Classic car rallying is big business. In the last decade the growth in the number of participants has been exceeded in percentage terms only by the growth in the number of rallies on offer. Competitors are now spoilt for choice - perhaps the main reason why this year’s London/Lisbon rally saw fewer entrants than when first run a couple of years ago. The falling stockmarket is another reason. A pity – because those seventy crews who entered enjoyed an excellent rally which was very well organised by John Brown’s experienced HERO team. And the modest Healey contingent took five of the top ten places including 2nd, 3rd and 4th!
I entered as navigator for Rick Dyke-Price in his immaculately prepared rally spec 1959 BT7. Altogether there were eight big Healeys ranging in age from the beautiful 1953 100M in original condition of Belgians Anthony Schrauwen and Eric Claeys to the 1967 BJ8 of Harvey and Jan du Cros. After scrutineering we were waved off by the chequered flag from the attractive grounds of Hampton Court one bright Saturday morning in early October for our initial run to Portsmouth. Although most entrants started here there was an alternative start in San Sebastian. For this reason our drive to Portsmouth, although including competitive stages, did not count towards the big event itself – rather a pity from our point of view as, amazingly, we found ourselves top of the leader board after day one!
After a rendezvous at the side of HMS Victory we boarded the P & O ship ‘The Pride of Bilbao’ for the two night/one day crossing. The infamous Bay of Biscay was unusually calm I am pleased to report. Because of this extra time on-board I was able to mark up the road books completely (and get to know many fellow competitors) rather than do this in the usual mad scramble as the seconds tick by to our scheduled ‘OFF’ time. This, combined with the practice run beforehand, was a very civilised way for occasional rallyists like me to sharpen up rusty brains and reduced the chances of spending the first day of the rally making silly avoidable mistakes through lack of practise with penalty points mounting up swiftly as a result.
The route through Northern Spain and then Portugal, devised by Keith Baud, was truly magnificent in parts as the drive through these sparsely populated areas along little used mountain roads provided spectacular views. Unfortunately the weather was rarely kind and some of the required speeds during the mountain regularity sections, and even the timings on the intermediate sections, were frequently difficult to obtain. Indeed, some felt that a few of the target speeds over often wet and slippery surfaces were too fast on what were, after all, open roads. Despite being several hundreds of miles south of the UK we even found snow on some stretches. One competitor suggested that alternative slower-speed time cards could have been prepared in advance and issued on the day if deteriorating weather conditions warranted it – a novel idea I thought and not without merit. However, HERO rallies are renowned for their fast pace and are run to times which are tight enough to sort out ‘the men from the boys’. Indeed, the rally narrative touched on this aspect of speed stating that "the leading crews will almost certainly reach Lisbon without any road penalties at all" and this proved prophetically true.
HERO put together a rally overview booklet containing chapters describing both the geography and history of the area. Extremely helpful for the touring category but of limited use at the time for keen crews where we, for example, found that the immediate road ahead and the next turn were all important and required utmost concentration. Many of the top crews were very experienced and we realised that a single navigational error could easily cost us a top ten place. Even petrol fills had to be carefully planned to avoid crucial five-minute delays on tight intermediate stretches.
Despite this almost total concentration on the contest itself, there were several non-competitive highlights. For example, our restart at Bilbao was located in the mountains at Torre Loizaga Castle. This is not situated on the normal tourist routes so imagine our surprise when we discovered its secret treasure – a vast collection of immaculate Classic Cars beautifully presented in various barns and sheds. I counted 47 Rolls Royce’s including 7 ‘Ghosts’! Simply amazing.
The route took us through Santander, Gijon, Ponferrada, Ourense, Vila Real, Coimbra, Europe’s most westerly point of Cabo da Roca and, of course, Lisbon.
Ian Williamson and son Jonathan in a Mark 3 suffered two minor prangs, both a result of slippery cobblestones and, although days apart, from the point of view of repair costs were conveniently targeted on the same RH front wing. Despite these mishaps they managed to continue the rally without serious delay and earned a well-deserved Gold medal as a result. But Jane Arnold-Forster and Annabel Jones in a Mark 2, one of just two all-female crews, crashed more seriously on a tight regularity section with the car being spun round 180 degrees ripping off driver’s door and smashing sundry parts of both Front and Rear RH wings. Despite this, it was a further two days before they had to retire fully from the rally due to an ever deteriorating and eventually irreparable steering box.
Several other rally cars suffered problems – frequently caused by the poor weather conditions. The 1974 BMW of Chris and Donal McNally had to retire with brake failure. The 1957 MG Magnette ZB of Denis and Penny Robson had a failed hub seal and sundry other problems but valiantly pushed on regardless to complete the rally much to their credit. Malcolm McKay and Jane Ranson in their rare Porcus Volans ("flying pig"!) were never seen again after the second day and I was told that they simply disintegrated – poor porcus! (I was later advised that the problem was a broken half shaft). The 1957 Mercedes SL of Yves-Marie and Arlette Morault came to a final halt when it hit a tree and a few seconds later the 1960 MGA of Robin Stretton and Graham Rood struck the very next object – a lamp post – to suffer the ignominy of the light breaking off the top and crashing onto their bonnet. But luckily not into the cockpit. The beautiful AC Ace of Clive and Lucy Robertson suffered all sorts of electrical problems early on so they gained thousands of penalty points for missing the early controls. Despite this Lucy was frequently seen rushing with timecard in hand to save a single second or two in later stages – an exceptionally valiant effort we thought. Poor old Ian Anderson and Henry Cator didn’t even make it off the starting blocks in Bilbao as their E type lost much of its exhaust and manifold system and a replacement couldn’t be found soon enough. They completed the rally in a hired BMW, which was just as well as this served as a ‘mini bus’ by sweeping up various competitors as their vehicles expired at various points along the route.
In Portugal we had a lunch break at Quinta de Rueda – the home of Croft Port and time enough, for a change, for a brief guided tour. "Why are those large dome structures with the small outlet valves on top called Ginas?" we asked. Our guide held his hand a foot in front of his chest and replied "In honour of the actress Gina Lollibrigida". The things you learn on a motoring rally!
Meanwhile, back at the competition, Harvey and Jan du Cros, who had put in excellent performances in the various driving tests, had a close encounter with a local car which cost half a day to patch up and thus lost them an overall place. Michael Salter and Tony Chambers, new to rallying, were doing very well in their 1962 Mark 2 despite occasional carburettor problems.
John Criswell’s Mark 3 turned out to be the most successful Healey in the rally despite continual problems with dead batteries and exhaust pipe clearance from day one. I later learned that Navigator Robin Whiteside’s main claim to fame was as the Commander of the Nuclear Sub 'Renown', so he certainly should have known a thing or two about navigation!
By the end of the penultimate day the excitement mounted as the top five cars were all close except that, and much to the chagrin of the Healey contingent, the only Lotus in the rally was clear leader by a hefty 30 points. The top crews were unlikely to attract more than 10 or 20 penalty points in a single day so their position looked unassailable. Amazingly, on the final test of the rally – a lap consistency test on the local race circuit – the hitherto infallible Lotus navigator Bill Granger erroneously and inexplicably failed to stop his original stopwatch after the first lap and hit the wrong button on his second. They were now driving blind having little idea of the first lap speed that they had to mirror second time round and came in 16 seconds early for maximum penalty points of 30 for a week’s total of 190. John Criswell and father-in-law Robin Whiteside in their 3000 Mk3 put in a splendid last minute effort but accrued 191 points overall, frustratingly beaten into second place by just one second!
As for us – we started the final day in third place overall with great hopes of achieving second. We completed the lap consistency test in the morning with just a one second penalty (even though our own stop watches showed that we had completed it to within 1/10 of a second for no penalties at all!!) and steadied ourselves for the final regularity of the morning. ‘This was it’ we thought - after a week’s effort it all hinged on keeping our nerve on this one. However, the so-called ‘regularity’ turned out to be only masquerading as such. All too belatedly did we realise that it was devised to catch us out as a hill climb – pure and simple. Precious seconds ticked by and the gradients got steeper and the corners more acute as we screamed up as hard as we could. We clocked in at the first checkpoint a horrific 23 seconds late for a week’s total of 204 points. The two Tigers in the contest with their lighter machines, 4 litre engines and 2.9 diff ratios allowing for over 100kph in first gear were clear winners on this section. More concerning for us however, the lighter 100M of the Belgians achieved a much quicker time than us and they too finished on 204 points. With this tie for third the results team had to look at the first regularities of the week and go through them until a difference was found. On the first and second we were both equal but in the third regularity check of the week we were two seconds late to the Belgians one so they gained third place.
If only we had been one second quicker up the hill or, indeed, one second quicker at any point during the whole week then we’d have gained third place. If only we had realised sooner that the hill climb needed ‘a lot of welly’ and not much else right from the off then we might even have come first overall. But there again, "if onlys" are what rallies are all about!
David Brayshaw
October 2002
