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Tim takes the wheel
How I wish we could show you Tim’s first steep descent in Eugene the Hotchkiss. If he really had been on safari in the wilds of Africa and came face to face with a snarling lion he’d have had exactly the same expression of alarm on his face. Derek had given him the detailed instruction: select first gear, low range, creep slowly over the edge and let the car ease itself down against its compression braking. I had the camera ready as Tim eventually summoned up the courage to go for it – but as I pressed the shutter I heard that annoying “bleep, bleep, bleep” informing me that the shutter had been set to a ten-second delay. Consequently the expression on Tim’s wide-eyed face as Eugene freewheeled at breakneck speed down the hill must remain a fleeting image burned into my memory. Fortunately there was nothing in the way at the foot of the slope and when Tim eventually brought Eugene to a halt fifty metres further on – the old Hotchkiss has drum brakes all round so needs a concentrated effort to bring it to a halt – Tim explained: “My brain told me to keep my feet off the pedals, but my feet weren’t listening. I must have been standing on the clutch pedal all the way down.” Naturally we made him do it again, this time without using his brain. In consequence the descent was boringly steady, so we moved on to something more exciting.
The scene was Boxgrove Pit, near Fontwell in West Sussex, one of the sites operated by John Morgan – click here for details – and it has a good selection of conditions to suit all levels of off-roading skill. Hence it was a perfect location to give first-timers Tim and Loz a chance to see what little old Eugene could do. We’d started with the moderately steep climb and descent to get them used to the feel of the gears and controls, but quickly moved on to a nice little gulley that called for a careful descent and a tricky passage through some overhanging shrubbery and some deep ruts to follow. Eugene made it look too easy, so I chose something that would get the beginners’ adrenaline flowing a little faster. It was a steep little ramp up to a higher level, only about eight feet high but too steep for me to climb on foot without hanging on to the shrubbery. The guys had already got the measure of Eugene, however, so there was no crazy revving of the engine or excessive wheelspin as one after the other they aimed Eugene’s nose skywards and scaled the obstacle. We definitely needed something more interesting.
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Dink shows us how
We found it in a little feature that I’ve named the carousel. At the far end of the site are some steep climbs to an upper level, and right over at one end of this the track seems to disappear into the trees. In fact the track takes the form of a high-sided gulley that winds steeply downwards in a tight curve, and being covered by overhanging branches feels almost like a tunnel. It’s steep enough that even in first low the car feels as if it’s running away, so you can understand the looks of concentration, followed by expressions of relief, on the faces of the lads as they came barrelling out from under the trees at the foot of the slope. Most impressive, however, was the way they all tackled the really steep, rutted and rock-pitted track back up to the higher level – no sign of nerves or heavy footedness, they all just drove up as if on a Sunday afternoon cruise to the shops.
While we enjoyed a quick picnic lunch Tim raised the first serious off-roading question of the day. “Why would anyone want to lock up a differential?” he asked. The question had been prompted by the terrible noise issuing from a Grand Cherokee tackling, with little difficulty in spite of the racket, some of the more serious obstacles on the site. Derek and I had decided the guy had probably damaged some part of the transmission on account of driving around in low range on hard standing – it was a hot, dry day and there wasn’t a lot of mud on the site – and possibly had wound something up to breaking point due to the centre diff having been overstressed. Derek explained the theoretical off-roading advantages of having locking differentials, so it was quite ironic that Derek was the first of our party to encounter a situation where a locking axle differential would have helped. After lunch we’d gone in search of some more daunting territory, and found a little area that looked as if it might have served as a competitive trials section, all steep climbs and deep holes. Getting into the section was the first tricky bit – it involved a steep and deeply rutted climb. On his first attempt Derek got the car completely cross-axled, having quite naturally overestimated Eugene’s axle articulation. Derek backed down gently and to another run at it, this time straddling the right-hand rut so as to keep the wheels on the ground all the way up.
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Loz gives us a laugh
Once over the top we chose a steep drop to a low, curving track that led back towards the starting point but with another steep, badly rutted climb to finish with. Derek again straddled the ruts and took Eugene up in one. Next to tackle the little circuit was Tim, also initially taking the opportunity to experience the loss of traction caused by a lifting wheel on a rutted climb. He managed to keep the Hotchkiss under reasonably good control as he backed down. “Stay out of the ruts,” we said as he tried again; he didn’t but he’d given it a bit more boot so Eugene bounded over the bad patch and made it to the top in a shower of gravel and dust. Using the same confident technique Tim also managed to drive the Hotchkiss up the even steeper, ruttier final climb without mishap.
It was left to Loz to provide the real excitement of the day. He found the initial climb easy, even if only because he’d approached it from a different angle and automatically straddled the offending ruts. It was the final climb, however, that livened up the afternoon. Loz charged up the slope, only to get the car cross-axled at the top. Since he’d not experienced that situation before he wasn’t sure what to do. “Grab reverse and back down slowly,” we advised. Loz did so, unfortunately in his nervous haste missing the reverse slot entirely and rolling with startling speed backwards down the hill - and sideways up the sloping side of the gulley-like track at the bottom leaving the car tilted precariously over to one side when it eventually came to rest. “What do I do now?” Loz asked. “Keep very, very still,” we replied.
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Time to go
In fact the Hotchkiss was nowhere near its topple limit, it just felt like it; just to make things a little more difficult the engine had died and there wasn’t enough juice in the batteries to fire her up again. Fortunately a passing band of off-roaders came to our assistance and gave Eugene the necessary jump-start, after which I decided I’d better take over and drive the Hotchkiss out of its predicament.
Eugene started playing up a bit after that, stalling and refusing to start, probably because of vapourisation or dirt in the carb, so we decided to call it a day – we had a long drive home, anyway. Boxgrove is good, though, so we’ll be back once we’ve given Eugene a wash and mechanical brush-up
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