A 1905 steam car, which took an enthusiast eight years to painstakingly rebuild, will make its competition debut at this summer’s Chateau Impney Hill Climb.
The appearance follows a campaign by ‘Whistling Billy’s’ owner to overturn a 100-year-old ruling which bans steam cars from competing in motorsport events against petrol cars.
Dr Bob Dyke, one of the country’s foremost experts in steam cars, has been passionate about the vehicles since his childhood but, along with other members of the Steam Car Club, has not been able to line up in popular historic racing events because of the century-long ban.
After years of letter-writing and lobbying the MSA, it was finally lifted in September last year and now he is raring to get the car onto the tarmac at the Chateau in front of 15,000 spectators.
Whistling Billy was one of the fastest of any type of car on the American dirt track races in the early 20th century.
It was built by the White Sewing Machine Company in 1905 and was engineered specifically for racing.
Originally known as the ‘White Rocket’, the car was lovingly renamed ‘Whistling Billy’ by the crowds who watched it race due to the howling noise that came from its burners as it went down the straights.
It won numerous races in its early years and in 1905, it shaved nearly four seconds off the world track record for the mile on a dirt round track with a time of 48.45 seconds. But, in 1912, during a practice run in Portland, Oregon, the car crashed over an embankment and was found upside down, broken in half.
The driver was seriously injured, but survived. Following the crash, the car ended up in storage, before being moved onto a farm and left to rust and ruin.
In 2003, a major motorsport exhibition organiser called Bob and said they wanted to showcase the White Steam racing car because of its history.
“I told them that they couldn’t find it as it was written off in 1912 – so I said I’d rebuild it for them.”
On a road trip to America, during his search for another White Steam car, Bob discovered by chance a number of Whistling Billy’s original parts.
As well as the spares he acquired in America, Bob took many components from another 1907 White Steam car he had bought over a decade before.
It was an ideal starting point as it featured many technical modifications originally pioneered by Whistling Billy.
“It’s a faithful, accurate rebuild using mainly correct, original parts from White steamers.
“I had nine or ten photographs of Whistling Billy at the time which were very helpful in figuring out how to put it all together, and allowed me to get the exact dimensions.”
But he added it was impossible to find everything so new parts had to be manufactured by Bob to get it into a useable state.
Whistling Billy’s current top speed stands at 70mph, but Bob thinks there iis a lot more throttle to open yet and, despite its dirt racer past, he is confident the car will perform well on at the Hill Climb, even if it is 14ft long.
Visit www.chateauimpneyhillclimb.com for more on the Hill Climb.
