35 replies to this topic

[Cooperman]

If you look at the 1966 car, you'll see that it is running in 'Group 1' technical specification. This means that it has 3.5" wheels as the 4.5" were only homologated in Group 2 form and only a single 5.5 gallon tank was fitted.
In case any of you don't know, the Minis were disqualified for having lights which did not meet the motor sport regulations, or so the French claimed. The headlights had single filament halogen bulbs and dipping was onto the two fog lights. So the Minis and the Lotus-Cortina of Roger Clark were all disqualified and, surprise, surprise, a Citroen driven by Pauli Toivonen won. However, Pauli was so disgusted by the way the French had behaved that he refused to go to the prizegiving and he never drove for Citroen again. When the 'winning' Mini got back to England it appeared on 'Sunday Night at the London Palladium (a popular TV programme back then) and BMC sold loads of Minis as a result and Timo was a national hero.

[giner88]

cool photos, but how on earth did they get switched to colour?

[Spitfire12]

cool photos, but how on earth did they get switched to colour?

I just used Photoshop to add the colour :).

[TA2DMAC]

Very cool, great history lesson. i knew about the disqualification but not....the rest of the story.
Thanks

[MaxAndPaddy]

I'd love a copy to blow up and frame.....

[giner88]

yeah it is a great picture. at yet another reason to hate the french lol

[CMXCVIII]

Very cool, great history lesson. i knew about the disqualification but not....the rest of the story.
Thanks

Plus 1! Thanks too!

I'd never have guessed that the Cooper S wasn't homologated for Gp1 with twin tanks! That must have been interesting; do I suspect Timo and co had jerry cans slopping around behind their seats for at least some of the event?

Edited by CMXCVIII, 30 January 2012 - 10:57 PM.

[Cooperman]

Twin tanks were being fitted to all Cooper 'S's at the time of the event, but the homologation was not complete as 5000 had not been made. What BMC did was to send 'fuel crews' up into the mountains with fuel cans and between stages they re-fuelled the Minis very quickly.
The ironic thing is that at the finish they virtually stripped the Minis looking for a reason to disqualify and finally picked on the lights as the reason. The translation of the FIA rules from their original French into English left a bit to be desired, but in the end the French version was deemed the only one which counted.
One really funny thing was that the Minis all had Hardy-Spicer drive couplings which were not homologated, but the scrutineers just didn't notice that!
I did that event in a 'works' NSU1000TTS, but we went off the road in the mountains and retired, so the furore at the finish I missed seeing.
The following year the Minis were back with a vengeance, but that was covered in another recent thread where Rauno's win was discussed and his inadvertant 'short cut'.

[CMXCVIII]

The following year the Minis were back with a vengeance, but that was covered in another recent thread where Rauno's win was discussed and his inadvertant 'short cut'.

I read that thread too, Uncle Cooperman, about Rauno's inadvertant shortcut!

It reminded me of a story Paul White once told of a Welsh International [?] rally where Ford sat him with the young Markku Alen. At the start of one stage, Markku said, "it's alright! I know this one!"

At some point the road went square right, down to a hairpin left and then square right again ... but they didn't bother with that bit of Forestry track! PW said he was cacking it as Alen ploughed straight on, off the road, scree, scree, scree down the mountainside and rejoined the stage further on.

Apparently they cleaned that stage by about 30 seconds!

But of course he was a "Motoring News" navigator so I'm sure all his other short cuts, like yours, were inadvertant

[sledgehammer]

My dad used to work for BJ Henrys , and Autocars transporters in the 60's / 70's

he was based at Cowley & Abingdon - so would have parked , and picked up a few of the cars in the back ground

he used to 'ferry' the MG's and works Car's from the MG factory to Abingdon train siding and also some to Dover

He also used to pick the 'scrap' up from Dover and return it

He also drove Peter Sellers Basket weave Mini , and delivered Moke / Ant's to the military

Sadly he's been dead 12 years so I can't ask him for more info

a few nasty accidents where the cars were stored over the years

I used to ride in the cab with him (in the 70's)

Edited by sledgehammer, 30 January 2012 - 11:44 PM.

[Cooperman]

The following year the Minis were back with a vengeance, but that was covered in another recent thread where Rauno's win was discussed and his inadvertant 'short cut'.

I read that thread too, Uncle Cooperman, about Rauno's inadvertant shortcut!

It reminded me of a story Paul White once told of a Welsh International [?] rally where Ford sat him with the young Markku Alen. At the start of one stage, Markku said, "it's alright! I know this one!"

At some point the road went square right, down to a hairpin left and then square right again ... but they didn't bother with that bit of Forestry track! PW said he was cacking it as Alen ploughed straight on, off the road, scree, scree, scree down the mountainside and rejoined the stage further on.

Apparently they cleaned that stage by about 30 seconds!

But of course he was a "Motoring News" navigator so I'm sure all his other short cuts, like yours, were inadvertant

Paul White has been a good friend of mine for many years since he started navigating for Nigel Rockey (known as 'Rocket'). Unfortunately he's not in the best of health now, but I'm hoping to see him at the lunch we old rally 'farts' have at the Race-Retro Show next month. All the usual reprobates usually turn up and last year there were about 30 of us. Someone said "The older I get the faster I used to be!" We all wear our 'Ecurie Cod Fillet' (another thing to Google) name tags so that we all know who we used to be in case we forget..
It's a great show of old rally & race cars and well worth going.

[CMXCVIII]

Paul White has been a good friend of mine for many years since he started navigating for Nigel Rockey (known as 'Rocket'). Unfortunately he's not in the best of health now,

That's a shame. Back in the day I used to "drink at his feet" [as it were] at Tavern MC - when Mr Rockey drank alone.

Of course "the older you get, the faster you were!" but that was back when sex was safe and motor racing was dangerous.

[Cooperman]

Tavern was, and I believe still is, a very good motor club.
Their premier Bristowe Rally was always an excellent event. I did it one year navigating for Nigel Rockey, but the gearbox broke after about 3 miles, which was a shame as we were looking forward to doing well. Martin Clarke is another Tavern M.C. friend and he had a huge accident a short while ago when competing in his Rover at Cearwent. Pauline Gullick is another old friend from Tavern and she co-drove for Jill Robinson in Escorts. When I was in Belgium practising for the Tour of Ypres Historic we got to the end of a test and there was a car parked on UK plates. It was Pauline and Jimmy McRae, so we stopped work and went for tea, this being an English thing to do, despite Jimmy being a Scot.
Yes, Tavern is a very good club and has produced some excellent top-level competitors over the years.
Are you still a member?

[CMXCVIII]

Tavern was, and I believe still is, a very good motor club ... Are you still a member?

No. A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away … I was [President actually] of the University of Bristol Motor Club and enjoyed West Country road racing ... er ... rallying so I went to Tavern at The Talk of the Town IIRC quite often.

But as Groucho said, I wouldn’t want to be a member of any club that would have me! Through the 1980s, when I went roundy-roundies, I took childish delight in entering BARC promoted meetings claiming to be a member of the guest BRSCC and vice versa! Of course no one ever checked!

by the way, thinking back, did Martin Clarke, who I know was a serious competitor, also have a Hillman Minx convertible or was that a completely different eccentric Martin?

[Cooperman]

Tavern was, and I believe still is, a very good motor club ... Are you still a member?

No. A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away … I was [President actually] of the University of Bristol Motor Club and enjoyed West Country road racing ... er ... rallying so I went to Tavern at The Talk of the Town IIRC quite often.

But as Groucho said, I wouldn’t want to be a member of any club that would have me! Through the 1980s, when I went roundy-roundies, I took childish delight in entering BARC promoted meetings claiming to be a member of the guest BRSCC and vice versa! Of course no one ever checked!

by the way, thinking back, did Martin Clarke, who I know was a serious competitor, also have a Hillman Minx convertible or was that a completely different eccentric Martin?

I don't remember Martin having a Hillman Minx, but he did buy the Porsche 911 in which I did lots of rallies with the very competitive Jock Russell in '68 & '69. When Jock had it the reg. no. was 81LOK, but Jock kept that number. Martin struggled to be competitive in it and bought an Escort TC in which he was ultra-quick. Jock was the first driver to achieve any sort of success on MN events in a Porsche, so I was honoured to be his navigator.
Do you remember the Datsun 240Z which I used to navigate for Kevin Videan who was a great friend of Nigel Rockey?