This Lotus Seven is an excellent autocross 
car as well as a competitive hill climber.

After the hill climb finished for the day, 
the road was opened to the public. Good time 
to take the Camaro up the hill! After a 
few miles, we were into the clouds, and visibility 
was down to a few feet in front of the car. We 
reached the top, and the small motel / 
restaurant there without a problem. 
Steven had his first taste of serious 
mountain driving. 
 

The going up is the easy part. Coming 
back down takes more concentration. 
Avoiding burning out your brakes is the 
main goal. Two cars passed us coming 
down when we were going up the mountain. 

The first was a small import, and it smelled 
like the brakes were burning up, which 
they most likely were. The second was a 
Ford truck, and there was smoke coming 
out of each wheel well, as the brakes 
here were totally fried. 
 

This could become a dangerous situation, 
as loss of braking on the steeper hills could 
result in an unplanned trip off the road. 
The simple solution here is to shift the 
vehicle into low gear, either standard or 
automatic, and let the engine handle the 
braking. We did this on the Camaro, and 
hardly had to touch the brakes at all. 

The only problem was the 
transmission wanted to pop out of gear, so 
Steven had to hold the shift lever in place. 

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