Switzerland, August 2022
Due to the global pandemic, my anticipated return to the Ollon to Villars hill climb in 2020 did not happen. However, after two postponements it was ‘on’ for Sat./Sun. 20/21 August 2022 and earlier this year preparations began. 2022 would be the seventh time I was to take part and, as in 2017, I managed to persuade my wife Linda to come with me in my 1971 Elan Sprint (FHC), but she was not keen on the long journey to get there and back (1,500 miles) so this time we had the company of friends Neville and Jacqui Alderson from Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham in their Elan S3 (DHC). Our plan was to take a more relaxed 3 ½ days to get there with daily journeys no longer than 280 miles. As my usual route from Hull to Zeebrugge by P&O ferry was not operating, we booked with DFDS from Newcastle to Amsterdam (Ijmuiden). Our first overnight stop was at a hotel on the outskirts of Reims and the second at a B&B in a town called Gray, north of Dijon. Secure parking was a factor when booking our overnight accommodation to keep our cars safe.
Preparing my Sprint for this marathon journey involved refitting my cylinder head, refurbished by Scott Brennan of Brayon Classic Engineering. This was collected at the end of June so I just had enough time to assemble and refit it to allow me to run the engine and prove it was OK. Details of the refurbishment work are given in my Scottish Snippets article number 100. Other work included fitting an Aldon Ignitor electronic ignition unit to the distributor, overhauling the front trunnions, removing, cleaning and refitting front wheel bearings with fresh grease, checking the dynamo bearings and brushes, fitting new rear brake pads and renewing the brake fluid. I was also finally able to get the windscreen wiper intermittent wipe relay working with the help of a local auto electrician. I had been told that some European countries were phasing out E5 Super-Unleaded (97/98 octane) petrol so I bought a bottle of Millers VSPe Power Plus additive to reduce the corrosive effects of 10% ethanol. As it turned out all of the pumps we used had E5 Super-Unleaded petrol so the additive wasn’t required. Incidentally, petrol was most expensive in Holland at 2.379 euros/litre (£2.12 per litre) compared with around 1.845 euros/litre (£1.65 per litre) in France and 2.33 Swiss Francs/litre (£1.65 per litre).
Packing our luggage, spares and tools for my Continental trips has become a bit of an art but the classic Elan is surprisingly capacious. I manage to pack most of the spares around and inside the spare wheel leaving the boot area clear for my helmet and race suit, up against the backboard and two hand luggage-size trolley cases. Tools and other luggage went behind the seats, even managing to squeeze in two folding chairs. Our overnight ferry bag went in front of the passenger footwell. For this trip, I decided to take my Sat Nav. which proved very useful in rerouting us if there were diversions due to road closures. We found we couldn’t rely on it 100% and having our route marked on a road map helped when the Sat Nav. was obviously wrong in wanting to take us off our route.
We met outside Newcastle to board the ferry together and had a pleasant and smooth crossing, arriving in Ijmuiden on 16th August on a warm and sunny day. Neville and Jacqui led the way south and we made good time, via Utrecht, Antwerp, Brussels and Charleroi, battling with the traffic on the congested Dutch and Belgian motorways in our ‘wee’ Elans. I say ‘wee’ as some of the vehicles were huge, e.g. Dodge Ram pick-ups, and particularly 44-tonne ‘juggernauts’ which followed a few feet from my bumper – most intimidating for Linda. Once I had to open my window and beckon to the driver to drop back. A lot of Continental drivers have adopted the same bad habit, as do UK drivers, of driving too close on the motorways. Have they not heard of the ‘2-second’ safety gap rule? We had a pleasant first night in the Best Hotel Reims at Croix Blandin and the next day took Route National (‘A’) roads to our second overnight stop at Gray in an old rambling house with a walled garden and swimming pool. Then over the Jura mountains via Besancon and Pontarlier and entered Switzerland at Vallorbe where I bought my ‘vignette’ (40 Swiss Francs), which allows you to travel on the Swiss motorways. Neville and Jacqui didn’t buy a ‘vignette’ so we followed them on non-motorway roads into Lausanne and then alongside Lake Geneva via Vevey and Montreux to Monthey where we had lunch.
Since the last time we had been to the ski resort of Villars in 2017 our usual hotel had changed hands and been bought by a Chinese gentleman (Mr Hu) and the name changed to the Viu Hotel. It had been nicely refurbished and we were allocated our usual ‘valley view’ room with a balcony overlooking the Rhone valley with the Alps in the distance – quite spectacular. Friday was signing-on and scrutineering down in Ollon, but this didn’t take place until the afternoon, due in part to the inclement weather which persisted until after our first run up the hill on Saturday morning. There was a second run on Saturday afternoon and two runs on Sunday – the closed public road being a real challenge as the hill climb is 5 miles long with seven hairpins. From the 1950s to the 1970s the Ollon to Villars hill climb had been a venue in the European Hill Climb Championship and in 1965 Jim Clark competed here in a Lotus Type 38 Indianapolis car. We entered the (non-competitive) hill climb under the Historic Ecosse banner, our group ably organised by Vernon Williamson. Our group consisted of eight cars; a Van Diemen Formula Ford, a Lynx Formula Junior, an Alpine A110, MG Midget, Mk1 Ford Cortina GT and three Elans. The third Elan was an ex-Jim Clark Elan, once owned by Jimmy’s friend, French journalist Jabby Crombac, and now owned by Peter Windsor, journalist and former Williams Formula 1 Team Manager. The car was transported to Villars from the Jim Clark Museum in Duns where it is on display. Peter drove the car on Saturday and Doug Niven, Jim Clark’s cousin and Jim Clark Trust Family Trustee, drove it on the Sunday.
There was a huge entry of 180 cars, 70 motorbikes and 20 sidecars from 1930 to the 1970s and was a sight to behold when they were all parked in the top paddock in Villars at the end of their runs. It was a relaxed, sociable event and when you arrived in the top paddock after your morning run a young lady was there to offer you a glass of wine or soft drink before you headed back down the hill for lunch in Ollon. Two special visitors paid a visit to the top paddock on Saturday afternoon – Sir Jackie Stewart and their son Paul who was driving a beautiful classic Ferrari Daytona. They were interviewed by one of the hill climb organisers and Sir Jackie spoke about his Tyrrell Formula 1 team-mate and friend Francois Cevert who incidentally broke the hill record in 1971 in a Tecno F2. Giacomo Agostini was also present at the hill climb, riding his 1958, 500cc MV Agusta. Sunday dawned dry and sunny and although cool in Villars (at 4,000ft) it soon warmed up during the day. Due to an accident in the afternoon, our second run was delayed and, to save time, we were told to do a rolling start rather than be let go at 30-second intervals. That was fine except the group behind us were sports racing cars including Jo Siffert’s son Phillipe driving an ex-Le Mans Porsche 917! Fortunately, he didn’t catch us up but our Historic Ecosse sports cars (Alpine and Elans) caught and passed a cautiously driven Ford GT40. Unfortunately, as Doug Niven was passing in Peter’s Elan the GT40 moved over and scraped the body of the Elan.
We had booked 6 nights at the hotel, Thursday 18th to Tuesday 23rd so we spent Monday and Tuesday after the hill climb relaxing in the gloriously warm and sunny weather. On Monday the four of us took the funicular railway to a restaurant above Villars at the Col de Bretaye for lunch. On Tuesday we took the bus and train into Montreux on the shore of beautiful Lake Geneva and visited the monument of Freddy Mercury which commemorated the legendary band ‘Queen’ recording six albums in Montreux from 1978 to 1995. We finally said farewell to Villars on Thursday 24th, August and Linda and I made our way north, back over the Jura mountains to the motorway at Dole then Dijon, Troyes and finally to our overnight stop at the Best Hotel, Reims. The temperature had now risen to 33C and although the Sprint didn’t overheat we were wilting. We stopped to cool down at a rest halt 60 miles south of Reims and found that my nearly-new starter motor had stopped working. I had visions of having to be recovered back to Scotland, but much to the relief of Linda I managed to get a push and ‘bump-started’ the car. On arriving at our Reims hotel I found that when the engine cooled down the starter motor worked. This allowed us to continue our journey the next day but the starter motor failed again at our lunch halt south of Liege. Again a ‘bump-start’ was required and we made our way without further problems into Holland for our overnight stop at a peaceful B&B, in the countryside east of Maastricht. The B&B was really quirky and rustic as our bedroom was in a converted cow barn (fortunately air-conditioned). Breakfast was served ‘al fresco’ and we had a lovely view over the fields to the Maastricht skyline. From there we drove to the picturesque, mediaeval town of Haarlem for lunch and then to our overnight ferry at Ijmuiden where we parked up behind a Dutch registered Elise. On boarding the ferry a Dutchman, driving a Triumph TR6, said he thought my brake lights weren’t working. Once home I discovered this was caused by a faulty brake light switch. It was a smooth crossing to Newcastle and we were home in Stenhousemuir early afternoon after stopping for lunch on the way.
Thus ended our marathon and memorable trip to a fantastic event in Switzerland. Apart from the faulty starter motor my 51 year old Elan Sprint never missed a beat and achieved 38 mpg on a couple of occasions. The engine also used less than 1 pint of oil over the 1,600 mile trip, validating the effectiveness of the work that Scott Brennan had done on the cylinder head.