OT; Westcountry

Aaah Porlock Hill :-)

Remember it from a long long time ago. Lots of cars abandoned cos they couldn't make it up the hill.

No problems on my motorbike :-)

With me bird on the back :-)

Memories ..........

Of course! The only sensible way.

Yes, it's the hairpin bend half way up that does it. Wife's parents used to live a few miles from Porlock (Dulverton) so been up in a whole variety of vehicles !

AWEM

The Medway Handyman wrote: '''

I recall some cars not making it at all, before such high power vehicles were common.

Colin Bignell

I recall my dad's 1956 Mk 1 Ford Consul having difficulty on a 1 in 4 bend somewhere in the Pennines. 3 gears was a bit of a drawback. When we got the caravan, it became even more interesting.

What about vacuum-operated windscreen wipers. If you slowed down because you couldn't see, so did the wipers!

Chris

Reminds me of the old (local) joke

Visitor (at the top of Porlock, to local 'old boy' leaning on a gate) "Is this hill dangerous ?"

Local "No zur - 'tis down the bottom they all kills 'emselves!"

Adrian

Doh ... that's the cornish way. Here in Devon, where clotted cream was invented, and is typically thicker than the inferior runny cornish stuff, we do it the other way round. You can ladle more cream on top of the scone then make a well in the cream to stop the jam running out.

Gordon

Runny jam? What kind of barbarism is that?

That brings back memories, 3 gears and NO synchromesh on bottom. Many drivers just couldn't get into bottom gear without stopping first - not what you want to do going up a 1 in 4. With practice you could get the revs right to drop into bottom at about 25mph which made it a much more fun car to drive.

Yes, if you had your foot down going slowly up a steepish hill they'd stagger half way across the screen and grind to a halt, then you'd have to switch them off so they shot back down, then on to start crawling slowly up the screen again.

But if you can manage to get two cuts across the scone, then you have 50% more area to work with.

BTDTGTTS

Not that I eat them myself, but I know someone who does ;-)

Chris

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

Butter first, then jam, then cream.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Nightjar saying something like:

I recall being in an Austin A30 which couldn't make it. A couple of years later the A35 sailed up - same load. Many many years later I went up the same hill when the memories of those trips came flooding back and I realised where I was.

It is nice to see that some people are prepared to spoil their holiday by doing research for the uk.d-i-y newsgroup. Now thats what I call dedication:-)

Did you take your bicycle with you? ;-)

I stand corrected.

Must have forgotten it....

:-)

You didn't have to travel that far:-

doesn't.

Its now electric AFAIK

Go and try Hardknott Pass, in the lakes. I remember going over it in an old-style Mini many years ago. 40BHP!

Andy