Tag Archives: Rally Car

The Striped One – Porsche 911 SC Safari

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In 1978 the Martini sponsored works Porsche team produced two variants of the 911 to take outright victories in events which the model had not won, the first was the 750hp Porsche 935 78 known as Moby Dick which was designed to win the Le Mans 24 hours, it finished fourth, and the second was the 300hp Porsche 911 SC Safari, featured today, which was designed to win the Safari Rally in Kenya. The 911 SC Safari that stands nearly one foot off the ground is without question one of my favourite rally cars, it’s the one car in which James Bond’s Martini is guaranteed to arrive well shaken but not stirred.

Porsche 911 SC Safari, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

As we saw on Saturday by 1970 the 911 had proved itself in the snowy conditions of Sweden and the tarmac conditions of a dry Monte Carlo rally with Bjorn Waldegård at the wheel, it’s smaller 912 sibling had won the European Rally Championship with Sobiesław Zasada at the wheel, the only thing missing from the 911’s curriculum vitae was a win a respected ‘loose surface’ rally like the Safari Rally. This absence was not for lack of trying a 911 covered in ‘kanga’roo bars was driven by Sobiesław Zasada in the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon and sensationally worked it’s way up from 13th to 4th position on the final Australian leg of the 7000 mile rally.

Porsche 911 SC Safari, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

In 1971 Waldegård driving a works 911 looked set for a win on the East African Safari Rally until he was blinded by dust from his team mate Zasada while trying to over take him on the road and ended up crashing out while Zsada survived to finish 5th. In 1974 Bjorn came home second in the East African Safari driving a 911 RS and it was not until 1978 that Porsche returned to East Africa with a two car team that included today’s featured #14 car driven by Vic Preston Jnr. Team mate Waldegård, who won the 1977 edition of the Safari driving a Ford, returned to Zuffenhasen to drive the similar #5 911 SC.

Porsche 911 SC Safari, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The roads used on the Safari in 1978 were mostly graded tracks, tarmac is rarely used because the population is sparsely distributed and the intense daily short bursts of rain in the rainy season would likely as not wash tarmac away in abrasive currents of subsequent surface water drainage. The ’78 Safari was run in wet conditions but the competition between the Porsche, Datsun now Nissan, and Peugeot teams remained close. Waldegård and H Thorszelius led the first leg but then a rock damaged the suspension and they could only recover a 4th place finish.

Porsche 911 SC Safari, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Vic Preston Jnr and J Lyall finished second in today’s featured car behind the Peugeot 504 V6 of Jean Pierre Nicolas and Jean Todt J-C Lefebvre. The winners finished the timed sections with the fastest times overall only to crash in to an unexpectedly U turning vehicle on the untimed road section back to the ceremonial finish line in Niarobi. The Peugeot was badly damaged but the occupants unharmed. After repairs Nicolas managed to drive to the finish with a holed radiator.

Porsche 911 SC Safari, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Ironically Jean Pierre Nicholas with Vincent Laverne win in the 1978 Monte Carlo Rally driving a superceded Porsche 911 Carrera RSR meant that Porsche maintained their lead in the World Rally Championship. By the seasons end a privately entered Porsche in San Remo had scored one additional podium finish for the Zuffenhausen marque in the World Rally Championship as the works team involvement was aimed solely at winning the prestigious Safari. The 4th place final championship placing was edged by 1978 champions FIAT, Ford, for whom Bjorn also drove in 1978 and Opel, each of these teams had elected pass on the extreme endurance test of the Safari in Kenya.

Porsche 911 SC Safari, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The 1978 Safari was the last World Championship Rally the works team entered although some years later the Porsche name would return with Prodrive prepared cars. With no prospect of rallying regulations turning to favor a Porsche entry it would appear the marque which has dominated so many other area’s of the sport is destined to never win the Safari Rally. In 2011 Waldegård driving a 1972 Porsche 911 2.4 prepared by Francis Tuthill did win the classic version of the Safari Rally, a small consolation for the man and the marque.

The following season Martini shifted the main focus of it’s motorsports sponsorship to the Lotus formula one team.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Striped One” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some Formula One Automobillia. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Monte Hat-trick – Porsche 911S

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From 1968 to 1970 Porsche scored three 1-2 victories on the fabled Monte Carlo Rally. In 1968 Vic Elford and David Stone driving a Porsche 911T won the event ahead of the 911S driven by Pauli Toivonen and M Tiukkanen, the following year Bjorn Waldegård and Lars Helmer driving a 911S finished ahead of the similar car driven by Gerárd Larrousse and JC Perramond. In 1970 the Porsche hat-trick of wins came when Waaldegård and Helmer drove today’s featured car to victory over Larrousse and M Gélin in another 911S.

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The 1970 Monte Carlo had featured a concentration run to the Principality starting from eight European cities and was run in mild conditions. Porsche, Ford Alpine Renault and Lancia all entered significant works teams expected to challenge for top honours. British press interest in the, once, prestigious event was so low that Motor Sport correspondent GP, Geraint “Gerry” Phillips, opined, in March 1970, that what the Monte Carlo Rally needed to reengage Fleet Street was “… a bunch of hippies to entrench themselves on the Turini (rally stage) and spray the spectators with LSD.” !

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

Having won on the dry Monte Carlo Waldegård and Lars Helmer proved the versatility of the 911 by winning the Swedish Rally run on snow by 23 mins, after having a clutch replaced that required the engine to be removed in a freezing lay-by.

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

The second 911S model introduced in 1969 features a 2 1/4″ longer wheel base than the original, to improve the handling, though there was no increase in the overall length of the car.

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

The motor for the 911S was increased in size from 2 litres / 122 cui to 2.3 litres / 134 cui and with fuel injection this competition car produced 230hp, 50 more than the fuel injected road going version of the 911S.

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

Swede Bjorn Waldergård was a front line rally driver from 1962 to 1992, the World Rally Championship (WRC) started in 1973 and he won 16 of the 95 WRC events in which he started. His wins included the three toughest events on the WRC Circuit, the Safari, Acroplolis and RAC rallies in 1977 when he was driving for Ford. In 1979 Bjorn won the World Rally Drivers Championship driving for the works Ford and Mercedes Benz rally teams. Winning the Safari Rally for the third time in 1990, with Fred Gallagher, driving a Toyota Bjorn became the oldest person to ever win a World Championship Rally a record he holds to this day.

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

In his report on the road going Porsche 911S for Motor Sport in February 1970 Dennis ‘DSJ’ Jenkinson observed that a 911 cost twice as much as the 4.2 E-Type Jaguar he bought in 1966, to replace his Porsche 356, and that by 1970 the 911S had risen in price to become half the cost of a Lamborghini Miura, he concluded “It is all a question of keeping a sense of proportion.”

Thanks for joining me on this “Monte Hat-trick” edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a slightly more outrageously flared Porsche 911. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Don’t Try This At Home – MG Metro 6R4

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In 1980 and 1981 the Leyland Commercial Vehicles sponsored Williams Grand Prix team won the World Drivers Championship (1980) with Alan Jones and two consecutive World Constructors championships with their Patrick Head designed FW07’s. During 1981 one of Austin Rover who were part of the British Leyland Group approached Patrick to help them design a new rally car to conform to the forthcoming Group B regulations that mandated 200 identical cars to be built and a further 20 evolutionary competition versions.

MG Metro 6R4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

The car Austin Rover wanted to promote was the recently launched Metro and because this was a competition vehicle the MG brand was the natural version to promote. Patrick head and his team built a space frame chassis that housed the motor behind the driver and equipped the car with four wheel drive. Apart from the roof panel, windscreen, doors, front grill and lights which were MG Metro sourced every other part of the car was competition spec.

MG Metro 6R4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

The first prototypes were seen in 1984 powered by an interim V6 version of the aluminium Rover V8 engine which produced around 250 hp. The car was subsequently tested in numerous national rally events and proved to be quick while it last.

MG Metro 6R4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

In March 1985 Tony Pond and Rod Arthur won for the first time in a 6R4 on the Gwynedd Rally in Wales.

MG Metro 6R4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

By now the car had grown wings at the front and rear and had a lengthened wheel base. The car was also now fitted with what is probably the only motor designed specifically from scratch for a rallying application namely the V64V a 3 litre / 183 cui normally aspirated V6 with four valves per cylinder and double overhead cam shafts that could be tuned to give over 400 hp.

MG Metro 6R4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

When fitted to the Metro the car could accelerate from rest to 60 mph in just 3.0 seconds an achievement compatible with contemporaneous Formula One cars. The V64V would later achieve success in Group C2 racing where it was used by Ecurie Ecosse to win the 1986 Group C2 championship and later still the V64V was fitted twin turbo chargers and fitted to the Jaguar XJ220.

MG Metro 6R4, RAC Rally

The Metro 6R4’s debut in the World Championship Rally was in the 1985 RAC Rally, which happened to start about two miles from where I was living in Nottingham that year. The #10 of Tony Pond and Rob Arthur, which is seen blasting through a forest on the opening day above, would record an excellent third place behind two Lancia Delta S4, which were also on their debut appearance.

MG Metro 6R4, RAC Rally

Malcom Wilson and Nigel Harris seen on the same stage above retired with engine failure after completing 23 of the 63 stages. I took these photographs in a non approved area and was pelted with stones from the gravel track as the cars passed by. With the benefit of hindsight this is not recommended at home, the following year 1985 RAC winner Henri Toivonen and co driver Sergio Cresto were killed when their Lancia Delta S4 plunged into a Corsican ravine and caught fire on impact earlier in the season a Group B car slid into a crowd on a special stage injuring 30 spectators and killing 3 more.

These two fatal events led the sports governing body the FIA to ban Group B from the end of 1986 with several teams withdrawing from the sport immediately.

My thanks to Sterling49 and Tim Murray at the Nostalgia Forum for helping to identify the drivers and co-drivers of the two cars seen on the RAC Rally.

Thanks for for joining me on the “Don’t Try This At Home” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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