Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 1114 | Page 12

E

ighty five years ago he moved into the house in
which lived until he died in 2008. And it was just
a few years later – he was only twelve – when Hill
got his first car, a Ford Model T, and was sneaking off to slip and slide it through the beach city’s
dirt alleys. Champions tend to be irrepressible right
from the start.
In the late 1930s, Hill and his teenage friends were attending
races at such tracks as Los Angeles’ Gilmore Stadium or Legion Ascot
Park. Though his career would see Hill race in such exotic venues as
Monaco, Monza in Italy and Germany’s famous Nürburgring, one of
his first competitions was a midget car race at the Orange Bowl Stadium in San Bernardino east of Los Angeles. Making the main event
his first time out still ranks as one of the World Driving Champion’s
fondest racing memories.
Hill’s early racecars included in a supercharged MG-TC, a
historic Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 ex-Mille Miglia racer that currently
belongs to Ralph Lauren and a now-famous Jaguar XK-120. He
bought the latter while training as a mechanic in England, shipped

10 CarGuyMagazine.com

it back to the U.S., stripped it down to lighten it and opened the
engine to 3.8 liters. With his pal and future Ferrari teammate,
Richie Ginther, Hill took the car to the Pebble Beach road races in
1950 and won the main event, the first win by a Jaguar in the U.S.
Hill was also one of the early quick drivers in this country in the
Jaguar C-Type.
Hill was so fast and consistent he caught the eye of Luigi Chinetti, the three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans who was
Enzo Ferrari’s agent in the U.S. Chinetti helped Hill buy his first
Ferrari and put him in touch with the wealthy owners of the Italian
cars who were eager to have them raced. Soon Hill was a favorite
to lead or win races in such places as the airport courses at the
Santa Barbara (Goleta), Glendale and Palm Springs airports and
the Santa Ana blimp base. Another course wound through Torrey
Pines just north of San Diego.
Hill also did some driving for racing movies made in the early
1950s. He recalls roaring down Reseda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley at over 120 mph in a Ferrari for the Kirk Douglas
movie, “The Racers.” Years later he would be a major player in arguably the finest auto racing movie ever made, John Frankenheimer’s
“Grand Prix.”