! ??”

From Ben S,?“Such a sad loss to the world of humanity. I remember him sitting out one Sunday night at Gurston with my daughter chatting about the stars, harry potter and various other topics you would not have associated with him. Needless to say he had his roll up and bottle of rum with him. Such a gentleman who will be sorely missed”

From Charles “...such a great unsung hero of Hillclimbing, we will all miss Mick round the fire in the pound at Prescott with one arm round Sue and the other round a bottle of port!!!!”

Jamie C:?“RIP Mick… I worked with Mick when I was 16-22 starting as an apprentice.??Although Mick could be an awkward bugger (and I know he wouldn’t mind me saying) he would always stop what he was doing to lend a hand and explain to me what was what.?In fact I’m remembering a 17 year old me sat in one of your cars Willem, being driver ballast and Mick telling me stories.?Always had a tale to tell.”

RIP “....race in peace” – Lee C.