80's road rallying

[CHELT RS]

Hi, following on from the Cilwendeg thread is there anyone on here who was into road rallying in the late 70's to mid 80's.
I consider myself very lucky to have been around and competing at this time.
This, for me, was the heyday of road rallying. Pre-plot all selective format events with Targa timing. Basically stage rallies on the road.
In the Cotswolds where I did most of my competing most events turned into road races because of the nature of the roads and the relative ease of navigation.
I regard myself very lucky also have won a couple outright and had a few top 5 finishes and still have the car to drive around today all be it at a very much reduced speed.
It was obvious that road rallies couldn't carry on in that way so when they banned targa timing road rallies around the Cotswolds were no more.
Now I am pushing 60(don't feel like it though) I am very happy to have the memories of those days and still have the car that helped me make them.
The picture in my siggy was taken on the 1983 August Moon Rally organised by South Bucks Motor Club. God, that's 28 years ago where has the time gone
Phil

[Tim]

ive only ever heard storys and read book about this era of road rallying as i was only born in 84
Memory lanes is a good book for early 70s road rallying,have heard of a book coming out for the late 70s by Mick Briant

[plentysideways]

I got into road rallies in the early 80s. Remember doing my first "cotswold" event (as opposed to welsh ones) and finding out that with straights that long and fast it was a) useless using a Mini geared for 90 flat out, and b) it was possible to eat a sandwich between junctions as they were that far apart!
Also remember starting one selective three abreast (rather than one behind the other as was the norm) as the road was wide enough to do so. The slot 90 right at the end of the straight was interesting!
Great days, but it couldnt continue as it was with full on works spec cars (Jones's TR8, Bengry's Ascona 400 etc) being driven flat out around the countryside.

[Alan]

I did loads of road rallying early to mid 80's before venturing out onto the stages.

Loved it, the pace of motoring news championship rounds was staggering. Quickly learnt that buying the best tyres ie Advan A001's for the rear and Turbo speeds for the front saved a fortune in panels and paint LOL

[driverace]

Road rallies

Did lots of events ,road rallying in the 70s
The Motoring News Championship was all road rallies,as i recall,can remember doing events were Ronnie Beecroft,competed in a White Mexico,a Black Sunbeam,a Swift sposered Rs2 (Virginia),and wife Sue used to do the milking on the farm so Ronnie could get some sleep,and then getting to the halfway halt to change his worm out super sticky slicks.
Thats when its started to get a bit too serious,with 6 tyres for a 200 mile night event.
i competed as Navigator and driver too in Escort 1300GT,Mexico's,RS2s,Hunters ,Avengers.
All good fun,and i can remember setting off side by side at the start of "Selectives",and at the firstsharp bend the guy with the biggest balls kept his foot in!
As they say "All good things come to an end"

[alancdavis]

I did a lot of road rallys in the 70s,,, Did the Motoring News Championship and finnished in the top 10

Ancient history now

[alancdavis]

This was the 70s

[alancdavis]

I must add this era was an absolute passion of mine and hence in my twilite years it is my intention to recreate my old cars and hopefully give then another thrashing

[grum]

Great days, but it couldnt continue as it was with full on works spec cars (Ruddy's TR8, Gerard's Ascona 400 etc) being driven flat out around the countryside.

and the problem was ????

[alancdavis]

I would think cash

[graham John]

Blimey, those days eh.

done many MN events, but never stood a chance against the 'ex works' cars or the very proffessionally prepared cars, they really were road going missiles, always puzzled me how Neil (jones -works TR7 V8) got the thing past noise to be honest, same with Ron Childs and the ex Brooks 2.0 BDG (ides of March 1984 i think it was) who was doing the 'Ides' as practice for the night stages of the manx rally.

during the eighties cars would run with multiple carb set ups, big engines (V8's, BDA.s, Manta's etc) and at least six forward facing lights. As Driverace comments the front guys would use at least six tyres (many got around the 'marked' tyre rule by claiming sideways wear or similar)


Big events around my area were the ides of March, The Gremlin, Ar hyd y Nos (All through the night), The Autumn, the Dutton forshaw, The Nutcracker, The Thousand lanes Rally, The Malky rally, Harrison Allen, and so on (quite a lot of these events used the same roads, Para144 now lives alongside the route these days and could probably watch from his front garden), and who could ever forget the Epynt selectives........At Night!!

As said, cut my teeth doing these events, but gradually realised i needed my sleep and turned to stage rallying, firstly welsh tarmac championship, then Motoring news tarmac championship, then in to 'The woods' (Welsh etc - even get a couple of mentions in the recently launched 'Welsh Rally' book)

looking back, they were too bloody noisy, too bloody quick, and also dangerous due to the number of Spectators who could quite literally be driving toward you or in front of you as the roads were open public roads and it was typical for a spectating group to leave the pub, follow the route and 'pretend' they were doing the event (this was the 1970's / 80's remember, and drink-Drive was still frequent). The amount of times we would find a 'lane' blocked due to a spectator accident / Mishap was very often.

Other characteristics were the terrain, always tight lanes in and around south, West, and East wales, virtual Rabbit warrens, Mid / North Wales were more open roads, and as commented on here the malvern / cotswolds area were literally like driving on an 'A' road, wide and fast.


still, they were cheap to do, the car needed very little preperation, and were very competitive by nature. The car to have, was of course an Escort, However Minis were still competitive and could often win the class.

Good days though............



cheeRS

[alancdavis]

Happy Days,,,, (nights)

[graham John]

same with Ron Childs and the ex Brooks 2.0 BDG (ides of March 1984 i think it was) who was doing the 'Ides' as practice for the night stages of the manx rally.

just realised it was Ron Hudson (not childs) and he had sponsorship from his own business 'Childrensbooks'


memory is fading

cheeRS

[Skids]

looking back, they were too bloody noisy, too bloody quick, and also dangerous due to the number of Spectators who could quite literally be driving toward you or in front of you as the roads were open public roads and it was typical for a spectating group to leave the pub, follow the route and 'pretend' they were doing the event (this was the 1970's / 80's remember, and drink-Drive was still frequent). The amount of times we would find a 'lane' blocked due to a spectator accident / Mishap was very often.


GJ
I did a few events that started from Tadcaster (Midnight Rally ,Night Owl etc.) that used to start from a car park next to the John Smiths Brewery , we all used to meet up in the Pub have a drink or three whilst we were waiting for the route to be issued .Was always busting for a **** at the start of the first selective though

[TimGR]

So how do they time night rallies nowadays (such as the recent Cilwendig) now that targa timing has been banned?