LET THE HILL CLIMB SPECIAL – SHINE A LIGHT ON ME
I can’t really remember a time in my life when I haven’t been acutely aware of Ford’s redoubtable Anglia. At the age of about 10, I learned to drive in an old three-speed 1951 model popularly known as the Puddle-Jumper, then a year or two later one of my schoolmates crashed my mom’s Prefect (a four-door version of the boxy mid-‘50s second-gen Anglia) into my bedroom wall. The teacher at my primary school in Pretoria regularly gave me and another young mate detention because every time a particular third-generation Anglia raced past the school we used to jump up from our desks to check it out.
That particular neighbourhood 1965 Anglia was special, as it was fitted with a pair of Weber side-draught carburettors that roared just like the cars at Kyalami that we had read about (there was no TV in those days in sunny SA). I will always associate the distinctive sound of side-draught induction with Anglia’s, and the owner of this month’s featured classic feels much the same way.
Dave van der Merwe’s very first car, which he acquired while still a schoolboy, was a Ford Anglia also fitted with an extremely hot side-draught enhanced motor. He recalls terrorising the Cortina Big Six and Alfas around the traffic circles in the Carletonville area in the early 1970s.
That Anglia is long gone, but Dave, now living in Groot Brakrivier near Mossel Bay, always had a hankering for another one, and after his Renault Gordini popped the motor one too many times on the Knysna Hill Climb, he bought an Anglia shell and proceeded to build up what he felt would be a more reliable hill climb weapon. And so, it has proved.
Riding along with Dave in his hill-climb special towards Herold’s Bay, which boasts one of the most beautiful beaches in the country, I was astounded at how much top-gear grunt this old 1965 Anglia has! In preparation for its annual pilgrimage up the Simola Hill Climb Course in Knysna, Dave has fitted the car with a modified 2,0-litre Ford Pinto motor, as used in various forms of Cortina’s and Sierras throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It runs a 300-degree cam shaft courtesy of Van der Linde Developments, and special cylinder head work done by Nico van Rensburg,
The cam profile allows a very free-revving spirit to the motor and a rich blap-blap burble at idle, but there is no low-rev stuttering, thanks to very careful vernier adjustment on the cam gear. Also helping the car’s driveability is a five-speed Sierra gearbox, but coupled to the low standard diff ratio that came with the Anglia in 1000 cc form. The way the ratios have worked out, Dave’s car has excellent acceleration off the line and closely spaced ratios, which is what you want for a hill climb!
Conversely, on the N2 Highway, fifth gear is great for cruising along at the speed limit. Inside the car is noisy, as Dave has yet to fit all the niceties of carpeting and sound deadening that would keep things a bit more civilised for road use. For me, I am happy to just tootle along and listen to all that induction noise from the un-filtered Webers, and this is even louder than you’d expect as the special fibreglass bonnet has been raised at the trailing edge to promote extra under-bonnet heat extraction.
The car is fitted with two rally-spec seats that are surprisingly comfortable even over various bumps and ruts experienced on the older secondary road down to Herold’s Bay. The car runs disc brakes up front and coil-over spring-shock units in place of the old MacPherson struts. At the rear he’s fitted spacers on the leaf springs to lower the car appropriately.
In the boot is a purpose-built stainless steel fuel tank and fire extinguisher, and the car is also equipped with track-specific quick-switch electrical cut-outs and tow mountings. So far it hasn’t needed any of those things, and Dave regularly drives his Anglia on the road, as it is fully street-legal, and so he also drives it to the annual hill climb and back home. No trailers necessary, for this little hill climb special!
Running Minilite replica 6J rims and low-profile tyres, the car is firm but not harsh and I was also surprised at how straight it tracked, both on the highway and on secondary, bumpier roads. Future finishing touches for the car include a grille for the radiator, possibly in the simple steel-bar Anglia Standard format that some of these models used in the mid-1960s. A fine visual feature already fitted is the set of spats shrouding the wheel arches front and rear to accommodate the much wider-than standard wheel track.
Ford Anglia’s were launched as little-old-ladies’ cars back in 1959, but the beautifully designed 997 cc motor lent itself to all manner of tuning tricks and soon these engines were powering all sorts of racing cars across the globe. In South Africa in the early ‘70s the famous Broadspeed Anglia driven by Gordon Briggs gave factory-supported Renaults a torrid time in the 1000 cc class championship, and before that Basil van Rooyen, Koos Swanepoel and Brian von Hage had already made the little Fords racetrack legends.
When the Anglia De Luxe made its debut in 1959 it’s 1,0-litre motor was rated at a mere 28 kW. The 2,0-litre Pinto motor fitted in Dave’s car is good for at least 100 kW with its Webers, wild cam, branch exhaust and cylinder head with gas-flowing treatment and higher-compression ratio. So, three times the power in a car that still weighs close to its original 750 kg makes for vivid acceleration, and captivating audio effects, especially sans carpeting and sound-deadening.
More recently, of course, one of the Harry Potter fantasy books featured a 1960s flying Ford Anglia on the cover, ensuring renewed everyday popularity for these magical little Fords. For me I would take one just like Dave van der Merwe’s hill-climb-ready Sunday cruiser. Even now, as I write this, I can hear the rasping burbling from those unfettered side-draught Webers.
Story by Stuart Johnston
Pics by Rob Till and Stuart Johnston
