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| Phil Hill at age twelve works on a Ford Model T. Phil Hill photo. |
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| Hill at the 1949 Goleta time trials in an MG TC. Jack Campbell photo via Phil Hill. |
The family story sounds too apocryphal, too incredible to actually be true. A young boy of nine climbs into a car and without any instruction, figures out what all the controls are for and then drives it around a city block. But it is true and it's a story whose arc, of intutive mechanical understanding, daring and accomplishment mirrors the eventual racing career of that young boy, Phillip Toll Hill, jr.
World Champion Phil Hill did indeed take his first drive in 1936, in a family friend's brand new Oldsmobile. Hill was only nine years old at the time. While the friend was attending a party at his parents' Santa Monica, California house, the young Hill was sitting in the car pretending to drive - moving the steering wheel, pressing the pedals and shifting. When the car owner asked the boy if he could drive, the future racing great replied with a confident, "Sure!" To the horror of the other party guests, the Olds owner got into the passenger seat and let the eager young Hill drive the car around the block.
"That started my ultra-interest in cars," said Hill. At other times he's described his association with all things automotive as an "obsession". At age twelve, he convinced his aunt to help him buy a Ford Model T (shown at top right) and from there, Hill's focus on cars, mechanics and racing never flagged.
Hill's coming of age coincided with the rise of post-war southern Californian sports car racing. As a teenager, Hill became one of the first dozen members of the California Sportscar Club in 1946 and his first taste of victory came in a rally through the wilds of the San Fernando valley at the age of 19.