Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[clan chieftain]

I have never done any rallying. I just wondered if anyone on here has done any and has some interesting stories.
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The Clan Chieftain

[welshrover]

a friend of mine used to rally mk1/mk2 escorts in the eightys as clubmans car. i used to build the engines for them 2.1 pinto's were the order of the day then .with twin 45 webers ,then he later went on to rally a sunbem T.I .we met a lot of the old boys back then, hannu mikkola ari vatenen , and my hero roger clarke .i know gwyndaff evans very well .he lives not far from me . and my sons friend is howardd davies son. if you can remember he was gwyndaffs old co/driver. he now commentates on the WRC .his everyday job is a plumber in my area .and his mum lives in my village. we still have chats about the old days and how different it was before the money came into it and spoiled it .now group B now that was fun,fun,fun. had a go in a metro 6r4 bloody hell theyre fast i can tell you .the audi quattro sport now that was monster.made your eyes spin in your head like the rolls on a fruit machine that one was david llewelyns,..sadly a few of them guys are no longer with us . i want to get back into it. my cousin gwynfor has got a mk5 rs2000 escort rear wheel drive conversion with a 2.1 pinto and gsx bike carbs on it. it goes very well, he does a lot of the local road/night rallys with the dyfi auto club.we have quite a few rallys a year here .the gb, the bulldog and of course the local ones .

heres a few from the bulldog passing my house .

[exbmc]

Those are real rally cars Welshrover!
I have never done any rallying myself, only a few treasure hunt / on road navigation tests, mind you, they can get exciting at times.
I was fortunate to drive LRX827E, a works Mini Cooper, shortly after Paddy Hopkirk won the 1967 Alpine with it. It went on a tour of BMC dealers, as part of a sports car promotion.
In a previous life, i ran a filling station, in Tremadog. One day, lots of rally cars were going by, between stages.I think it was the Fram sponsored Welsh rally? After they seemed to have all passed by, a Lancia Stratos screeched in. The navigator was very flustered, as they had misread instructions, and been on a unscheduled trip round the Lleyn, and were concerned that they may miss the next forest stage by Betws-y-Coed. He asked me to put £3 worth of 4* in quickly, (Fat end of 9 gallons then) and they rushed away.

[clan chieftain]

Great pictures and story Welshrover. As exbmc said real rally cars, and still a good few of them around.
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The Clan Chieftain