A great action shot from the 1988 'British Midland' Ulster International Rally and C234 HVW in full flight with Gwyndaf Evans at the wheel, on their way to a Production class win and 9th overall.
Action from the 1988 'British Midland' Ulster International Rally...
A great action shot from the 1988 'British Midland' Ulster International Rally and C234 HVW in full flight with Gwyndaf Evans at the wheel, on their way to a Production class win and 9th overall.
Gwyndaf Evans winning Group N on the 1988 Ulster International Rally
Found this great shot of Gwyndaf Evans and Howard Davis winning Group N on the 1988 Ulster International (and 9th Overall), the year they took the BRC Group N championship title in C234 HVW. Check out those authentic 80's barnets and 'Farah's' ;-)
Many thanks to Fergus at RallyRetro for the image!
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
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...
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?
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...
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...
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