Have got lots of great memories of Hard Knot and Wrynose passes. My earliest VW memory would be going over them in my parents 1961 Canterbury Pitt Camper Van (reg 4771R) in the late 70s, it had a 1200 engine and did the whole ascent in first gear, it was slow but got there with no problem. I can remember people in various water cooled cars collecting water form the roadside springs for their engines which had over heated.
In the early eighties I took a series of photographs of my parents 1970 Danbury on the ascent and submitted them to VW Motoring hoping to get a front cover shot but never did...
I drove over it for the first time myself in about 1981 in my 1955 Oval (reg JFX 892) with the car packed full of camping equipment and various friends and partners.
I used to go camping and fell walking in the Lake District during the winter months, the passes are often closed when there is frost and snow about but I used to go past the closed signs in the VW and over them with no trouble at all.
In about 1987 I had a brief love affair with an Austin Maxi and thinking that front wheel drive meant traction equal to that of rear engine rear wheel drive again ignored the "Road Closed" signs, I got as far as Wrynose but then became horribly stuck and started sliding sideways until the car came to a halt aagainst a large rock! Whilst waiting for the sun to rise and thaw the ice on the road a Land Rover with a couple of climbers came by and between us we used their picks to break the ice up on the road so that we could get on our way.
I then realised the merits of rear engine rear wheel drive when it comes to hill climbing!
On one occassion, in the early 80s, I was driving a friends 1971 Dormobile D4 down Hard Knot full of friends and camping equipment and pushed the brakes to stop and let a car on the ascent by (unwritten rule of the road: always give way to the car on the ascent), despite standing on the brake pedal with both feet and pulling up on the steering wheel the van did nothing but slow down a bit, stopping was out of the question. The car on the ascent gave way to me (obviously they had't heard about the unwritten rule) which was just as well as otherwise I would have driven straight into the front of them and pushed them all the way back down the hill!
Mike.
Edited by user
12 years ago
|
Reason: Not specified
July 1957 UK supplied RHD Oval. 1972 World Champion Beetle. 1978 UK supplied RHD 1303LS Cabriolet. 1973 UK supplied RHD 1303s.