David Franklin became the British Hill Climb Champion in 1978 driving a March-BMW. You can guess what he drives nowadays.
I met David briefly at Goodwood, and while he was very nice indeed, he also seemed to be one of the eldest chaps at the paddocks. There’s no problem with that, I just thought he will take it easy, do a demo run or something. But Goodwood ain’t in Florida. What was I thinking?
Mr. Franklin went for it with his 1969 Ferrari 312 P Berlinetta. Balls out. It was one of the nicest drives up the hill I saw all weekend.
As it turns out, he is also a regular with this car at events like the Le Mans Classic. 450 horsepower at 10,800 rpm. That’s what you should know about that 3.0 V12.
He came second in class at the shootout, beaten only by 8.5 liters of McLaren-Chevrolet power. Le Mans Group 6 vs Can Am? Hardly a fair fight, but it’s all bloody good fun.
Take the kids out! They need to see guys like David in cars like this. It’s more educational than a school day.
Better than music class as well.
Photo credit: Robert Stokes and Máté Petrány/Jalopnik
Contact the author at mate@jalopnik.com.