Report by HMRG Committee Member Steve Bates
This reunion was organised and hosted by the Historic Marathon Rally Group (HMRG) to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the gruelling 1974 UDT sponsored London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally, which at 12,000 miles and two crossings of the Sahara Desert had been designed to be even more demanding than it’s 1970 predecessor the Daily Mirror sponsored World Cup Rally, which had started from Wembley Stadium in London on April 19th and taken cars and competitors all the way to the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City, arriving on May 27th.
No rally had ever crossed the Sahara before, and only five of the original seventy entries completed the full distance and were classified as such as finishers.
The Anniversary event kicked off at 10.30am on a chilly Sunday 21st April, with a separate, dedicated area set aside for several owners to display various rally cars from other historic and long distance events to join the celebration and with surviving 1974 World Cup Rally cars arranged on the grassy area immediately to the front of the main entrance to the British Motor Museum, with some committee members selling programmes to arriving visitors and fellow enthusiasts.
In addition to the line up of surviving 1974 World Cup Rally cars, our Group was also privileged to have the loan of Ford Heritage’s two most famous World Cup Rally Escorts, FEV1H and H1FEV in support of our event. Thanks due to Leonard Keen for his gracious help.
Several of the original cars from the 1974 event were brought to the show by their owners, some arriving under their own power and some by trailer. These were:
Car no. 37, MFV 632, a Hillman Minx driven on the 1974 event by Michael Fothergill/Peter Jackson. This car was rescued by its owner Ralph Humby as a surprising e-Bay purchase, after being offered for sale as a donor car for rally parts. Ralph recognised the registration number plate from a photograph of a local event in Sheffield, which then led to some detective work and research into the car’s history, hence Ralph uncovering its entry on the UDT World Cup Rally almost half a Century earlier. The car is now being restored by Ralph and his family in Sussex.
Car no. 2, GVX 40H, a Ford Capri Mk1 2.8 V6 driven on the event by Brian Peacock/David Skittrall and owned by Michael Ryman since 1980. This car has the distinction of competing on two World Cup rallies – the 1970 London-Mexico World Cup Rally and the 1974 London-Sahara-Munich event.
Originally built by a team of 22 Prototype Engineers at Ford’s Research & Development Centre at Dunton, Essex and subsequently bought by Michael, he used the car for road use and club rallying. After all the abuse it suffered, the car was left for several years until the early 1990’s, when through the advent of the World Wide Web, Michael found out about the history of the car and commenced a faithful and patinated restoration.
Below is a photograph taken at the start of the Yateley stage on day one of the UDT World Cup Rally, showing the Skittrall/Peacock Capri parked in front of the Hemsley/Skinner Marina V8.
Car no. 8, XFM 115L an utterly faithful replica of the Morris Marina V8 driven by Majors John Hemsley/John Skinner on the 1974 World Cup Rally and originally built by British Leyland Special Tuning for the London-Sahara-Munich event. Owned by Ian Dixon who has spent an enormous amount of time and effort researching the original and then meticulously building the car into the exquisite replica presented at the show.
The car was reunited with Major John Hemsley at the show who was delighted to see the car and speak to the owner about its restoration.
Car no. 13, RBC 195G. A Rover 3500S P6 driven by Gary Whitcombe/Steve Kimbrell on the event. Still owned by Gary Whitcombe, a great raconteur who clearly loved the original rally and who faced huge challenges along the route all those years ago.
Car no. 23, AAV 943M. A Jeep CJ6 driven by James Ingleby/Robert Smith. Still in the very same ownership as it was in 1974, this wonderful specimen that actually classified as a finisher on the original event was used by James Ingleby on his farm in Aberdeen for several years before being consigned to a barn after it had served him well. HMRG was fortunate to have the vehicles trailered 500 miles South from Scotland to attend our event at Gaydon by James Ingleby and Robert Smith, more or less in the same condition it finished the rally.
Unfortunately car number 27, CMF 730H, a Ford Escort driven by Doug Harris/Philip Headly on the event and now owned by Keith Smart was unable to attend.
Also attending the anniversary event were some very special guests who took part in the Rally fifty years ago and who wanted to join us for the celebration, to catch up and reminisce with fellow competitors.
Alex Tullett, seen here during the day as he reminisced about his late Grandfather Derek’s adventures on the 1974 World Cup Rally in another Ford Capri. This 1973 built facelift Capri Mk1 no longer survives, but the memories and the fondness live on!
Flying in all the way from from Australia was the Rally winner Jim Reddiex accompanied by his close friend and fellow rally enthusiast Mike Mitchell.
Jim’s Citroen DS23 was car number 46, entered with Andre Welinski and Ken Tubman.
From Turkey we were joined by Azmi Avcioglu who at the age of 23 competed and finished in an amazing 8th place on the 1974 event in car no.66, a Murat 124 which was Fiat 124 built under licence in Turkey. Azmi still has the car and it has now been fully restored by his son, a current Turkish rally champion as a gift to his father.
Azmi came with his wonderful wife and family and immersed himself passionately in our event, meeting fellow competitors that he hadn’t seen since 1974.
The day started early, with committee members arriving to sort signage and get the Conference Room and areas ready for the guest speakers and to set up tables in the Gallery to show memorabilia from the rally. Between 8 and 10am the traders were arriving to sell model cars, books and memorabilia from their stalls.
There was a full schedule of interviews with event participants and celebrity guests, hosted brilliantly as ever by Wayne Scott who kept the chat flowing but not over-running, which is always a danger.
It was fascinating to hear about the adventures, misadventures and anecdotes of those involved with the event and a joy to see the pleasure of some of those people meeting up again for the first time in decades.
In the Gallery there was a steady stream of visitors looking at the memorabilia and looking and buying from traders, with people also showing a lot of interest in what the HMRG had to offer, as well as being tempted into buying books, programmes, badges and souvenirs.
One of the highlights was HMRG Chairman Andrew Bradbury’s masterful model-making skills being shown off…..his handbuilt 1/43rd scale creations of many of the cars that took part in the London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally of 1974.
It was certainly a busy day and was clearly enjoyed as a rare opportunity to see and hear about this extraordinary challenge from the owners, participants and and others, and to see some of the cars that had taken part together with other rally cars from the period.
After the show had closed, our overseas visitors and others joined the committee for a celebratory drink and they toasted the hard work the committee had put in.
In the evening, a number of our guests and visitors decamped to their hotel and spent a few happy hours reminiscing and telling all manner of tales about their experiences and memories of the wonderful yet gruelling rally of fifty years ago.
Here’s a lovely photo of winner Jim Reddiex (on the right) sharing wine and stories with 8th placed Azmi Acivoglu and friend Mike Mitchell.
We also had a toast in memory of Chris Rabbets, a committee member whose passing a couple of weeks earlier was a big shock to us all. Chris was a very big part of HMRG for many years and he will be sadly missed.
Overall the show was a great success and many people thanked HMRG for all the effort that had gone into putting the show on.
A very special thank you goes to everyone who contributed their time and effort and hard work in putting on the show and helping to celebrate 50 years of the UDT 1974 London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally.
Show report by Steve Bates