1984, 2000cc Alfa power developments

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Cartoon drawn by a friends daughter - Miriam Spiers.

Baased on the Hamlet Cigars "Carlos Fandango" advert current at the time in 1984.

1983, 2000cc Alfa Romeo power

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"New" shell

"New shell"

Work starts stripping underseal

Frank starts the welding

Standard front floor

Front floor after welding/plating

Finished front floor & chassis rail

Standard rear floor and suspension mounts

Welded, plated & skidded rear mounts

Day out co-driving for Paul Carter

 

1982, 1300cc Alfa Romeo engine in the Sunbeam

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After the pretty successful 1981 season I was trying to work out what to do next. Sue Sanders work was becoming more demanding so another friend Malcolm Jones agreed to take the co-drivers seat. 

The 1600cc class had been very competitive with lots of fast teams so it seemed that the 1300cc class might be the way to go.  I had also met a charismatic engine builder called Terry Brown who reckoned he could build a really quick 1300cc Alfa Romeo twin-cam unit at a pretty cheap price.

Terry Brown was very well know in grasstrack racing and had his own built supercharged 2000cc Alfa Romeo engine in his car. He was also in the process of fitting a V8 Alfa Romeo Montreal engine so you can tell he is a bit unorthodox.  Anyway, I found a cheap Alfa 1300cc engine in a scrapyard and took it to Terry for him to work on.  

Fitting the Alfa engine in a Sunbeam is quite easy and had been done before. I spoke to a guy called Pat Messer who had already done it and he sold me a pair of his engine mounting adapters so it fitted straight onto the standard Sunbeam mounts.  We made up our own gearbox mounting to take the Alfa box which had come with the engine and had a prop shaft made by Transcarden in Worcester. The Sunbeam exhaust lined up quite well with the Alfa manifold and that was it.

Terry had now finished the engine and had it running on Weber 45DCOE carbs.  It revved very freely and promised a fun season to come.   

Testing at Down Ampney

Marby Stages

Borrowed car to test our pace-notes

1981, Century Oils Rallysport Magazine Championship

Competing on the National status rallies in 1980 had been great but it was also pretty expensive so I decided it would be a better idea to find a less expensive championship for 1981.  The obvious choice was the Century Oils Rallysport Magazine championship which was aimed at the club driver and with a good selection of rallies.

Over the winter I had been introduced to Sue Sanders who was a keen co-driver and looking for a ride.  Oliver's work was now taking much more of his time so he needed to take a step back from co-driving and  it was agreed that I would do the Century Oils Rallysport Championship with Sue in 1981.

First round was the Red Garages Cambrian Rally based in Llandudno.  The weather was very cold, with snow promised as we set off on the first stage round the Great Orme toll road.

The next few forest stages were a mixture of snow and ice and I made a mistake on a downhill corner and put us off onto a log pile.  With me pushing and Sue driving we got the car back on the road but a lot of time was lost and so there was no option but to retire. 
The problem now was that it was getting dark, it was snowing heavily and we were in Blaenau Ffestiniog which is miles away from our base in Llandudno. We abandoned our Granada service barge at a local garage and all set off for Llandudno in the rally car which was now fitted with snow tyres. To get there we had to cross the Crimea Pass and we found a couple of policemen at the bottom who told us the pass was closed until the snowplough arrived. Great, no option but to wait for about an hour until the plough arrived. By now quite a few other cars had turned up and we set off in a convoy following the plough.

All went well until we got to a much steeper section near the famous Llechwedd slate mines.  The snowplough slowed right down and was now going so slowly I was having to slip the clutch in first gear to stay behind it. When the smell of the burning clutch finally got too bad I decided to take a chance and overtook the snowplough. With the rally car on snow tyres and LSD working well we were able to cruise gently across the top of the Crimea Pass.
It was a pretty surreal experience passing some stranded cars as we slowed to tell them " Don't worry, there is a snowplough following behind us".  You couldn't make it up.

Sue Sanders was a very good co-driver and we had a good season, with a string of good results that ended up with winning the 1600cc championship class.  There were some notable results along the way, including 9th overall on the Rothmans National Rally in Somerset, and 4th overall on the Trentham Stages near Stoke on Trent which was the last round and Sue's local event.

Oh dear,  I do look a bit of a plonker !

Who are these young people?  

Yes its Sue and me collecting our Century Oils Rallysport Magazine Championship awards.










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Various 1981 Pictures