First overall - driving - at last!
In 1981 the financial situation eased. The mortgage rate fell and work was much more to my liking (not paying a lot, but it was an improvement!) In 1979 I’d started with Duckworths as a recently-qualified chartered surveyor; based in Accrington, they had three partners (including motor sport aficionado Tony Iddon, if anyone remembers him) and were a mixed practice with four estate agency offices as well as the ‘more professional’ chartered surveyor work. I hadn’t been there more than a few months when the manager of the Clitheroe estate agency handed in his notice and the boss asked me if I was interested in taking his place. I’ll be honest – I thought estate agency was a bit below my status and not as ‘professional’ as the work I was doing – but I decided to give it a go. I could not have been more mistaken. From day one I loved the work, the people… and I realised that – done properly – it could be as ‘professional’ as any other career. Don’t get me wrong, there are some spivs (and worse) out there, but you don’t need to be…
So
with light appearing at the end of Tunnel Austerity, and Ian Parrington selling
his MkII flat-front RS2000, I bought it, ready to rally. Black, KKC 733P. For work I had a company car (a two-tone,
silver and red Cortina Crusader) – so for the first time I didn’t have to worry
about getting to work if I had a rally accident at the weekend.
And
more! I’d built (by myself, or more correctly, with my next door neighbour) a
garage, with a dry inspection pit (I bought some useless fibreglass sheets,
stuck them together and dropped them into the ‘hole’ in a wrapping of visqueen,
then poured 150mm concrete into the bottom and blocked up the sides. It was snuff dry.
I
was ready to go.
Except
I didn’t have a navigator. I had a word
with John Meadows and he agreed to see how we got on. John is, to put it succinctly, a 100% totally
accomplished navigator and co-driver. He
understands the job perfectly and is completely reliable. I remember before we did our first event
together we met up and decided to agree on a strategy at controls. This was a really wise move. Some rallies had as many as 60 controls where
you had to stop and as a minimum get a signature from the marshal. So we worked
out that if we could save one second per control, that would make a big
difference. The smallest margin between winner
and runner-up is one second. One second per
control could mean up to a minute!! So we talked about where to stop the car –
not too near the side of the road, not too far way; just where the marshal
would take ONE step to reach in to the open door. Not two.
And an open door. Not an open
window. John’s finger on the place to
sign. The marshal enters Direction of Approach,
time, and initials. Half way through the
initials John would shout “GO!!” – not “Okay”, not “Right ho!” but “Go!!” – and
a perfect timecard would be filled with Directions of Approach, times, half-signatures
and lines down the page as I sped off!!
I
can’t remember what our first event was, but I can remember our first overall
win (my first outright win as a driver).
It must have been 1982, and we were seeded 5, with a few people saying
we had a good chance of winning. But
fate almost dealt us the wrong hand…
We
arrived at the petrol halt at Harden Bridge, on the A65 SE of Clapham, and
found we were ‘only’ lying second, around 15 seconds down on John Sharples. But worse, much worse – a severe thunderstorm
had knocked out all the power and there was no fuel. The organisers decided to run the next
selective and then cut to the finish. At
least it was quite long – Eldroth, Black Bank, then Gisburn Forest, Stephen
Moor and finish just above Holden, near Bolton-by-Bowland. So it was do or die, muck or nettles, sh*t or
bust.
Running
first on the road, we gave it everything round Eldroth and Black Bank, then to
the crossroads at Keasden and turned left.
The long, long climb to the summit at Bowland Knotts came next; you have to keep the accelerator to the floor
- one lift costs an age, as you never get back the speed you just lost – so I
didn’t lift, despite a couple of hairy moments.
Down the other side, then, on the square right coming off the causeway
at Bottoms Beck we were too fast and did a wall of death up the bank – but kept
it together!
After
pushing hard on the final section we arrived at the finish and got our
time. I was confident that we’d done
enough but still wanted to see how long it took John Sharples to arrive, so we
pulled forwards 20 metres, and on the spur of the moment I said to John “Get
out quick and we’ll sit on the boot!” which we did, looking back up the road,
smug and cocky. Two minutes and nine
seconds after us, John arrived – we’d taken over a minute off him and I’d won
my first rally as a driver!
I
heard afterwards that John was convinced we’d pinched a minute by devious means
either at the start or the finish of the selective. I can assure him we didn’t – the fast time
was genuine. Before too long I’d learn
to drive like that all the time…
--------------------
The
late Pete Sowray ran an engine-building and general rally-focussed business
called Ray Developments, based in Accrington.
He got in touch to say he’d like to sponsor us. Like the majority of these deals, it wasn’t
so much cash as the offer to look after the engine and do some work to give me
a bit more power (which I desperately needed!)
It was a good feeling to have someone’s name on the car and some free
help, and I gladly accepted the offer.
I
was always doing something to the car to try and wring a bit more speed out of
it. But we remained in what was a
relatively low-powered machine. The most
power I ever saw on the rolling road was 155 bhp at the back wheels – perhaps 180
max from the engine. Even at that time
other Escorts were producing around 200, so I had to learn not to lift off and
to brake very late! I used to brake so
hard and so late that double-declutching as I changed down through the
(4-speed) box was vital – if I didn’t, the small amount of extra engine braking
would risk locking the rear wheels with a disastrous loss of grip. Many years later, I was alluding to my late
braking when giving a talk to Clitheroe & District Motor Club, and someone
asked “How late did you brake?” I was
about to answer when John Cressey interrupted, saying “Do you mind if I answer
this one? I’ve navigated for several
drivers including Bill, and with some you don’t notice the braking
particularly, with others you think ‘that’s a bit late’ but with Bill I was always
thinking ‘I’m going to die!’” And if you
think 155 bhp isn’t much compared to any ordinary car these days (my 1.5 Skoda
has an output of 150, perhaps 130 to the wheels!) don’t forget the Escort
probably weighed no more than 700 kilos.
A Skoda Octavia Estate like my current road car is 1300 kilos, so the
Escort’s acceleration was still good compared to cars of today, especially
bearing in mind it was geared down for better acceleration but a lower top
speed, on which subject…
I
think the standard RS2000 final drive ratio was 3.55:1; I ran a 4.1:1, but most Escort drivers at the
time used a 4.4:1 – even more acceleration but almost 10% lower top speed. Alright if you’ve got 10% more revs available
but I never liked over-revving engines.
(One
fact I’m proud of is that I never once blew up an engine. I was always conservative when it came to the
revs that I used, and I believe with good reason. I would look at the gearbox ratios, the revs
of maximum power AND the revs of maximum torque. If, instead of waiting for maximum power in
the gear you are in, you aim to change up at the point where, as you let the
clutch out in the next gear, the engine is developing maximum torque, then I
think I’m right to say you not only accelerate at the best rate possible, but
you save your engine from a lot of wear and tear too.)
But
when it came down to it, I just never liked a 4.4 diff and felt a lot more
comfortable with a 4.1 – simple as that!
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