Rally Tales

[hansport]

Originally written by motoring journalist Russell Bulgin who sadly died very young. Friend of Ayrton Senna who used to stay with Russell's Mum when in the UK. I believe!

Originally Posted by Isimmo

I've brought this over from another forum...

There was a tale years ago I was once told about Walter Rohrl (I think) on the RAC with an S1E2... The story goes, that it was twilight, the roads were wet and heavily congested heading into a stage and the cars were coming in from a road section, the S1E2 had been delayed and wanted to avoid penalties. The line of road traffic was moving at about 20mph in it's usual spacing, when the chap who told the story said he saw in his mirror a very, very bright set of lights dance out and in again to allow oncoming traffic to pass. He said he watched, mesmerised, as the S1E2 would launch out, take 3 or 4 cars, stand on it's nose and drop back in again to let oncoming traffic pass. Leaving a gap ahead, he waited for the inevitable, the S1E2 shrieked past and erupted a ball of fire as it came into the gap... Physically hopped up and down as an oncoming van passed and then drilled it's arse back into the tarmac and resumed it's fiery progress up the queue.


There must be some superb memories and tales out there, have any of you good folk got any?

Just be great to hear some of them.

[AAN 5pot]

Feel cheated that I wasnt old enought to take on board the Group B era.

[Offroadnick]

I used to service for a few mates a few years ago and ended up going to France to do a rally in Dieppe. The mate in question had a group A Nissan Sunny that was about 80% built by the time we left. Had a puncture in the service van and various other problems on the way but got there in the end and being the only person able to get by in French, I had to book rooms and everything else that was needed.....
Anyway, we got the car finished after a few very late nights much to the annoyance of the property owners whilst the crew did their recces in a hired Fiat Punto. On the last day of "practice", the driver offered to take the two of us out to see some of the stages. We jumped at the chance. If you've never been involved in a French rally, the spectators even come out for the recce and hang about on some of the tighter corners. On this particular stage, we were pretty much flying and of course we had a beer on the go in the back when we bottomed out on the suspension on a downhill section which totally upset the back end of the Punto and sent us sideways at about 70 mph. The barbed wire fence fortunately kept us on the road (just) but did no favours for the bodywork. It all went a bit quiet as the driver fought to regain control before we reached the hairpin left with about 200 spectators watching! The roar of the crowd was great and that almost made up for me having to explain to the hire-car company that we'd been to see my Dad in France and a car coming towards us had forced off the road resulting in the aforementioned damage. Not sure they bought it as it was about 20 minutes before the event started and there were about 100 fully fledged rally cars in town!
Amazingly they finished the rally without major damage but since then, the car has been rolled probably 5 times and re-shelled at least once which might give you an idea of how committed the driver was.....

[gabriel.oconnell]

yep if you missed group b you missed alot of good times, i remeber back in 1986 the metro 6r4 did all there servicing with help you the aberdare motor club and myself, where serviced in ferrari bakery ,huge garages and yes both crews, mechinic feasted on warm surrounding and fresh pasties cakes, and other goodies even ferraris give them alot to go away with too, , great days guys

[CurtEgerer]

One of the funniest rally stories of all time involved John Buffum and Tom Grimshaw in the quattro. This is copied from another forum:

>>>> Spectating at the end of a stage on a Canadian rally (Lobster circa 1983?). "T" right into a sweeping left and down into the finish control. Buffum and Grimshaw come into the "T" and just about come to a complete stop. It's not until the spectators start pointing that JB guns the Quattro and takes off.

So, later in the day I see JB and ask what the deal was. "Talk to Grimshaw" he grumbled. So I did. Well, it turns out that JB had spotted a young lady flashing her goods in the middle of the stage and had commented "Titties" through the intercom.

Grimshaw immediately popped up and proclaimed "WHERE!"

"Back there on the log pile."

"Well go back, I want to see them too!"

"We're in the middle of a damned stage. I'm not going back."

"FINE!", throwing the route book on the floor, "I'm not giving you any more instructions until I see some titties."

They finished the stage with JB having to look to the spectators for directions.<<<<

[marcz]

That's a cracker Curt!

Now, also copied from where I posted on another forum...

Not UK/EU and not quattros but I can relate a tale from pre-quattro days that still makes the hairs on the back of my neck bristle, one my own experience, the other a friend's experience.

I was on my way between spectator points on my first ever National Championship round and it just on dusk. We were in my Torana GTR XU-1 and struggling to even stay close to the 60MPH speed limit on these narrow, windy country roads. I noticed some bright lights coming up behind me and figured it'd be one of the front running cars, on it's way to or from a stage. It was catching me like I was standing still and in a short while I could HEAR four cylinders and two Webbers roaring up behind me. In a flash it was on my bumper, around me and off in to the distance. I didn't even bother giving chase as it was just plain unsafe for me to try.

So, what was this high-revving, throaty screamer?... the Nissan Team service van, an "Urvan" or Nissan E20!!!

I was only in recent years that I learned all about those vans. The motor was the full house Nissan L20 (plus a bit) that was used as a swap-out "hot spare" for the rally cars. They also ran the same diff centre and suspension components as the works cars!

A similar story from some years before was told to me last year. A group of spectators were waiting for the front of field to enter the section of stage they were on. It was dark and late at night. They heard the roar coming in the distance and all played that game of guessing what the car was. Many guesses from Datsuns to BDA Escorts but jaws dropped as a Nissan Works van shot down past them and through a T-junction and then off in to the night.

Those of you who have ever driven a van might appreciate the stories even more



The car in the above picture is currently for sale in the UK for £55,000!!!



"Torana GTR XU-1?" you say... 3300cc I6 GM Holden. This is identical to mine: http://gallery.sendbad.net/data/medi...xu1%201972.jpg - I wish I'd kept it stored away instead of trading it... they are worth a fortune now. Ah, 20-20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. They were competent race and rally cars too in the early 70's, winning the ATCC and the ARC in that era. The were dubbed "giant-killers" as they wiped the floor with the V8 opposition. They still are great cars: http://www.johndolphin.net/photos/da...ia/98/9944.JPG