Rally Images Archive website

I've found a really useful website this week, essentially a rally images archive from the last 20 or so years of Irish and UK rallying. I was looking for some shots of the Sierra with Gwyndaf Evans driving - specifically from the 1988 BRC winning season, and the sites simple Driver/Event search function made the task very easy!

Tracked down around 15 photographs from 1987 onwards, showing C234 HVW in scrutineering, on stage and the winners rostrum - particualry useful was the '88 Ulster International win, complete with eigthies babes with 'big hair', champagne and cheesy grins ;-)

If you looking for period rallying action photo's, alongside Kleins directory, this is also worth a look - http://www.rallyretro.com

Rally Incar Footage Videos added

I've added some of the old rally incar footage videos to the Blog, to liven the place up a little. Brought back some good memories and a few giggles digging these out too, especially this one - I have not forgotten about the sick bags and the look on the lady marshalls faces at the passage control near Dalby Penny ;-)

Ex-Gwyndaf Evans Ford Sierra Cosworth begins its restoration

A quick update...

Our ex-Gwyndaf Evans Ford Sierra Cosworth (C234 HVW) is now stripped to it's shell, in preparation for a full rebuild of the shell and professional respray, with lots more new parts on order too.

Once the car is painted, we plan to recreate the original 1988 colour scheme when it won the Group N Production category of the British Rally Championship.

A couple of snaps of the shell being stripped, prior to its trip to the bodyshop...

My first forest rally, Robin Hood '99

After what felt fun, but not all that on our first rally at Snetterton - it was the calm before the storm!

Our second event was the Robin Hood Forest Rally held in the Sherwood forest complex in Nottinghamshire. Rain preceeded the week before, with 'weather forecast' watching soon developing into a favourite pastime.



An early start up the M1 on the Sunday morning went a bit wrong, as a new bridge being fittted closed it for a junction - so the half asleep navigator was under pressure long before she thought she would be. The usual palava before the event passed off without incident, and we waited patiently at the Clumber Park hotel, for quite a while...

We were last car out (rightly so with no previous) and the rain kept coming. The Ryton Rally Team were the car in front in their 306GTi on their 2nd event ever too.

Finally we got across the start line, waved on by the supportive parents - by no drowned rats and wondering how long you have to support your kids for?!?!? On arival at the first stage start, it soon became clear what we had to face!

I remember sitting on the start line, thinking to myself "Im not convinced I could get through that in a Landrover, let alone a little 106?" The ruts would mean the little car was bottomed out on its sumpgaurd from the off. And once we finally got some speed up, it was like a skating rink!

Ive found since, this can be peculiar to English stages, as many of them are very sandy - so when it rains, the surface goes slurry-like. The deeper the sand is, the worse it is, until you are aqua-planing on the stuff.

It really was a baptism of fire in the forest! Unfortunatley (or fortunatley, depending on which seat you were sat in) the clutch cable failed after stage 7, and we were stranded in the service park. The Ryton guys helped us with a spare for a 306, but depsite valiant efforts by Sid - it would not hold.

After ignoring the (hugely jovial) guys in the course closing car droning on about 'not needing a clutch' and 'just carry on' we decided to pullout - bearing in mind the words of advice from Simon Galliford when we bought the car. The Peugeot Sport gearbox from Paris amounted to nearly £6K with shafts - so risking that lot for a hopeless rally, mmm - you blokes in the course car wont be paying that bill will you?

My first rally event on tarmac, Feb 1999

After a few late evenings getting the car ready, and the first event at Snetterton booked - maybe its an idea to be a bit prepared for what's coming?

We tottered along to a local motor club meeting (the club that was organising the event) as it seemed to be the most common suggestion from people we had met in motorsport - but I always thought 'clubs' to be a bit weird.

Whilst most of their advice was well meant, the club night turned out to be people who wanted to rally, but didnt for one reason or another, and seemed a little pointless. There was plenty of enthusiasm, but not a lot of experience. No doubt, not all motor clubs are the same, but I did start to understand why motor clubs in general are struggling for members!

From Simon Galliford's recommendation, we gave Andy Bull a call who was very generous with his help and advice, popping over to our place for an evening to give Linette the lowdown of navigating and what to expect - which was worth its wait in gold at the time.



So we set off on a cold Feb morning at 4.30 for the drive to Norfolk not really knowing what to expect. What we did know, was that there would be an ITV film crew waiting to film our exploits - as I had contacted Isobella Clark at Anglia TV to do a piece originally for the Super 106 Cup. Despite withdrawing from that championship - they still wanted to cover us on our first rally - no pressure then...

On your first event, I guess everything is going to be a bit confusing, and it was. Scrutineering, noise test, signing-on, licenses, fire extinguishers blah, blah...on and then you need to do some driving, eventually!

Like most single venues, particulary running towards the back, it can seem more like a race when you join the stage which other cars all around you - not what you first expect on a rally.

Once the first stage was out of the way, you settle down, but I was'nt happy to say at the time that by mid-afternoon I was a bit bored! It felt like a bit of an anti-climax, particulary after testing on gravel with Vision Motorsport.

All in all, the day went better than expected in the end. The car was fine, although on a full forest set up, no anti-roll bars and Colway 'rock-hards' we managed 2nd in a class of 12 and 31st overall - missing out on the class win by 10 seconds.

Although the car was not really suitable for the track, it did feel pretty stable, and no great dramas...unlike the 2nd event, and first time in the woods...

Buying my first rally car, Jan 1999

With the Super 106 Cup a distant memory (and a stupid idea!) I happened to be driving home one January evening, through the chalk-cutting on the A5 near Dunstable, when I glimpsed a rally car sat in a garage showroom?!?!?

I u-turned at bit further down the road, and wnet for a ganders. Turned out to be a clubmen Group A Peugeot 106 Rallye Series 1, 1294cc. Mmmm, interesting. Turned out the car was there as a favour for the guy who looked after it, for the man who owned it.

Dazed and confused, I left with a phone number for Simon Galliford of GalRal to ring for more details. A brief test later that week on Visions stage at Westcott, and the deal was done with Phil Morgan (the owner) for £7K and it's all yours...



Not knowing what to do with it, I thought the best thing was to go to Vision's stage again, and have a practice - much to Dave Nutts annoyance, as he kept telling me to 'just go and do a rally!" 10 minutes later we are heading towards a concrete fence post at 60mph, when Dave pulls the handbrake so we go in backwards ripping off the rear bumper - good start!

So its a quick repair before our first event (eh???) which we decided to do at Snetterton circuit in February. Well after smacking it on the gravel airfield, maybe I will be safer on tarmac for a while???

The Peugeot Super 106 Cup for 1999?

In 1998, as work life settled down a bit I had more time to plan our rallying debut!

The wife (although stil girlfriend at the time) was up for a challenge too, but was more keen on buying a Ducati 948 whatever blah, blah than rallying, but some gentle persuasion soon rectified that.

What really pushed things on was another lunchtime at work, trying to decifer the techo-jargon in Motorsport News (im not from a 'car family'!) I spotted the launch of the Peugeot 'Super 106 Cup' for the forthcoming 1999 season - with some interesting comments about a level playing field, low-budget and ideal for newcomers to the sport.

This sounded perfect! A month later, my £1000 deposit was with Peugeot Sport UK in Coventry. Mmm, who will build the car? How do you drive a rally car? What else is involved? Sort that later, i'm sure it's simple enough...



I tucked a few pennies away, and upgraded to a newer Mk2 'Rallye', which the one-make championship would be based on (in 16v guise) to get some useful knowledge of the car.

The cup car came as a std road car with a parts package to convert it to a rally car - so I need a mechanic, and quick! I popped along to see a chap i had met about 5 years before Des Griffiths, a superb mechanic and straight down the middle, no bulls*it. We talked about building the rally car, but on inspection of the info from Peugeot, this was to be no simple task. Not exactly servicing a cavalier...mmm?

Hey, guess what - a few months later it started to dawn on me this rallying lark is a bit complicated!

Stella Boyles was very helpful with advice and guidance, and put me in touch with a couple of guys who were also planning to do the championship and ran a local rally school - Dave Nutt and Pat Jackson of Vision Motorsport, then based at Westcott near Aylesbury.

A few chats with Dave and Pat, and the penny started to drop...maybe the 106 Cup was a bit too much to chew off for a first go! After a days 1-2-1 tution with Dave at Westcott, and a subsequent day with the Higgins at Carno (Forest Rally Experience) in the woods, I toyed with dropping the whole idea!!!

Thankfully, Stella and Peugeot were fine with us pulling out of the Cup (even though our car had arrived from France and was awaiting delivery) which by now had taken a few steps away from its original 'budget' premise, as Michelin tyres were now compulsory as announced at the Autosport Show.

So it's early 1999 and no car, what do we do now?