RAOC Gazette - page 256
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1981 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | No |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1981 |
| Late date | 1981 |
| Transcription |
HIGHLAND BY W02 LES DALTON, 52 COMPANY RAOC (V) (A brief Report on the achievements/disappointments of the RAOC entry into the 1981 Scottish International Rally.) THE Scottish Rally is the best supported, and most favoured, Home International, that members of BAMA compete in. This year, however, for a multitude of reasons, the official Army Teams from BAOR and UK could not compete. The ' Scottish ' has always been my personal favourite, and so, with grim deter- mination I set about writing to different Rally Teams to see if anyone had a cast off group four rally car that I could use for the event. After several sympathetic, but negative replies, I decided to pursue the possibility of using my Land Rover. This was agreed, providing the venture was self financed. Those of you who are into rallying will know how expensive a Rally like the Scottish is to completely self finance. How- ever, I set about writing some twenty letters to companies in the Telford area, compiling a complete dosier of my Rally successes, and assuring them that they would definitely sell more exhausts, peppermints, office furniture if their name was seen on my vehicle. The result? Well, I lost about eight of my ex- pensive Foster-Skeffington photographs, and had about seven replies. I then gratefully, received help from the Corps with the entry fee, Alan AUard agreed to fit his persona! turbo charger on to my engine, and Unipart lent me an overdrive unit. We managed to find, borrow, and buy some fuel and subsequently headed for the start in Glasgow. Because of other commitments, Major Bob Price from Headquarters UK.LF was unable to partner me this year, so SSM Bellemy-Brown from 4 RTR in Munster stepped into the hot seat, and believe me, the passengers side with the turbo exhaust under your feet really does get quite hot. We had expected at least three other crews to make the start from Northern Ireland and UK, but alas, none could raise the entry fee, We were seeded at No. 75 which shows how small the field was this year. The Rovers are normally about 105—130- My start number in the 1973 Scottish was one hundred and ninety six. It appears as if the moratorium has spread to the civilian element as well! The start from Glasgow was in torrential rain, and as usual, my canvas leaked, all over the place. The first stage was a tarmac affair around Straths id e Park. We were fortieth fastest on this one and the photograph shows us 'tail o u t ' around one of the tighter bends, We had a very good run during the first twenty four hours and at Aviemore we had a fifteen minute lead on the only other four wheel drive competitor in the rally in the Works Subaru and we were thirty fifth overall. Between the re-start at Avie- more and the first Stage of the second day the Gremlins struck, The power from the turbo had proved too much for the rear differential and we broke off a couple of teeth from the Crown Wheel which, subsequently, caused some very alarming attitudes from my vehicle at high speed on the road. Fortunately, before we arrived at the Stage the diff literally disintegrated. However, it all broke clean and I depressed the high ratio lever and we were away with front wheel drive. We had to drive about three hundred and seventy miles to finish the event; eighty four of which were competitive. I have driven on front wheel drive before, but only for comparatively short periods. On some of the longer stages my wrists were going numb with the vibration through the steering, suffice to say, we pusseyfooted through the remainder of the event. The only other crisis we had was on the penultimate stage when one of the turbo induction pipes came loose and dropped the Rover on to two cylinders from seventy plus; after tightening up a jubilee clip we were away again at just slightly abated speed. An interesting point to readers who know Culbin, we still beat the Subaru by one minute fourteen seconds on this stage and were actually flat out in overdrive top about eighty, '%M&* Tail out during around one of the tighter bends on one of the straights. As previously mentioned, the handling characteristics of the Land Rover on front wheel drive leaves a lot to be desired, in fact, it wants to leap off the track even on straights. However, it does tend to keep the adrenalin pumping. At the finish of the event we were classified as forty second, and still twelve minutes in front of the Subaru, twenty minutes in front of the Mazda Montrose, with a few Escorts behind him. So there it was, my ninth and possibly last Scottish rally successfully completed. We were awarded (as token gestures) Army in Scotland Quaiche and a Provost Marshals Shield. I missed out on the Telford stages, on which the entry fee was paid by no less than the GOC Western District, because of another broken diff, only hours before the 0800 start and no time to change it. My next event will be Magnum Spirit in BAOR. Because of other commitments, Major Bob Price is again unable to partner me. This is a great pity, because on the other two Magnum Spirits that he has partnered me. the seventy six and seventy eight events, we were first and third respectively. My co-driver for this event will now be Joe Minto. Joe used to drive for the RCT Rally Team and was probably one of the quickest drivers in the Army team during the earlv seventies. He is now with RAOC/EFl in BAOR and so w'e will still be able to fly the RAOC colours, 34 Central Workshop in Donnington. who have given me tremendous assistance, advice and time, during the last five years, are building me a Mini for the RAC Rally, (Corps Rallyists will remember this car, it was driven by Peter Irving of the RCT for a few years.) The same expertise is going into the prepara- tion of the Mini, as that which went into the very successful Austin 1800 I drove from 1976 to 1978, and also built by 34 Central Workshop. To this end, 1 am greatly indebted to Colonel Morrison of 34 Central Workshop. All that remains at this moment in time is for some interested, helpful, or just plain rich benefactor to help with the astronomical entry fee of £365 required for the RAC entry. If we are successful, and do get an entry, and you are out to watch the RAC, knock on the window and say " hello" it's always nice to know that Corps personnel are interested, Finally, if any reader owns a Land Rover and wants to ob- tain Range Rover like performance relatively cheaply, fit one of Alan Allard's turbo chargers, details from me at 52 Company RAOC (V). — 212 |
| Book number | R0250 |