TheACORN

THE MAGAZINE OF THE 7 OAKS & DISTRICT MOTOR CLUB

June—August2014

Sevenoaks and District Motor Club Ltd PRESIDENT: John Symes

VICE PRESIDENTs: Vic EIford, Grahame White

ACORN MAGAZINE

June/July/August 2014

The Editor, Committee and Club do not necessarily agree with items and opinions expressed within ACORN magazine

OFFICERS and COMMITTEE

CHAIRMAN, Andy Elcomb, The Cottage, Deans Hill, Bredgar, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8BB MEMBERSHIP SEC: (Home) 01622 884856, (Work) 020 8309 1011 andyelcomb@yahoo.com SECRETARY: Tracey Niel, 35 Augustine Road, Orpington, Kent BR3 3JY (Home) 01689 602456 tracey.niel@ntlworld.com TREASURER: Clive Cooke, 1 Willow Bank, Robertsbridge, East Sussex TN32 5NH (Home) 01580 880568 cooke137@btinternet.com DEP. CHAIRMAN & REGIONAL REP.: Chin, 36, Churchside, Vigo, Kent, DA13 0SJ (Home) 01732 823132, (Work) 020 8691 6221 chin@btinternet.com COMPETITION SEC, Ian Crocker, (Home) 01892 546006 ian@seight.com SPEED LEAGUE David Balderson, 17 Glentrammon Close, Green Street Green, Kent BR6 6DL CONTACT: (Home) 01689 601661 balderson@ntlworld.com SPEED LEAGUE Russell Giddings, 45 Castle Drive, Kemsing, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN15 6RW SCORER: (Home) 01959 524837 sdmc@hotmail.co.uk RALLY SECRETARY: Iain Gibson, 8 Knights Croft, New Ash Green, Kent DA3 8HT (Home) 01474 873573, rallyep3@hotmail.co.uk CHIEF MARSHAL: Chris Scudder, 4 Northdown Road, Longfield, Kent, DA3 7QW (Home) 07711 078552 chris.scudder@virgin.net SOCIAL SECRETARY: Rosemary & Nigel Mead, 3 Heather Bank, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BW (Home) 01892 832420 mead.nigel@virgin.net PRESS & PR: Darren Tyre, 35 Augustine Road, Orpington, Kent BR3 3JY (Home) 01689 602456 darren.tyre@ntlworld.com CPO: Dawn Travers, 91 Carlton Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 2DE (Home) 01737 210377 dawn.travers@ntlworld.com WEBMASTER: Nigel Mead, 3 Heather Bank, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BW(Home) 01892 832420 mead.nigel@virgin.net

Website - www.sevenoaksmotorclub.com

Front Cover—.Crystal Palace 2014

Editorial It’s me again. Due to circumstances beyond his control Rob Hume is unable to take on the role of Acorn editor so we’re still in need of someone to take on this job. My thanks go to Rob for stepping forward and volunteering and he did produce this issue’s cover. Due to ongoing circumstances I’ve mentioned before I have to apologise for the lack of Acorns recently. With a volunteer (yet to be found!) editor we will get back to a monthly production before long I hope. Also, apart from the excellent articles from Chris Miles and Archie Pelling and pictures from Colin Shipway and Andy Kilby I’ve not been inundated with contributions so please let the rest of us know what fun you’ve been having in this recent good weather (or anywhere for that matter). It is probably obvious from the above and from the timing of this issue that we really do need a new editor for this worthy journal. I use Publisher to assemble the mag. And just convert it to a .pdf file to both load to the website and to send to the printers. If you’re distant from the printers but feel you could take on the role, don’t worry, I’m happy to get the Acorn from the printers and pack and post them. Also, if you don’t have any suitable software to produce it we’ll provide that. Please, please volunteer to me or any of our committee members—it’s not too arduous and you get to express your opinions to the rest of us! Andy in his Chairman’s Chat has told you about what we’ve been up to during the middle of the year and you will see elsewhere that we’re planning for the coming winter with the resurrection of Rally School to which all are welcome who want to learn what fun the 12-cars and Scatters are. I’ve finally admitted to myself that, for the first time in years, I’ll not be out on the Inter Association Road Rally which this year is in Cumbria—but I’m sure going to miss it; I’ll still get out on our little local events in either seat so there’s something to look forward to. Talking of which the Costin is moving forward with brakes and drive components mostly sorted and the suspension progressing slowly. I suppose that lots of us find real relaxation in our garages where we can tinker for hours to the complete bafflement of those who don’t have the same inclination. This is a very British trait and has lead to this country leading the world for more than 60 years in motorsport engineering following the likes of Colin Chapman, Len Terry, Arthur Mallock and John Cooper who also started by tinkering—although they progressed to more serious stuff pretty quickly. Having been told that I needed another stent inserted in early July I wasn’t surprised to have been feeling like death warmed up at Crystal Palace and at the Autotests, I couldn’t walk far without feeling completely knackered. However the pre-assessment for the procedure revealed that I was seriously anaemic and they rushed me in for a blood transfusion. The difference that made was amazing—now I’m comfortable walking a couple of miles or a bit more—Dracula was on to something (although I’m not sure that virgins are required—just as well as I’m told that they’re a rare breed these days!) They’re currently trying to find out the cause so that they can fit the stent safely—I’ll keep you posted. That fine young Northern Gentleman David Balderson has been through much worse that I have as he’s had a chunk of his innards removed, I think to improve the power/weight ratio. He’s been out and about since and I wish him a full recovery ably assisted by Christine—he’s in good hands. Well that’s all from me—I hope the next editorial will be fresh and new Chin

Welcome to August’s Chairman’s Chat. Well, it’s been some while since I last sat down to write for the Acorn and on behalf of the club I’d like to apologise for the lack of a magazine for the last few months. This has been due to a number of factors, not least being we are still on the hunt for a new Editor. We thought we had things in place but, as is often in motorsport and in sometimes life in general, not everything works out. So, Chin is sort of back in the Editorial chair and I’m sure he’ll have a few words to say elsewhere. It’s not a permanent fixture though and we really would be grateful if someone else would like to take the post on for a year or so. Any volunteers? The Acorn is an important part of the club’s structure and whilst we do publish it online via the club’s website, we do still post a paper version to those that ask for it and I hope that it will still grace many a “smallest room” or coffee table (do people still have those?) for many years to come. Whilst we haven’t been reporting the club’s activities via the Acorn since Crystal Palace, it doesn’t mean that nothing has happened although the summer does tend to be a somewhat quieter period at times. The summer autotest series has now been and gone and what a good one it’s been too. Apart from losing two eve-nings to heavy rain, we had a capacity turnout for every event – even the Sunday Final had over 40 entries which I think is the largest for many years. Thank you all for your support – particularly Stacey Thompson as Secretary and all those that gave their time to swing a stopwatch, process the results or otherwise make it hap-pen. With six tests laid out sometimes it is a struggle to find enough people to man them all but we made it – just. But as Alex Peters has discovered, earning Speed League and Rose & Crown Championship qualifying points by marshalling is actu-ally a fun thing to do! We also ran a Car Trial at Chapman’s Hill, Meopham in the middle of June with Yvette Knight having her (first of many I hope!) go at being Clerk of the Course. We were also back at North Weald at the end of June for Barney Lower’s AutoSOLO which was another great fun event, even if it did rain a bit in the afternoon. Coming up we have Sue Jessop’s first go at Clerking an AutoSOLO – North Weald 31st August. As I write entries are slow coming in which is very frustrating as we just don’t know if we have a viable event. Not just for this one, but for all events - PLEASE get entries in quickly or at the very least let the organisers know of your intentions so appropriate plans can be made. Even if Acorn is a bit late, all the information for upcoming events is available on the club’s website – www.sevenoaksmotorclub.com – and if you have any event specific or just general comments then why not join the online forum? Socially we will be holding our BBQ and Bat & Trap afternoon / evening at The Bell, Kemsing on Sun 17th August and I hope to see many of you there. I might be a bit sleepy because I’ll have just got back from navigating on the Bournemouth Endurance Road Rally with Graham Child, hopefully not having detoured down railway tracks this time… (sorry Graham, couldn’t resist!). The following week I’m going to be back in the “silly seat” at Chelmsford’s Brands Hatch Summer Stages on 24th August, but this time co-driving for recent new mem-ber Connor Bateup in his 1600 Talbot Sunbeam. That’s going to be a very interest-ing excursion as not only is Connor completely new to rallying, he hasn’t even driv-en the car significantly as it’s not road taxed yet so the first stage will be a true bap-tism of fire. The good thing is that the car has done quite a lot of stage rallies

recently up in Scotland so we are hoping that it’s in good shape and more reliable than those soft bags of skin & bones in-side… I was also out marshalling on Maidstone’s Summer Slalom recently at a ex-tremely dusty test near Laddingford. Joy Waiton & Sue Jessop were at the start / finish of the same test and they soon found that they had drawn the short straw as the wind was blowing the dust all over them. But quite right-ly they just laughed it off but probably spent some considerable time wash-ing it off later! I’ll finish off now by re-minding everyone to please let us (in particular Joy Waiton as the new Trophy Record Keeper) what you have been up to – good or bad. If you don’t, then we will have to fill the Acorn with bad jokes. Articles on events that you have done will be very gratefully received, as will photos. You can also post pictures on the

Forum and they don’t have to be motorsport orientated as there are places for general topics too. Already the evenings are starting to draw in slightly and Petra is scrumping black-berries and apples on her walks so summer is on its way out. That means the rally season is approaching so mark your diaries now for the scatter and 12-car rallies. Have fun, whatever you are doing! Andy Elcomb

What a Cool Clerk!

42nd Monteberg Rallysprint

3rd/4th May 2014

Following the format change over the last couple of years, the 42nd running of the

Monteberg Rallysprint held in Dranouter, 12km south of Ypres, Belgium, took place

over the May bank holiday weekend the 3rd/4th May. The event, solely a VAS Na-

tional event running to VAS national regulations, accepted entries from MSA license

holders, after dropping the International Historic element the event last year attracted

a total of 119 crews, of which 13 crews were from the UK, descending on the nor-

mally sleepy village of Dranouter.

With Derek & Chris, towing Derek’s Mk1 Group 4 Escort, travelling down from deep-

est Norfolk, Mick & Karen from North Kent and Archie & Phil from East Sussex, we

all met on the Friday at Dover Docks before catching a midday sailing on one of the

newest P&O ferries to Calais en-route to Heuvelland.

Upon our arrival Derek & me (Archie), Chris & Karen along with Mick Rose & Phil

Littlemore, who were our service crew for the weekend, we unloaded the Escort in

Loker, a couple of km north of Dranouter at the local garage run by Bart Vanacker,

who provided invaluable help in diagnosing the diff problems encountered in 2011,

and again this year Bart’s insight into VAS regs was invaluable as he informed us

the over centre clips holding the plumbed in fire extinguisher system, alt-

hough valid under MSA regs, were not legal under VAS regs, jubilee clips

were only acceptable method of security for the plumbed in system, once

these were fitted and final checks to the Escort were completed, we made

our way to Apartment Solidum, Ypres, 10 minutes walk from The Menem

Gate which was to be our base for the weekend.

With signing on, entry fee payment and scrutineering taking place on Satur-

day the rallysprint was on the Sun, we made our way to Dranouter, As per

last year, the service park was positioned entirely in the centre of Dranouter,

resulting in 119 rally cars and support vehicles vying for space within the cen-

tre of the village. SuperStage, the event organisers, had the situation under

control, although it did not seem like it at the time, by allocating each compet-

ing crew/service vehicle a specific service area within the service park, how-

ever Derek & I had arranged to set up our service spot at the northern end of

Dranouter adjacent to signing on, along with Bart Vanacker with his Fiat Stilo,

also Paul Haines & Tim Cowper in a Rover 214, this being Paul’s first time

entry at Monteberg.

Once signing on was completed,

Derek was told he was the oldest

competitor on the event at 73.

Getting the Escort to scrutineer-

ing, at the southern end of Dra-

nouter was interesting, to say the

least, not only negotiating through

the extremely busy service park

but dealing with ‘Jozef Publique’

going about their daily business.

Each crew were allocated a scrutineering time frame, this ultimately impacted

in accessing the scrutineering area, although the event marshals kept an or-

ganised stream of competing cars entering and leaving. Compared to UK

events, scrutineering was a much laid back affair; for all intents and purposes

vehicle eligibility consisted of checking the Escorts V5, MOT, MSA logbook

and Insurance details also a cursory check on helmet, HANS device and race

suit compliance to FIA spec and little more. The only thing we encountered,

no doubt along with other UK crews, was the VAS requirement to have two

seat belt cutters, one per crew member, within easy access just in case of an

emergency, although the scrutineers let us run this year, but two belt cutters

would be required on any future event in Belgium.

Following scrutineering, Derek and I took advantage of the free recce which,

as last year, took the form of up to three runs through the stage in a stand-

ard road car at non-competitive speeds, as the stage was still open for pub-

lic use. After a couple of run throughs, Derek and I were satisfied with the

pace notes from last year’s event with only a few minor alterations. With

signing on, scrutineering and the recce now completed a final spanner

check was carried out to the Escort, it was now time to relax at Redmond’s

Irish Bar in Loker run by Frankie Vanacker, Barts brother, before returning

to Ypres.

As we were running car No 37, an early alarm call was in order for the Sun

morning. Upon leaving Ypres at 07:00 we set up in our pitch along with Bart,

Paul and Tim in the service park and reflecting on the previous day recce,

the conditions of the stage lead us to run with Hankook moulded slicks, as

any time lost on the damp parts would easily be made up over the rest of

the stage.

With a stage arrival due

time of 9:38 for the 1st

timed run approaching,

Derek and I made our

way to the start of the

8.1km course. From the

start line the first 800

metres snaked up hill

was, as anticipated,

damp, from the top of the

hill ‘crossroads square

left’ through the first twisty narrow tree lined section was also quite slippery

and muddy followed by another narrow twisting, and quite rutted section

leading to the second tight and tricky tree lined stretch, which was less mud-

dy than anticipated although much rougher than previous years. The rest of

the stage was dry, with little or no debris and mud being pulled onto the rac-

ing line by previous cars cutting corners. As we approached the 4km mark

we caught a slower car, an Opel Astra, which, although there was ample of

opportunity, failed to pull over and let us pass only finally managing to get

pass, some 3 km later, on a fast downhill square left. This hold up dropped

us about 25 seconds compared to last year’s times, resulting in a time of 5

minutes 53 seconds, and as all timed runs count, the resulting accumulative

time to deciding the O/A and class positions there might be a slim chance of

pulling back enough time to match last year’s overall and class finishing po-

sition.

When we arrived at ‘service in’ the co-driver of the Opel Astra apologised for

holding us up, saying this was the driver’s first event, by this time Derek & I had

already made up our minds to take advantage of the ‘dead time’ between the

stage arrival and stage start to pull in front of the Astra, so not to incur any fur-

ther hold ups on the subsequent stages.

On the second timed run, Derek found the newly fitted Carbon Lorraine front

disc pads were far more efficient then the previously used AP Racing pads,

therefore allowing him to brake later than in previous years, therefore I changed

the calling of the pace notes accordingly, this resulted in a time of 5 minutes 33

seconds, only 8 seconds off last year’s best time of 5 minutes 25seconds.

The third timed run felt, by far, the quickest and smoothest resulting in a re-

sounding ‘Yes’ from yours truly as we crossed the flying finish, the onboard

stopwatch showing a time of 5 minutes 24 seconds, which turned into an official

time of 5 minutes 23 seconds entered on the time card by the Stage Stop Offi-

cials, beating last year’s best time by 2 seconds at an average speed of 90.16

kph over the 8.1 km stage, 2 kph faster than last year. With Derek ‘pleased as

Punch’ with the Escort’s performance, we set off to return to the service area,

only to find that we had lost all front braking, relying on the hydraulic hand brake

to bring the Escort back under control. Once back in service, Phil & I found no

fluid loss or any visible problem with the front brake circuit, callipers or pads and

therefore surmised the possibility of air in the callipers may be the cause of the

loss of front braking, so the front brakes were bled with only a miniscule amount

of air being bled from the system. After the brakes were bled, Derek took the

Escort for a quick shakedown, upon his return stating the brakes were fine.

On the fourth and final run, with the brake problem behind us, Derek was as

quick and smooth, if not quicker than the third run, until we reached a ‘fast over

crest to square right’ at the 5.5 km mark, when the front brakes started to fail

again, however this time with some judicial pumping of the brakes and expert

car control, Derek completed the stage in a time, in what must have been slower

than the previous timed run, even though Derek said it was the quickest he had

been through the chicane leading to the flying finish, with the official time clock

recording a time of 5 minutes 24 seconds. Derek and I could only speculate as

to what the time would have been if the brake failure had not reoccurred.

Upon returning to Parc Ferme, the brake efficiency began to return, the only

reasonable explanation for the front brakes failing as they did on the last two

runs was extra heat generated by the increased efficiency of the carbon Lor-

raine brake pads cumulated in extra heat within the callipers therefore overheat-

ing the brake fluid.

S&DMC SOCIAL EVENT CALENDAR Contact Rosemary or Nigel Mead, Tel.No.: 01892 832420

e-mail : mead.rosemary@virginmedia.com Also visit our website at www.sevenoaksmotorclub.com

Please contact The Bell if you will be purchasing food, Tel.No.01732 76155

Wednesday 20th August Noggin & Natter

Come and join us for our usual friendly chat and a small jar of decent beer.

Wednesday 17th September Noggin & Natter

Come and join us for more friendly chat and another small jar of decent beer

Rally School

Now that the summer is sadly (if you’re not a real rallyist) on it’s way. It’s not gone yet but we’re preparing for the darker evenings with our Rally School starting again on Wednes-

day10th September

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN ORGANISING A SOCIAL

EVENT? If you have any ideas for a future Social Event and wish to

have a go at organising please contact Nigel or Rosemary (mead.nigel@virgin.net , mead.rosemary@virginmedia.com)

We will be happy to help and advertise the event for you.

Good

Idea !!

When the results were published our overall time for the event was 22

minutes 14.96 seconds, leaving us in 62nd O/A, 39th in division 3 and 6th in

class 3G, the 24 seconds lost on the first stage would have made a huge dif-

ference.

1st O/A, also taking the division 3 honours, were the Belgian crew of Paul Lietaer & Christine Versaevel in a Subaru Impreza WCR in a time of 18 minutes 10.34 seconds, Class 3G winners and 9th O/A were another Belgian crew, Steven Dolfen & Peter Lemahieu in a Peugeot 206 RC in a time of 19 Minutes 16.89 seconds, the highest place UK crew, at 7th O/A, were pairing of Alex Taylor &Jack Shepherd who recorded a time of 19 minutes 15.06 sec-onds competing in an unusual choice of rally car a Subaru Forester.

As for some of the other UK crews, Paul Haines, from Tunbridge Wells, with

Tim Cowper, running car No 2, on his first visit to Monteberg, having taken

some 16 seconds off his first run, unfortunately ran wide on his third run at

the 6 km mark following a ‘Left 2+ and ended up, unharmed, in a ditch from

where he was unable to extricate himself and sat out the rest of the event

spectating. Alan Honess & Tim Sayer from Hastings, in a Mk1 Cortina, failed

to take the start of the final timed run and David Town & Ben Greenfield from

Kent, in a M-Sport Group N Fiesta out braked himself on the final timed run to

go Straight on at T jumping a 3ft ditch in the process.

Archie Pelling

Co-driver to Derek Webb, Car No 37

Ford Escort Mk1 Group 4 ‘Irish Spec’.

RALLY SCHOOL

This winter’s series of Rally Schools starts on Wednesday 10th Septem-ber at 8pm at the Bell, Kemsing.

All are welcome you just need a map (OS Landranger 188), a few soft

pencils and a brain.

If you know you’ll be attending please let me know (chin@btinternet.com)

So that I can print enough of and course material I produce

IT’S FREE

The schools Eco Karts were real fun and very well behaved, I hope we can get them back in future events.

The Class of 71 was another great feature this year with sev-eral of the actual cars and sever-al of the actual drivers, including Mike Crabtree who looks a little anxious before he sets off on his timed runs.

We’ve also had a good summer (apart from two cancelled Evening Autotests to keep the venue sweet) with dust being evi-dent.

WHATS ON IN OUR AREA

Wed 20.08.14 Maidstone & MKMC Evening Autotest Headcorn CM

Sun 24.08.14 BARC SE Race Meeting Donington

Sun 24.08.14 Eastbourne & RAM MC Grass Autotest CM

Sun 24.08.14 Chelmsford MC SV Stage Rally Brands Hatch NB

Sat 30.08.14 Blackpalfrey MC of Kent Regularity 12 car Kent 100 CM

Sun 31.08.14 Sevenoaks & DMC Autosolo North Weald NB

Sun 31.08.14 Maidstone & KMC Wings Autotest Headcorn CM

Sat 13.09.14 Brighton & Hove MC Speed Trials Brighton NB

Sun 14.09.14 Eastbourne & RAM MC Regularity 12 Car CM

Sat 20.09.14 Chelmsford MC SV Stage Rally Woodbridge NB

Sun 21.09.14 Buckmore Park KC Kart Meeting Buckmore Park NB

Sun 21.09.14 Harrow CC Sprint North Weald NB

Fri 26.09.14 Chelmsford MC 12 car CM

Fri 26.09.14 Sporting CC of Norfolk 12 Car CM

Sun 28.09.14 Eastbourne & RAM MC Car Trial Mercury Trial CM

Sun 28.09.14 (Provision

Harrow CC Sprint North Weald NB

Sat 04.10.14 BARC Midlands Centre The October Sprint Curborough NB

Sun 05.10.14 Blackalfrey MC of Kent Classic Tour Tour of Kent CM

Fri 10.10.14 Borough 18 MC Weald 12 Car CM

Sun 12.10.14 Eastbourne & RAM MC Grass Autotest Autumn Autotest Rye

CM

Sun 12.10.14 Maidstone & MK MC Autosolo CM

Sun 19.10.14 Rochester MC Sprint Lydden NB

Sun 19.10.14 Falcon MC Car Trial Ivinghoe Trial CM

Fri 24.10.14 Chelmsford MC 12 Car CM

Sun 19.10.14 Rochester MC Sprint Lydden NB

Sun 19.10.14 Buckmore Park KC Kart Meeting Buckmore Park NB

Fri 24.10.14 Sporting CC of Norfolk 12 Car CM

Satur-day

25.10.14 Bognor Regis MC Historic Road Rally Regis Rally NB

Sat/Sun

25/26.10.14

BRSCC (SE) Race Meeting Brands Hatch

Sun 26.10.14 Blackpalfrey MC of Kent Regularity Run CM

MONTE CARLO OR BUST Further car adventures in the Miles household

As some might recall from a previous article, my experience of motor sport thus far consisted of providing food and drink for Jon and generally cheering from the side lines. Then in 2012 we did our first “rally”, really a jolly through the French countryside from Paris to Deauville where our Mercedes 320S won the Con-course d’Etat and Concourse d’Elegance and I encountered tulips for the first time. Last year we entered Tour Auto in a works Sunbeam Alpine 1953, which was originally driven by Peter Collins, but retired after a gruelling week with 150 kms to go to the finish. So, I thought not too bad, Jon has got this car stuff out of his system, back to normal. Until a day in November last year the postman knocked on the door with a big, fat envelope, too big to fit through the letter box, addressed to Jon. Being curious, and a woman, I had a look at it, saw the post mark Monte Carlo and the logo of the Automobile Club of Monaco. So, I opened it and after picking myself off the floor rang Jon – the conversation going a bit like this: Me: The postman has just delivered a parcel for you Jon: yes Me: its acceptance for the Historic Monte Carlo rally in Jan – you as driver and me as navigator Jon: Ahh, yes, didn’t I mention to you that I’d entered Me: No! I had a look at the itinerary. Leave Reims, Glasgow, Oslo, Stockholm, Barcelona or Monte Carlo, converge in Valence, stay there for 3 nights then drive on to Mon-te Carlo. Jon had opted for departing from Reims. We would leave Reims the evening of Fri 24th Jan, drive through the night, arriving 8 pm, ish, the following night, 3 days of controlled passages and regularity stages, leave Valence for Monaco on tues 28th, arrive sometime that evening, then final stages leaving that night arriving back sometime in the early hours of wed, in total approximately 1900 Kms and 14 regularity sections over the French Alps. Hey a complete doo-dle, I’ve done a couple of regularity runs with The Black Palfrey Club, been to 1 of Chin’s rally school nights at the pub, I can read a map, no I’ve never used a speed table but it can’t be that hard can it??? Anyway its ages away, I’ll just put the whole event in a little box, lock the lid and put it right at the back of my mind, I’ve got Christmas to sort out and presents to buy……. So, the weekend before Christmas and Jon and our neighbour, David a fellow petrol head, go up to Robert Gant and Gant Speed, near Boston, to pick up the car. It’d been there since October being checked over. Jon had bought a super porche 356B, left hand drive, rally spec’d, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July – for doing little jaunts out in Europe, such as this I now realised. Jon had to do 1000 miles on her then get her back up to Gant Speed for a final check before we were due to leave on the 23rd Jan. So he spent a lot of the Christmas week driving around in an effort to put the miles on. Duly done, delivered back, last little adjustments made, he picked her up, with trusty neighbour, David, in tow on the sat before we were due to leave – nothing like careful planning! Meanwhile, Christmas and New Year over, we had sat down with the itinerary and virtually every Michelin map of SW France and the Alps, and marked out the routes on the maps.

Then Jon told me just how little spare space there’d be, so to limit my clothes etc to 1 very small bag – “Oh and I forgot to say that the last night in Monaco there’s a prize giving gala evening in the Country Club and its black tie!” Paddy Hopkirk was to present the prizes. Oh well, we’ll just have to roll it up in a sausage, put it in the box behind the seats with the spare parts and hope for the best.

So we set off in the rain on thurs 23rd to Reims. Scrutineering is the next day, we get lost on the way from the hotel and a Frenchman reverses into us, breaking a head lamp – not a good start. But it can only get better and it does. A champagne reception laid on by the mayor of Reims at the start – I only had the 1 glass – dutch courage! And we’re off. They provide us with tulips for the first leg, Reims to Valence, so I’m happy. Our first control point is 5 hours later and off we go. Driv-ing through sleeping French towns with only other rally cars on the road is rather eyrie but nice. Outside it rained and sleeted on and off, and the temperature fell to – 17 but the heater was working so we were fine. About 5 in the morning the Red Bull came out and we kept going, eventually getting to Valence 8pm Sat night, very relieved that we’d got that far, survived our first stage which was thick snow for the whole 9 kms – there was no way we could keep up to our set speed of 46km/hr so Jon just concentrated on us just finishing it in 1 piece. Got to our ho-tel, glass of wine – I needed it, still on a high but off to bed for the best night’s sleep I’d had for a while.

The next day we were out to the Parc Ferme in time to check the route and to start filing up for the departure. Jon drives about 5 feet when we hear shouting, look behind us expecting to see that he’d left the engine compartment door up to see a trail of oil – the seal on the oil filter had blown. Get the spares out, luckily Jon had packed a spare oil filter and 15 mins later we were queuing up for our departure on time. Over the next couple of days, I start to get the hang of the speed tables, calling out to Jon where he should be. To start with all I can cope with is to call out every 2 and 3 minutes – what with map reading, following written directions, telling Jon which way he should be going, keeping an eye on the stop watch and the halda which seems to be somewhat temperamental and keeps stopping and not bashing my head on the window as Jon throws the car round another hairpin. But we grad-ually move up the rankings from 240 (out of 309 starters) up to 224 then 213 by the start of the last day. By this time we’ve realised that I need to be calling out the distance more often and I’m managing to call it out every 30 seconds.

So, onto Monaco. We leave at 11pm, for the toughest final 2 regularity sections – an average of 49.8 km/hr over 2 road sections of 55 and 47km – did I mention that all the regularity sections were on open roads, so it was quite common to be nego-tiating a hairpin to meet up with a local or tourist in a camper van coming down the road towards us! We caught up with a few cars on the way up – the porche has 120 h/p and is pretty nippy on the hills – only 1 incident when I became very girly and screamed as we flew down a straight towards a left hairpin to skid on black ice towards the mountain side rapidly getting nearer to me, about 4 abandoned cars

that had already skidded and a group of cheering locals taking photos on the apex of the corner blinding us with their camera flashes – it was 2 am. Somehow Jon held it all together and we made it round! We got back to Parc Ferme at 3am in 1 piece, feeling very pleased with ourselves, and prepared to join in the celebrations which were going on all around us. We got back to the hotel, warmed up in the bar and were still going at 6am.

So what have we learnt? Do what most of the competitors do and pay $200 for tulips Most of the navigators didn’t use speed tables – the distance for the km/hr

was done electronically Get a simple stop watch that has an on/off button and a reset button – I don’t

need 1 that has an alarm, days of the week etc etc Take a backup crew. We had no one, just went with what Jon could pack in

the car, on snow tyres. Studded tyres are definitely worth it Everyone is so friendly and gave me, a complete novice, loads of tips. Anybody of any age can do it. The oldest competitor was the rally legend

Willie Cave – 86 years old and has been doing it every year since 1955 I can pack all my clothes for a week in a very small bag

Would we do it again? Well let’s just say that on the way back Jon spoke to a friend and asked if he would be prepared to be part of a backup crew for next year.

Christine and Jon Miles

And here’s that car at Crystal Palace

Jon in another of his interesting cars

OUR CALENDAR FOR 2014

CLUB REGALIA

Ark Trading, who have provided our clothing regalia for many years now have set up the club on their website for the online ordering of their products. These in-clude sweatshirts, polo shirts, etc. Log on to:

http://www.arktrading.com

From the menu on the left select ‘Club Sites’ click on ‘Motor Clubs’ and click on our badge to access the products directly. The password for ordering is sdmc123

The 2014 MSA Blue Book is viewable on line:

http://www.msauk.org/site/cms/contentCategoryView.asp?category=635

Date Event

31-Aug Autosolo North Weald

2-Nov London to Brighton Veteran Run Brighton

7-Nov 12 car TBA

9-Nov Car Trial Stoneacre

11-Dec Scatter Rally TBA

Andy Kilby and I helped out by being Club Stewards on BpMC’s Hughes Rally (above) while Andy entered and I and several others marshalled on the Maidstone MKMC Summer Slalom (below). Despite the long grass he was on the proper course.

Who’s that looking up to the Clerk of the Course?