14 replies to this topic

[William Dale Jr]

Hi,
I saw a short clip of the rally driver Dave Metcalf recently, and I was wondering who he was. No information was given about him, only that he was "a potential legend stopped by fate?" Can anybody help?

[dmj]

Name rings some bells but so far I found only that he won this in 1988: http://www.northwale...rg/winners2.htm

[Darren Galpin]

Metcalfe, Dave (GB)
b 05/05/1957 (Orton, nr Kendall) - d 17/12/1992
1983 - BTRDA class champion
1985 - British Open Rally Championship: 2nd Group A
1986 - British Open Rally Championship: 2nd Group A
1987 - British Open Rally Championship: class winner
1992 - Killed in a car crash

[Geza Sury]

Dave Metcalfe was the most spectacular rally driver I'd ever seen. His style was similar to that of the young Jean Alesi: he always gave his maximum whaever car he drove. I remember him driving a tiny little Opel Corsa (to be precise it was a Vauxhall) in 1989, getting absolutely the maximum out of it. He threw the car into the corners and sometimes he took them on two wheels! What a driver!

IIRC he died in a road accident while he towed the new Opel Calibra rally car on a trailer.

[Ian McKean]

Dave Metcalfe was killed in a road crash, i.e. not on a rally. May have been driving a rally car, I can't remember. He rallied the Vauxhall Nova 1600 Group A and used to be a cert for the 1600 class, sometimes beating the 2000 Group A cars.

He might well have been a legend had he lived, but unfortunately he did not really compete directly against the best people in the same type of car, so it's difficult to say. After all, it's always possible that the 1600 Nova was as quick as the 2000 Astra. However, the balance of probability is that Metcalfe would have been even quicker in the 2000 car.

I can't remember who drove the works supported 2000 Astra at the time. I think Metcalfe stood in for him once and won the class but as I say, never competed directly against him.

[Ian McKean]

Geza's post appeared while I was drafting mine and provides some useful information.

Looking at your profile and seeing that your location is Hungary, Geza, makes me wonder how and where you came came to see Dave Metcalfe driving. Did you study in the UK? I don't think Metcalfe rallied in Hungary.

[Ian McKean]

What does IIRC mean?

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Ian McKean
What does IIRC mean?

If I Remember/Recall Correctly

[Ian McKean]

Much obliged Vitesse! This acronym seems to have become de rigeur lately in these parts.

Talking of short clips, I happened to venture into the Technical Forum a week ago. With some trepidation, I might add - you meet a different type of person over there - but I am glad to say that the natives were quite friendly and I even chanced across one or two other nostalgic types slumming it.

Anyway, the point of all this is that there was a link to an mpeg of Vatanen at Pikes Peak. Fantastic, and well worth the wait if you've only got a 56K modem (like me). But if you have only got a 56K modem it would be as well to use Getright (or similar) since it's 67MB.

Go to http://www.softlab.n...gr/~sivann/pub/

and from there choose Course de Pikes Peak (Ari Vatanen).mpeg.

[Geza Sury]

Originally posted by Ian McKean
Looking at your profile and seeing that your location is Hungary, Geza, makes me wonder how and where you came came to see Dave Metcalfe driving. Did you study in the UK? I don't think Metcalfe rallied in Hungary.

I wish I studied in the UK... I only saw Dave on televison, IIRC on Sky Channel. At that time in 'Mobil 1 Motorsport news' you could watch a short coverage after each round of the British Rally Championship. After almost thirteen years, I can still recall Dave's amazing type of driving. On another bitter note, the other spectacular driver of that period, Berti Fisher (driving his Prodrive-built BMW M3) also passed away since...

Originally posted by Ian McKean
I can't remember who drove the works supported 2000 Astra at the time. I think Metcalfe stood in for him once and won the class but as I say, never competed directly against him.

Malcolm Wilson?

[Rainer Nyberg]

Yes I also remember Dave Melcalfe and his giant-killing little Vauxhall Nova vividly, he did wonders with that tiny car and he really should have deserved a break in a 4WD factory car.

He would have been among the very best in Britain, including Richard Burns and Colin McRae.

[Geza Sury]

Well, the 'picture master' did it again! Thanks Rainer, great image! If only you had a photo of Berti Fisher in his BMW...

[Rainer Nyberg]

Sorry Geza, but I can only offer Bertie Fisher in a Opel Manta 400...but that is pretty exciting too...!

[Geza Sury]

Typically Bertie... Never mind the BMW Rainer, this is a great picture! Thanks a lot!

[William Dale Jr]

Thank you everyone for your help - it's nice to know that if I don't know something, I can always ask here. Thanks once again!!