Gould GR59 (Hillclimb)

History

British speed hillclimbing — 30-to-50-second sprints up narrow venues like Shelsley Walsh (running since 1905), Prescott and Doune — evolved its own machine: lighter than circuit single-seaters, instant-launch gearing, downforce tuned for 60 mph corners. The Gould family's Bristol operation perfected the genre: the GR55 and definitive GR59 pair a compact carbon monocoque (with lineage in 1990s F3000/junior tubs, extensively re-engineered) with small-capacity V8s — Nicholson-McLaren-developed units around 2.7–4.0 litres — sequential gearboxes and launch traction that beats anything on four wheels to 60 mph.

The results are near-total: since the mid-2000s the British Hill Climb Championship has been effectively a Gould benefit — Scott Moran and Trevor Willis-era title fights, then Wallace Menzies' and Matthew Ryder's GR59 championships — while outright hill records at Shelsley, Prescott, Gurston and Doune have been repeatedly rewritten in the cars. Sub-23-second Shelsley runs (a hill climbed since 1905) translate to launch and cornering intensity F1 machinery cannot legally match on those roads.

The market is a specialist's paradise: a handful of chassis, known individually, traded within the hillclimb community with engine leases and setup knowledge attached — the closest thing British motorsport has to a craft guild's tools.

Palmarès

British Hill Climb Championships across the 2010s–2020s (Menzies' four-title era, Ryder's succession) and the GR5x family's near-unbroken title run since 2004; outright hill records at Shelsley Walsh, Prescott, Doune and Gurston Down; Midland and Scottish championship domination — the most complete single-marque grip on any national championship in the UK.