Hi, if anyone knows of anyone at all who might have International Welsh Rally photographs I would really appreciate it if you could contact me. I recently published the 'Epynt book' with Mark Griffin and we are now moving onto a new project.

We would be interested in anything from the start in 1964 through to 1991. Don't try and find anything for '67 & '68 as the rally didn't run due to Foot & Mouth disease.

Service area images are always an interest also.

Many thanks

Martin Leonard

1976 - is it the Dyliffe mountain road after Hafren?

If you can establish the copyright of period Foster and Skeffington photos of the Welsh, I have plenty.

It's the Welsh and it's not raining!
Co-driver Syd Rudge attaches the numbers to the Gp1 Avenger GT of the late Dave Finch at the Cardiff start in 76.

Lack of long main road link sections made the Friday to Sunday, two nights on the road, Welsh tougher than many contemporary 5 day RAC Rallies. Here three zombies masquerading as a 1972 Welsh Rally service crew arrive home in the West London suburbs on the Sunday afternoon, not having slept since Thursday, and wondering why they ever volunteered...

Thanks for that, I have pm'd you.

76 Welsh was the first appearance of the works TR7s?


The front wing with the chequered pattern behind is the Granada Estate trade support vehicle of Ferodo's Owen Sykes?

The Welsh used to finish with 10 laps of Llandow that had to be started to qualify as a finisher but didn't require more than one lap to be completed, so a number of walking wounded were staggering round as some cars passed at full speed. I think at one time it was actualy run as a series of "races" using a starting grid rather than just having a car filter on to the track every minute.


The unglamorous side of International Rallying: support crews preparing breakfast for their club team after a long night as dawn breaks at Devils Bridge.

Martin I have just E Mailed you.I think you should come and see me in the near futureThe earliest one I have is 65.

Thanks Ted, reply sent. You are not forgotten!

I took these shots on the Welsh in 1978. Unfortunately I can't remember details of locations and cars/crews but I think they conjure up the atmosphere of that rally quite well. If only we could hear the bark of the Ford BDA engines!

Perhaps other TNFers can identify some of the images.

1


2


3


4


5


6

More images from 1978

7


8


9


10


Thank you for looking

David

After a quick look

Rockey
Culcheth
Airikkala?
Derek Evans
Brookes
Buffum
Mini?
Fowkes
TR?
Taylor

Great photos David, thanks for sharing!

I am getting soo rusty now it's embarrassing, but here goes:

1 David Stokes
2. ???
3. ???
4 Penti Arikkala/ Risto Virtanen
5. Russell Brookes/John Brown
6.John Buffum
7. ???
8.Tony Drummond ?
9.Tony Pond
10.John Taylor in OKK 380P a local Ford main Dealer, Haynes of Maidstone

Here are a few from a service halt at Llanidloes on the Welsh in 1977. They were taken with 110 Instamatic so the quality isn't too good:


The winning Chevette with Pentti Arikkala, Colin Francis and Gerry Johnstone studying a map at the far side. Sorry about the biro marks but we couldn't stop Pentti from signing his name on it at some later point.



Ari Vatanen's Escort



Billy Coleman's Fiat 131



Walter Rohrl's Opel Kadett. No glamorous motorhomes in those days.

Well with the aid of an entry list and several reports here are my answers:

1. Nigel Rockey/Bryan Harries - Finished 4th
2. Brian Culcheth/Johnstone Syer - 8th o/a 1st Group One
3. Hmm ... I think is Roelef Fekken/Piet Swanepoel, they were at No. 13 in a David Sutton Escort and finished in 14th place. The other candidates would be Bror Danielsson/John Gittins, also in a Sutton Escort, but they were out on SS5 Brecon, so less likely to be them.
4. This is Derek & Terry Evans' single cam Chevette although they're not listed on the entry and don't feature in any of the reports I have to hand.
5. Russell Brookes/John Brown - 5th
6. John Buffum/Glyn Roberts - 9th
7. Cyril Bolton/Ian Grindrod - 32nd o/a, 2nd Class 1
8. Tony Fowkes/Dave Whittock - 7th
9. Tony Pond/Fred Gallagher - Retired. An unhappy international debut for the TR7 V8.
10. John Taylor/Phil Short - Spent 15 minutes stuck down a firebreak in Dyfi

"OLD" was, co-incidently, being discussed on another forum recently. Tony Fowkes works-loaned car that appeared (late) for the 76 Welsh with one or two strange bits on it (and was written off on the Virgo Galaxy on Eppynt at the very end of 77? so re-shelled?). Later sold to Advan/Yokohama for tyre testing and driven by Andrew Cowan on some WRC events?
Was 3000 miles away from it for all of 78, so no direct memories.

Wasn't "OLD" the car originally on loan to David Sutton and driven to victory on an event by Pentti, very early in it's career, '76/'77?The Snowman or Granite City seems to ring a clanger

I don't think so. OLD is not listed by Robson as a works Escort and may have been a non-works reg no used by Tony Fowkes when he got the car (which was supposed to have been a works shell, as recognition for his 3rd on the 75 RAC in his own car, and was said to have come, just in time for the 76 Welsh, with some odd works bits like a marginally narrower track axle from a car intended for winter events like the Swedish).

It was actually in April 77 the original was destroyed on the Virgo Galaxy. Confusion because I thought it was the 77 edition I co-drove on about 31st December but that was actually 1st January 78. I do well remenber climbing down a bank in Halfway Forest to retrieve a wheel and re-fitting it with 3 wheel nuts robbed from the other 3 corners...

Apparently the OLD reg no is on a car in Ireland, having been around in various guises in UK in later years.

Pentti started 76 in a Sutton Mk1 in Avon colours and had a Mk2 later (when he ran away with the RAC, retaining the lead on 15 valves, running under possible OTL exclusion and using Dunlop A2s rather than the advertised Avons, to the delight of the scandal-mongering national media, before clutch failure near the end gifted the event to Roger Clark). Chevette in 77.

If you don't know about it, there is an excellent thread on british rally forum at the moment with hundreds of images, many of them are fantastic. It is in the stage rally section and there is a road rally selection in the road rally forum. Well worth a look but there are so many you'll need time!

http://www.britishrally.co.uk/rally/

Trouble is, they're all too young on there and photos are too recent!
(OT: gutted to see your Eppynt hillclimbs 2008 clash with Colerne and Gurston Down - I'd been telling a Welsh friend he could get BTD but he won't be able to do either now. Fully understand about date availability etc.)

Just noticed, that's not correct. He started 76 in a Mk2, then used a Mk1, then was back in a Mk2.

There are some old photos on there as well. Well, old to me!

I think we will be ok for the hillclimb, there was a lot of Welsh interest last year and despite being unable to run single seaters at present we are still in 3 regional championships and it looks likely that we will have some TVR's as well.

I know it's a bit off-topic but has anyone got or can point me in the direction of the results for the "Red Dragon Rally " in 1976, my late Dad won his class in a Vauxhall Chevette with John Horton (Dunlop) as his co-driver.

Still looking!! Also trying to pin some christian names down as the early Welsh Rally entry lists only used initials. If you did it or know people who did, let me know. Thanks in advance.

Can't be sure, but I think this is on the 1964 Welsh....

What's this little coupé?

And, by the way, do you know the name of the crew?


Carles.

It's a Bond Equipe GT - the same car competed in the 1964 Monte . The crew ? I'll look it up when I get home.

Hi there McTaff, Les Dalton here in sunny France.
Re your request for action shots taken on the Welsh International rally, I have some super action shots of my Austin 1800 on the 77/78, Turbocharged Land Rover 79, and my land Rover in 1980, these are all taken from the book that I have just written called FLY ARMY which will hopefully be out soon.
I have some difficulty posting my pics on this site for some reason, although Sterling has helped me out in the past.
If you would like to see theWelsh pics, let me know and I will give it a try,
regards,
Les Dalton.

Indeed! J.R.Kennerley D. Martland Bond Équipe GT2

Would love to see them Les, do you have christian names of any of the Army crews from your era, it will help our book along. Look forward to seeing your publication, is it motorsport based?

Wow. If anyone here has information about Brian Field or especially photos of his MGB GT V8, I'd really love to see them! I think he finished third in class in the 1977 Welsh International. (Exactly what class would that be?) The car has an interesting history, in that it was one of the three original left-hand-drive MGB GT V8 prototypes that was built in the engineering shop at Abingdon. He converted it to right-hand-drive whilst preparing it for rallying.

John Kennerley/Digby Martland, who used a 4.7 Mustang on the 66 RAC.

To help Carles, the Bond Equipe GT was basically a Triumph Herald with a different body!

Although I did the 77 Welsh, I don't have the paperwork - but looking at other years there is no class identification in programmes, just the class number. The Welsh, in common with other non-WRC events ran Group5/6 classes in addition to Gps 1-4. If the BGTV8 was homolgated it probably ran as a Gp3 car but UK Internationals tended to combine Gps 3 and 4. It was probably a matter of picking which class the big-engined works cars weren't in.
1977 was the second year of the FIA relaxation that allowed old (higher) spec Gp2 cars to run on in Gp4 rather than having to be reduced in spec to comply with the (new for 76) Gp2. That meant "works" cars could be in Gp4 but were more likely to be Gp5/6 on the Welsh, so the BGTV8 was probably in the higher of the Gp3/4 classes - but without a detailed list of classes (14 of them?)....
I vaguely recall the car - light brown?

Thankyou, McTaff.


Carles.

Carles.

Then, a little 950cc or so engine...


Thankyou for the precissions...


Carles.

I don't remember to have seen any ever ... not in pictures...

Thankyou all...


Carles.

1147cc?

Brian passed away only a month or two ago, he was great character. I have details of when he did the Welsh, I will look them up and post them.

There's some info on Brian and the car in this article. http://www.v8register.net/subpages/V8AUG02W.htm

Yes, 1147cc - the Bond Equipe was basically a 1200cc Herald fitted with the Spitfire twin-carb engine, sometimes with overdrive gearbox, clothed in a fibre-glass body bonded to the Herald steel bulkhead and floor (a nasty combination for today's restorer!).

I think the only Equipe to compete in the Monte was a different car - TCK 300

.... and here it is

And judging by the registration suffix of CK, it might have even been a works entry or works supplied car.

Some lovely stuff coming out! Thanks.

Done a bit of digging on this one....
TCK 300 was one of the first production cars, and was indeed a Bond demonstrator, colour Cherry Red (a dark maroon, really) with Black interior. It was SAH-tuned in a bid to market a serious sports car alongside the standard Equipe GT.
85bhp, 0-60mph in 14 secs (contemporary Triumph Vitesse 18 secs!), top speed 99mph.
Driven in the Monte by John Cuff (a local Lancashire driver) and John Lambert (motoring correspondent for the Lancashire Evening Post). Unfortunately the SAH engine seized (twice) just before the start, so a standard Spitfire engine (from TCK 301) was fitted overnight. They went OTL on the last night with a series of minor problems - iced-up windscreen wipers, overheating from an iced-up radiator, broken headlamp, a minor off, and finally a puncture.
Subsequently the car also competed in the 1964 Tulip Rally, and was used in a 24-hour endurance run at Oulton Park driven by Pat Choundley, Liz Jones and Anita Taylor; they covered 1435.72 miles in the 24 hours.
I cannot find any more details on UCK 444, but it, too, is a Lancashire-registered car, and may well have been another demonstrator.

Hi, Mike,

do we know who was the crew @ the wheel of TCK 300 in the '64 Tulip? ... 'cause John Cuff (this time with D.Anderson as codriver) finished 16th o/a driving a 3.8-l. Jaguar E-Type...


Carles.

No - I hav no info on the Tulip Rally, other than that the car apparently competed... I rather hoped (hope?) that more info might appear here

76 Welsh. A photo of mine that proved Russell Brookes used his "old" 75 car on the 76 Welsh (serviced by Peter Harrison?) rather than the newer one some book sources claim. Running in the Gp5/6 category presumably, since the front spoiler was not fitted and the front valence is aluminium, not steel....unless works cars running in Gp2 had non-homologated panels hidden behind the normal RS1800 spoiler...
(The guy on the left was a member of a service crew for a Gp1 Avenger GT and is an example of how limited roadside service locations were utilised - later numbers' service crews lurking nearby until front runners moved on and vacated suitable spaces).

82 Welsh. "The car previously known as DKP191T". The car run by RED for Ari Vatanen in the 82 British Open Rally Championship.
A reg number believed used on 3 new cars/shells with the Rothmans WRC team in 81 and the car which became a special saloon circuit racer....before miraculously appearing at Goodwood Festival etc in 81 Rothmans gravel rally spec...