I tried to be as prepared for the event as
I could be, knowing there was no roof and very little windscreen it was pretty
obvious that if it rained we would get very wet so I purchased a very
flattering all in one wet suit usually used on motorcycles. Tomas, my driver
brought helmets and goggles and I even had see-through plastic bags for the
paperwork and maps.
Day 1
Greenwich to Portsmouth
The challenges started even before the
rally, we were setting the trip to the organiser’s measured kilometer and
despite trying eight times, when we double checked, it was always out, no matter
what we did. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong but I took a MGA out
to set that trip and it worked perfectly first time. Apparently the retro trip
in the Riley was attached to the gear box and running off pulses even when we
were not moving. It soon became clear that we weren’t going to have an accurate
trip on the event.
After
an early lunch it was time to begin the epic adventure to Lisbon, as car 3 we
were one of the first to be waved off from the sunny start line in Greenwich
next to the maritime museum. It was quite an easy day to start with, once out
of London we had a practice regularity which I really wished had been a real
one as we only dropped 5 seconds through it. There were also two fantastic but
relatively easy tests at the airfield that Top Gear use, another regularity was on the cards before we
reached Portsmouth to board the overnight Ferry to St Malo.
It was a perfect first night of a rally
with a meal in the a la carte restaurant and afterwards a few drinks in the bar
whilst I coloured in the road book and worked out how far apart fuel stations
were (as the Riley doesn’t have a fuel gauge) Spirits were high as the Ferry
took us into country 2 of 4 whilst we slept.
Day 2
St Malo to Poitiers
As we disembarked off the ferry early Sunday
morning, the sun was shinning and as we reached the first roundabout off the
ship I remembered to call the exits in reverse with turning right being the
first exit. It felt like a great start
to Day 2. We made our way to breakfast and our first continental breakfast and
of course the joys of continental coffee. Straight after breakfast there was a
short regularity test around a caravan park. This proved to be really tough
without a trip as there were many roads 0.05 of a kilometer apart. This caught
me out at the first timing point as I misjudged which road the control was on
so we were 5 seconds late. Then as we approached the end of the test my road
book and paperwork blew straight out of the car. It was a miracle we made it
through the test without choosing the wrong roads but I was disappointed with
dropping a total of 10 seconds.
My highlight of day two had to be at a
double roundabout, the instruction in the road book was right at the first
roundabout, left at the second. I
repeated the instructions as Tomas completed the maneuvers but at the second
roundabout he went straight over, when I questioned his actions he was adamant
that I had said right at the second round about, now he may be correct that I
called it wrong confusing my lefts to my rights but the real question is, if I
did say turn right why did he go straight on? This kept me smiling for the rest
of the day.
On one of the navigation sections through
France the Riley started mis-firing so we pulled over to clean the Spark Plugs.
The Gasket covers are just clip ons so oil leaks into the spark plugs so we had
to clean them with a wire brush. Once they had been cleaned we were once again
on our way, unfortunately we had dropped to the back of the rally which meant
that we were over our allocated time.
When we reached the afternoon coffee halt
the event mechanics had a look at the car and found that one of the spark plugs
had closed while they replaced the spark plug cleaned the others for us Tomas
and I enjoyed a much needed coffee and some gorgeous homemade shortbread.
However this of course added to our overall delay which meant we had to make
the decision to cut some of the route, we rejoined just before the main control
at the end of the day. There are two really hard things about cutting the first
is making that decision in the first place as the competitive side of you
argues. The second is jumping from tulip
diagrams to a map and back again, trying to work out where the route is and
where the tulips correspond to on the map.
Day 3
Poitiers to Pau
An early start meant very cold cheeks as we
started out, I thought about wrapping a scarf around my face but with the wind
when travelling over 20 miles an hour taking away my voice Tomas couldn’t hear
my directions as it was, therefore it was a very refreshing start.
After fuelling up just before lunch their
was a prominent smell of fuel especially when we went round corners but it
wasn’t until another competitor stopped us to say we were losing fuel that we
realized we may have a problem. As we
had just filled up we presumed it was the overspill.
As we entered a forest track clouds started
to gather and with the ominous sign we decided to pull over and, for the first
time, pull out our wet suits and prepare
to get wet. Oh and we did!
Of course it didn’t just rain, it hailed
which without a significant windscreen means, heavy rain stings, hail takes a
layer off skin of your face. In this lovely weather we had two tests before the
drive into Pau. By the time we arrived we were soaked luckily the car park was
underground as I got out of the car the water just poured off me it was
hilarious!
Day 4
Pau to Burgos
With the historic Grand Prix being held in
Pau just two weeks later there had to be someone nearby that could help and so
he began ringing around mechanics and welders to find a solution. It was
definitely an advantage that he is fluent in French. So as all the other cars
departed from the hotel and our luggage with them a real sense of abandonment
settled in my stomach, not knowing if we would be able to rejoin them, the news
came through that we had a found a welder who despite being very busy would
have a look at the tank if we got the car to him on the other side of Pau.
We jumped in the Riley with all the bags on
top of us and me hanging further out of the car than normal. Unfortunately when we arrived the welder man
was working on another car and wouldn’t be able to get to ours until after
lunch (and that’s a French lunch of at least two hours) again this didn’t stop
Tomas, he managed to wangle it so that if we stripped the car then the welder
man would see what he could do.
That’s how Tomas and I became mechanics for
the day taking everything out of the back of the car, removing the parcel shelf
and disconnecting the fuel pipe. The Welder man turned out to be a really great
guy, he took the fuel pipe stuck it all back together and then we fixed it in
place with Lock-tight. We then had the fun task of putting everything back
where we had found it, it was a good job I had written down exactly where
everything came from and the order we did it in. It was like a surgical
operation with Tomas getting his hands dirty and myself handing tools when
required. Before long we had done it. The fuel tank was fixed and after
cleaning the spark plugs and thanking the helpful welder man we could do what
this morning we had thought to be impossible and re-join the rally.
However, it was now 3pm and the rally was
already in Spain and heading towards Burgos. I pulled out the Atlas and planned
the fastest route to the evening Hotel, this meant a mad rush of four and a
half hours on the motorway. All I can say is that it was intense with the wind
constantly beating against your face, it definitely blew our cares away. We
also had an issue with traffic, not that it was busy, on the contrary, there
were hardly any other vehicles about. Its just that every car that went past
would slow right down in front of us to try and get a picture of the car or
would overtake us to film us. We felt famous although it was the car that was
really getting the attention.
As we approached Burgos I had to try and
jump onto the tulip diagrams to find the hotel and Parking and at 19.45 we
pulled into the Hotel with a resounding sense of achievement and a
well-deserved drink!
Day 5
Burgos to Leon
It
was a misty start to the day but after yesterdays antics we both felt good and
started the day with fresh anticipation. The first regularity began well, we
were on time and keeping the average speed well, until we turned a corner and
there was a little hill, normally this wouldn’t phase a rally crew but in a
1930’s Riley Brooklands this was bad news and as we struggled over the crest of
the hill of course the luminous jackets of two marshals came into view, we had
dropped 20 seconds. Having left that control point we tried to make up the time
we dropped with those Marshals but the surface of the road became very rough
and we could hardly maintain a speed of 30 kilometres an hour let alone the 47kph we
were supposed to be doing, so catching up our time soon became impossible and
it wasn’t long before the next car, who should be a minute behind us, was
overtaking.
The day turned from bad to worse after
coffee as cleaning the spark plugs had meant we dropped behind rally time again
and had to cut to the kart circuit for a test before lunch. Tomas was exhausted
so went for a 10 minute lie down during lunch, this was when it began to rain.
By the time we were ready to leave it was pouring it down, this lovely weather
stayed with us for most of the afternoon. When we reached the start of the next
regularity we were already drenched and a small queue of classic cars were
waiting to start, thank goodness they all took pity on us and kindly let us
take the next minute. The Road book was slowly becoming a sodden mess despite
the clear plastic bag and efforts I was making to keep it dry and at one point
I had to get Tomas to stop as I couldn’t separate four pages so didn’t know
which direction we were heading. With all the chaos caused by the weather we
concentrated just on the navigation of this regularity, the fact we reached the
end was a miracle although if we had taken a detour through a lake we would
have been drier!
Finally we reached the afternoon coffee
stop and although we were over time both Tomas and I needed to get out of the
car and have a break, this was the lowest point for me. I was freezing cold and
soaking wet and the last thing I wanted to do was climb back in the car and
carry on. There was of course no other choice, so on we went, focusing on
getting to the hotel that night.
I wish that had been the end of our struggles
for that day but having cut straight to Leon after coffee which was thankfully
downhill the whole way, I tried to jump back on to the Tulips as I had done the
day before but whether it was because I was tired or that our trip wasn’t
working or both, suddenly I realized we were in the middle of Leon with no clue
of which direction the hotel was in or where we were. Asking directions really
didn’t help when the man we asked informed us we were 45 mins away, this was
the final straw for Tomas after such a trying day so I had no choice but to
fish out my phone and google the hotel. Turned out we were only 10 mins away
and I had taken a wrong turn at one of the roundabouts. Finally we reached the
hotel, it was relief to get out of my soaking wet clothes and have a nice warm
bath but it still took me all night to warm up.
Day 6
Leon to Ourense
It was really starting to get to us that we
were the first out in the morning and always the last in at night, with hardly
any breaks in between. We found that no matter what we did our average speed of
55mph just couldn’t keep up with rally time and we were dropping 20 minutes for
every 2 hour section. This meant coffee breaks and Lunch halts were our only
chance to get back on track so a break was out of the question.
Todays regularities were off speed tables, and
without an accurate trip it is very difficult to run to time, all I could do
was call the speed changes and guess that we were close to time. I was very
excited when we were just 5 seconds out at a timing control. We started to fall
into a pattern of following rally route to coffee then cutting to lunch and the
same afterwards.
So after the afternoon coffee halt we cut
to the hotel which meant that for a change we were early, and we could really
enjoy the beautiful winding road up to the Parador hotel in Ourense and with
the sun still shinning brightly we enjoyed a nice drink as we watched all the other
crews arrive.
It was a beautiful night so we had the
window wide open although it did get a bit windy the next morning.
Day 7
Ourense
to Vila Real
The exit from the hotel was a steep uphill
slope and after warming the car and clocking out, it took us several attempts
and a run up, to get up it. It was definitely worth it, we were very high up
with a 360 degree view all around, it was the best road ever and with a
beautiful sunrise it really did seem perfect. The morning coffee halt was on
the Portuguese border where the old immigration controls still look rater
intimidating but it was a great feeling knowing we were now in Portugal and
that we had made it through England, France and Spain to get this far. We stuck
to our routine of cutting after coffee to give ourselves a decent lunch break
and not to push the car too hard. At this point the goal was to reach Lisbon
any way possible. Every stop we cleaned the spark plugs and checked the water
and oil. HERO had promised us fantastic hotels and they more than delivered, in
Vila Real we arrived at The Vidago Palace an absolutely stunning hotel and due
to our routine of cutting to keep up we arrived at a decent time
Day 8
Vila Real to Caramulo
After
a fabulous breakfast at The Vidago Palace we were on route to Porto (where Port
comes from) unfortunately it was 10 o clock in the morning and we had a way to
drive afterwards, but the coffee stop was beautiful and driving through the
vineyards was fabulous. One of the regularities was down the side of a hill,
which meant for the first time on this Rally we could be competitive. I cleared
the first timing point and picked up just 1 second on the next, I was over the
moon!
At the afternoon coffee
stop Tomas noticed a lot of oil on the rear left wheel, one of the oil seal was
leaking. As is the motto with classic car rallying ‘Make do and Mend’ a water
bottle was found and cut in half, attached to the hub of the wheel to push the
oil away from the wheel so it wouldn’t get into the brake drums.
The meal that night was in The Caramulo
Motor Museum amongst the classic and vintage vehicles it was better than a private
tour.
Day 9
Caramulo to
Lisbon
The Last Day! With the end in sight we
really didn’t want to risk anything so we cut straight to lunch, which turned
out to be a really good choice as the coffee stop was over 3000 meters above
sea level. We arrived at Abrantes Kart circuit and after a great final test we
had a quick lunch before heading off on rally route towards Lisbon.
On approaching Lisbon we pulled into a car
park where we were joined by a local classic car club of 200 cars and police
outriders to escort us to the square and the finish line. This meant that my
job was done, I had navigated us from London to Lisbon without a Sat Nav or
working tripometer. It was a fantastic feeling, and I relaxed into the final
leg and enjoyed the convoy with police escort through red lights.
This
of course was not the end of our adventures, as the convoy slowed down over a
cobbled street to keep all the cars together , The Riley began overheating, we
tried to get the attention of the lead car but it was too late, meters from the
finish line we broke down. Luckily Car 48 a Rolls Royce kindly gave us a tow
over the finish line, (well we had to make an entrance).
Triumphantly, in our slightly unusual
finish, we had made it from start to finish, through four countries, all kinds
of weather and every problem that pre war rallying could have thrown at us. We
came second in class and 37th overall and also won a team award with
the other two oldest cars on the event called ‘The Numb Bums’
Everyone seemed to really enjoy the Rally and you can read how Geoff Love, Octane's Publishing Director got on here.
I will never forget the epic adventure we
had on this event and can only hope I get another opportunity to do something
like this again in the near future.
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