3 replies to this topic

[roywill90]

A very long shot but would anybody out there have the map reference for the route handed out to the navigator for the 1970 motoring news events rally of the vales and the nutcracker rally. A late friend did the rally and I would love plot and drive them. Thanks

[DeadSquare]

Bill Gwynne would have known who to ask, but sadly, he died last autumn.

 

www.southwalesac.com   might be able point you to someone.

[Cooperman]

There are two people I can think of who might be able to help.

 

The first is Peter Robinson who wrote the 'Memory Lanes' books. his email is: memorylanes@ live.com.

The other is my good friend Don Barrow, 4 times MN Champion Navigator. You can email him: [email protected]

 

I just checked in my (complimentary) copy of 'Memory Lanes...revisited' and found the overall results for all crews on both the events you mentioned plus a general route summary.

 

From my own records I did the Vales with the late, great Tony Pond in his Cooper 'S' and we had a failure of the oil cooler pipe which put us out, then on the Nutcracker I started at No.9 with John Harraway in his Cooper 'S', but he managed to roll it on a fast downhill 45-right - always roll onto the navigator's side! Both events were won by Will Sparrow and the late Nigel Raeburn in their Cooper 'S'.

 

Peter Robinson put in a lot of work to produce the full history of the fantastic Motoring news Championship. If you don't have 'Memory Lanes...revisited' I suggest you buy a copy. Your friend's results will be listed there. By the way, be sure to read the Introduction - a young 'Cooperman' wrote it!

 

Those Motoring News rallies were really something else. There are no events like them these days, nor can there be. Out-and-out road racing on deserted roads all night for up to 250 miles. In a Cooper 'S', Lotus Cortina or escort it was a long way. In the Datsun 240Z in which I did those events from 1973 until 1975 is was simply awesome. A 270 bhp Datsun in those wet slippy lanes was hard work, and I was only the navigator!

[roywill90]

Thanks very much for your very interesting reply , I'll follow up your leads,I've got all of Peter Robinson's memory lanes books and they make very interesting reading,