Gould Racing

Gould Racing is a British motorsport company, specialising in racing car manufacture and engineering. The company is run by David Gould, and is based in Newbury, Berkshire, England.

Although involved in several branches of motorsport, including manufacturing components for Formula One cars, the company's greatest success has come in the manufacture of specialised cars for hillclimbing: every British Hill Climb Championship from 1998 to 2010 was won by a driver in a Gould car. The company also built the one-off Gould Ford Puma for Mike Endean, featuring Xtrac four-wheel-drive, which won the Brighton Speed Trials four times in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Gould Racing has enjoyed massive and sustained success in the British Hillclimb Championship having won 19 titles in total, the first of which was when Chris Cramer took the 1985 at the wheel of a Gould/Hart 84/2 and the remaining 18 titles being taken in from 1998 to 2016, 14 of these being taken in succession, breaking Cooper's record of 13 successive title wins from 1951 to 1963 (though Peter Westbury only raced part of his 1963 championship winning season in a Cooper). Over the last 18 championship winning seasons Gould have gradually evolved their cars, with the GR37, GR51, GR55, GR55B and GR61 chassis all winning the championship on at least 2 occasions.

The Gould GR37 was ground-breaking in terms of hillclimb technology. Built around a Ralt F3 carbon-fibre tub, this car was raced to 3 consecutive titles by David Grace from 1998 to 2000, breaking Pilbeam's domination of the championship that had seen it win 17 of the previous 21 championships. It has typically utilised Cosworth or Judd V8 power ranging from the 3.3-litre Cosworth XB derived V8 to the 4-litre Judd and Cosworth F1 3.5-litre formula derived V8 engines. The Gould GR37 is still competing in the championship as of 2010. It was also the first carbon fibre chassis to win the championship.

The Gould GR51 refined the concept of the GR37. The chassis, whilst based on a Ralt carbon fibre tub, was further customised for its application in hill climbing. The chassis was mated to a DTM-derived Opel-Cosworth V6 engine enlarged to 2.8 litres from the original 2.5 litres and mated to an Arrows F1 gearbox. Whilst down on absolute power compared to the 4-litre V8 monsters of its competitors, the compactness and light weight of the car, engine and gearbox gave the GR51 a greater power-to-weight ratio, which resulted in a car perfectly suited to the tortuously twisty hillclimbs of the British Championship. With Scottish father-and-son duo of Graeme Wight and Graeme Wight Jr. campaigning the car, Wight Jr. sealed two consecutive championships at the wheel of the GR51 in 2001 and 2002. Graeme Wight Jr. competed at the Goodwood Festival Of Speed in this car in 2002 & 2003, the only occasions where a contemporary British Hillclimb Championship car has appeared at this most prestigious of events.

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