Burt strut

The strut was invented in 1967 by Ron Smith; manager, chief mechanic and future husband to 1970 British sprint champion Patsy Burt.

The Burt strut was introduced to replace previous timing mechanisms, whereby a chock with a sensor was placed behind the rear wheel of a car at the start.

As most British hillclimb courses are somewhat less than 1500 yards (1372 m) long, it is not uncommon for competitors' times to be separated by only a few hundredths of a second.

However, owing to the variable shape of vehicles and inconsistencies in the placing of the beam sensors, this was not a simple condition to meet before the introduction of the Burt strut.

Within the United Kingdom the rules governing the size and position of the strut are determined by the Royal Automobile Club Motor Sports Association.