“I grew up in the PlayStation era – even to this day I play Gran Turismo. The Nissan Skyline was always my dream car, and it’s the favourite of those that I’ve driven.”
British Touring Car Championship star Jake Hill was probably never going to choose the NGTC Volkswagen CC as the machine that gets his mouth salivating. But alongside the competitive weaponry he’s more recently taken to 12 BTCC race wins, there is a whole squadron of historic exotica he has raced or tested. And it’s Ric Wood’s recreation of Kazuyoshi Hoshino’s 1990 All-Japan Touring Car title-winning Skyline GT-R that tops them.
“I’m lucky enough to own a Skyline – I bought one in 2017, and my love for them just grew further, despite them being a massive pain in the arse!” he laughs. “But nonetheless, Ric’s race car is just insane. The Group A era is my favourite of touring cars anyway, and I think there’s no more famous Japanese Touring Car than the Calsonic Skyline.
“Yes, it’s not the original, but my God it’s as close to it as you can get. I absolutely love it, and it’s one of my favourite racing cars full stop, it really lights my fire.
“I first got the offer to drive it at the Oulton Park Gold Cup in 2019. I was on a wine tour with Hannah [Hill’s fiancee] and her family, and I got a call from Ric saying, ‘Can you come up this weekend? I’d really like you to drive the Skyline.’
“I went up to Oulton Park and jumped in it for qualifying. It was still plagued with some issues – it was a fairly new project for Ric then, but I’ll never forget the smile on my face when I drove it out of the pitlane.
“In 2020 we did the Goodwood SpeedWeek when there were no fans. We did a one-lap time attack on the circuit, and we finished sixth overall and top touring car, and that’s really what put me and the Skyline on the centre stage.
“Then later on I drove the HKS-liveried Skyline – same thing, just different livery – at the Festival of Speed in 2021, and I drove the Calsonic car this year at the Festival of Speed. I’ve raced it a couple of times with Ric, like at Spa, but on the whole it’s a project that’s a real privilege to have been involved with and I absolutely love it.”
While Hill rates the monstrous Skyline as his favourite to drive, there are a couple of other historic racers that he rates for their refinement.
“The Skyline ticks all the boxes for me, but there’s something about driving a race car that’s so pure, and the Chevron B26 that I race quite regularly with Simon Watts in Peter Auto events fits into that,” he states.
"On the whole it’s a project that’s a real privilege to have been involved with and I absolutely love it" Jake Hill
“That chassis is just incredible – it’s got the perfect mix of mechanical and slight aero grip, it’s super-lightweight, an amazing 2.0-litre engine and Hewland gearbox, and it’s just a real honour to drive that thing.
“And it’s a similar story with the Ralt RT3 F3 car, one of the few single-seaters I’ve driven. Super-light again, a very popular car back in the day, and this one was Tommy Byrne’s Shell car that he drove back in period [on his way to the 1982 British title]. It sticks out as one of the nicest cars to drive.
“It was through a friend of mine – he had a customer and he needed to do some data, so he said, ‘Shall we just jump in it and do a couple of sessions?’ It was on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in 2019, and it felt lovely.”
A shame for Hill, then, that he was born in 1994 and couldn’t drive any of these cars in period: “I was definitely born in the wrong era, that’s for sure. The 1990s were great – I love that era of cars. They’re my favourite Le Mans cars, my favourite F1 cars, and definitely my favourite touring cars.”
