Robson on YouTube
by Admin on February 8, 2010
in News
Graham Robson discusses the World Cup Rally, his forthcoming book and the Anniversary Event:
Tagged as: 1970, 40, Author, Book, Celebration, Graham Robson, Rally, World Cup
Latest additions to WCR40 event
by Ted on March 15, 2010
All the surviving World Cup Triumphs (except 305H, of course) will be there in some form or other. There are 16 World Cup Cars in total, with another 2 or 3 in the pipeline. This is supported by 9 other 60s/70s marathon cars and 14 other period historic cars. There are a number of replicas and more recent marathon cars.
Of the personalities booked in there are:
- 18 competitors including Brian Culcheth, Rosemary Smith, and Brian Englefield and Keith Baker (No.39 UKV 701H Adrian Lloyd-Hurst). Paddy sent his apologies (prior family commitment).
- 13 Team support including Peter Browning (BL) Bill Price (BL) Bill Barnett (Ford). Stuart Turner sent his apologies (In Australia).
- 5 Organisers/Marshals including Graham Robson and John Brown (John Sprinzel sent his apologies – its a long way from Hawaii!)
And we still have 5 weeks to go. Booked in 5 more personalities in the past few days and we expect more people and cars from Race Retro.
Buy advance discount tickets for the museum and support the organisers of WCR40
by Ted on March 16, 2010
in News
Buy from WCR40 in advance a discount ticket to enter the museum to see their collection of historic competition cars and other vehicles. Not only do you save money but the clubs organising WCR40 receive a donation which helps fund the running of the event.
Tagged as: Buy advance discount tickets for the museum and support the organisers of WCR40.
WCR40 Souvenir Programme
by Admin on March 23, 2010
in News
If you’re going to be visiting WCR40, why not invest in the specially produced souvenir programme at only £5.00? 48 full colour pages packed with photographs, stories, statistics and much more. A wonderful reminder of the day. If you can’t make it to WCR40, these will be available to buy after the event through the supporting clubs’ Regalia outlets.
Tagged as: Programme, WCR40
Rosemary Smith flying in
by Ted on March 30, 2010
in News
Rosemary Smith has confirmed that she will be flying in from her home in Dublin ‘specially to join the other competitors at WCR40 for the afternoon.
Tagged as: competitors
WCR40 ticket news
by Admin on April 12, 2010
in News
You can still buy tickets for WCR40 directly from the Triumph 2000 Register Shop, but all tickets must now be collected on the day due to the close proximity of the event day. A postal service is no longer available.
Just purchase your tickets as normal, then on the day of the event visit the Triumph 2000 Register stand where your tickets can be picked up from Sharon Furnell. Please pick up your tickets upon arrival.
Tagged as: Tickets, WCR40
Last call for tickets
by Admin on April 16, 2010
Sales of discounted museum entry tickets will cease at 8pm tonight (Friday 16th April). Make sure you order yours for collection before then. Visit the Triumph 2000 Register shop today.
Tagged as: Tickets, WCR40
Epilogue
by Ted on April 27, 2010
in News
This is a thank you to all my colleagues who made WCR40 happen. The organisation was very much a committee effort and without the work put in by everyone the event could not have happened. The committees of the organising clubs, The Triumph 2000-2500-2.5 Register, Landcrab Owners Club International, Austin Maxi Owners Club, who made a leap of faith in supporting us – without their commitment in the first place we could not have had the financial support available if needed to put on the event.
Alan Crussell (Triumph 2000 Register). The next time I say to him ‘I’ve got a good idea’ I am sure he will duck and run! It was the support he gave me in the first place that encouraged me to bring the organising Clubs together so that we could make it happen. The back up support since has also been unbelievably invaluable.
Steph Taylor (Triumph 2000 Register and Landcrab Owners Club International). My wife Steph had probably a key place in whether WCR40 was to happen. All the 20 years of life that we have had together has been involved with organising clubs/associations of clubs and classic car events (NEC, Brands Hatch, Silverstone, ………. and more recently the Coleford Carnival of Transport). When we moved to the Forest of Dean we were going to go into ‘retirement’ – and wind down and only do low key things preferring to just enjoy our cars and our club memberships. When I first came up with the idea of WCR40 we knew it could be more than a low key event and if she had said ‘No’ WCR40 would not have happened.
Ken Green (Landcrab Owners Club International). Ken and I have been great friends for well over a decade because of our common interest and ownership of marathon rally Landcrabs. When we sorted the jobs to be done by individuals Ken was the obvious candidate for dealing with the cars and competitors. He put a massive amount of work into it and the presence of over 60 original historic cars (works and private) and a similar number of competitor personalities is testament to his efforts.
Bill Price (in his private, not club, capacity). Bill was an important person in the works BL/BMC rally team organisation in the 60s and 70s. I was delighted that he agreed to help us with the Team Support, both in finding people and in being available on the day to take the lead in looking after them.
Jason Chinn (Club Triumph). When I first started bringing the clubs together I felt that although there was a significant following for the World Cup Rally within Club Triumph, having two Triumph clubs as organisers may have meant that the other clubs felt dominated. When we decided that we were going to have an indoor addition to the day covering memorabilia, films and talks Jason with his interest in the event and collection of material was an obvious person to bring on board. He mobilized a lot of support from within Club Triumph.
Sharon and Derek Furnell (Triumph 2000 Register). It was obvious that there was going to be a need for something in the way of souvenirs for the day and Sharon did not hesitate when asked to deal with this. Derek gave valuable help in promoting the event when the club that had promised to do it backed out.
Kevin Warrington (Triumph 2000 Register). We knew that we needed to have a programme for the event …. problem, who would take on the task? I asked Kevin, instant agreement, and I can do more than say that his truly superb programme says the rest.
Jonathan Lewis (Triumph 2000 Register). When the club that had promised to do promotion backed out after 2 months of inactivity it left us in a dilemma. With just over a week to go to our first real ‘promotional’ activity (the HRCR Rally Day in January) we had no promotional material to give out. In panic I discussed it with Jonathan who lives near us and he made the point that as this sort of thing was part of his work it would not be a problem. Result ……. one week later the thoroughly professional brochure that did so much to demonstrate that this was a real event and not an amateur sideshow (if I dare make the comment).
Allen Walker (Triumph 2000 Register) We obviously needed a website. It was with much trepidation that I approached Allen to do something because I knew he was very busy ….. even just a couple of pages of info. The superb end result (this site) says it all – highly professional and like Jonathan’s brochure gave WCR40 that ‘professional’ touch.
Mark Pacey and Ernie Jackson (Austin Maxi Owners Club). Mark agreed to look after the trade side of things and the clubs, not helped by the fact that a Ford club had offered to deal with the Ford clubs for him …… but did not!
Patrick Walker (Triumph 2000 Register). I have not left Patrick until last because he did not do anything – rather because he did so much in the background and using his car as promotion. You could say he was a key supporter but his role on the committee was much more than that.
On the day we had much support and help from members of the Register including Dave Marshall who provided PA facilities, Land Crab Owners Club, Club Triumph, and Austin Maxi Owners. To all those our thanks.
Graham Robson did an excellent link job and interviewing inside in his inimitable professional way and enabled Jason’s excellent organisation inside to work so well.
Many thanks to Peter D James Insurance who stepped in and provided us with vital insurance cover for the event. The cost of this, which they covered, gave invaluable security for us organisers.
A number of companies advertised in the souvenir programme – many thanks to them for their support.
The Heritage Motor Centre and John Bishop gave invaluable help in putting on WCR40. An event of this nature with its large outside display and inside talks/films/memorabilia was different to anything that had been put on before by an independent group. It required them to be very flexible in their approach to how we organised things which they did very readily, and gave us much support in many other ways. This support proved to us that our decision to go to the Heritage Motor Centre was fully justified.
Finally one person who did much in the background and was happy to not have formal recognition was Philip Young (Endurance Rally Association). I have known Philip for as long as I have been associated with historic rally – over 25 years. He has always had a special interest in the Marathon events (and competed in the 1977 London to Sydney …. in a Magenta kit car…) and was very keen that WCR40 should be a success. It was he who paid for the four FULL PAGE adverts in Motorsport News and Classic Car Weekly, and supported us in a number of other ways.
TO ALL OF YOU, SO MANY THANKS FOR ENABLING WCR40 TO BE SUCH A MEMORABLE EVENT.
We still have for sale souvenir programmes (£5 including postage), the special fluorescent orange stickers from the event (£1, with 0.40p postage but postage free if purchased with the programme or rally plate), and the Souvenir bonnet/boot rally plate for sale (£9 including postage). These sales are the principle means of financing the event – if you are interested in any of them please get in touch.
Graham Robson’s book now published
by Admin on May 4, 2010
Graham Robson’s book, The Daily Mirror World Cup Rally 40 – The World’s Toughest Rally in Retrospect, is now available from publishers Veloce.
Graham was directly involved with the organisation of the original event as a Travelling Controller.
Synopsis
After the first ever intercontinental rally – the London-Sydney in 1968 – there was widespread enthusiasm for an even more difficult test. With the Football World Cup being held in Mexico in 1970, it was the perfect opportunity to hold a parallel, much tougher challenge – the World Cup Rally.
Organisers John Sprinzel and John Brown secured sponsorship from the Daily Mirror and planned a unique high-speed event, lasting six weeks and covering 16,000 miles from London to Mexico City via some of the most varying, tortuous and difficult terrain on three continents.
Serious works teams such as Ford and British Leyland spent tremendous amounts choosing and developing new cars, completing months-long route surveys, and analysing every detail of diets, oxygen provision, and the number of crew members. Despite all this planning, out of an entry of more than 100, only 23 cars made it to the finish.
It was then, and remains now, the toughest rally of all time.
Hardback • 208 pages • 25cm x 25cm • 250 colour and b&w pictures
ISBN: 978-1-845842-71-0
£35.00 + Postage
Get your WCR40 Souvenir Programme
by Admin on May 4, 2010
The specially produced programme for WCR40 is still available to buy. If you didn’t make the event, or weren’t able to get hold of a programme on the day, why not buy one now?
They are available from the Triumph 2000/2500/2.5 Register shop at the bargain price of £5.00 including post and packaging.
Tagged as: Programme, WCR40