Dallara TKD02/Suzuki driven by Charles and James Williams

Cousin Elaine and husband Charles along with son James have kindly agreed to promote the shop by having the Cloud Nine Balloon Design and Cloud Nine Bazaar web addresses on their racing car.

Charles & James run the car in the British and Midland Hillclimb Championships at venues around the Midlands area. All hillclimbs are held on dedicated, tarmaced roads. The object of the sport is to get from the start of a steeply inclined course to the end in the fastest time possible. The cars which compete are very varied. You will find everything from a road going Mini to a F1 powered single seater at a hillclimb. As Mini's cannot compete with single seaters, the cars are broken up into classes depending on their type, and then broken down into engine size.

 This car is based on a Dallara F392 Formula 3 chassis which was originally driven by Giancarlo Fisichella (Now with Renault F1 Team) in the 1992 Italian F3 Championship. Originally fitted with an Alfa Romeo engine, the car has been heavily revised to accommodate a Suzuki Hayabusa engine and gearbox. The modification work was carried out by the engineering and racing company TKD Engineering in Cheltenham. The main part of the car utilises Carbon Fibre for its main construction, the same material that modern F1 cars are manufactured from. This makes the car very stiff and strong and also keeps it very light. Aerodynamics are now an important consideration due to the speeds these cars can now get up to. The Dallara is equipped with special high downforce carbon fibre wings supplied by Hillclimb specialists Gould Engineering.

 The car runs in the up to 1600cc Racing Car class at local hillclimb events. Single seaters are very popular in this sport now, and this makes these classes very competitive. In the 1600cc class the Suzuki Hayabusa is the engine to have as it can be tuned to get more power and torque. The Dallara currently runs with a standard Hayabusa engine, but there are plans are to develop the engine soon to make the car more competitive.

 Most of the Hillclimb meetings entered by this car are held at Shelsley Walsh near Worcester, Prescott near Cheltenham and Loton Park near Shrewsbury. These venues form all the rounds of the Midland hillclimb championship which consists of 9 events (3 visits to each venue) and some rounds of the British Hillclimb Championship. Points are scored depending on your finishing position in your class, with points awarded to the top 6 finishers

If you require any assistance please do not hesitate to call us on 01384 637909 or email nick@cloudnineballoondesign.co.uk