The Early Days Takes 207 How a TV Event Became a Motor Sport for ’07 Season
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Rallycworld • mondero • weltss • värld #39 – March 2007 Pailler The early days takes 207 How a TV event became a motor sport for ’07 season Tracey 307 ready to race – at last Rallycross Awards hot shots Tony Todd Tony photos: world • monde • welt • värld 3 Rallycross Pailler 207 leads the new cars for 2007 Pulling power Talk to people in Britain who lament what they After this, Rallycross on TV confined to single see as the fading of Rallycross and they will events, or regular fixtures like the ERC/BRC often state that the sport will never recapcture double header which was regaularly covbered its glory days until it is returned to the small by the BBC until the middle 1980s. 4 screen as it was in the 1970s. If anything those viewing Rallycross on TV But if you take a close look at the records today have never had it so good. Sure, the sport How a one-off for TV turned into from the day you will find that the kind of is now housed in specialist cable and satellite regular TV coverage they refer to was pretty outlets, but that is increasingly the way for most a specialised form of motor sport well a thing of the past by the end of 1971. In ‘specialist’ programming. the earliest years of Rallycross, ITV and BBC Grandstand and World of Sport are things of both had regular winter coverage in their the past and it is unlikely that we will their like Saturday afternoon sports programmes but this again. Rallycross thrives without them. lasted no more than a handful of years. [email protected] subscriptions • abonnement Click it! subskription • abonnera Copyright Advertisements in Rallycross Rallycross World is a Myriorama World are interactive – click on production published by Tim them to jump straight to the Now Whittington. advertiser’s website. This publication may not And make sure you check be redistributed, copied or the whole advert as some free at reproduced in whole or in have multiple links – and part in any form without you wouldn’t want to miss the written consent of the anything, would you. ERC24 copyright holder. Unless There are also links from otherwise stated, all text and Rallycross World is now free some editorial items and we photographs are © copyright to registered members of will always try to offer a live Tim Whittington 2007. ERC24.com 11 14 link wherever we quote a Contributors: Eddi Laumanns, To register click here and website address in editorial Jacques Privat, Jan Kåre Rafoss, then follow the instructions Tracey 307CC hits the track The Rallycross World content. Robert Chambers. on the site. Rallycross World is also This issue published Mar 6 If you prefer to subscribe poster – Action from a featured at the recently Next issue published Apr 6 without joining ERC24, visit 12 launched website [email protected] www.RallycrossWorld.com wet Lydden in 1986 www.myriorama.com www.myriorama.com Rallycross Awards pictured by Bradley Jordan Briefing Where are all the old Rallycross cars? Historic rallying is big business and what started with a relatively small group of enthusiasts breathing life into original equipment in order to have a bit of gentle fun has developed into a highly specialised discipline with new cars being built to order and even historic engines being remanufactured. A ‘new’ Mk2 Escort for historic rallying has a price tag of around £80,000, but there are sufficient takers for these and other cars to keep the historic industry busy. Old Rallycross cars are such a rare breed that this pattern of development is extremely unlikely to be repeated. By and large, Rallycross cars were used and until they needed replacement, at which point it was common practice to re-use the mechanical components in a new car. This practice means that very few cars have survived past their natural competitive life to become items of historic interest or value. There are a few cars in the Manoir de l’automobile at Lohéac (Jean-Luc Pailler’s Xantia among them) although some of these have been restored to their earlier rally trim. A car that has is hugely important to Rallycross, but which also gave rise to the Xtrac business exists and is in its original guise. Now owned by Mike Endean, the original Xtrac Escort will be on display at Race Retro later this month and doing its bit to draw attention New cars abound to Rallycross in its 40th anniversary year. Starring alongside the Xtrac at Race Retro, and also scheduled to make an appearance at the first round of the BRC at Lydden 207 leads crop of new cars for 2007 ERC season on Easter Monday is the Porsche 911 that Vic Elford used to win the first ever Rallycross event in 1967. The car has a longer There is no shortage of new cars taking shape as the 2007 as the opening round of the French Rallycross Championship at motor sport history as Elford went on to win the 1967 British season edges ever closer. Alençon-Essay in May. Stig-Olov Walfridsson is also scheduled to Saloon Car Championship with it, but holds a unique place in George Tracey recently gave his new Peugeot 307CC its debut compete with his Renault Clio for the first time at this event, but the history of Rallycross. and Patrick Van Mechelen’s new Subaru Impreza has also been the previous weekend’s Portuguese ERC round will see the first There probably are a handful of genuine historic Rallycross raced. major start for new cars from Kenneth Hansen (C4), Michael cars tucked away in garages and barns around this and other Among the most prominent of those still to come is Jean-Luc Jernberg and Koen Pauwels (Focus), Ludvig Hunsbedt (Volvo countries. They are unlikely to be worth a huge amount of Pailler’s Peugeot 207 (pictured). Pailler Competition is building S40) and Pavel Koutny’s new Skoda. money, but as the few survivors of their type, are certainly of two cars, the second to be driven by “Knapick” and the debut To prove that it has been a busy winter, there are new cars historic interest. event for them will be the French ERC round which also counts being readied for the ERC’s other divisions too. Rallycross World #39 – MARCH 2007 | 3 Foundation course An examination of roots of Rallycross There is now no doubt that the first Rallycross event was the The event took place in the car parks behind the start/finish And even at that very first event the cars were starting, line TV special produced for World of Sport by ABC TV at Lydden on straight and was muddy and snowy, despite use of snow chains abreast, in groups of four and racing against the clock and each February 4 1967. some cars actually got stuck on the course which appears to other. The track consisted of tarmac, gravel and grass. In fact the The name ‘Rallycross’ was created for the Lydden event and have contained no sealed surfaces. What is important though is only major difference between what happened then, and what it was not until 1976, when Rallycross eventually visted Brands that there was never any mention of Rallycross and, whatever happens today, is that the winner is now decided by finals that Hatch that some sought to adjust history and claim paternity of the original intention might have been, the event more closely take place after the heats rather than aggregate times deciding Rallycross. The event that took place at Brands Hatch in 1963 resembled autocross than Rallycross. the results. was called the 'Mini Monte' and featured the top rally drivers of The 1967 Lydden event was billed, before hand, on the day, Many will tell you that rallycross was born out of the the day, by invitation only. and in the contemporary motoring press, as Rallycross. cancellation of the 1967 RAC Rally. That too is a common Lydden grew along with the sport, this is John Taylor in the Volvo with which he started his career at a muddy Lydden. Rallycross World #39 – MARCH 2007 | 4 Competition Cars, Engines & Transmissions The earliest incarnation of Croft’s Rallycross Vast Experience in track used a small section of the race track, Ford RS200 – Cosworth YB – Metro 6R4 – Jaguar ‘E Type’ with infield areas. F1 Megatron – Subaru – Mitsubishi Engines COSWORTH ENGINES Built to all specifications from Road to Rallycross producing up to 740bhp and 540lb/ft torque misconception, the RAC Rally was cancelled part in what we might today term a 'rallysprint' in November ’67, nine months after the first or 'superspecial' at Camberley. For academic We offer a Complete Service for Competition & Performance Cars Rallycross event had taken place. interest Erik Carlsson was fastest. Transmission – Turbocharger Building & Modifications • Supply & Where much of the confusion stems from is With an empty week now laying before that a Rallycross had been planned to take place the Lydden Rallycross the foreign drivers and Installation of Pectel & Gems Management Systems on the Saturday after the finish of the RAC Rally, teams either returned home or left early for RS200 & Ford Motorsport Parts Supplied • Welding & Fabrication the idea was to catch a number of the works Monte Carlo. What that meant was that the teams as they left England for the preliminary International Lydden now became a British of Components & all Types of Tig Welding recce of the Monte Carlo Rally. affair although, to their credit, the home based Bodyshell & Car Preparations for all Types of Racing However, the outbreak of Foot and Mouth rally teams kept their commitment to the Full Machine Shop Facilities disease eventually put paid to the RAC Rally event.