85 replies to this topic

[Cooperman]

A guy I knew spun his Sunbeam Rapier rally car on the roundabout outside Buck House in the wet one night and no-one seemed interested. I don't think anyone got the number. That was the same guy who reckoned he did 90 mph in the Hyde Park underpass, also in his Rapier.

[Cooperman]

Here is the car which replaced the Mini on the British rallying scene. This one is Colin Walker with me navigating on the Devil's Own Mexico Championship round in 1973 (I think). From memory we were 4th. Colin was a very smooth and quick driver, especially on tarmac where he was most at home. On another event I did with him we won with Prince Michael of Kent in another Mexico a couple of minutes behind us. Nice bloke, congratulated us on beating him and had breakfast together. His navigator was a very old friend of mine too.

[brad-the-bear]

anybody know of bob eaves? church town

I used to be a friend of Bob Eaves who had a garage business near Morecambe and who was a very quick Mini International Rally driver. Sadly he has passed away now.

you must have known Michael hewitson then?

[Cooperman]

anybody know of bob eaves? church town

I used to be a friend of Bob Eaves who had a garage business near Morecambe and who was a very quick Mini International Rally driver. Sadly he has passed away now.

you must have known Michael hewitson then?

I don't remember him. John Vipond was Bob Eaves's navigator and he is a good friend, although now that he's retired abroad I've not kept in touch with him recently. Bob passed away in very sad circumstances which I'll not go into here, but I can say that he was a seriously quick driver of the Cooper 'S'. I remember him putting a load of drinks on my bill when we were at the Midland Hotel in Morecambe and I was a resident, so could get drinks after hours. I was elsewhere at the time with a certain young lady so Bob pretended to be me!!

[brad-the-bear]

sorry i meant Michael hewitson. (as in the bloke)

what about colin davis?

my uncle (Michael hewitson) used to rally cooper S's and work for bob at his garage. think they used to build them too. i bet you know of the morris 1800 that did the London to Sydney?

my farther also used to rally minis and had a few discrepancy's with Michele when "his car wasn't quite running right". he borrowed a set of magnesium wheels, with some tyres on that he wanted to try out, off my dad and used them for a rally, ended up buckling 2 and shredding 3 tyres. to this day Michael still owes my dad a set of wheels and tyres. ahaha

my dad said that the minis that came from bobs workshop where all ways perfect. anyway he ended up buying a (knackered) works mini off bob and painting it brown. looked an eye-saw but flew like s**t off a shovel. he blew it up once driving it to work, a con-rod decided it didn't like being inside the block. when money got tight he sold it on and it got wrote off the same week.

ive heard some good stories about bob and he sounded like a really nice guy and knew his stuff.

Edited by brad-the-bear, 17 December 2012 - 10:22 PM.

[Cooperman]

Bob was indeed a great bloke and a fine competitor too. I remember Bob doing the London-to-Sydney in the 1800. I was going to do it in a Mini with Coca-Cola sponsorship, but it fell through so I didn't get to go. Those that did had a whale of a time.
Do you live near Morecambe? You might know Roy Mapple, also a famous Mini driver from that era and that area. He rallied a Mini which was called 'The Orange Box' and which is still around that area in new hands and doing historic rallies.

[MaxAndPaddy]

Cooperman reading your stories and seeing your pics makes me feel like a kid again and been in awe of a pop star or formula 1 driver..... something like that

What a life!

Great pics keep them coming

[brad-the-bear]

Bob was indeed a great bloke and a fine competitor too. I remember Bob doing the London-to-Sydney in the 1800. I was going to do it in a Mini with Coca-Cola sponsorship, but it fell through so I didn't get to go. Those that did had a whale of a time.
Do you live near Morecambe? You might know Roy Mapple, also a famous Mini driver from that era and that area. He rallied a Mini which was called 'The Orange Box' and which is still around that area in new hands and doing historic rallies.

no, my family come from garstang (just down the road) and when i was born they moved just south of Manchester. the orange box rings some bells, wasn't Graham the navigator? just been speaking to my dad about some of the people he used to rally with and afterwards meet up at the pub and he wanted to know if you knew these people,

roy hinton- one of his navigators
croft brown
steven bi
george hill
will sparrow - very quick, used to drive a mini with an 8 port
nigel raeburn - sparrows navigator
roger collinson- had an escort, all the gear and no idea, it spent more time in the body shop than on the road (his dad owns collinson bulk feed silos)

stf 199d ring any bells?

​going to my nan's house over Christmas , i will have to raid the humongous ruck of photos from "back in the day".

brad.

[brad-the-bear]

just found this on the net.
(i can see dave getting moist)

[Cooperman]

That's a great shot of Will Sparrow and Nigel Raeburn in the Clubman 'S'.
I was George Hill's co-driver with Dealer Team Vauxhall/Martin Group in 1976 in the Magnum 2300.
Both Will & Nigel are good friends and we often meet up. Nigel's son Graham is also a top navigator these days and is a good friend of my son. We always all meet up at Race-Retro at Stoneley in February and then all go and marshal on the Tour-of-Cheshire in March as part of the Ecurie Cod Fillet 'old farts'.
Roy Mapple's navigators included Graham Marrs until Graham went to work for Lockheed in the USA in about 1967.
Last March I marshalled two controls on the Tour of Cheshire with Roy Mapple and Barrie Williams, so we were all ex-Mini competitors and we just laughed all day. Great fun when all the old rally guys get together.

[Cooperman]

Another Mini one which is my car on Sculthorpe Airfield.

[Cooperman]

I like this one, although it's not a Mini. It's on the 1968 TAP Portuguese Rally and I'm with Jock Russell leaving a control somewhere in mid-Portugal. That was one hell of an event as 180 cars started and 18 finished. We were 7th (I think). Paddy was 2nd in a 'works' Mini and my old friend the late Tony Fall won in a Lancia. We beat the localPortuguese champion who was in another 911 which peed him off no end, but Jock was a seriously quick and neat driver in a 911.

[jmmini]

Here is the car which replaced the Mini on the British rallying scene. This one is Colin Walker with me navigating on the Devil's Own Mexico Championship round in 1973 (I think). From memory we were 4th. Colin was a very smooth and quick driver, especially on tarmac where he was most at home. On another event I did with him we won with Prince Michael of Kent in another Mexico a couple of minutes behind us. Nice bloke, congratulated us on beating him and had breakfast together. His navigator was a very old friend of mine too.

My dad nearly killed himself in his escort, it was only a 1600 but was half competitive at clubby level, on the way to anglesey circuit (not sure if that's spelt correctly) when a track rod end failed due to his KPI set up he had made. The long and short of it is, he finished up, upside-down with the offside front wheel between his knees! I'll look for pictures. If your in any doubt over how dangerous rallying CAN be, look at late class B footage, they were like dirty F1 cars!

[jmmini]

Also, not strictly rally but this is the buggy were building! This is the only pic i've got at the min, it will most probably be used for grass track. It's aluminium frame (in parts) and a 600cc Suzuki engine. Think the next project is a rally car!

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[Cooperman]

Here is the car which replaced the Mini on the British rallying scene. This one is Colin Walker with me navigating on the Devil's Own Mexico Championship round in 1973 (I think). From memory we were 4th. Colin was a very smooth and quick driver, especially on tarmac where he was most at home. On another event I did with him we won with Prince Michael of Kent in another Mexico a couple of minutes behind us. Nice bloke, congratulated us on beating him and had breakfast together. His navigator was a very old friend of mine too.

My dad nearly killed himself in his escort, it was only a 1600 but was half competitive at clubby level, on the way to anglesey circuit (not sure if that's spelt correctly) when a track rod end failed due to his KPI set up he had made. The long and short of it is, he finished up, upside-down with the offside front wheel between his knees! I'll look for pictures. If your in any doubt over how dangerous rallying CAN be, look at late class B footage, they were like dirty F1 cars!

There was a programme on TV a couple of weeks ago about Gp. B rally cars. It was truly madness, although I did make a lot of money from doing the chassis design definition on the RS200.
There were even rumours that one team even ran with empty fire extinguishers to save weight! I can't vouch for that, but wouldn't be surprised.