HILL CLIMB FEATURE HEROES
The Legacy is one of the very few saloon cars to have made the Top 12 run-off in the British Championship
“ the power of a turbo with the lag-free delivery of a normally aspirated car” then an Ohlins TTX 46 Suspension system, fitted in 2021, turned out to be“ an absolute game changer.”
The suspension was the result of a late night in Portugal at the European Masters, and Bradley recalls:“ A few days before the event, I had a few beverages with Russ Walton, who runs Mick Gardner Racing and is an importer for Ohlins, and he promised me half a second on each of the UK hills if I was to buy his very expensive suspension.
“ I shook his hand and agreed to that, then came home and thought‘ oh my God, what have you done?’ It was by far the biggest investment I had ever made on the car, but once we set It up, with nothing else changed at all, the smallest improvement we had was 0.8s and the biggest was 2.4s – on a hill that is just 50-seconds long! It was absolutely phenomenal.” for example, we developed an entirely new racing fuel, and it became a best-selling product. That came directly from working with me and Steven Darley, so that is the value of them being involved.
“ With AET Turbos, if I write a blog or a post on social media, they might sell a turbo charger. It is that direct. In fact, they said that one of best things I have done is given them a response to all the sponsorship request emails they get – they just say,‘ once you have done what he has done in terms of promotion and success, we will support you.’”
As Bradley grew into Hill Climbing, he made two key developments that transformed the way the car behaved. First, a new Xona Rotor turbocharger, fitted in 2019, gave
Revolution- June 2025
The following year, Bradley decided to take on the BARC Speed Championship, blending his success on the hills with his origins on Sprints. The result: he won the title and was invited along to the awards dinner to receive a glinting Wilkinson Sword, which he proudly displayed standing beside Tom Ingram and the British Touring Car Champion trophy.
Over the past 10 years, Bradley, Darley and engine mapper Paul Blamire have developed the Legacy into something very special on the national hills. It now holds the class record at all but one of the venues, with Doune the only one missing simply because every time Bradley has taken it there it has been wet!
The Legacy is one of the very few saloon cars to have made the Top 12 run-off in the British Championship, doing so on three occasions, and it also set the closed-car record at Shelsley Walsh, with the turbo turned up to around 3-Bar of boost to deliver just shy of 900bhp.“ That did actually cost me an engine,” he quips.“ But it was worth it!”
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