This event run by the Eastbourne and RAM Motor Club was a first for both of us, being a regularity rally. We were entering this in Mike's 1964 rally prepared Triumph Herald. Although the car has completed a number of off-road events, this was to be it's first road rally. Mike had his work cut out trying to prepare it for a an MOT in time for this event. You can read more about it in his blog here.
The week prior to the rally was spent finishing off various jobs on the car, much of which was to ensure it's reliability as it would be completing almost 300 miles on the day. We also found some time to practice my navigation/regularity skills (or lack of!). This showed us how much effort would be involved with managing maps, speed tables, instructions, stopwatches, tripmeter etc. We could have done with an early night on the day before the event, but we had arranged to go to a Christmas party and we had to set off by 6am. So no Christmas drinks for us!
We managed to set off in time the next morning and settled down to a slow 80 mile journey to the start. With it's low ratio gearbox, the "comfortable" cruising speed of the car is around 60mph. The weather got steadily worse and on the bridge over the Dartford crossing the high winds threatened to remove the bonnet!
We were about 30 miles from the start, on the A21, when there was a loud bang and the front of the car dropped to the ground and we ground to a halt just before a big roundabout. On inspection we found that a vertical link on the front suspension had broken. Not to be deterred Mike arranged for spare parts to be brought to the start whilst we arranged for a recovery truck to get us there. After battling in the torrential rain the car was back on four wheels again and ready for the start only a couple of minutes late!
An exciting mornings driving followed whilst I attempted to manage the navigation and keep track of our timings. Apparently the weather was atrocious but I didn't see much of it, my head was down studying maps, tables and stopwatches. We must have been doing something right though because, as we later found out, we were in second place only a couple of seconds behind the leaders at the half way stage. Unfortunately things didn't go quite so well in the afternoon. We made a wrong turn at one point and went through a huge flood which almost stalled the engine and flooded the footwells. Then we realised we'd have to turn around and go back through it again! In the end we were extremely pleased to finish fourth. Full results can be found here:
This event run by the
