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London - Lisbon Classic Rally and Touring Trial

To Port in a storm

Flagged off by a vocal crowd from the banks of the Thames, in the imposing surroundings of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, Alasdair (age 12) and Fraser (8) were in at the deep end: navigate out of London with a Tulip road book, then have a go at real rally regularity tests through tiny, forgotten lanes of Surrey and Sussex.

Things didn’t go too well at first – we missed the M25 turning (the only confusing instruction in the route book), then my trusty Triumph Vitesse objected to the rally plate on the grille and boiled…

Thankfully, the organisers had built in plenty of catch-up time and we reached the regularity sections before the marshals packed up. For cars on the London-Lisbon Classic Reliability Trial, these were serious timed exercises at precise average speeds (between 22mph and 29mph); for us, there was the chance to follow the same route and see if we could match the real rallyists. With Fraser on the clock and Alasdair navigating, we spotted all the tricks (triangle junctions marked like two separate ones, time controls hidden in lay-bys) and had a fabulous time. Despite getting so excited he was tripping over his words, Alasdair never wrong-slotted, while Fraser got us in to the first checkpoint just one second late. When we reached the final control at HMS Victory, we reckoned we had totalled seven seconds’ penalties. Timekeeper Hywel Thomas then revealed that of the real competitors, the best had 23 seconds: the boys were ecstatic! MSA regulations permit children to take part in road, navigation and classic reliability trial events from the age of 2 in the back seat and allow navigators aged 12 on modern car events or 14 on classic events, so we’ll soon be able to enter the real thing…

Five rallies in one, London-Lisbon offered the 90-mile Victory Run to HMS Victory, plus a choice of two starts, from Greenwich or from Santander in Spain, for two events, the competitive Classic Reliability Trial or the gentler Touring Trial.

We waved goodbye to the serious competitors as they headed for the ferry to Bilbao, wishing them a good time: they certainly had that. After the cruise to Bilbao by P&O, the rally began in earnest on the twisty and mountainous roads of northern Spain, where wet roads were made even more slippery by carpets of chestnuts. In spite of a few bumps, all made it to the finish.

“It was fantastic from the moment it started,” enthused David Stroud, on his first ever rally after a legacy from his godmother gave him motive and opportunity to fulfil a dream: “She used to rally in the 1930s,” he explained, “and entertained me as a boy with wonderful stories and photos of her and a girlfriend competing in RAC rallies in a little Singer and a Rover. They’d drive through the days and enjoy cocktail parties at night.

“I bought a 1967 Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider, just restored by Ian Ellis Classic Alfas. The car had only done 700 miles since restoration and my friend Jim Thomas and I knew nothing about classic rallying – but it was amazing how embracing people were. They really supported us at every stage and nothing was too much trouble. I didn’t realise that rallying is essentially unchanged from when my godmother Olive Bailey competed: it’s still really competitive. We did quite well at first but almost didn’t finish – I was a bit cocky after seven days and slid into a ditch in torrential rain on the final section on the last day. Jim walked to the nearest village with pencil and paper to draw a picture of a tractor and a piece of rope: he was soon back with three burly Portuguese and a tractor. With the help of the rally support crew – Bill and Den, works mechanics for BMC in the 1960s, you couldn’t wish for better – we were back on the road and able to finish. Now I can’t wait for the next event – it’s been hard coming back to real life!”

For rally winners Keith Graham and Sue Hoffman in a 1962 Austin-Healey 3000, experience helped:

“We’ve done a number of events but never been placed before,” explained Keith, “but a very reliable car and a brilliant navigator paid off. We’re rather surprised and delighted with the win. It was 3600 miles from start to finish, wonderful countryside that compared well to the Alps and for us it just flowed beautifully. It was a challenging route and a well-balanced trial, of which the highlight for me was driving the F1 circuit at Estoril.

“I think without question everyone on the rally really enjoyed the event – and with a small field we all became very good friends. We only bought the Healey a few weeks before the event and we nearly didn’t get to the start after the exhaust was knocked off on the way there. No garages in England wanted to help but, at the end of the first day in Spain, we found a tiny family-run garage where they took the manifold off and welded it up securely enough to last the rally: an hour’s skilled work for 20 euros.”

The competition concentrated on endurance, the challenge of getting through 3500 miles of steep, narrow and twisting roads from Greenwich, London, to the centre of Lisbon, Portugal without missing a control point or slipping too far behind time. Stunning scenery, from mediaeval bucolic villages in northern Spain to the splendour of Lisbon’s royal palaces, combined with wild weather including torrential rain on slippery roads coated with leaves and in places a carpet of chestnuts, all helped to make it an unforgettable experience. An exciting selection of autotests on kart circuits and the former F1 track at Estoril, plus regularity tests demanding precise speed control over whatever challenges the terrain presented helped to sort the winners from the also-rans.

After his first ever historic rally, competing in a 1949 Bristol 400 that won the Bristol Owners Club concours last year, Andy Gibbs was hooked: “We didn’t miss a regularity or a test – we did slide off the road once but had no mechanical problems. I couldn’t recommend it more, I’ve definitely got the bug!”

Participants battled through storms and twisty, tiny unmapped roads through Spain and Portugal:

“It took us days to find a good route through the Picos d’Europa,” commented rally planner Mark Appleton. “The maps are rubbish and lots of promising-looking roads suddenly peter out into nothing. But we found some wonderful places.”

Competitors agreed: “The lunch halts were amazing,” said David Stroud, on his first rally in an Alfa Romeo Duetto. “We went to one remote family restaurant where the proprietor served us all his specialities: soup with black pudding and chorizos, steamed tortilla, dumplings – it was magnificent.”

The rally was competitive too, with tough regularities on steep little roads – “We were often falling behind on the 50km/h average on the high climbs, then catching up on the way down the other side,” laughed Andy Gibbs.

The Healey crew led from the first day in Spain and were quickest overall on the event’s autotests, mostly on kart circuits, by just one second over Ian Chalmers’ 1969 MGB roadster with Elliot Dale’s 1935 Bentley Derby Special an incredible three seconds behind that.

Star navigator, however, was Catriona Rings in Alastair Caldwell’s magnificent 1938 Alfa Romeo 6C2500SS, despite battling torrential rain on several days with only a small aero screen for protection – the Alfa and the Healey were well ahead of all others in the Navigators’ Cup.

Second place overall went to the rapid Derby Bentley, followed by the Chalmers/Webb MGB and, still on well-earned Gold medals, Chris Munton/Lyn Gadd (1974 Triumph Stag) and the Caldwell/Rings Alfa.

For competitors, the greatest stars were the two pre-war entries: Elliot Dale and Trina Walsh for the speed and panache with which they conducted their 1935 Bentley Derby Special to second place overall (and just four seconds slower than the fastest car on the event’s tight and twisty special tests); and Alastair Caldwell and Catriona Rings for the incredible achievement of the best navigation score overall and a gold medal in a gorgeous but very exposed recently-acquired 1938 Alfa Romeo 6C2500SS that needed all of Alastair’s ex-McLaren team managerial mechanical prowess to nurse to the finish with a failing gearbox.

“The roads were stunning,” enthused Elliot Dale, “I had no idea Spain and Portugal had such scenery. In one valley there were so many eagles they were like starlings. The Douro valley was really beautiful and such a contrast with other Portuguese valleys devastated by the forest fires and looking more like war zones.”

The London-Lisbon rally won tremendous accolades from all competitors for slick organisation, a stunning route and a great balance of competition, relaxation and education: see you on the next one!