Student Bodies Waiting for the Rain to Stop

It’s raining! I came home for Christmas to work on the cars - get the rally car moving along a bit and the road car needs a bit of a once over. With no garage to work in I am stuck working in daylight hours outdoors. Ever since I came back it’s rained and the only work I’ve done is to bale out the spare wheel well which has this annoying habit of flooding (something to do with the lack of boot lid on the thing I think!).
The Peugeot 205 challenge then is it? I think this series is proof of my belief that the cheaper the car and the simpler the regs are, the better subscribed and more competitive a series will be— £3,500 for the car complete, even students can afford it!!! It didn’t surprise me when all 60 places were snapped up in less time that it took for me to think of something to whinge about in my last Acorn bit. It’s the same reason I came up with the Club Lights idea (oh here we go!), cheap is the way for amateur motorsport to go, yet without alienating those who want to blat around in a 6R4. So here goes for my next hair brained idea. We have Formula Rally / Super 1600 and as of next year the 205 challenge, how about a 1600 Junior category for stage rallies, with a high minimum weight and very basic cars. Sort of for 205s, Golfs, Novas ie. the old bangers brigade that I drag up over and over again! Actually I’m a bit gutted because the Golf could be ready for March next year and with no series to compete in, it looks like I’m just going to bum around doing events here and there. I’ll be trying to learn a few tricks of the trade before I find something to try and get noticed in (and I’m not talking about the opposite sex for once - I think the Golf will have ample knicker elastic snapping ability)! I would like some day to run a ‘proper’ stage rally like the Jim Clark or even the Rally Bohemia in the Czech republic. I was going to say the Network Q, but that’s not a proper rally anymore. (Here’s the whinge). The rally fans I know, and I know over 120 petrol heads at my Uni alone, all think the new format Rally GB (Rally of Wales), is rubbish. A teeny weeny route, a maximum of 60 cars and you have to pay to spectate (funny, 60 cars same number of 205s running around next year)! The RAC rally I first really followed (and I forget the year) was a proper 4 leg event with loads of proper stages. It was in fact replicated brilliantly in a computer game that I play occasionally. The first stage was a short one at Tatton Park, but the rally wound its way on through Hafren-Sweetlamb, County Durham, the fantastic Pundershaw, even Donnington had a stage. A proper rally! Speaking of short compact rallies, here’s a silly idea - The Rally Sevenoaks and District! This is what students do when bored.
It’s a short competitive (38km) route with short road hops between stages. All these stages are what I picked up off the 1:25000 OS explorer sheet 147.
SS1 and rally HQ is at Brands Hatch. Using the Grand Prix circuit with cars starting on the start finish line and finishing SS1 in the pit lane. SS2 is at Birches Wood, south of Brands, a 3km stage with a number of 90 degree turns. SS3 is Knowle Park in Sevenoaks with a fast sweeping 5.5km mixed surface stage. SS4 is directly south of the end of SS3 and short at 1.9km. SS5 south west of Sevenoaks is a twisty forest stage 3.4km in length. That’s as far as the order of stages that I could work out, with 5 short forest stages to follow all between 2 and 4 km long until the route reaches Valence School and a 3.4 km stage through the school and on into Valence Wood. The Valence stage is followed by a 4km dash through the High Chart. Then the final stage, 5.5km around Chevening House up the Downs and then a flat out blast down hill back to Chevening. The rally could conclude with a reverse run of SS1 to polish off the day.
A compact route, short stages, could limit it to 60 cars (205s?) and voila, a WRC level event. The new Rally GB!!!.
So for once instead of talking about a Kart race or finishing last in an Autotest, I wrote a fair bit about rallying. Watch out Chin you’re not the only one who likes to get mud in your beard and gravel in your tea!
Now I’ll go on to some other topic (and I have a top ten to finish off and its sure to be a controversial one). The third round of the Formula Brookes championship at karting Oxford came and went without me as the money ran out and I couldn’t get the entry fee together. I think SDMC could run an “arrive and drive” karting championship using rental pro karts at Streatham, Buckmore Park and perhaps Rye House. I attended the first IUKC test day at Rye but wasn’t driving as I was trying to drum support for the new Association of Student Motor Sport (ASMS). Student motorsport is the future of grass roots sport in this country and it needs its own Association which is being set up (oh so slowly). But then who gets the correct support in this sport? If it was so, then Daren Hall would be in a works Puma on the Rally of Kent rather that Deputy Stage Commander!
When I’m karting I want to represent SDMC but can’t, if it were possible to get helmet sized stickers to put in place or perhaps a visor sticker I think Sevenoaks would have more logos around the place perhaps?
I’m thinking a top ten is in order and its gotta be an extra controversial one!

The Top Ten Grand Prix cars of all time
Now I know this isn’t that original but it’s one that can be argued about for ages. This is all about the ultimate grand prix cars of all time, the best - not the revolutionary not the originals - the best. So the Lotus 88 won’t make this list because although great it never got sorted and was never the best.

1. Ferrari F1-2001 (2001/2002?)
Well its the best there is on a racetrack anywhere in the world at this moment in time, so good in fact that it was 0.9 seconds a lap faster than any other car in the last grand prix of 2001, in fact its so good that Ferrari are likely to field a very rapid German in one for the first few Grand Prix of 2002 and he’ll win. This is the ultimate 21st century grand prix car the best so far. Nearest rival: Williams FW23 - BMW.

2. Williams - Renault FW14 / B (1991/1992)
The car arrived on the scene in 1991 with all the gadgets and electronic toys you could name and it wasn’t the best car on the scene, Patrick Head and Frank Williams decided to develop the car through winter into 1992. It was one of the best moves they ever made.
Nearest rival: McLaren - Ford MP4/7A

3. McLaren - Honda MP4/4B (1988)
The best two drivers in the world (Prost and Senna); the best engine; the best chassis. Winning all but one race in 1988 (and only just missing out on that win at Monza). How could it not make any list of great cars. Nearest rival: Near? Well I remember Ferrari getting a fluke home win!
(F187/88C)

4. Williams - Honda FW11 /B (1986/1987)
Both of Nigel Mansell’s stints in Didcot coincided with Williams producing some truly ultimate Grand Prix chassis which both times were mated to the best motors going. Although He missed out in this chassis to his teammate for the driver’s title he only missed out due to a Goodyear tyre exploding and a nasty shunt in Japan. Nearest Rival: McLaren - TAG MP4/3.

5. Lotus 79 (1978)
Correctly known as the John Player Special, this car was another fantastic piece of Colin Chapman genius. Driven by the great Mario Andretti to win after win. Nearest rival: Ferrari 312T.

6. Lotus 72 A - E (1970 - 1975)
The car was so good that it outperformed its successor (Lotus 76) so much, it won the Monaco grand prix as it had been chosen by the drivers instead of the 76. The car carried on until the arrival of the 77 in late 1975. The nearest rival is impossible to pick because it had such a long career and it is a testament to quite how good the car was.

7. Lotus 49 (1967/1968)
The last of the pre wing Lotus became the first of the bewinged one as well. As the film 9 days in summer shows the car was well capable of winning the 67 championships but was foxed by unreliable bits and bobs. It got it in 68. This is the only car on my list that I wasn’t sure about. Nearest rival: Brabham - Repco BT24.

8. Mercedes Benz W196 (1954/1955)
This car reminded the world how a racing car should be built in its streamliner form it was not only beautiful but capable of over 300Kph, has probably the lowest drag of any grand prix car to this day. Nearest rival: Ferrari Tipo 555 / 625.

9. Mercedes Benz W154/163 (1939)
The perfect racecar? Maybe! Well one thing you can call it is the Silver Arrow. This car is the reason there are no cars on this list till 1954. It was better. Everyone bangs on about the Alfetta and other post war cars; the fact of the matter is that this car complete with its 2.96 litre, 161.33 Bhp twelve cylinder engine was capable of speeds in excess of 320Kph. The bodywork in its silver paint is stunning. I have been lucky enough to see two of these cars up close, one at the festival of speed, and my favorite sighting in the Czech republic in a totally unrestored condition a great car. It would have dominated the sport until its creative force had to stop play due to outbreak of war. Nearest rival: Auto Union type D.

10. Alfa Romeo Tipo B (1932 - 1934)
I don’t know much about this car but I do know it won every time it raced.
Nearest rival: did it have any?

That’s it. This should really have been a list of nine cars, as I don’t believe the Lotus 49 was as ultimate a car as the others on this list. The greatest grand prix car of all time? Well it’s either the Ferrari F1-2001 or the Mercedes-Benz W154/163.

Gotta go ‘cos the rains stopped!

Sam Collins

The Acorn : January Edition